Seven Things (not samurai, sadly)

1. For the first time ever, I actually utilized Dropbox the way it's supposed to be used.
     a. (subpoint to 1) I also finally remembered there's a Starbucks in my campus bookstore that's much closer to the parking deck than the library. Next time, I'll bring a coat. #marketingploy

2. Um, the point of 1 was to say that I wrote between lab and class today (at Starbucks) and managed to get almost the full 1,667 in. It was super nifty to be able to pick it up out of Dropbox instead of trying to remember the gist of where I left off.

3. I'm listening to so much Maynard this NaNo that I'm even dreaming with "Judith" as a backdrop.

4. A NYT bestseller whom I've been fangirling since I was 14 and follow on Twitter listens to Christmas music when she's having the worst writing days. I decided to apply that principle to my LIFE, so I started listening to a holiday station on Pandora over the weekend. Not only was I super productive (like, wrote 2 papers AND painted my kitchen and bathroom), but it put me in a good mood. Yeah, I'm one of those people who loves seeing Christmas decorations go up early and only takes my tree down when it's absolutely dead as can be (and then we burn it in the firepit and it's fun and games.)

5. I've been randomly asking people all week what their favorite Christmas song is. Consider this me asking you. For me, the holidays are a mixture of happiness, joy, and some sense of aching sorrow. Therefore, my favorite Christmas songs are, to me, both beautiful and sad. "The Christmas Song," "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "I'll Be Home for Christmas."

6. I have to study a sheep's brain for my lab practical next week...

7. I hope you, person reading this right this moment, are happy. If not, you should probably listen to some Christmas music.

First NaNoWriMo Check-in

Yesterday at Target I caved to sentimentality and bought the same kind of Glade candle that I burned the first year I won NaNoWriMo. In case you're curious, it's the Creamy Custard/Apple Cinnamon 2 in 1. I actually haven't gotten it again since that NaNo, so it's special. I remember a lot about that November: I was a month away from my wrist surgery, I got really sick and wrote anyway, and I broke all kinds of personal records for word count and such. That novel eventually became the first one I ever finished. 

Happy memories. 

It's funny how much things can change in 2 years, isn't it? 

Two years ago Evan and I were living in the shoebox apartment; this year we're 5 months into our own house that we bought and pay for like grown-ups. 

Two years ago I had no clue what I'd be doing with myself; this year I'm almost done with my first semester of nursing school, have 4 finished novels under my belt and am merrily whiling away on my 5th. 

Also, two years ago we didn't have these:

Writing used to have a high production value for me, as in it was a production for me to get started. Things had to be clean, my desk had to be just so, the right candles lit, the perfect music, etc. I still appreciate those things, but I can plunk out words whenever and wherever I need to now (though I still need music, if at all possible). Maybe I'm growing up, huh? 

There's usually a NaNo thread showing off pictures of your writing space (which I love), but I didn't find it this year, so in the spirit of then-and-now, here we go:

I'm not sure where the original of this photo is, but this is what it looked like during  the first year I won NaNo., 2009.

Last year's space. I won't lie--I loved this office, and I still kinda miss it. 

My current set-up. I have a big desk calendar hanging on the wall to my left now, but everything else is the same. See how I tried to copy my old setup? It's not the same, but I'm pretty used to it now. Oh, and there's a lamp tucked in that back left corner by my desk, too...

So tell me: what's changed with you? Or if this is your first year participating, how's it going? Actually, how's it going period? 

NaNoWriMo shoutout

Hey!

In all my insanity, I'm going to try to do NaNoWriMo this year! I'm friends with many of you from last year, but if you're new and would like to buddy me, my user id is summerbp.


Anyone else doing it this year?

You should probably look at this picture of my cat Magoo helping me study instead of thinking about what a waste of web space this post was. 

Show Me Yours Blogfest

Today's the triad-hosted blogfest, in which we share a cleaned-up passage (500 words or less) from our 2010 NaNoWriMo novels.

