Goal for today: 6,000

Actual word count: 6,019

Total NaNo word count: 24,598

Total word count for the year: 149,785

It went pretty well today. My characters did a few unexpected things, and I always enjoy that. I thought Nerina was going to be a stowaway, but apparently not. And she’s a bit nosy, too, which I hadn’t realized.

Let’s see, what else have I accomplished in the last week? I made an editing plan for Witches. Unfortunately, that will almost for sure be trashed, since there is the very distinct possibility I will be moving out of state in the next few months. So, that will set me back a bit. Oh well. I think the move is a great opportunity, it just means packing up everything, selling my house, actually moving, then finding a new job, etc. Wonderful. I hate to move.

Did a bit of reading. Patricia Cornwell’s Book of the Dead. I’m a big fan of her Scarpetta series (and only her Scarpetta series), but I’ve been a little disappointed in the last couple of books. This one…was better, but some of the plot developments upset me. I always enjoy trying to figure out who the murderer is, but there wasn’t as much of the mystery stuff in this one. And one of my favorite characters was acting really weird! (Marino, by the way.). On the up side, at least she can’t end the series there. She has to let us know what happens next!

I also finished Touched by Shadows, by Karen Chance. Liked it a lot, even more than the first book in the series. Also Beneath the Skin, by Savanah Russe. That one wasn’t bad. I’ve read the other books in the series, and I like them. I like the whole bat thing that the vampires turn into, and the spying aspect. That’s a nice idea.

I read the first chapter of Smoke and Ashes by Tanya Huff. I put it down after the first chapter. Two problems I had with it: One, it’s not the first book in the series, but normally the author includes a bit of backstory to let the reader know what’s going on, some worldbuilding explanation. Not so much in this one. I never did figure out what the deal was. Two, the scene transitions were a little jarring for me. Actually, there weren’t really any transitions to speak of. Suddenly, it was just a different scene, and I had to keep going back to figure out what was going on (not that I ever really did). So, I had to put that one down. And I was looking forward to reading about the self-taught wizard, too!

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