So, where do I go from here?

Last night, I 'won' NaNoWriMo and, trust me, it feels awesome to say that. This morning, I expected to feel how I used to after a band concert or a dance performance; a little hungover and kinda depressed that it was all over.

I didn't.

Instead, I woke up with a list in my head of everything I have to do still.

Here's what it looks like right now:

Finish the damn book
Re-write and edit December's ebook.
Unpack the apartment - Find the Wii remote!!!!
Call maintenance about the washing machine
grocery shopping

Yep, November showed me a lot of things. The most important thing it showed me that I can write prolifically and consistently.

And that I'm a winner.

NaNoWriMo: Day . . . I WON!!!

I'm a winner! See what the badge says? It says "Winner".

Not bad for somebody who decided to do this about three days before it started.

I'm not finished writing, though. Given where the plot has gone and some of the scenes left to write, I'm about half done with the book. Looks like I'll be finishing it up in December and then sending it off to Jillybean over Christmas break.

I hope she doesn't hurt me.

NaNoWriMo: Day Twenty-Eight

Day twenty-eight and the end is in sight! I am so close, I can taste it!

Today was mostly spent taking care of the various sickos, erm, I mean sick people in the family. I needed the time away from the computer, too.

Back in college, where I first met my hubby, I played Dungeons and Dragons. A lot. Half the time, I was drafted to be the DM and we all had a blast. One of the things that made my players groan, though, was when I announced that I'd had time to plan.

Well, today in all the waiting rooms, I had time to plan. I fully believe that, as a writer, it is my job to torture my characters in order that I might torture and delight my readers. Things are about to get brutal for my characters and I almost feel bad about it. Almost.

Today's Stats:
Title: Amaria
Total words written: 48,834
Words written today: 3,370

NaNoWriMo: Day Twenty-Seven

I'm taking a break in my writing tonight to make this blog post before I lose track of time and get my numbers from today and tomorrow mixed together.

I'll admit, I kept getting distracted today. The shiny that is the internet has a lot of fun things on it that can keep me from OpenOffice. I found myself stepping away from it to do laundry and dishes, make dinner and get breakfast for tomorrow set up.

As an aside, I'm finding that I can actually eat muesli. The texture of oatmeal is just too gross for me most of the time.

Finally sitting down to write and I'm getting more into the relationship building between my two main characters. I think some of this will be cut out of the final draft but it sure is fun to write people who actually like each other interacting.

If I don't finish NaNoWriMo before I go to bed, I'll probably finish tomorrow.

Today's Stats:
Title: Amaria
Total words written: 45,464
words written today: 2,037

NaNoWriMo: Day Twenty-Six

I am caught up! Yay! I actually spent today shopping and my kiddo's are going to like what they get for Christmas I think but it left me with not as much time as I would like to actually get some writing done.

So, I made some coffee, sat down with Write or Die and started doing 15 minute sprints. My goal was to do 400 words in every 15 minutes. Most times, I hit 500+.

Something else I've found is that I write better with one certain group playing than I do with any other music. Writing without music is not an option right now for reasons I'm not going to get into here. If I had a white noise generator I could attach headphones to, I probably would. As it is, I think I've probably memorized the entire Celtic Thunder library.

This is my favorite song right now, though is seems to change depending on what scene I'm working on.

Today's Stats:
Title: Amaria
Total words written: 43,427
Words written today: 2,633

NaNoWriMo: Day Twenty-Five

Today was a much better day.  I haven't quite caught up to where I need to be, but I'm very close. I expect to surpass tomorrow's goal by 3am. I seem to do my best writing late at night and in the early morning.

Today's stats:
Title: Amaria
Total words written: 40,647
Words written today: 3,079

NaNoWriMo: Day Twenty-Three and Twenty-Four

So, it's still Thanksgiving for another hour or so. As anybody who follows me on Twitter or Facebook has probably figured out, I had a horrible Thanksgiving. This was my favorite holiday, eclipsing even Christmas, for as long as I can remember. I may get my enthusiasm back for it next year but for now, I'm avoiding anybody talking about it.

As for yesterday's post, I have been sick and trying to fight it off. I finally gave in to it yesterday and went to bed before I got much of any writing done. I'm still writing on my novel tonight, though I haven't quite caught up. Here are today's stats so far.

Today's Stats:
Title: Amaria
Total words written: 37,568
Words written today: 804

NaNoWriMo: Day Twenty-Two

All right, I'm calling it for today. I spent all morning working on editing projects and this cold is kicking my butt. I am adjourning to my bed with a comforter, notebook and pen. I'll attempt some writing before I fall asleep but, honestly, I don't know how much I'll get done. I'm certainly not going to sit myself down at the computer and report them for today.

Today's Stat's:
Title: Amaria
Total words written: 36,764
words written today: 64

NaNoWriMo: Day Twenty-One

Gah, I have been attacked by a cold virus.

