Look Who's a Winner

I honestly thought I'd feel a lot more excited about this...

But I guess at a certain point you realize that getting the first 50k is a great milestone, but you are so far from done that it's a little bit "ho, hum, guess I'm still going into the office tomorrow."

And by office, I mean Starbucks.

The middle is looking great. I've still got to write the end...and the hero and heroine's entire relationship prior to the middle (so yes, that would be the beginning, or at least large sections of the beginning).

But, yay for me! I've written the middle of a novel in the month of November!

Now to commence a major freak out about how much is left to do in an incredibly short amount of time if I want it out by August 2012. Ah, good times.

Yellow House

Sorry for being MIA recently. Between moving and writing for NaNoWriMo I've barely got time to breathe!




I grew up in a little yellow house, so maybe that is why they seem so homey to me.

Now we are finally moved into our new yellow house here in Helena, Montana.

And right after we moved it snowed. A lot.

NaNoWriMo is Almost Here!

The insanity known as National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for short) is just around the corner! I will be working on my Austenesque novel Attempting Elizabeth as I also try to move and prepare for the holidays.

My daughter, Maddie, loves fast rides. She puts her hands up on roller coasters. She's three. Actually, she's been doing this since she was two. Gadget's Go-Go-Coaster in Toontown at Disneyland? Front row. Hands up. Yes siree, Bob. She also has tackled the Matterhorn at least four times. Her dry comment as we whizzed by the Abominable Snowman? "Oooooh, 'citing!"

This could be partially my fault. I've always tried to have her look at things as exciting instead of scary. I started this really young with Maddie, before I knew that she was a natural born dare-devil. I am now rethinking that particular parenting strategy (do you know kids that literally climb walls? I have one!)

However, I think that Maddie has a pretty darn good outlook on roller coasters, and on life. It doesn't have to be scary. It can be "'citing!" So that is how I choose to look at NaNoWriMo and the whole rest of November. It's going to be an exciting ride!

Front row.

Hands up.

Here we go!

Nothing Says NaNoWriMo Like Moving House

I'm super committed to NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this year. I fizzled last year, having written something sad and pitiful like 4,615 words of Awake (quality, not quantity, people!) but I have redeemed myself by actually finishing the sucker once we moved here to Montana.

So, guess what I am doing November 1st? Kicking off NaNoWriMo here and on Indie Jane . . . aaaaand MOVING! Yes!

We are moving from our condo to a house. Still renting, but the exciting things are:


a) it's cheaper . . . mind-blowing.
b) it's bigger, although same number of bedrooms and only one bath, the downstairs is bigger than our whole condo.
c) it's got a yard, and that yard is FENCED.
d) we can paint the walls . . . pause for happy dance.

The cons are:

a) it's a WHOLE LOTTA work to move.

So wish me luck as I'm writing, editing, and packing like a mad woman this coming month. Only to be writing and unpacking like a mad woman in November! Yay!

100 Days

There are only 100 days left until Christmas. Less if you're on the other side of the world.

Don't believe me? Check out the Christmas Countdown Clock.

Cause you know, we all need more stress in our lives - countdown clocks really ratchet up that old spazz level. You can sit there and watch it tick down. Freaky.

In twelve hours from this writing, there will be only 99 days left . . . double digits! Omg.

Pause for freakout.

I am unprepared.

Extremely unprepared.

For a lot of things actually . . . not just the 100 days until Christmas (lists? sewing? what?)

Slightly less than a month and half after that lovely little Christmas Countdown Clock hits zero and resets to 355 (actually my favorite part) I will be releasing my first novel into the wild.

Pause for slightly larger freakout.

Maybe I should create a countdown for that . . . just to see how high my blood pressure can get as I watch it tick down. It would be like a medical experiment!

There are also less than 7 weeks to the start of November, which means NaNoWriMo!
Planning, outlining, deciding how the darn thing ends?
Sure. Whatevs.

Not pausing for a freakout here because I am in d-e-n-i-a-l.

It's September. I now live in Montana. It could snow any day. Fall is like the blink of an eye here, at least that is what they tell me.

Pause for huge, out of control, I-have-no-winter-clothes-and-wear-flip-flops-everyday freakout.

But enough about me . . . and the celebration of the Christ Child's birth . . .

The biggest, most important countdown clock is this:

There are only 13 regular games left in my team's regular baseball season!

Thirteen.

Mind blown.
Whatever am I going to do with myself after the season is over?
Maybe, you know, finish editing that novel, sew those Christmas presents, buy some real shoes, or curl up in a ball and cry until spring training.
It's really a toss up.

Meanwhile, we are 3 back in the division race and starting to make some noise in the very intriguing wild card race . . . so GO ANGELS!
The rest of it can wait.

At least for another 13 games or so.



(gratuitous cute kid picture with Angels tie in. Um, yes, he's restrained with a jump rope, he seems ok with it, my kids are weird.)

Because I am Insane

I am really looking forward to this year's NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November. My plan is to work on my Austenesque novel Attempting Elizabeth which I am expanding from the short story I wrote last year. I am currently doing some serious actual planning and plotting for it, which is so unlike me.

But here is the thing. I've been editing for weeks. And now I am planning something I won't be actually writing until November. That's eight weeks away! What is a girl to do? A girl who is itching to get some real, actual writing in?

Apparently what I am doing is writing a completely different novel! Yes sirree Bob! This week I started the sequel to Awake. Don't worry, they are stand-alone, you will definitely get a resolution to Awake . . . no waiting for months for the next book to come out after being left dangling off a huge plot-precipice. I hate that.

