Writing Life Update

Here I meant to get back into the groove of things, and I stumbled. It's been one of those years I've fallen down a lot on so many levels, but I'm starting to get back on my feet. Little steps, right?

Writing has been slow this year. I managed to get out my Samhain story in good time, but I haven't finished any of the novels I've worked on. That has to stop. A serious writer needs to complete projects. I must stay the course and follow through. To help with that, I'm going to do NaNoWriMo next month. I may lose about nine or ten days due to family stuff, but all those other days can add up big time. I'll be working on a new project for my pen name. A fae story involving a cursed carousel and who knows what else! I'm going to let it surprise me. If you'd like to be my buddy on NaNoWriMo, I'm CRains.

I'm doing great with my reading goals. Mind you, I'm way behind on reading everything I want to read since my TBR list is huge, but I'm nearing 100 books on my Goodreads challenge. I've hit 85!

I just returned from a trip to Canada to visit my family. There are a ton of seasonal events happening this month, and every weekend is busy for me. Life hasn't slowed down all year.

But I have my game nights on Fridays! This has saved my sanity tremendously this year. I finished running The Rise of Tiamat earlier this year. And just this past Friday, we started Curse of Strahd. I'm playing a bard, and I'm obsessed with this new adventure. Good friends creating a story together... There's nothing else like it.

Here's to a productive last quarter of 2019 for all of us!

Friday Five for October 10, 2014

1. If you missed it, I gave a call for blog tour hosts for my Dice & Debauchery series in the new year. I received such a terrific response! You guys rock. January is filled, but there are a few dates left in February and March if you'd really like to be a part of it. I would also like to thank those that sent me apologies because they couldn't host me because these are erotica books. I completely understand, and you're all so sweet to say you were sorry about it.

2. This week my son has been on fall break, so I haven't gotten any writing done. We've been having some fun. A picnic and time outside at one of the state parks, and building a space robot at the local children's museum. He's happy that I no longer have my cast and I can drive again!

3. Next week, the Twisted Earths anthology is coming out. My short story, "The Ole Saint" is a perfect creepy tale for this time of year. The Untethered Realms authors did a spectacular job with this collection. Each story is awesome. You still have time to pre-order the anthology and receive an ebook from any of the authors for free! Click HERE.

4. Will I do NaNoWriMo this year? I don't know. I'm waffling back and forth on it. Mm, waffles. I'm behind where I want to be with my writing because of my broken wrist, but it's so hard to resist doing NaNo. Maybe I could apply my revisions to it? I need to change my urban fantasy novel from 3rd person POV to 1st. Maybe I could do that in a month?

5. Finally, the Shelfie Blog Hop winners. This hop was so much fun! I love peeking at other people's bookshelves. A big round of applause to everyone who participated and to my awesome co-hosts: Tara Tyler, Heather Gardner, CD Coffelt, M.J. Fifield, Elizabeth Seckman, Rena Rocford, and Vikki Biram. Now on to the winners!

The winner of The 13th Floor Collection is 

Ellie Garratt

The winners of Wilder Mage and Mage Revealed by C.D. Coffelt are 

Eric Juneau and Tyrean Martinson

The winner of an ebook by Elizabeth Seckman is

Alex J. Cavanaugh
(Alex also receives honorable mention for appearing in the most shelfies!)

The two winners of ebooks by Tara Tyler are 

Chrys Fey and Sarah Foster

The winner of Effigy by M.J. Fifield is

Michelle Wallace

And the winner of an interview by Stormy the Weather Gnome at Heather Gardner's blog is 

Carrie Anne Brownian

And the Grand Prize Winner of $40 is Rebecca Bradley!

 

Congratulations to you all! 

 

Have a marvelous weekend. :)

NaNoWriMo 2011 - day 6

Word count: 14050

I'm ahead of schedule and having fun. It's been a busy weekend and I haven't gotten a chance to write as much as I wanted, but I did more than the minimum daily word count.

My story is growing into something darker and deeper than I imagined. It's going to be a long one too. I'm predicting 100,000 words. Though possibly 20,000 will be deleted in the editing process. As I said before, there's lots of dialogue.

I've seen a couple of people that have already made the 50,000 word mark. Wow. You guys are writing machines. And at least one of you is a parent! You're all amazing. For the rest of you, keep writing. You can do it!

I'm tired tonight. I didn't get an extra hour of sleep last night with the time change. We kept our son up an hour later, but he was still up at an early hour. I'm going to curl up on the couch with some ice cream and watch The Walking Dead. Have a good Sunday night!

Oh! And since I missed Snapshot Saturday yesterday, here's a picture of my backyard. The Japanese Maple is bright red and losing its leaves. I love all autumn colors even though I'll have to rake them up eventually.

Saturday Snapshot for October 29th

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce over at At Home With Books.

There's my adorable little bat.

You can only imagine how many times it took to get a decent picture!

Posed pictures are great, but I like random in-the-moment shots best.

He likes autumn as much as I do.

Any pile of leaves I make gets immediately destroyed!