For the complete list of participants, you can check here or here.

I had a lot of passages I liked from Dry Run, but I decided to share the end of the novel. Yes, that's right: the end.

It's 647 words long, but I think the extra 147 words were necessary for setting the scene.
Thanks for stopping by, and please be sure to check out the other entries!


*******


Donovan burst onto the scene, nausea pounding through his throat, spinning his head. He felt the collision with her time bubble, and the impact sent him over the edge. His weak body convulsed on itself and he fell forward, stomach heaving. Stars danced across his vision even as he struggled to finish, to climb to his feet.
She stood at the focal point, the three men dangling in the air in front of her. Each expression frozen. Anger, hatred. And the fear born of pure love.
Pushing himself across the frozen ground, he grabbed her ankle, fingers nearly unresponsive from the cold.
She jerked, then looked down at him. He felt the automatic battering of her power against him, but he was ready. Deflected it off with a simple shrug. And then the surprise of recognition flared across her face.
“Stop.” His voice sounded weak, and he burst into a coughing fit. She stared at him, expression morphing from shock into anger, and then resolution.
“I can’t.”
Sorrow drenched her words, hitting him in the gut. But still he dragged himself standing. Both their shoulders heaving. Gazes locked through the inky air.
“You can’t change it.”
She snapped her gaze away from him, locking it on the man in the middle of the air. A lock of hair fell forward over his left eye. At her sides, her fingers curled into fists.
“Yes I can.”
He felt her intention shift before she moved. Even as she brought her hand up, resolution blazing in her eyes, he hated himself for what he had to do.
Their hands met in a burst of light, red and gold mixing like fireworks. A supernova star. She pushed against him, her will nearly overpowering.
Around them, the bubble of time warped.
Hardening his heart into the solid core of ice he’d come to embrance, he whipped his left hand forward. It struck her directly on the temple, the perfect amount of pressure to knock her brain into her skull.
Their eyes met, and in the last flash before she collapsed to the ground, he felt every nuance of her hurt and sorrow rend his soul.
And then she hit the ground with a solid thud.
Time snapped back into instant play, and Donovan let himself fall to the ground beside her, eyes trained on the scene in front of them.
The primal’s strike flashed forward.
Adam Savage’s lips formed his wife’s name even as the silver blade burrowed into his throat. A crimson arc sprayed into the air, and then he was falling, falling.
Donovan bent forward over Claire, covering her body with his. Hiding her unseeing eyes from the vision before them.
Adam hit the ground, hand splaying open toward his wife. Dark eyes locked on Donovan.

And then the air around them twisted into a vortex, and Donovan dug his fingers into Claire’s clothing, holding her against him with all his strength as the purchase he’d made slammed its bargain home.
Darkness swept around them, tucking them into its frigid womb. Like the center of a tornado, everything screamed and whirled until he thought he might separate from his soul.

And then it all went still.
Donovan Stryker opened his eyes, feeling the sticky resistance of blood seeping from his tear ducts.
Beneath him, Claire Savage lay still, like a doll. Chest rising and falling. His head spun with a whirlwind of emotions, fear and anger and rage and terror and love all mixing and pummeling him until he almost wished that he’d stayed behind.
Maybe he could leave before she woke. How many times would he be the cause of her heart breaking? How many times could one man break a woman until she was gone forever?
He pushed himself to his hands and knees, chest constricted. Breath ragged. Stomach twisting, mouth dry and sour.

She opened her eyes.

You Show Me Yours, I'll Show You Mine!

Got your attention now? Good.


A lot of you participated in National Novel Writing Month this year. Didn't you? Didn't you? That's right, nerds. Raise your hands. (I raised mine too, don't worry.)

Okay, good.
This is for you whether you won or not.

Two of my favorite bloggers approached me about co-hosting this little shendig, so please give all accolades to Sarah (Falen) Ahiers and Hannah Kincade.


With our powers combined, we are pleased to bring you the "Show Me Yours" Blogfest!

