NaNoWriMo

It's winding down now, only about nine more days left. I'm so woefully behind, but this year for me's been rather different. I'm accustomed to having loads of free time around this time of year which meant I could pretty much write whenever I want. This year, very different. Having the nephew with me during the day for nine hours takes about thirteen hours out of my day when you factor in traveling and getting ready. He's nine months now, so he's at that stage where he's on the move a lot and constantly getting on his feet. So far he can only stand on his own for about seven seconds so he uses furniture to help him walk around and that really divides your attention. Plus all the other fun stuff that comes with babysitting and his fascination with my laptop - fun times. It doesn't bother me to have him, but boy does it turn your schedule upside down! Everyone doing NaNo this year with kids, I salute you. Seriously, because it's hard work! And it really draws on one's energy when you're not in the greatest of health, and trying to fix that is a job within itself. Throw in a dog amongst all that...you learn a few things about good time management, opportunity and being flexible.

I actually ended up changing my NaNo story about a week in. My original story (which I'll probably continue after this story is finished) was The Bone Witch, a fantasy with Norse, viking, barbarian inspirations. I temporarily petered out on it because of lack of clarity about how the world works. I'm not much of a pantser, I have to at least have a basic idea of how my world functions before I dive right in and this one kept shifting on me. At least enough to affect story outcome. It's bubbling just under the surface right now and when I can get back to it I'll work it all out. So this year's story switched to another fantasy called Dragon Eggs. It's coming about in a much different format than I'm accustomed to writing; each chapter alternates between current events in the story and past events that led up to it. I'm not quite sure how well this is going to work out, but we'll see how it goes. It's certainly fun to write, and for the first time I overwrote a chapter by about three thousand words. I usually manage to keep them around the five thousand mark, give or take a few hundred words, because it helps me keep a tab on my overall word count. Plus it seems like a good length, not too long and not too short. Well see how it fares in the rewrite. New territory is always fun to explore.

Word count unfortunately is sitting at a sad 13000 words (though I'm kind of proud at landing on such an even number). I'll post tomorrow how much that's changed.

Whoops!

Almost let this blog slip. My apologies!

I forgot about NaNo ML signups this year >.< So officially, I'm not ML-ing for my area but I can act in an unofficial capacity, if it's okay with the girls who are this year. I'm sure it will be, one has been my co-ML for a few years and the other has been in the group probably as long as I have. They're both cool. Even if my involvement is minor, it might be nice to relax a bit this year. 50,000 words in one month can get kind of nuts.

I have no idea what I'm going to do for NaNo. It has to be a new project so that means none of the seven stories I have in progress qualify. Not that I'm short on ideas, haha. I have one idea that I haven't quite fleshed out yet that was inspired by this art:



I couldn't read the title or artist's name (幽魂之地 - 李一丁 if anyone on my list can translate?) but I have a good idea of the 'story' of it. It's an undead warlock, most likely in Andorhol at night. Or it could be a farm in Tirisfal which always looks that dark but none of the silos glow green. It kind of looks like she's taking revenge which is what spurred the idea. Of course, another idea is inspired by this pic:



Not entirely sure what this one will be about either. Either vampire or shapeshifter, but leaning towards shapeshifter. I love vampires but I already have one on the backburner and right now I think the vamp market needs to cool some. Thanks Stephenie >.< Glittery vamps can go die now plzkthx.

Speaking of writing I didn't do any yesterday. Bad me, I'm going to fall so far behind on my target. I've been doing...well not great, but not bad either. I know if I can just get in one 7k day, I can stick to it. The Dragon King is almost at 30k (1,761 words short to be exact), which is sooooooooo cool. I think I'm just going to make it straight out asian fantasy in the rewrite. Well, maybe not completely asian fantasy because I have another story idea set in this world, and nothing of it is asian-based. Watching Fuurin Kazan is providing lots of good visual aid ^_^ Still need a subbed version of the whole show, it'd be nice to know what's going on. My untitled dark fantasy, which is kind of leaning towards Demon King as a tentative title at least, has clocked in currently at 10,433 words. I think I'll finally start working on chapters now that I'm out of spontaneous scenes. Revenant is at 4,056 which I think will be the first one I tackle later today, going for 5,944 words; Redemption is at 6,213 and still has plenty of spontaneous scenes left to write; my untitled historical is back on the backburner at 1,136 words; my untitled warlord story is also on the backburner at 1,000 words; and A Game of Nobles remains at 1,000, which was actually kind of a spontaneous addition. I had two scenes I didn't want to forget, and figured I'd add it to the tally.

So current wordcount total: 65,729. For anyone doing the math, those counts above don't include the 13,652 I added to a three-year-old manuscript back in January. As that story is done now, nothing more gets added to it.

