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NaNoWriMo Day 4

Still going along but I have to work in chunks.  I’ve had a lot of distractions with real life and work, but I keep giving myself small chunks.  Write 500 words and take a break.

Write another 500 words.

It’s slow but it is progress and the words are adding up.

I managed to write a little in the car yesterday on the way to the funeral, and then slowly worked my way toward the last 700 words last night.  I’m sitting at 7664 words this morning, my last day of vacation.  But I keep getting distracted.

I love watching cheesy horror movies and I’m on my second today. :oops:  But I am writing at the same time, just nothing major in word count.  I’m also going to vote today, so I’m not sure how much time I’ll lose this afternoon waiting in line.

But that’ll free me up tomorrow and ensure I don’t get sucked into work and forget to go vote!

Continuing from the last snippet:  (again, not NaNoWriMo material, not yet)

It’d been easy enough in the beginning to accept that Charlie wanted two men in her bed.  He was merely thankful they were all still alive and that she’d escaped Queen Majel’s Runners.  He hadn’t even minded when she’d made love to him and then Gil or vice versa.  In the beginning, she’d often had them both in her bed, but they’d never interacted.  It’d been very much a “wait until it’s your turn” situation.  Not that he’d complained, again.  She kept him well satisfied and he’d never felt slighted or neglected in any way.

But night after night after night in that small ship speeding through the galaxy had begun to wear upon him.  Why he didn’t know exactly.  He loved her.  She loved him.  Gil loved her without question as well.

Sometimes love isn’t enough.

He winced at that thought and noticed he was stroking the hilt of his favorite knife tucked into a sheaf on his hip.

Her hand settled on his forearm, drawing his attention to her face.

“What is is?”

He gave her a jaunty grin.  “Merely dreading the next dress shop, Your Grace.”

Her eyes narrowed and she tilted her head as she studied him.  He fought to keep his shoulders relaxed and his face smooth of any upset.

“I see.”  She linked her arm with his and drew him alongside her and Gil.  “I thought perhaps you’d received a new contract and were afraid to tell me.”

“I wish,” he muttered.  A little killing always helped him keep the darkness at bay.  That, and visiting her.  But even with her admittedly divided attention, that same old uneasiness was beginning to gnaw at him.  Soon, he’d be unable to sleep, tormented by old shadowed pain.  Pain he’d thought he’d left behind a very long time ago.  “Why would I be afraid to tell you?  You already told me you wouldn’t try to make me quit.”

He couldn’t help that small emphasis.  He’d do anything she wanted within reason, but if Lady Wyre thought she could bat her eyes and make him stop being an assassin, then she’d be sorely mistaken.

She let out a low, rich chuckle that heated his blood, even while her words made him tense.  “Don’t challenge me, Sig.  You might not like the outcome.”

It was easy to slip the knife out and press the tip to her side before she even drew a breath.  “Don’t challenge me, Lady Wyre.”

She hissed beneath her breath.  “Don’t call me that, even here.  One never knows where the Queen’s Ravens may listen.”

Blasted woman.  She ought to be afraid of him not the distant albeit powerful queen hunting her all across the galaxy.  He jabbed the knife a bit harder.  “Do you honestly think Majel has spies here?  Look around, Your Grace.  Do you see a single red coat?  A single Britannian ship in the docks?  No.  Hoeng Gong is open to everyone except Britannia, which is why so many people are willing to risk trading here.  Even if Majel knew you were here, she couldn’t do anything.”

“You’re a fool, then.”  Charlie’s voice cooled but her pitch didn’t rise with alarm.  Calm and cool even with a knife poking her in the ribs, she drew to a halt and stared up at him levelly.  Gil cursed low under his breath.  “Never mind, Gil.  I’m fine.”

“That knife is pointed at your heart,” he replied grimly, his big right hand shifting toward the ancient pistol he kept beneath his coat.  Sig couldn’t help but grin, trying to antagonize the man.  They’d clashed early on and even bloodied each other a little, but she’d quickly put an end to their alpha dog posturing.  Maybe a fight would put him at ease at least long enough for a contract to come through.

