NaNoWriMo Success!

I did it.  At 9:45 pm on the last possible night to complete National Novel Writing Month I finished at 50,003 words.  Talk about cutting it close.  I had every intention of reaching 50,000 words last week, but life happens.  A relative ended up in the hospital and my priorities shifted.  I’m happy to say my loved one is doing better and will hopefully be home soon.

I was at the end of my plot with no where to go.  I had put the characters through all the ups and downs of the character arcs but still wasn’t where I needed to be with the word count.  Then today, as I sat at the hospital I realized where I had gone wrong.  Once I knew what to write, the actual act of writing it went quickly!  I’m very pleased to have met the challenge and even more pleased that December comes without my required 1667 words per day.  Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way!!

Looking Towards the Finish Line of NaNoWriMo

I have been trying to keep up with my daily word count on NaNoWriMo and still have a ways to go.  I hope to be finished in the next week or so and really like the book I have created.  Here are some things I’ve learned so far in my first year of NaNoWriMo

1.  I can write more than 500 words a day, even though I thought that was my average before starting all of this.

2.  I can’t write so well when surrounded by teenagers, barking dogs, and family issues.  I also write lousy when under the influence of cold medicine.

3.  If I fall behind, and I have a couple of times, I can catch back up again with a little extra work.

4.  For me at least, organization is the key.  I took the week before NaNoWriMo and completely outlined my plot, subplots, character sketches, and some of the settings.  Even doing all of this, in the flow of ideas in writing a book I often find myself having to create new characters and settings to fit what direction the story is taking.  I am still following my basic plan but have included at least five extra scenes and couple of settings in the third act of my story.

5.  I love characters!  This book is brimming full of colorful people who are the six suspects.  Some days I control them and some days they control me!

 

NaNoWriMo Day Nine

So here I am at Day Nine of National Novel Writing Month.  I’ve been reading many of the experienced Nano writer’s blogs talking about how the second week is rough for many writers to keep going.  Characters and plots are not working right and getting the time to write every day can be difficult.  I ran into that this weekend when I went out of town with my family and found I could really only write about half of what I was doing at home.  Sorry, Grandma, got to write now.

I am writing along though, and my working title for my novel is The “Quiet Please” Murder.  It is now officially my second novel in the Pecan Bayou Series.  My “Blueberry” book will have to bump to number three.  The good part of that is, once I finish Quiet Please, I’m quite a bit along in the third book.  I had to do this because according to the rules of NaNoWriMo you can’t have written a single word on your novel so I had to start on an entirely new book.

The “Quiet Please” Murder takes place in…what else…a library.  I’m finding there are many novels that take place in this setting,

The "Quiet Please" Murder

probably because so many writers find themselves writing and researching in libraries.  But don’t fear, this is the Pecan Bayou Library which means there will be plenty of colorful characters.    Also, I was asked to bring Betsy’s love interest back in the second book.  I was going to bring a new man in, but “Stormy Weather” will return.

Betsy is asked to speak at an author’s night at the library.  There are six presenters.  One will die.  That’s the synopsis in a nutshell(Official Pecan Bayou Joke).

Halloween is scary, but not being prepared for NaNoWriMo is really frightening!

What's that you say? Come back in a month?

As I prepare for my very first National Novel Writing Month, here is a quick poem.

The Night Before NaNoWriMo

Twas the night before NaNoWriMo

And all through my home

the plotlines were bubbling

I thought about my tone

The trick or treaters they rang

For the candy they sang

But I couldn’t leave my laptop

Not for feathers or fang

On the porch was  some candy in a bowl  with a note

Come back in December and read the novel I wrote!

Seeing Life Through an Attic Window

Come and visit me today as I guest post on the blog, Bringing the Sunshine. I am writing about our journey with our son who has Down Syndrome and finding the many positive parts along the way. Andi’s blog Bringing the Sunshine is all about finding the good and supporting parents of children with special needs!

NaNoWriMo!!

After having my first reviewer point out my spelling and grammar errors in A Dash of Murder I am pleased to announce a corrected version has been uploaded to Amazon and Smashwords.   The Amazon edition is available now and the Smashwords edition which will be in Barnes and Noble, I Tunes, Sony Reader and other formats will take up to two weeks.