Now for some sleep, then off to the Harvest Festival! I'm debating whether to take Dalila - on one hand the socialization would be good for her, and she loves people. On the other I kind of don't want to divide my attention between saying hi to friends, doing a bit of shopping and calming the nut. Guess we'll see. I'll post later about it either way!

EDIT: so this is the room GACKT is staying in at the Casa Loma. All I can say is OMFG I WANT. I've decided that if I ever make enough money I'm renting this room for a week either monthly or bimonthly to work in. I've never really thought about what my dream workspace would be before, but damn I'll take that!

Bouncing Topics

I haven't forgotten about my blogs. I don't know if it's been the weather or something else, but I haven't had the energy to do much of anything. Totally killed any inspiration, it was like I spent the last week in a fog. It does happen every once in awhile, but I hate it. I lose so much time. But at least I'm starting to make up for it.

Yesterday I pulled out all my NaNoWriMo stuff and started sorting through that. I organize the events for NaNo in my area, which I love doing but I kind of bombed it last year. It was an awful year though, I was pretty sick. This year's going to be much better though. I had hoped to be done by now, but considering NaNo doesn't begin until November I still have some time. Plenty of time, actually. This year, come hell or high water I am not going to be rushing around at the last minute trying to get things together! October and November are stressful enough, and I'm still waiting for my Wrimo-From-Hell year. Seems like everyone gets at least one, and it usually gets handled better when you're not stressed out of your mind. Everything's been cleaned out, I made my list and boy do I have a lot to do. I'm giving some things a revamp also, I think people are getting bored of the same thing time and time again. I know I kinda am. I do already have my story idea for November based on a dream I had last night, dark fantasy as usual. No title yet, but it looks like it's gonna be so much fun. My goal is to finish at least 2 stories before then though. Maybe going into it with that achievement will give me some additional boost. I'm back up to 1667 words a day, almost!

I can't believe the chefs on this season of Hell's Kitchen. I'm no chef, but I know what different meats look and feel like when they're done. These are supposed to be professional chefs - how the hell do you constantly serve up raw food and not know it?! Granted the last four are getting a little better, but they're still pretty pathetic for what are supposed to be professional chefs.

By week's end my EVER cds ship from CDJapan! I'm so freaking excited. Not only is one the limited edition, but both are First Press Editions which have since sold out. I usually miss First Press (thought I managed to snag a First Press copy of Setsugekka, but no such luck). That should be here by next week, whenever the regular edition arrives and they can ship the order. Also coming this week is a $100 gift certificate to Chapters - shopping fun! New GACKT music, new books...yes I be a happy girl.

Now if puppy would learn to occupy herself I'd be even happier...

And So It Begins

NaNo has officially started, as does my quest to have a complete first draft (finally) under my belt. I'm starting with The Dragon King, and so far so good. I just wish I could figure out how to turn on the typewriter mode so I can't backtrack...

New Layout

Yes, new layout. I get bored easily what can I say :) I actually quite like this one, it's how I envision one of the worlds in Chasing Dreams to look like during the day.

NaNo is literally a week away, but I'm not nervous. At least I don't feel it, but I wonder if I'm so used to the nerves that I don't notice it anymore. Still got lots to do for the Kick-Off, I'm going to really push myself this weekend to get the rest of my stuff all printed out so I can start cutting them up and putting things together. I may have to forgo the little booklets, maybe I'll just buy some instead. Less work is better.

Having fun in WoW. Right now the event Hallow's End is going on and it's so much fun. Candy, trick or treating, attacks from the Headless Horseman and costumes galore. I just wish that the Player versus Player achievement wasn't a requirement for the Hallowed title. I'm not big on Player versus Player, mostly because my computer can't keep up, so that's kind of a bummer. There's always next year, but when you get one title you want more :) It'll end on Halloween, naturally and the next event won't be until next month for Thanksgiving. It'll be the first time it happens ingame, so that should be interesting. We get a turkey gun for pelting people with. Yes, a turkey gun. Hopefully the turkeys will already be cooked beforehand or that could get messy.

NaNo Countdown

So it's that time of year again. NaNoWriMo 2009 is here!

This makes year 8 as a participant for me, and year 7 as the Municipal Liaison for my city. It's going to be a little more difficult this year with my health issues dogging me, but hopefully it'll all work out all right. My co-ML unfortunately can't help me out this year due to some health issues of her own, but hopefully she'll be back next year. One of my other wrimos is going to help out this year, so that's good too. Up on the chopping block this year:

Redemption: last year's attempt at a World of Warcraft story has morphed into its own world and storyline, so I'm going to be taking another crack at it this year. I actually like it better this time around.