“No matter.”  She shrugged, completely nonplussed.  “He knows I’m always prepared for such events, don’t you, dearest?  He was introduced to the corset I fondly call the iron maiden before I ever left Britannia.”

Indeed, their first meeting had gone rather like this, with him threatening to kill her while she looked him in the eye and dared him to try.  He hadn’t seen that steel-walled corset again.  Had she brought it along on his ship?  Would she have thought to wear it?

Do I want to risk bloodying the woman I love just to prove a point?

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NaNoWriMo Day 1

I managed to stay up until midnight Oct. 31st and wrote until a little after 1AM to get my first day’s words.  Getting up at 6 AM was tough but worth it.  🙂

I ended up working 2-3 hours yesterday and had a 2 hour hair appointment, but I did manage short stints later to get 2,552 words for the day.

Today, I logged on for work about an hour, paid some bills, ground some flour and made some bread, and got 500 words.  I’m hoping to get another 2500 words today but we’ll see.  The kids get out of school an hour early on Fridays and I need to run to the bank — and back to the salon where I left my Kindle, ack!! — but I want to at least get my normal 1667 words to keep slightly ahead.

I haven’t shared any of Lord Regret’s Price yet.  I guess I’m nervous about it.  It’s been so difficult to get moving, and every time I miss a day, it’s like pulling teeth to get moving again.  Even today, knowing I need to write a few more sprints, I have a slight dread about getting started.  Once I’m going, it’s fine.  I’m on the verge of discovering some cool things about his mother.  P.S. I really have no idea who his mother is — if she’s based on a real person or not.  Guess I need to figure that out huh?

Anyway, here’s a little from how the book currently opens (not NaNoWriMo material – this was written weeks ago).

Watching Lady Wyre wander through the endless markets in Hoeng Gong was almost as fun as deciding how his next mark would die.

So much for being the galaxy’s most famous assassin.  Lord Sigmund Regret shifted the stack of parcels she’d shoved into his arms at the tea shop, careful to keep one hand free in case he needed to reach a weapon.  I haven’t accepted a contract in over a month.

At least he’d taken the first load of relatively small packets.  He smirked as the other man of their party eyed the enormous—and still growing—stack of silks she’d selected.

“How much room is there in your hold?”  Gilead Masters drawled in his distinctive Americus accent.  “Surely not enough for all this.”

Sig laughed.  “Large enough for Her Grace’s silks, surely, but I’m thankful that she’s not a collector of silver or we’d never get [ship name] out of the dock again.”

“Humph.”  Lady Charlotte Wyre tipped up her nose to a haughty angle.  “This is only my first day of shopping, gentlemen.  These materials are fine for every day gowns, but I intend to create a wardrobe that would dazzle even Her Majesty herself.  I’ve gone without the finer things in life for so long that I intend to make up for lost time.”

During the seven years she’d lived in hiding on the Americus colony, she hadn’t dared indulge her taste for the finery to which she’d been accustomed as Duchess of one of Britannia’s most powerful Houses.  Sig couldn’t fault her for wanting to make up for lost time.  He’d merely prefer to buy out the entire shop rather than stand around waiting while she sorted through each and every bolt.

“Then of course I must find a suitable modiste, not to mention matching trims, hats, boots, and gloves.  I must have day wear as well as evening, for I intend to wrangle an invitation into the Forbidden City so I might see the Emperor in all his glory for myself.  Not even Majel has accomplished that feat.”

Charlie paid the beaming shopkeeper an exorbitant amount of coin and gave instructions to have the silk delivered to their inn.  Sig dumped the tea parcels on top of the shimmering mountain, ignoring the arched look she shot his way.  The tea cost twice as much as the silks, but if she was entrusting her precious wardrobe to a delivery boy, she might as well have the tea delivered too.  At the prospect of Charlie surviving without tea, though, Sig relented enough to pick up the largest parcel full of her favorite, golden-tipped Assum.

Gil took her arm and they led the way down the crowded aisle.  People of all colors and species filled the market, yelling in dozens of languages.  Zijin was far enough away from the mighty arm of Britannia that trade flourished.  Even species like the Razari—who’d barely survived Britannia’s cruel method of technological assimilation—risked sailing into the open market of Hoeng Gong, a tiny island satellite of the larger Zijin system.