The point of this blogfest is to share an excerpt of your NaNoWriMo novel. All we ask is that you keep it around 500 words in order for us to read as many as possible.

Since the date is January 3rd, 2011, this will give you time to choose a scene and edit it, revise it, change it...whatever.

Feel free to give us a little background about your story or at the very least a title and a genre. That always helps, right?

So if you were a 2010 Wrimo, now's the chance to show us your skillz...or, yanno, your suck. Either one. 

We will be attempting to share the same link widget, but if it doesn't work, the master will be on Hannah's blog.

Feel free to take the badge and spread the word, but make sure you link it back to either this, Sarah, or Hannah's post so everyone can get in on the diaper-peeking fun. 

And in the End...

Well.
I did it.

It wasn't fun, pretty, easy, or enjoyable.
But that's sometimes the thing about writing, isn't it?

I know this year's NaNo has helped me. I wrote with more emotion and passion than I've ever written before, tormented my characters, tortured them at new levels. My voice is getting stronger with each sentence, and I'm taking on bigger challenges with each chapter. I never beat my daily wordcount record from last year (8k), but I did have many days in which I wrote 3-4k.

So.

Thank you for all the kind words and wonderful encouragement! It was certainly a different experience than last year, when my friend bar consisted of three people. I enjoyed following all the progress of those who were trucking along with me, and I hope you all, if you didn't exactly enjoy it, at least got something out of it.

As for me, I pulled out last year's NaNo project a few hours after I got my purple bar and started plotting my revisions. Guess I'm a glutton for punishment. :)

Day 29 and Being Alone

Well friends, we're on the other side now.
Oh, not the other side of NaNoWrimo--no, if you look at my little chart to the right, you'll see that I'm taking my sweet time with it this month. More on that later.
We are on the other side of Thanksgiving! Which can only mean one thing: my house is already completely decorated for Christmas! Lowes had their 5-6' trees on sale for 19.96, so we loaded up on Saturday. It's a great tree--very cute, good shape, perfect size for our smallish apartment. The kittens loved exploring, too.

not sure if this will work or not

We had a nice three-day weekend with my in-laws. Took the kittens, which was funny and interesting, as they already have 2 indoor cats, one of which who hates everything, the other who just wants to be loved (the Munchkin). 

We also saw Harry Potter 7-1 on Saturday, and I enjoyed it except for that STUPID BITCH (sorry) in front of me who kept making comments and generally ruining the movie for me. Yes, I'm one of those who wants absolute silence during a movie. 

So. 

NaNoWriMo. Just about all my friends are done, except for Hannah. And I'm okay with that. I like to think I'm trying to experience NaNo the way it was designed: by writing till the 30th. :) Last year I finished over a week early, and then I felt disappointed. This year I just want to be DONE. The story has taken so many unexpected turns that I'm going to have a serious think before I even try to finish it, I think. In the meantime, I think I'll be blowing the dust off of last year's NaNo novel, Eternal Spring, and see if it's about damn time to revise. 

Also, the hubby took off for a work conference this morning to Orlando. This is the first time we've been apart longer than a night since...um, almost 5 years? Yeah, it's gonna be weird. I foresee lots of beer and eating strangely. 

Hope you all had a great holiday, and see you on the other side of Nano!

Day 17

Yesterday I spent a good majority of the day driving around like a mad woman in order to get a tag for our new car. First I had to get the address on my driver's license changed (to our resident county), which required me going to the next town about 16 miles over.

DMV wasn't too bad, but then as I was leaving, I ended up turning left instead of right...and the next thing I knew, I saw this:

Welcome to South Carolina!

It was an honest mistake, and a lot easier to do than one might think. The county where I got the driver's license borders the state lines, so...yeah. I drove an extra 16 miles out of my way. Woot.


Then I had to drive all the way back to the house for a pit stop (read: pee break), gather my crap, and go to the tag office.

Anyway, I finally got the tag and now the new Honda's all legal and shizz.