It did not, however, get the better of me. No, in an effort to soldier on even while sick, I resorted once again to Write of Die to achieve my word count today, and boy did it work. Getting 1000 words done in 30 minutes was actually kind of awesome.

It was a little slow going today but, as I found my footing, I discovered that today is all about respect. What builds it, what destroys it, and what little things that start with respect can lead to love. My main female lead is a little scary but I think these crazy kids just might have a future together.


Today's stats:
Title: Amaria
Total words written: 36,700
Words written today: 3,207

NaNoWriMo: Day Twenty

Ever have one of those days where everything just seems to be distract you from what you wanted to get done? Today just seemed to be like that for me.

I worked on my car today. I've changed the oil and oil filter in it before, along with flushing and filling the radiator (ah yeah, I'm awesome, check those skills). Today, I needed to replace the battery. Again. Mostly because the brand new battery I put in it yesterday was a dud. Nothing major but my tools had gone missing (they turned out to be in my husbands trunk, no idea why) and I had no way to get to the auto parts store.

Waiting for my ride to the store would have been a great time to write. Yep, I ended up attacking the dirty dishes in the sink, including the chopsticks. Oh, the chopsticks? Yeah, I keep a dozen pairs so I can eat ramen with them and feel awesome instead of broke. I boiled some eggs, organized my pots, put up hangers next to the stove to put the ones I use the most on and . . . yeah, I was productive today.

Okay, finally, sit down to write. Oooh, flash fiction challenge? I'll just do a quick one. Hey, this would be a great start to the sequel to my first ebook that I want to put out in January. I'll just do a quick sketch and, goddammit, really? 10 pages on a project that is not the novel I'm trying to work on.

I did get work done on the novel, finally. I'm 90 pages in and, with the way the pacing is going, it's looking like it's going to be 400 pages long. My fun little genre project has become an epic. I'm not upset with that but I'm not sure that's what I originally signed up for. So, we'll see how this goes.

Today's Stats:
Title: Amaria
Total words written: 33,493
words written today: 1,690

NaNoWriMo: Day Nineteen

Another day where most of my word count doesn't go into the story. Instead, most of today's effort went into getting in touch with my bad guy.

I started this journey with the bad guy already in mind. The Regent, desperate to save his father, was blackmailing my main character.  He was meant to be a shadowy figure, working mostly through agents after his first meeting with my protagonist, during which he threatens her and her family.

Alas, he went and fell in love, and the feelings were mutual. That . . . was not the way it was supposed to go. While I explored the little love triangle that popped up, a more sinister bad guy decided to start tapping on my shoulder. His plot was much bigger than taking over a simple kingdom. In fact, he'd been plotting for years to exterminate all the humans so he could get to the ultimate power that was, he believed, buried in a desert guarded by a fierce race of warriors.

Whoa. Cool.

Characters from a book I'd started years ago but kept having plot problems with started popping up. This is all to the good, because now I know where to take the other book. Apparently, I'm writing book 2 of the desert lord saga. I did not know that.

So, here's to unexpected plot twists that triple the work but make the journey so much clearer, at least in my mind.

Today's stats:
Title: Amaria
Total words written: 31803
Words written today: 1751

NaNoWriMo: Day Eighteen

Today feels like a better day than yesterday and there are only a couple reasons I can think of to account for it, none of which should really make that big a difference to my day.

The first thing is the music. I like having music playing when I'm writing but it has to be the right music. Nothing I had really felt right and I kept going back to youtube to play certain songs. Finally, I just went ahead and downloaded the cd's and the pages just seemed to fly by.

The second thing was an email from a friend, which was a forwarded conversation she'd had with a mutual friend I'd lost touch with over the last couple years. They were both talking about how much they admired me and my writing.

I'll admit, I cried a little. I mean, really, who wouldn't get emotional upon reading that your friends are very impressed with you and think you should stop listening to the little gremlins of self-doubt that live in your brain. It was a very nice email to receive, is all, especially after the non response I got from certain quarters that I wasn't expecting.

Today's total word count isn't as high as I'd like, but I'm very satisfied with the scenes for today. The one that took the longest feels more intimate than the sex scenes I wrote a little over a week ago, and that's exactly how I wanted it to be. Tonight, I leave my characters hurt but stable (instead of bleeding to death like they were yesterday) and very, very loved.

Today's stats:
Title: Amaria
Total word count: 30052
Words written today: 1331

The music that made all of today's writing possible:

Gotta love Tam . . . I mean, Ryan Kelly.

NaNoWriMo: Day Seventeen

Whew, this feels like it's been a long day. This is probably because I ended up redoing work that I'd done yesterday. I know it's against the rules (or at least not advised) but I needed to change a scene from yesterday. It works so much better, now.

Very early this morning, I took a break from the novel to write down a couple of ideas I want to get to when this is finished. One of them involves the fate of Aidan. If you bought the book, you know who that is.