So, what is it about? I can't tell you much other than that it is a redux of Beauty and the Beast. Love! It's been done a lot. It's been done really well (especially well by Robin McKinley, not once but twice for goodness sake!), but I am hopeful that my story will add something new and fun to the grand tradition of La Belle et La Bête.

That may be aiming a bit high, let's just say I hope it's really fun to read!

So, I write my booty off until NaNoWriMo and then I guess I take a break from Beauty and work on Austen . . . OR I could finish Beauty and the Beast before then . . . it only means writing 11,250 words a week.

No problem.

Cough.

I would love to finish the rough draft by November first. It would be brilliant. But I am not going to throw myself off a cliff if I don't. After all, I'm only 7,000 words in. I'm having fun though!

While I can't tell you anything about my plot (hint: there is a beauty in it . . . and maybe a beast), I can share with you these amazing photos! Did you know that Drew Barrymore did a Beauty and the Beast spread a few years ago for Vanity Fair? I am dying over these dresses. Aren't they so pretty? You really must see them all!

A NaNoWriMo Update & Confession

Remember you can still enter to win my 12 Days of Christmas Charm Pack giveaway (and vote for my kids) until Monday, November 15th at 1 pm EST. Click here or scroll down!

I have a confession.

It is now day twelve of NaNoWriMo and I have sat down in front of my laptop to write exactly two times. Both times my kids were awake and in the next room watching t.v. and practicing making the leap from the bed to the couch. This is not conducive to creative thougth and concentration. Each writing session has lasted for approximately 15 minutes.

At this rate I will be done with my novel in 2025 . . . if I am lucky.

I may have overestimated my ability to not crash and fall asleep when I am laying down with James at night to get him to sleep. I also may have overestimated my ability to find time to novel while I am working.

Good news (for writing, if not for my pocketbook)! I am out of work as of Friday next week! So I am looking at my NaNoWriMo experience being more like a NaNoWri-last-half-of-Mo experience. I am committed to working on it as much as possible this weekend and next week and then hitting it hard come next weekend.

To be on track I should have about 18,000 words already . . . I have approximately 500 or so . . . but nobody panic! At least the page is no longer blank! And I've worked out some major character kinks and plot points in my head, so that's fabulous . . . and I have completed my prologue, which I thought I'd share with you! Maybe you can help keep me accountable! I got a lovely card in the mail from my dear friend Rebecca who is away at college encouraging me and telling me she knew I could do NaNoWriMo, which is what inspired me to actually sit down and start writing this after feeling very behind and lost. So thank you Rebecca . . . I love you to pieces!

Side note before you read this: please be aware this is a very rough draft, I realize I've used the same words a few times . . . it has not been edited because I am trying to silence my inner editor, get over my fear of imperfection, and try to get words on a page. So please . . . be kind!

Sleeping Beauty 2.0

Prologue

Alexandra Martin did not believe in fairytales. Truthfully, Alex didn’t even know much about fairy tales. In spite of her mother’s best efforts, Alex had always been more interested in finding and cataloging interesting looking rocks than paying attention to stories about princesses and fairy godmothers. Which is why, when she walked into storage room B-23 of the Gem and Mineral Museum of Los Angeles and nearly bumped into a cobweb covered four poster bed, she immediately began mentally tabulated the rarity, historical significance, and cost of the gems embedded into the ornately worked head and footboards. It wasn’t until a soft sound interrupted her calculations that she even noticed that she wasn’t alone. There was someone sleeping in the bed.

At first Alex thought the sleeping figure, like the bed, was covered with fine cobwebs. As she looked closer she realized that it wasn’t cobwebs draping over the figure but hair – foot after foot of sandy colored hair draped from the sleeper’s head, and over it’s face and body, moving gently as the figure breathed in and out. As she looked closer she realized the hair wasn’t growing just out of the sleeper’s head, but from the face as well – a beard that would have done Rip Van Winkle proud flowing down to well past the knees. And that is when Alex realized she didn’t have a sleeping beauty on her hands, but an enchanted sleeping man.

As Alex stared at the figure in shock, trying to calculate how long it would take for that much hair to grow, a soft snore emitted from the sleeping man. Alex jumped back about half a foot at the quiet sound, trying to stifle her slightly hysterical giggles. She may not know much about fairytales, but she was pretty sure that enchanted sleeping princes weren’t supposed to snore.

So what do you think?

Remember, it's not too late to join me for NaNoWriMo . . . I'm obviously just starting, so you could too!

Because I just have too much time on my hands . . .

I have signed up for this year's National Novel Writing Month otherwise known as NaNoWriMo. The goal is to complete a novel of at least 50,000 words during the month of November. I originally signed up in 2008, but the last two Novembers have turned out to be some of the busiest and most full of upheaval in the last two years . . . which is saying a lot if you know anything about our last two years! This November is no different! I will be working full time until the 19th, and then I'm off, which is both a blessing and a curse! So the first part of the month I will be dealing with writing while I have no time, and the second part writing while I have no income. It promises to be fun!

I have had this novel bouncing around in my head for 5 years, so you think I'd have more of a headstart on it . . . but I have nothing! Not even a title. At this point not even a working title . . . although Ed has suggested Sleeping Beauty 2.0.

Whatever it ends up being titled it will be written in November of 2010.

Anyone want to join me for NaNoWriMo?