Prior to all that nonsense, I was in a terrible mood. I spent the morning slamming around, yelling at the cats, and feeling mad about the lack of storage in our apartment. I then managed to choose 17 books to donate. Evan was happy.


After I got back from the the DMV, I decided to take the new car for a spin and get some cheap Christmas decorations that would be cat-friendly...


All in all, I didn't sit down to write until 11:30, and then I only did 1k. It felt pretty good, I'll admit...But today's another day. :)


Wordcoutn: 32,100

Day...whatever

What's up, nerds*? (*Any 30 Rock fans out there?)

I forgot to post for Monday. My bad. Nothing major to report anyway, except it rained a lot and I wrote some, and I bought cinnamon rolls to satisfy my craving, even though I haven't made and consumed them yet. The craving must reach critical levels first. 

Oh, and I totally bought a bag of Pearson's Mint Patties. They were over half as cheap as the York variety, and while perhaps not *quite* as delicious, close enough for hand-over-fist consumption. 

Speaking of food, guess what I had for dinner last night? 

Beer and muffins. 

C'mon, you are so jealous. 

Total wordcount: 31,006

Days 12-14

I took a NaNo break for most of the weekend, opting instead to spend some quality time helping my mother-in-law paint a room in their house. Hubby and I also acquired a new-to-us car, which we picked up Saturday night.

Sunday, however, I was able to boost my wordcount to 24, 187 (almost halfway!), but more importantly had a MAJOR. PLOT. REVELATION! Yays. Completely different direction from my original idea, and the one that's now on my Nano page, but so, so much better. Even my hubby liked it, and he's my tough critic.

However, when I went to jot down the basic idea, kitty Mack didn't want me to. Instead, this is what happened:

Day 11

After my triumphant 4k+ day Wednesday, I didn't feel quite the need to bust out the words yesterday, so I settled for an easy 1500. I wrote a few this morning, but my goal was to get myself ahead enough to be able to take off until Sunday. Goal achieved.

Yes, I'm spending today and tomorrow with my mother-in-law again. What can I say? We like to shop. Also, we're picking up our new (to us) car tomorrow. Yay!

----

I've been going back and forth on my listening stations for this NaNo round. Last year, I was strictly the Hans Zimmer/Howard Shore Pandora station (which is awesome), but this year I felt like I needed more than instruments. I tried a bunch of different stations, but nothing really fit.

So, in a fit of desperation, I turned to my A Perfect Circle station.

*DING DING DING*

We have a winner. As with any Pandora station, of course, it takes some dedicated tweaking to get the flow right, but I'm getting there. It's working so well, in fact, that I may just have to thank Maynard Keenan in my foreward (you know, if the book ever made it to light of day). It's a big Tool, Puscifier, A Perfect Circle merry-go-round, with some NIN and Chevelle thrown in for giggles.

What's your Nano music this year? Anything special? Or still struggling to find the "write" mix? (grooooannnnnn)

I'll add in a sweet picture of the terror twins to throw you off the memory of that bad pun...

Day 10

On day 10, I squashed my intense craving for a beverage from Starbucks with a ham sandwich.

I also watched a bunch of Arrested Development and 30 Rock.


Oh, and I wrote. A lot. Woot!



Current wordcount: 20,030

Day 8

I started NaNoWriMo week two off the same way as week one: trip to the dentist.
But this time I got twice the fillings, and on half the sleep.

Basically, between the time change, kittens who only want to battle over our sleeping faces, and being worn out from shopping with my MIL on Sunday, I slept like crap.

Add the pain of the dentist visit on top of that, and I had pretty much zero energy for writing yesterday. Squeezed out a few hundred while I waited for hubby to come home, and then fit in the rest that I could manage in bed.

Definitely planning on banking up some good words today and tomorrow...planning being the key word.


Total wordcount: 13,621

Day 7

I'm sure a lot of you have seen this already, but the lovely Jessica Bell is hosting a giveaway for being very close to 400 followers! There are some great prizes up for grabs, and the holidays are soon approaching! You can check out the deets right here.