Chasing Dreams: a fantasy romance that I've been worldbuilding on awhile. It stemmed from this crazy-in-a-good-way dream I had back in July, and I'm glad I had a pad of paper and pen next to my pillow or I would have forgotten it :) Anyway it's really character driven, which is a bit of a stretch for me because my stories are usually more plot driven. Angsty with a really happy ending.

The Dragon King: this one wasn't supposed to happen yet, but the muses wouldn't leave me along. Dang muses. Anyway I don't know much more than the Dragon King's name and a very fuzzy concept, so stay tuned to see how this one unfolds.

I'm going to try a different concept this year. Last year I wrote 1667 words per story each day. This year I'm going to write 5k a day, but focus on one story at a time. Once one hits 50k I'll move on to the next one. It's kind of risky, but it may work out better this way. Time will tell!

Music of the Moment: She Wolf - Shakira

New Year, New Beginnings

New year should be a start of new beginnings, both personal and otherwise. For me it's finally getting myself in gear with a lot of things. I have a beta reader for Redemption, which will help me finish that story because I know she'll hound me if I don't :) In the meantime the job hunt is on, and I have a hopefully promising prospect on the horizon. So yay for that! I'm also combing the Bewares & Background Check forum over at AbsoluteWrite and putting all of that info into an excel spreadsheet. Every agent, agency, publisher, vanity and scammer listed. Even the ones that don't handle my chosen genre (fantasy). I figured it would be helpful since I can easily sort by a number of things like service (publisher, agency, agent), whether they're legit, things like that. And it saves me the trouble of trying to remember if someone reps/publishes fantasy or not, since I'll have it marked down. If anyone would like a copy once I really get it underway (or now) just let me know. It's really easy to enter the info and I'm always happy to share resources :) So far I'm up to 8 possible contacts.

Also with the new year things with my local NaNo group are going to pick up again. We're thinking of doing our own version of the Night of Writing Dangerously to help support our own local chapter as well as HQ. It's ambitious I'll admit, but I think it'll be a lot of fun. The original plan was for February, but I think we'll be moving it because that doesn't look like it's going to be enough time to plan. I'd rather us take the time to plan this right, than rush it and possibly ruin it. It should be loads of fun though! Maybe we'll wait for the good weather and have it outside, haha

Redemption - Excerpt

From Chapter 3-

When night had fallen Kaylisto had gone down to the room they were given and went to sleep. The mage told her she had some things to see to, supplies she had to restock and such and so would be down later. The excitement of the day had worn the girl out more than she had realized, and she fell asleep to the soothing sounds of a well fed fire in the large fireplace and dreamt strange dreams.
She could see her parents; though she didn't know their names, somehow she knew it was them. Her father was a strong and proud man, wrapped in robes denoting him as a priest. He attacked with all the strength a priest possessed, which to the uninformed or uneducated may not have been thought to have been much. But the defense was only control to help her mother and defend her like she was defending him. She cut into enemies all around her with an unyielding fury. Her armor seemed to be illuminated with light, her shield blocking attacks as her sword delivered them. She was surrounded by scary undead creatures but she showed no fear of them as she engaged them, combining combat prowness with the magic and spells avaliable to the paladin. Kaylisto could see her holy book fastened to her belt and swinging about with her movements, and she noticed it shone whenever her mother cast a particular spell or used a specific ability. Kaylisto guessed she had memorized whatever the spell or ability was, and thus didn’t need to open the book in order to use it. Though the girl knew that paladins had spells that could heal themselves and their comrades, any and all healing was done by her father who used his own spells to help keep her alive. In return, her mother used her own abilities to keep the majority of creatures away from her father. Kaylisto knew this was basic knowledge; priests could wear nothing more than robes, as their strength lay in their spells to protect them. Paladins were trained in strength mostly to be able to bear the heavier armor to serve as their protection while they dealt or took the blows of opponents. Together her parents seemed unstoppable, and no wave of enemies was left standing very long once her father and mother took care of them. As the dream played on, she could hear King Magni's words speaking to her:
"Faith is a strong force that many enemies will be hard pressed to contend with."
Kaylisto knew that her mother had faith, could see it when she called up her spells and saw the force with which they did their damage. The priests and paladins at the Cathedral had impressed upon her that knowing a spell of such holy calibre was only half the battle; you had to have the faith to go with it.
"But know this, young Kaylisto; faith alone can not save you every time. You must also have strength, skill and the will to stand up for your faith."
She could see this too, in both her parents. Her mother never ceased in the use of her holy spells and abilities. And although her father had an arsenal of shadow spells at his disposal (as any and every priest did) he used them less frequently. They relied on the powers of the Light that they possessed, and their strength and will helped them wield it. She was seeing first hand what King Magni had tried to tell her during her visit to Ironforge.
"Know this; as a paladin, your faith will be challenged more than any one walking a number of other paths. A paladin must know when to fight..."
The waves of enemies seemed unending. Exhaustion soon began to show signs in the faces of both her parents. Kaylisto began seeing more clearly the place in which her parents were making their stand. A small encampment in a place that looked quite wrong. Like the land was sick. The encampment was under attack, and there were not enough people to help guard it. Her mother and father seemed to be the strongest and perhaps only defense against the onslaught. There seemed no choice but to fight.
"There will be enemies that will come into your path and try to make you doubt your faith in the Light, but if you’re faith is strong they will not shake it. Your strength, your defenses, all of it will rest in your convinction of faith."
As the creatures died down, Kaylisto could see someone who she took to be the leader of the enemies approaching. The rest of the encampment were beginning to leave, and she could see that most of them were injured, those less so were helping those who were more so. Her parents were the only thing standing between them and the enemy. They were helping the others escape out of harm’s way. She could hear the voice of the creature in her mind, a chilling voice taunting her parents to give up, the Light had forsaken them, there was no Light to fight for here. She saw her father’s hands flex, saw her mother's hand grip the hilt of her sword all the more tighter, both frowning as they listened to the tirade of the creature. They were not wavering, they were not faltering. In fact it looked like they were getting angrier the longer the creature went on in his condemnation of the Light and its weakness. At the pinnacle of his tirade, her father gave a loud wordless cry and struck at the creature at the same time her mother charged him, blade ready to strike and a spell on her lips. But this was a stronger creature than those they had fought before, and they also had the handicap of exhaustion. And in that moment, Kaylisto finally understood all the stories the paladins and priests had told her of those who gave their lives for the Light. SHe understood what it meant to sacrifice yourself in the name of the Light, in the name of faith and for the sake of another person. They stood, unwavering in their conviction as the creature struck her parents down though they did not go without a fight. But the people they had defended had escaped, and managed to elude the fate of her parents this time. With tears streaming unbeknowst to her down her face, Kaylisto had finally learned the fate of her parents.

