Valerean

On the writing front, I've been super busy with work, so I still have to finish writing Twenty-One and get started on Haunted House Style as my first new project for 2020. Work must come first, but as soon as I wrap up my current assignment I'll get back to my own writing. I don't know if I've ever mentioned this, but my daughter is writing her first novel. She's been working on it for about a year now, and has 40K finished. It sounds a bit like an epic fantasy when she talks about it (which isn't very often) and I'm trying not be nosy. When I was her age I wouldn't show anyone what I was writing, and I still remember the horrible nerves I got the first time I sent a manuscript to someone more famous to read (StarDoc, as it happens.) If/when she wants me to read the book, I then have to decide if I should. I'd love to, of course, but I may not be the right person to do that. It might be better for her to get feedback from someone who didn...

Following the creaky tradition I had while writing PBW , I thought I'd take a look back at 2019. Okay, so all the bad stuff first. I had surgery to repair a jaw I didn't realize was broken, lost eight teeth, slipped three discs in my neck and had to give up sewing and quilting for a month while working on straightening out my spine. My guy got (treatable) skin cancer. All that was the personal worst. I had not planned to move my blogging back to Blogger, but Tumblr started censoring my G-rated posts about quilting as inappropriate/adult content. Meanwhile, every pornographer taking X-rated shots kept showing up, and some of them followed me. Euw. Then people on Tumblr figured out who I was and started asking me for money. I finally decided I'd better move. Best decision I made all year. I decided to keep this version of Valerean secret, so it could be just for trusted friends. I don't want to be a public figure anymore. So far that's worked, and I...

Thanks to National Novel Writing Month I wrote 50K+ more on Twenty-One in November. That was my prime goal, and while I had to juggle it with work I think I did fairly well with the new material. I stopped editing for anything but typos in the second week, so the new content does need a thorough read-through. I plan to finish writing the book this month, because if I put it away again I probably never will. I reached out to a few writers on the new NaNo web site, both as a buddy and in the forums. Alas, except for Theo the buddy reach-outs never responded with anything other than accepting my invite. I thought that was a little weird, but there you go. I had better luck on the forums; interacted with a few interesting writers there. Only one pinhead posted a rude and unsolicited comment to something I posted, which is also pretty good. When a pro weighs in during a public writing discussion there's usually more than one disgruntled snowflake angsting to pick a fight...

I crossed the finish line at 4:00 pm today.

One odd coincidence with my NaNoWriMo novel is that I will finish it on my 21st anniversary of becoming a pro writer. This is (partly) what that looks like in books: If I included all of the freelance and ghostwriter work I've done, there would be another four or five shelves. But these two contain what I published under my byline: When I think of all the work involved it really doesn't look like much. But I'm happy I got the chance to write these stories, and that's what counts. Over on the NaNoWriMo forums there was a writer asking for opinions about going the traditional publishing route or self-publishing. Since I've done both I replied, but I really thought about it first. I have no regrets about my career. I know it was a privilege to publish traditional. I'll always be grateful for the opportunities I was given. But traditional publishing and the people involved in it also took a lot out of me, and from me, often more than I ever imagined. ...

With only nine days left in National Novel Writing Month I'm feeling fairly confident I'll cross the 50K finish line in the next week; I just passed 35K. I've been staying pretty much on course, making my quota of at least 1667 words a day. Last Sunday I wrote 3334 new words so I'm another day ahead of schedule. Starting to feel the burn a little, too -- I didn't take a break in between my last work project and this book -- and I want to get the next work project done early. Too ambitious, probably, but I'd rather push myself than drag my feet. I've been trying to be a better NaNo buddy this past week (Theo, you'll have to grade me on that) and also get over and read some of the topics on the NaNoWriMo forum. Instead of feeling ancient and saying nothing, this week I've made myself leave a few comments where I thought I contribute something useful. That's also good for me, and gives my high horse a rest. I have missed this, a lot. I thi...

Today I didn't think I'd have the time to write a single word on my NaNoWriMo project. I had a massive project to finish for work (and work must come first), and that took me all day to wrap up. I even made my guy eat leftovers for dinner so I wouldn't have to cook. By the time I finished my work project I had about an hour and a half left to write for fun -- and I was tired. So tired, in fact, I considered skipping the fun, and then I thought, Nope. Give it a shot. So I did. I just wrote -- I didn't edit, I didn't worry about it, I didn't think -- I just had fun. I wrote right up until midnight, and then calculated my total, and made my daily quota. Okay, to be absolutely honest it was 12:07 when I stopped, but what's seven minutes, right? Some days I feel like I could do this gig all day every day. Then there are days (not many) like today when I actually do. This is when I really love National Novel Writing Month, right at this moment, when ...

Day Three of NaNoWriMo was a bit more challenging, juggling work with fun writing, but I got my words done. True perverse fact about me: Occasionally readers will ask me about the inspiration and/or meanings behind my titles. Most of the time I'll say it came to me spontaneously, or it seemed like the right title for the story, etc. That's not really the truth. I have mentioned that I often run to poetry to find titles, which is true. I'll also coin words or borrow from archaic language to make titles. But more often than not my titles have multiple meanings, and include something very personal. Generally I think about them a lot before I commit. On the surface, Twenty-One seems straightforward. Including Nex there are twenty survivors from the crash of the Arwe (since he died after the crash we're not counting Koro). Navara makes twenty-one -- or Koro does, if you just want to count bodies. I like the ambiguity of who actually is the 21st survivor. Bu...

You know somewhere online they sell posters and stuff with this quote on it. No lie. Someone sent it to me and asked if it was really me. Yep. I wrote that on PBW. My fourteen years of online fame, distilled into 21 words. Could be worse. They could have snatched something from that dilemma post I wrote about the Albino Robin Hood cover . I always thought that was me at my finest hour. Anyway -- onto how it's going with NaNoWriMo. I caught up on day two and did well, I think. I'm starting to get back into Nex's head -- or centracore, if you prefer -- and pick up where I left off in her adventures. I also wrote a bit of backstory about Navara in the intro to Chapter Nine, which I thought came out well. Everything seems to be falling into place. Since I also got my day job done and vacuumed all the rugs in the house and made dinner, I think it was a productive day. Now if I can just keep that going for another 27 days . . . . How are you doing, Theo? I think...

Today I'm going to start work on my NaNoWriMo project Twenty-One , which some of you may remember I started but never finished back in 2016. I always wanted to complete that book, so I'm hoping to knock out the rest of it, which should be at least 50K. If you want to follow along I'll be posting what I write on Google Docs here . That link is just for readers of this blog, so please don't pass it around. In other news, I am now transitioning at my job from full-time novel writing to something like a creative manager (there's a couple of hats I'll be wearing, but that title seems to fit them all best.) Basically I'll be helping to direct and edit the folks who work for me and my partner, and a few other things. I'm a bit nervous, but this is the direction we've decided to take with our business, and it will be a lot easier on me. I hope. Fingers crossed. For anyone else who is diving into National Novel Writing Month: Break a keyboard! Ha....