Author: tamaramorning

NaNo Day 4

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!

NaNo Day 3

I had a good, productive day. I hit my word count goal again. Yay! If nothing else, this teaches me how hard it is to write consistently every day. Sometimes today, the words flowed. And sometimes I had to bang my head on my desk to jar then loose and get them to come out of hiding. But, whether hard-earned or not, they count, and I’m proud of what I did.

Today’s word count goal: 6,000

Actual NaNo word count today: 6,042

Words on zombie story: 940

Total word count for today: 6,982

Total NaNo word count: 18,579

Word count for the year: 143,766

NaNo Day Two

Word count goal for today: 2,400

Actual word count: 2,459

NaNo total: 12,537

Word count total for the year: 136,784

It did not flow quite as well as yesterday, but still pretty easily. I’m thrilled with my progress so far, and I have big plans for my weekend word count. I also have to do a little more work on the zombie story, so it should be a busy two days.

NaNo Begins!

I just finished my writing for the first day of NaNo. I reached my personal goal. Yay! My word count today was: 10,078 words. That’s a personal best for me, by around 3000 words. I actually took a nap yesterday after work, then got up around 11:30 p.m. and started writing at 12:01. I did about 2.5k in that first session, then snatched a couple of hours of sleep (The phone kept ringing all night!), got up this morning and did another 2.5k. Then I cleaned house, took a nap, wrote another 3k. After supper, I finished up my last 2k, and now I’m off to relax a bit. The story is flowing pretty well at this point though, and I’m really excited about it.

Clairvoyants, Anyone?

I haven’t done much reading in the last week. In fact, for me, two books is quite sad. I read Keri Arthur’s Kissing Sin, which is the second book in the series. I actually like the main character, Riley, and her brother Rhoan quite a bit. She’s a pretty independent woman, which is always a good thing, in my opinion. A lot of the mystery from the first book , Full Moon Rising, is carried over, and some of the questions actually get answered. There are a lot of strong secondary characters, all sorts of strange critters, along with plenty of murder and mayhem. My only real problem with the book was some of the more…physical aspects, which seemed to be thrown in without regard to plot relativity. I understand that these werewolves are very sexual creatures, I just found it odd that Riley would be that fixated on sex (and with a stranger, at that), while she was running for her life. Maybe it’s just me. It’s certainly a lot tamer than anything Laurell K. Hamilton writes.

I also read Touch the Dark, by Karen Chance. I really liked this book a lot! The MC, Cassie, is a clairvoyant running from her old vampire master. The vampire senate turns up to help her, but she thinks they have ulterior motives. And she’s right. Cassie’s pretty funny at times, and her sidekick, a ghost named Billy Joe, is a trip. I like most of the vampire characters, and there’s even a war mage. All in all, a pretty cool book. I like the worldbuilding. I’m currently reading the sequel, Claimed by Shadow. It’s great, too, and I’m determined to finish it before NaNo starts!

Slightly off topic, but does anyone else watch Moonlight? I like this show. Surprisingly. I usually have issues with vampire movies/TV shows, but I enjoy this one a lot. It helps that the MC, Mick, is pretty attractive, but leaving that out, I think they do a pretty good job. Not terribly original, I guess, but still entertaining. And I hardly ever watch TV! Normally, all I watch is Lost (which of course, isn’t back on until FEBRUARY!). Now I’ve also added Moonlight and The Big Bang Theory, which completely cracks me up. Last night I laughed so hard I almost fell on the floor. (The line about Home habilus discovering his opposable thumbs almost did me in.)

One last thought. I’m going to try to post my NaNo progress here every day. My goal is to at least get my daily word count and total word count posted, along with any other thoughts. Good luck to any of you doing NaNo!

And the Week Goes On…

What have I been doing this week, you ask? Okay, maybe you didn’t ask, but I’m sure you were wondering. You were wondering, right? Right. Okay. Well, so what I did this week…

I only wrote about 1500 words in the 2YN story. Not what I wanted, but more than the week before. I’ve decided not to worry so much about not writing in this story right now. I’ve got a lot going on in my personal life that’s making it rather difficult to write (Have you ever tried to work on the computer with insanely excruciating sharp, shooting pains in your neck? Not an easy task, let me tell you. Not to mention the potential for an out-of-state move.). So, I’m just not worrying about it. I will be attempting to get my word count this weekend, though, since it’s the last week before NaNo madness ensues.

And speaking of NaNo madness, I have all but two phases of my outline done! Yay! Of course, I have to go back and flesh out a couple of the phases (more like 5 or 6), to make sure I have all the necessary details included. At first, I was a little sketchy on some of the important things, but I think I have it figured out now. I’ve decided that it’s Hades who is trying to overthrow Poseidon. And I’ve always like Hades as a character (Admittedly, most of that liking is based on the cartoon Hercules. But still.) So, now that I’ve figured that out, I get to go back and add the really cool details in (like the Underworld scenes). I’m planning on finishing all that up tonight. Oh, and I stocked up on caffeine and chocolate: three kinds of chocolate, two flavors of coffee, two different flavors of energy drinks, and two more flavors of tea (in addition to the five or so I already have). I am ready!