One of the questions my reviewer wondered was whether there will be more books in the Pecan Bayou Series.  Yes!!  I have been working on one book that seems to keep centering around….blueberries.  A definite work in progress kind of thing!

I am going to participate in National Novel Writing Month this year.  If you are unfamiliar with this event, it is a worldwide write together where  authors try to complete a 50,000 word novel from start to finish during the month of November.  One of the rules is you have to start with a zero word count and “blueberries” is almost at it’s halfway mark.  This means I am busily outlining, plotting and researching for the NaNoWriMo book right now.  I’m not sure if I will actually achieve this goal with kids home on Thanksgiving vacation, but it is worth trying!  It works out to 1667 words a day of writing and when I’m working I probably average 500 to 1000.    I read one article written by a past participant that advised cooking casseroles and freezing them for my family all month.  Happy Thanksgiving kids–more Hamburger Helper? It’s Cheesy Mac!!!

October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month

I just came from the natural foods store where I shopped with my son, Andrew. I told him (bribed) if he behaved he could have a gluten-free, soy-free cookie. Andrew is nonverbal so whether or not I was getting through is not certain. His behavior was…questionable, especially when he decided we didn’t just need one bottle of vitamins, but pretty well one of each kind. When we got to the cookies he went for a large bag of the kind we used eat but now must abandon because of soy flour. I found him another, smaller single serve cookie and put it in the basket. He wasn’t having that. We need the BIG bag, Mom. I finally had to wrestle it out of his hand, show him the other cookie and steer him toward the checkout. Did he deserve that cookie? Probably not. Did he get that cookie? He had his first bite down before we left the parking lot.

Some days it’s not so much about the achieving as the trying.

For all the kiddos and adults we know and love with Down Syndrome, we love you, good days and bad.

 

A Bewitchingly Good Coupon

Trick or Treat!

Order A Dash of Murder through Smashwords until October 31 and get it at half price!  A Dash of Murder takes place during the week leading up to Halloween so this is a perfect time to give my readers a discount! Why not curl up with a good book as you watch the leaves fall gently to the ground?

This coupon will work at Smashwords which supplies ebooks for Nook, Sony, Ibook, or you can read it online as a text or html file.

Ready to ring the doorbell?  Go to Smashwords and put in QN59R.  Your checkout price is $1.50!

This promotion only applies to the book formats I have listed at Smashwords which does not include Kindle.

And finally, the rain

We are suffering through a drought in Texas.  My spiky ferns in the front yard have gone from bright green to a sickly brown and yellow.  I could make cornstalk dolls out of their leaves and have contemplated cutting them all down to an inch from the ground.  There just isn’t enough water to sustain them.

These ferns are a haven for 20 to 30 tiny lizards who dart in an out of their leafy apartment building every time I walk down the our pebbled walk.  I’ve noticed their colors have turned from neon green to sickly yellows and browns.   If I cut down the ferns, where will my little friends go?  I enjoy seeing them daily and appreciate all the tiny bugs they eat. 

Finally, these last few days we were blessed with rain.  It cooled the earth and gave us all a chance to get a breath.  The dogs went crazy running out in the back yard, their short memories forgetting the glory of rain. 

Sometimes it’s the simple things that matter.

My Book on Amazon

My book is now on Amazon Kindle.    I have been very frustrated trying to get through the formatting errors over at Smashwords.  I think because I wrote the book in Open Office, something, somewhere is just not clicking with it.   Nevertheless, I’m excited for my book to be in the Kindle format!

I am busy working on the second book in this series, and for right now the working title is  Blueberries and Bullets because that’s what it’s about.  It kind of sounds like a kid’s cereal gone wrong, doesn’t it?    This book has many of the characters you got to know in the first book including Betsy, Aunt Maggie, Judd, Danny and Zach.

I am busy researching blueberry recipes for The Happy Hinter.  Anybody have a great one?

To get a copy of A Dash of Murder for Amazon Kindle ———–-Click Here