*Edit: And this morning Jessica announced that she's getting a book deal on her debut novel! So go congratulate her times two.

I spent an impromptu weekend with my in-laws and only wrote 500 words, but it was totes worth it. I'm still right on track, with my total wordcount at 12,001. :)

Day Four

I'm noticing some interesting parallels between this year and last year's NaNo projects.

One: set in a future dystopian world.

Two: It's cold and snowing in the opening scene.

Three: Female MC is emotionally stunted over the death of her partner/lover

Four: Male MC is taciturn and snarly, though with a soft nougaty core.

Come to think of it, a lot of my ideas are about women whose lovers have been brutally murdered or in some way taken away from them.
Hm. Wonder what this says about me.

Poor Evan.


Wordcount: 10,101

Day Three

I think I used a lot of my mojo up yesterday. I'd have to check the NaNo stat bar to be certain, but I think I wrote almost four thousand words yesterday. For me, that's a lot.

An awful lot.

My personal daily best is only in the 8k family.

Anyway, in retaliation I had an easier third day. I wrote 1700 and change, then took a long nap on the couch in my Snuggie, draped with kittens. It's cold and rainy here, which is both perfect sleeping and writing weather.

Thanks for all the cheerleading so far! My goal is to simply write as much as possible this month. I'm enjoying the story so far, and interesting things are happening.


Total wordcount: 8140

Day 2

Remember that mug I posted for the blogfest? Turns out it holds 32 oz. This is good news for me, and yet also bad news.

oh, I filled it up, alright

Yesterday, I drank 128 oz of herbal tea, plus another 40 oz of water.

I'm gonna just come out and say this: 168 oz of anything translates into a lot of bathroom trips.

Really, there's nothing like frequent pee breaks to really cut into your writing stride.

Also, I'm aware that you can over-hydrate, but I'm okay right now, promise. I'll try to cut back tomorrow.


Total wordcount thusfar: 6,350

Day One

It wasn't my typical start to Nano, that's for sure. When the clock turned midnight, I was snuggled in bed, giggling with Evan at the episode of Scrubs that we were watching to unwind.

In the morning, I woke up and did a leisurely stroll through my awesomely successful blogfest entries. And thank you so much to everyone who participated! I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did!

Then, around 10:15, we left for the dentist! (dum dumm dummmm)

I'll go ahead and admit this: I've never had a filling before. My family didn't have dental insurance my whole life, so from age 6 onward, the only dentist appointment I ever had was when I had to have my wisdom teeth removed at age 17. I've always been a good brusher, a meh flosser, and had generally good teeth.

Anyway, we went to the dentist last week, now that we're covered, and oh man...they found 4 cavities. Unfortunately, they're between teeth, so actually eight teeth are affected. Lemme tell ya, that bummed me right out, even though they assured me that otherwise, my teeth were great.

So yesterday morning, I had my first set filled. Remember: never had a filling.
And honestly? Kinda a let-down. In a good way. I didn't even feel the novacain shot, and the drilling sensation/sound didn't bother me--probably all my experience in veterinary dental surgery. :) The only thing that sucked was holding my mouth open for so long. My jaw was getting pretty uncomfortable towards the end.

And then my face was all numb for the next 3 hours.

Feeling sorry for myself, I took a nap after lunch.

Still no words!

Around 3:30, I finally hauled myself to the computer and got to work.

As of 10pm, my first day's wordcount is 2,629. Then I took some Tylenol PM and watched 30 Rock until I was asleep. :)

In matters animal, vegetable, and mineral...

Saw this on Twitter yesterday and just had to share!





If you're unfamiliar, it's a parody of the song "I am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General" from the Gilbert and Sullivan opera The Pirates of Penzance.

*insert clever title here*

The name's the thing.

But what do you do when the clock is ticking and your mind is drawing a blank?

I'm talking about titles, of course. We all know that the chances of your working title being kept by the publisher is pretty slim, and for a lot of us, that's probably a big relief, right? I know it would be for me.