Also on the slate for this weekend: New chapter in the zombie story (needs to be done tonight or early tomorrow morning), do a crit for one of my writing group, do the next assignment for the 2YN story, word count for 2YN story, print out the “new” chapters for Witches, make an outline for the new version of Witches, make an editing plan for Witches, and get the little things ready for NaNo (spreadsheet, disk). And that’s all!

Also posted in: A Figment of My Imagination.

More of the Paranormal

I haven’t had quite as much time to read this week as I’d like. Still, I did get a little bit of reading done, most of it quite enjoyable.

I finished reading the Kitty books by Carrie Vaughn, Kitty Goes to Washington and Kitty Takes a Holiday. I enjoyed both of these way more than the first book in the series. Kitty developed into a character I actually liked and cared about. Some of the developments in the third book caught me off-guard. (Ben? Didn’t see that one coming.) Plus, there were some pretty cool additions to the world. I like the skinwalkers concept a lot.

I also read Something Wicked by Catherine Mulvany. I don’t normally read a lot of things that are marketed as romance, even paranormal romance. Not that I have anything against romances. I started reading them at a young age, and I’ve read a ton of them. There are some very talented authors out there writing romance, and I still enjoy a good one every now and then. That said, I don’t pick up a romance unless it has another strong element to it (mystery, historical period or place I’m interested in, etc.). In addition to loving the title, Something Wicked, I liked the premise behind it as well. A vampire searching for a spring of miracles? Interesting. A vampire biker gang with a vendetta against said vampire? Even better. I liked the MCs in this book, and the history/flashbacks as well. Regan is a strong female character, which of course is always a good thing. And Nash was suitably conflicted and noble. This is actually the first book by Mulvany I’ve read, but I think I’ll be picking up more of hers in the future.

Non-Progress

Confession time: I haven’t been very productive this week. Not at all. I haven’t done any work on the 2YN story. None. Shadows is in limbo right now. Witches, well, I hope to do a little something with it this weekend.

The Atlantis story is the only thing I’ve worked on at all this week. I’ve done a little bit of outlining. Then I hit a wall, with no motivation or reason for my character to be doing what she was doing. But then I had an idea that would solve the whole issue. So now I just have to do some more research. Anyone know which god would be jealous of Poseidon?

Oh, I did do a tiny bit of work on the zombie story. I fixed a couple of things in my chapter. We decided that I needed another chapter to show how nasty one of the males in my original chapter is, so I’ll be working on that tonight.

And that’s all I’ve done this week. Sad, really. I think I needed a mental break.

Also posted to: A Figment of My Imagination.

A Site to Remember

There are a lot of resources available on the internet to writers. Everything from dictionaries to blogs. One of the best websites I’ve seen for writers is Forward Motion. I’ve been a member there for about three years, although the first year or so I spent basically no time there. Then a friend of mine, Tamara Siler Jones (If you haven’t read her books, you should! She writes forensic murder mysteries in a fantasy setting, and she’s wonderful. You should check out her first book, Ghosts in the Snow.), suggested I look for a crit group on Forward Motion. I was fortunate enough to get accepted to a group, and in the two years I’ve been a member of the group, I’ve learned a tremendous amount. Seriously. I owe that group a huge thank you for how much they’ve helped me grow as a writer.

Forward Motion has pretty much everything you can imagine that a writer might need. Chats (Not that I’ve ever joined one. Chatting isn’t really my thing.) There are message boards for every genre you can imagine, and for anything else you want. Grammar questions. Research topics. A place to rant. A board for keeping track of agent searches. There are dares to do (outlining, word counts). Marathons to compete in. You can find worldbuilding help. Market reports. Even discussions on writing techniques. (And now I feel like I’m trying to sell real estate. See the lovely view from this window…)

Seriously, though, if you’re looking for a great, supportive community for writers, Forward Motion is a place you should check out. Everyone I’ve met there is friendly and helpful, and if they don’t know the answer to something, they can usually point you in the right direction.

Shopaholic Vampires and the Reaper

I’ve actually had some time to read this week. I read some things I really liked, too, which is always a good thing. Hmm… Where to start?

I read Kimberly Raye’s Dead End Dating and Dead and Dateless. They were both pretty funny. I like Lil, the main character. She’s a trip. I’m not much on shopping or name brands, myself, but it’s such a life-or-death matter to her that it’s hysterical. Sometimes she’s shallow, and she makes no apologies for it. And her family! Whew. Makes me tired just thinking about it. I loved that her mother is just horrified her brother is getting serious with a human woman. And her dad’s feud with the werewolf next door is a hoot. And the bounty hunter, Ty, well, he’s a great character.

I’ve also read Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn. I liked it, although I really didn’t care for Carl and Meg. Not a bit. Plus, the end was sad! Good character growth, though. Kitty changes a lot over the course of the book, and I liked that.

The best thing I read this week was The Bone Garden, by Tess Gerritsen. I’m a big fan of her work, and I really enjoyed this one. I likedthe two-stories-in-one aspect of the book, although I was really entranced with Rose and Norris’s story (set in the 1800s). It was appropriately bloody, and kept me guessing as to who the killer was (always a good thing). This one made me cry, though. But I do highly recommend it. Gerritsen is always a pleasure, and this one was no exception.