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!

Wordcount Update

Yay, I passed a milestone! The way I calculate it, if I keep to 7k every day until my deadline I can easily make the 1 million goal. Until then, this is where I stand:

Path of the Hunter - 13,652

The Dragon King - 19,390

A Game of Nobles - 1,000

untitled warlord story - 1,000

untitled historical - 1136

Revenant - 4,056

Redemption - 4,634

untitled dark fantasy - 8,000

Grand Total: 52,868

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

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 ;)