But it's still nice to have something to call it, isn't it? And I doubt many agents are going to want to see "WIP #45 is an 85,000-word thriller."

Or if you're shallow like me, and really want to have a pretty banner/cover for your NaNoWriMo project...

All good reasons to need a title.

So.

I usually can pull a decent working title out of my ass, but for the current Nano project, I was stumped, and I mean stumped.

The main characters are chronokinetic, and that is an important element to the story, so for shits and giggles and in need of a folder title to keep My Documents nice and tidy (god, I really am a plotter, aren't I?), I titled the project CHRONO KILLERZ. Yes, with the Z. But obviously I couldn't keep that! Even if it has a nice pulp-fiction (the actual kind, not the "English, M*thaf*cka!"-kind)(and that's only according to my brother, who was worthless in helping me think of a title) ring, it's a total misnomer.

I've been trying to think of a title for almost a month, so today, out of pure desperation, I googled this:

"I need a name for my novel."

Never underestimate the power of Google, people!! For the Google gods directed me to superstar agent Rachelle Gardner's blog post entitled How to Title Your Book.

Here are her tips, in a nutshell:

• Go to Amazon and search your genre, then write down 20 titles that appeal to you. Note what elements they share and what elements are lacking. 
• Free-associate as many words as you can that pertain to your novel, theme, characters, and any phrases or images that come to mind when you think of your story. 
• See if any of the words you free-associated could work as a single-name title, then start experimenting with adjective-noun, verb-noun arrangements. 

From that point, you basically pick out your favorites and narrow it down until you have a winner. 

I did the first two. Just out of scientific interest, here's an sampling of random books from the sci-fi and fantasy selections at Amazon that struck my fancy:

Out of the Dark

Echo

Spook Country

Bitten

House of Suns

No Mercy

Containment

Bullet

Entangled

Devil May Cry

The Devil You Know

The Sparrow

Seeing a trend? I guess I'm mostly drawn to short, sparse titles, either one word or an article and a noun (think of Nicholas Sparks' novels: The Rescue, The Guardian, The Notebook). I'm entranced by the idea that one word can really encompass an entire novel's theme. Kelley Armstrong, urban fantasy author extraordinaire, really cashes in on the one-word titles. 

Anyway, I wrote down all my words and phrases and images, but nothing really jumped out at me, until I started thinking about idiomatic expressions. I've always liked those as titles, because they're already in the collective consciousness (of Americans, anyway)--kind of like a high concept title, I guess. And that makes it easy to remember, and we all want people to remember our titles. 

The phrase the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few is an idiom that could be applied thematically to my plot, except the MC is definitely more interested in what she wants than what's best for all. But Needs of the Few is a little clunky, isn't it? Interesting to think about, I guess, and it certainly could induce you to wonder who the few are and what their needs are and how their selfishness could affect the "many," but it still wasn't ringing with me. 

In a very un-Summer way, this project idea came to me in 2 books'-worth of fully-formed ideas. I don't like to think in sequels, but this just so happens to work that way, and I'm pretty in love with it, so I'm going with it. So while I was desperately trying to come up with a title for the "first book," the perfect idiomatic title for the "second book" hit me: Dead Ringer. Several layers of meaning, short and punchy. I liked it! 

But what about the first book? I know this is getting long and drawn out (welcome to my last month), so I'll just cut to the chase and show you the banner and "book cover" I made for the NaNo site:

So. My working title is now Dry Run. It's an idiom, and it has the added benefit of being both metaphorical and literal, plus it's a nice alliteration for Dead Ringer. 

All this rambling was in hopes of proving that the untitleable are never lost for sure! Definitely check out Rachelle's hints. 

And then when you're done, go here for a bit of fun (arbitrarily rates your bestseller chances based on title alone): LuLu Title Scorer. If you're wondering, Dry Run scored a 10.2% chance at becoming a bestselling title. Ha! Thanks a lot, Lulu!