The crush of people on all sides sent Sig’s self-preservation alarms into overdrive.  He’d killed countless marks in situations like this.  A slim knife slipped between ribs and he was away before the person even noticed something was wrong.  Oftentimes their lungs were filling with blood before they even realized that prick they’d felt had been deadly.  With his law enforcement background, Gil was equally uneasy, holding Charlie close to his side, his dark head turning this way and that, constantly scanning for danger.  She tipped her face up to the other man and he bent down to hear over the clamor.

The sight of their heads so close to together sent an ugly pulse through Sig’s gut, hard enough that he turned away so he wouldn’t have to look at them.

Surely the infamous Lord Regret isn’t feeling jealousy.

Oh but I am.  I am.

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NaNoWriMo

I love NaNoWriMo.  I’ve participated every year since 2007.  I even schedule several days of vacation from the Evil Day Job — especially early in the month — to ensure I set myself up for a fast start.

I’m not feeling the love this year.

My grandpa passed away this morning.  Emotionally, we’re all handling in fairly well, because we had the chance to say goodbye Monday night.  I’m afraid it’ll catch up with me, though, especially during services this weekend.  We’ll be on the road Sunday for the funeral and visiting family.

I’m *this close* to finishing the big project at work I mentioned.  There are a few things still not working, but the bulk of my tasks for the project are done to the point where the other programmer isn’t stuck waiting on me to supply the data.  I promised to check email in the morning and see if I can finish the last few things still outstanding and I might call in for an update meeting.

So while I’m technically “on vacation” until Tuesday…. I might actually be logging in several times.  The joys of working from home where “showing up for work” is way too easy.

And yeah, I still have to get the monsters up for school at 6 AM.  Not feeling the “stay up all night to write” love then.

With all the long hours and stress this past week, I don’t know that I can even stay up until midnight tonight, let alone get my first 1666 words right out of the gate.  I haven’t touched Sig’s file in days — and I have to finish him before I can start anything else.

Needless to say, I’m starting with several handicaps, both emotionally and physically.  But I still want to try.  I’m hoping the love and energy will lift me up and keep me going when my tank is already running low.

We shall see.  The first task is whether I can actually stay up until midnight tonight as I originally planned.

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Start Small

Even when you’ve been doing something for years, sometimes you have to start over at the beginning.

Baby steps.

As a published author with a full-time day job, I’ve been struggling to keep up this year.  Between extensive edits (I took several days off from work so I could complete The Bloodgate Warrior edits) and two releases on the writing side — and massive projects (e.g. a five-year project finally reaching closure) on the Evil Day Job side — I’ve been fighting mental exhaustion.  No, worse, spiritual exhaustion.

The endless blog hops.  Trying to come up with something new and exciting to say for every single guest post.  Diligently replying to every comment without just saying “thanks.”  Searching for reviews, which means I have to read them, good and bad.  And yes, even lukewarm reviews suck at the creativity, draining it dry.  Worrying about numbers.  Self publishing.  More worrying.  More planning.

Mental.  Exhaustion.

Not conducive for the number one thing a writer must do.  You know, produce WORDS.

The only brand new material I’ve managed to turn out this year is Her Grace’s Stable.  Now that’s sad sad sad.  Yes, I’ve been busy.  I went to my first ever conference.  I had a work trip (haven’t been to the home office in five years).  Three releases counting the zombie one.  It’s been a busy, full, crazy year.

But my pipelines are empty.  Worse, my creative well is absymally dry.

It’s so tempting to jump on a new shiny and fill my well with whatever energy that flits by, but I want to be a WORKING writer.  Someday, I’d like to have a contract before I finish the book.  The only way I’m going to be able to do that is if I stick to things I’ve promised, even if not yet contractually obligated.

So Lord Regret’s Price is on the docket.  Note: he’s been on my list all year.

How to start.  How to get over the hump when there’s nothing in the tank.  How to convince Sig to open up and give me something, anything, other than plot.  Because I need the emotion, whether it’s jealousy or rage, hatred or love, I have to get to the heart of what’s bothering him.