Comment, critique, tell me what you think :)

The Obligatory First Post

I always hate these posts, but I guess you got to start somewhere right?

Well a little about me...I'm 25, been writing almost all my life. Apparently my first foray into the writing world was grade one, where I wrote this long (well, long for a first grader) journal entry about my grandparents' farm and the horses and all this cool stuff. Sadly, the only true part about it was that they did have a big property :D In my defense though, there were farms around them that did have animals so it's not like it was totally made up. I always had an active imagination, so I guess it had to find an outlet in something. It wasn't until grade six when I really started getting serious about my own writing, and I have Mrs. Stanful to thank for that. She was tough but encouraging and she helped shape a lot of the tools I needed to really grow in my writing. Would I have gotten serious otherwise? Who knows. But my goal to be an author stems from her class, and I'll always be thankful for it.

I participate in NaNo, and have ever since 2002. This was my seventh year participating, sixth year as an ML for my region and my sixth win. 2003 I decided to be the ML for my area (which at the time was under Elsewhere) and it was very much trial by fire. I also didn't win that year. In hindsight I wish I would have taken advantage more of the help of others, but you live and learn. My city became its own region the year after, grown ever since and I couldn't be happier. We're an awesome region. That reminds me we have a write-in tomorrow. I still have all my mss right from the first year; it's fun to see your progress. I remember thinking my first novel was fantastic at the time, though looking back on it now I can see all the work it needs. It's really cheesy, but I'm not abandoning it because it's a great concept and I plan to give it a revise. One day Prophecy, one day.

Right now my mind's focused mainly on two projects: Redemption, and House of Amberwind. Redemption is a fantasy story that revolves around a human orphan named Kaylisto, who becomes a paladin and follows her journeys into the world. Her ultimate goal is to discover the truth of her parents, who she's never known except through a couple of dreams, but along the way she encounters many friends, a few foes, things that challenge her faith and becoming things she never imagined. Right now World of Warcraft references abound in it, but those will be coming out in revisions. It was a handy little handicap during NaNo (I was writing 3 novels, cut me some slack :P ) and right now my focus is more on getting the first draft written. After that I'll focus on my worldbuilding, the story is just demanding to be written. House of Amberwind is what I hope will be a project similar to Warcraft: Day of the Dragon and other similar WoW-based books (same idea as the Star Trek books). It focuses around the noble (and fictional) House of Amberwind, a family of High Elves whose lives are shattered when the death knight Arthas comes storming through the land of Quel'Thalas. The only survivors of the destruction of the House are the lord's three daughters - Kaena, Shakira and Layla Anora. They go from nobility to commoners to fighters as each girl makes her way out in the world with two common goals in mind: the restoration of their House, and revenge against the man who destroyed all they loved. So Blizzard, if you're interested let me know ;)