Today's stats:
Title: Amaria
Total words written: 28720
Words written today: 2035

Mercury Retrograde Press

In clearing off my desk (yes, just moved, already a mess), I realized that I have a bunch of book reviews in various stages of completion. And wow, is this a horrible time to try and complete them. December, I promise, they will all be done and uploaded in December (yes, I've been saying that a lot, lately, especially to the dishes that continue to pile up during NaNoWriMo).

The reason I bring this up is because I realized that all of the books I enjoyed the most, the ones I'm having difficulty writing because it's so hard to get across how much I really, truly love these books, all came from the same publisher.

Mercury Retrograde Press has such a cool vision, I was intrigued. When founder Barbara Friend Ish gave me the chance to review some of their books, I had to jump at the chance to read "unconventional authors and works that might undeservedly slip through the cracks". I am so glad I did. Most of the books that come out of some of the bigger houses lack substance. In the effort to be commercial, they become a bit too light and airy. Every book I've read from Mercury Retrograde Press has been enjoyable to read and heavy enough to make me feel like it was time well spent.

The website is so much fun to browse through, too. So many fun little goodies.

I promise, I will share the best bits with you in the coming weeks, maybe sooner.

NaNoWriMo: Day Sixteen

I think maybe I should call this the "Today I Learned" post but I didn't really 'learn' all that much. Maybe it would be more accurate that this day enforced things I already knew.

Things like:

- There are people out there who are going to knock your dream just because they can.

- You should never base your self-worth on what other's think about you. Especially if they don't know you.

- Everybody's success looks different.

- One of the best compliments a writer can receive is the question "when's the next one coming out?"

My very first ebook became available for purchase today. So far, everybody's who's read it and told me about it has loved it. That in itself is cause for celebration. I'll buy myself a cup of coffee if I sell enough books to get a check from Amazon.

I've spent several years of my life in and around publishers. I think I've learned a few things and I am very, very glad I did my homework.

I guess the point of today is, if you have a dream, go for it. Not everybody will be there cheering you on but you're not doing it for them, you're doing it for you.

Oh, and buy the book.  


Today's stats:
Title: Amaria
Total words written: 26685
Words written today: 2361

NaNoWriMo: Day Fifteen

I almost didn't write a blog post today. I am utterly exhausted by the real world today and so I am calling it a night and going to bed early.

I'll have something to announce tomorrow, so watch this space.

Today's Stats:
Title: Amaria
Total Words Written: 24461
Words Written today: 977

NaNoWriMo: Day Fourteen

Day fourteen was just down right blah for me. I actually started contemplating a post called "How NOT To Be Supportive" but that's not really that helpful so I didn't.

I will say one thing, though. If somebody you love is doing something they've never done before, something truly ambitious (even if it's just ambitious for them), don't tell them "I'm pretty sure nobody really cares about that."

Nope, I didn't kill the person who said it, I just wanted to.

Today I learned out how to format and set up an ebook from start to finish.

Today's Stats:
Title: Amaria
Total Words Written: 23347
Words written today: 1273

NaNoWriMo: Day Thirteen

And on the thirteenth day, she rested.

Well, sorta.

I didn't do a whole lot today beyond brainstorming and unpacking (kitchen's almost done! yay!).

Spent some time today down in the dumps but I'm picking up the novel where I left off. I'll get a bit more written before I go to bed.

Today's Stats:
Title: Amaria
Total word count: 22074
Words written today: 195

NaNoWriMo: Day Twelve

With day twelve, I can't help but be grateful for Write or Die. So much of my life is online currently that, when trying to get any amount of writing done today, I kept getting distracted by the big shiny thing that is the internet.

Now, I'd read a few weeks back that, if you were to write only 250 words a day, you could have a book written in a year. If you were to double that to 500 words, it would only take 6 months.

"500 words?" I thought? "I can do that." I then made the commitment to write at least 500 words a day on the Urban Fantasy book I was writing.

I got talked into doing NaNoWriMo at Milehicon in October and, while the 50,000 words in a month goal was a bit daunting, I figured I could give it a try. It breaks down to 1,667 words a day.

When I sat down with Write or Die, I discovered that I could write 250 words in about 10 minutes. So far this month, I've managed to meet or exceed my writing goal almost every day. With the support of some friends, along with NaNoing with Jilly, this month of writing has been going very well.

I'm also using this time to learn as much as I can about the wonderful world of self-publishing. Hopefully this information will prove helpful in the near future.

NaNoWriMo: Day Eleven

Day eleven? Already? Looks like we're half-way into week 2 and I haven't really missed a day. For that I really have to thank Write or Die. It's a fantastic website that actually has a desktop version and one for the iPad. I set it for 1,500 words in one hour tonight so I could get to my goal before midnight and I actually wrote 1,700 words. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you put your mind to it.

Today's Stats:
Title: Amaria
Total words written: 20,084
words written today: 2,084