So I started small.  Using Scrivener’s goal tracking stats, I set my daily count to 250 words.  *wince*  Yes, I know that’s ridiculously small.  I gave myself permission to get those words on anything, no matter how bad and ugly they were, as long as it fit in Sig’s folder.  That was the catch.  I could brainstorm plot.  I could write up background.  I even wrote a first-person piece in Gil’s POV and decided he needed a POV in this story (I couldn’t give him a POV in Lady Doctor Wyre because he had too many secrets).  ANYTHING was okay, no matter how bad it was…. As long as it was for Sig’s book.

It felt good to see that bar go green.  And then I could stop, satisfied that I’d finally started.  250 words.  Done.  Goal reached.

Then the next day I got another 250 words.

And the next.

And suddenly I was writing again.  Really writing.  Not editing, not marketing, not tracking stats, not angsting over sales.  WRITING.  I bumped the daily goal to 500.  A pittance of what I can get when the muse is singing and the words are flying in the air, crystal clear and just waiting for me to reach out and grab them.

I’m not there yet, but I can do 500 words in one sitting again.

It’s like a muscle that’s stiff and sore and reluctant, but it is moving.  The muse is warming up.  Since I had Monday and Tuesday off from the EDJ this week, I reset that daily goal a couple of times.  I didn’t get anywhere near the wordage I wanted with errands etc. (Mom has a day off and I magically transform into a personal taxi) but it was a start.

I even set up a spreadsheet just for Oct with several “Sprint” columns across the top with daily and monthly totals.  Even if I can only get 250 words at a time, if I do that a few times each day, the words will start to add up.

I even managed to get up Dark and Early this morning — probably the first time all year.  I only had about 45 minutes, but I managed over 700 words.  Sprint 1 down for the day.

Even better, Lord Regret’s Price has somehow managed to break 5K.

Momentum is everything.  Start small.  Be consistent.  Build momentum.

Who knows.  Maybe Sig will be finished by NaNoWriMo as I originally hoped, and I’ll be in shape to start something new in November.

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Ennui

Sorry, I know I haven’t been posting very often.  I’m busy with Coyote Con and a five-year project at the Evil Day Job is coming to a close (please, dear God, let us finish this month).  But that’s not really an excuse for my lack of production lately.

I open my file every day.  I just don’t actually find myself doing anything.

Oh, I tinker around in Scrivener.  I load my class file each day and play around in my project.  I’m learning a lot.  But I still can’t get any headway on Lord Regret.  It’s not him.  It’s me.

I’ve been struggling to stay on track with Weight Watchers too.  Not tracking faithfully.  Not exercising.  I’m still up and down the same 2 lbs since April.  Which is actually GOOD considering I haven’t been trying very hard.

Grrr.  I’m annoyed with myself.

I just have to keep trying.  I start out each day tracking, even if I don’t finish.  I did get back to Power 90 this week…once.  That’s a start.  I planned to work out today over lunch but I didn’t feel the greatest.  Hopefully I won’t get the fall cold going around and I can kick myself in the tail.

As for Lord Regret, I’m giving up on him for awhile.  I’m going to talk to Gil instead.  He didn’t have a voice in Lady Doctor Wyre and I have a feeling he might have a lot to say.

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Conquering Scrivener

One of the contributing factors to my lack of progress with Lord Regret *might* be Scrivener.  I’ve yet to finish a project that I started there.

I love many aspects of it but I still get overwhelmed, or perhaps distracted is a better word.  There are so many cool things that may or may not help me plot and organize.  Instead of working, I end up exploring or fiddling or researching.

However, I really do believe that eventually it’ll be a lifesaver.  I love the corkboard and I think it will be huge in helping me plot future books.  I’ve just got to get over the initial shock-and-awe phase so I can actually, you know, WRITE.

To that end, I bought Scrivener for Dummies and I’ve been working through it this week.  Gwen Hernandez’s classes were recommended to me on Twitter, and so far, the book has been extremely helpful.  My only frustration is the difference between Mac and Windows commands.  I often find myself hunting through various menus to find what I need because the Windows alternative isn’t always included.  A few things are still missing from the Windows version, too, which makes me wonder if I’m wasting my time looking for something that’s not even there.

