NaNoWriMo 2019

Oh, no, it's already NaNoWriMo time! Man, that sneaked up on me. Shouldn't it still be the beginning of October? Actually, I keep thinking it's December now since Mother Nature dumped a bunch of snow on us on Halloween (way too early for it). My mind is seriously confused.

I guess that's as good a way as any to start out NaNo this year. Better off that than sick (OK, I'm knocking on all the wood, seriously hoping the NaNo Crud doesn't descend on me - stay away until December 1, please).

Anyway, part of me really wants to shoot for the 50,000 words this year. I originally had planned to, since Thorns Entwine the Blade was supposed to release in October. But now that the release date has been moved to November 13, I have a lot of things to do for that this month as well.

I'll just say, I'd be insanely happy to reach 25,000 words. If I get further, even happier. One of these years I'll have the whole month of November clear of other obligations, including the mini humans, really I will.

This year, I'm working on Downward Spiral (Urban Unicorn, 1). I started this novel a while back during another NaNo, and I've decided I'll be working on this series next. I'm going to draft them all, then revise them all, and then finally publish them (which means publications will be pretty sparse after Thorns for a while).

I'm being a bit of a NaNo Rebel, of course. Not only am I not starting a fresh project, I'm also rewriting what I'd already written on Downward Spiral. I've had several new ideas since I first started writing it, and I want to incorporate those before I move on. I only had 10k words written before, so I'm not rebelling too badly - lol. And it'll probably take me longer to rewrite than fresh drafting anyhow, as my brain is still stuck in editing mode. Heh.

Without further ado, here's my word meter for the year. You'll notice, I've already started writing (well, rewriting), even after doing some editing on Thorns today, too. I'll try to update the word count daily. Happy NaNoing, everyone!

Halloween 2019

Happy Halloween, 2019!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been diligently making progress on several things, though. The first draft of Well of Solitude (Fortunes of Fate, 7) is complete, and I've already received some critiques on it. Revision and release likely won't happen until 2020 for that. And I'm also doing a final round of edits on Thorns Entwine the Blade (Trinity Torn, 2) for the November 13, 2019 release! And other little boring, writerly tasks...

Oh, and NaNoWriMo is coming up!

But this post isn't about writing all the words. It's that time of year again - the time of year I love. Unfortunately, this year I've been having a hard time enjoying Halloween, per usual. Worrying about other stuff tends to do that.

However, we've already had our Halloween party for the year (which reminds me, next year we won't be hosting one - maybe I'll be posting Halloween related pics from Disney World, though), which means I have a handful of pictures to post.

Not too many are below. None of me again. I stuck on my cat ears and tail and called it a year, so only got a family picture instead of an individual one. As I said, it's been a little rough getting into the Halloween spirit.

Pumpkins, pumpkins! Nope, jack o' lanterns! Mine is the starry-eyed emoji face one, and the 5-year-old attempted her first pumpkin carving on her own (which one do you think it is? - lol). My eldest was lazy with the cat head, whereas Hubbie was lazy per usual with a simple face.

New little bat fences this year. I figured it was time to add something new to the outside since I usually don't have too much set up there. I'm not a fan of the huge inflatable things, and every time I consider putting up some gravestones I decide against it, so I went lower key with the bat fence on each side of the walkway. Dollar Store purchases, but I don't need anything fancy!

This was my favorite addition to my decorations this year. There was a unicorn skull as well (I'm obsessed with unicorns, so it was hard to resist and choose between them), but I ultimately chose the dragon - look at the fire!

I hope everyone has a happy and safe Halloween. Don't forget to find a black cat to cross your path for good luck (yes - good luck - poor things get a bad rap, and I can attest that our Nightshade is just derpy, not unlucky)!

Life, the Universe, and Writing, aka Writing Update - September 2019

I know, it hasn't even been three months since my last writing update, but this post seemed appropriate now. Would you rather I post again about Summoners War? I didn't think so.

This time, I'm just going to note a few things and try to keep it brief (this is difficult for me, of course, as I tend to ramble on if you haven't picked up on that already).

2019 Fall Updates/Notes

❦ Blogging is being dropped down to sporadic. This will allow more time for me to focus on writing! So, after this post, I'm not sure when the next post will be. Hopefully before the end of the year, unless life sweeps me away.

❦ Thorns Entwine the Blade (Trinity Torn, 2) is now planned to be released in November 2019, due to my editor's schedule (and me overestimating just how much I could get done during summer with the kids home).

❦ Though the release date for Thorns has been pushed back, I have completed both the major revision and the consistency edit. The manuscript is currently waiting at my awesome editor. Once she gets it back to me, it will be on to final edits and formatting!

❦ I'm easing into my new writing schedule with both kids in school full-time. Last week was an odds and ends week, but this week I started in on the draft for Well of Solitude (Fortunes of Fate, 7). And yes, I've settled on Solitude. I wrote nearly 3,500 words in just two days. This is amazing for me, and I think I'll enjoy this new schedule once I get used to the routine! Now to figure out where I'm going in this story, especially since it seems like it wants to be longer than I originally expected...

❦ I've added a new Mantra for myself, as I didn't want to wait to add it until next year: Embrace My Process. This is to help remind myself that I shouldn't feel like I'm "doing things the wrong way". I have to ignore the "you should do it this way" voices that are all over the internet, particularly in writing groups/forums. I need to do what works for me because I'm not everyone else, I'm me, and if I try to do what works for everyone else, I'll just struggle and waste time. I know, this seems like a simple realization, but it really only sunk in when I started watching Becca Syme's The Quitcast. So, I'm trying to allow myself to embrace my strengths as far as my process goes (no, I haven't taken the test to determine my strengths, but she's gone over a couple already that I know I align with).

I think that's it, finally! Pretty short, right? For me at least.

Oh, one more thing. I watched Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Why did it take so long for me to watch it? It was amazing! Not going to do a whole blog post on it because I'd probably just be gushing. But I hope they make a sequel!

Until the next blog post... Happy reading!