There’s a ton of functionality I don’t think I’ll ever use, even if it’s cool.  But it’s nice to know it’s there and have the book to fall back on if I decide I do need to learn more about it someday.

The biggest takeaway so far has been custom labels so I can keep track of POV.  I really love that feature.  Color coding for the win!

As August winds down, I’ll be learning everything I can and making sure my projects for Lord Regret’s Price are ready.  Yes I have two.  Sigh.  One is a plotting template I made that has just a few notes in it.  The other is more general with research and notes.  NEITHER has much in the Manuscript folder.  But it will, one way or the other, very soon!

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Checking The List

I’ve been using a new project management tool (introduced at the Evil Day Job) called AgileZen that has really helped me keep track of what’s in my queue, what my dates are, and the associated tasks for each book.  You can set up a free account with up to one board (that’s what I’m doing so far).

I have projects color-coded by publisher (including a color for my self-pub works), so at a glance I can see what needs to be done first and what % completed each book is.

In the past two weeks, I’ve crossed off Her Grace’s Stable (submitted) and several of The Zombie Billionaire’s Virgin Witch tasks leading up to cover and formatting.  I love crossing things off my monstrous to-do list!

Now the only thing I have to work on until October are:  Lord Regret’s (obstinate butthead) Price and Coyote Con!

No mercy, no surrender, Sig.  I’m going to tie you to a chair and have my wicked way with you until this draft is done.

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The Brighter Side of Rejection

Okay, I’m not going to try and fool you or myself.  Rejection sucks.  It’ll always suck.  Sometimes it really feels like a kick to the gut.  You work really hard to have a good work ethic.  You make extensive revisions per your editor’s requests without whining or complaining.  You try and learn from previous edits so you’re not making the same mistakes.  You’d kill yourself trying to make whatever changes necessary in order to get the work accepted if given half a chance.

So it can be hard not to take a rejection personally.

But sometimes, a work just isn’t right for wherever you sent it.  It’s depressing.  It can take the wind out of your sails… if you let it.

Here’s the thing:  rejection is part of the game.  If you’re a working writer and continue submitting stories for consideration, you’re going to get rejected, even after you’ve been accepted.  It might even be an editor that loved your other work before.  It happens.  So you’ve got to come up with a battle plan that works for you when rejection kicks you in the head.

There’s a bright side, though.  Sometimes a rejection gives you a chance to take a second look at a project.  It can give you a chance to dig deeper, change up key ideas, or just get creative in a new way.

The thing about very specific submission calls (for me) is that the idea germinates from those initial requirements.  Depending on the publisher/editor, you might enforce various boundaries to try and meet the needs for that particular project.  Maybe you cut certain elements that you prefer or suppress plot points because you know (or think you know) that editor’s tastes.  Worse, you might even crimp your brand a little to try and “slide” beneath or into the requirements.

*raises hand*  Guilty as charged.

Honestly, this is exactly why I try NOT to write to a specific submission call any longer.  I try so hard to write what I think the editor wants, that I sometimes end up holding the story magic back from what I’d naturally or normally do.  I’ve never had a work accepted from a specific submission call (like an anthology), probably for this very reason.  I just can’t figure out how to mold a “Joely” idea into a specific anthology call and make it work.

So yeah, I have a project that was rejected.  It bummed me out pretty bad.  It sat on my harddrive for a couple of months while I worked on other stuff.  I kicked Lady Blackmyre out for consideration this weekend, so I decided to take a quick look at that other project and see what I wanted to do with it.  Did I still love the idea?  If I read it, would I get any sparks for revision ideas?  Did I want to submit it somewhere else?

The good news is I still love the project.  Really really love it.

The better news is that I quickly realized where I muzzled myself.  Where I stupidly “toned down” my own brand.  I’ve already started revising that scene (it’s only one — the rest is happily very solid) and should have a much better and more truthful scene in place within a few days.

And then I’m going to self publish this work.  I’ll also be donating at least some of the profits to Joplin Recovery, where the book is set.  It’ll be all my own idea.  My own “brand.”  My own crazy spin.

Watch for The Zombie Billionaire’s Virgin Witch in October.  The perfect month for a zombie mash up!