On my way to San francisco

As I start to type this post I am standing in the parking lot behind my building waiting for my brother’s car. By tonight I should be checked into my hotel on clay street.

Air travel is cool when you think about it.

Nano Spotlight: Where Sky Meets Ground

Good morning all. I hope that your writing is going well. First off, I’d like to mention that I have a guest post up at Write like a pro! Thanks for having me, Chris E.

Today I have a spotlight interview with Jon Paul, of Where Sky Meets Ground.

How and why did you end up participating in National Novel Writing Month?
I’d heard about NaNo for years–and thought about participating on a handful of occasions–but it wasn’t until last year that I finally took the plunge.  Several of my critique partners were making a run at it, and they were asking me to play along, so I figured “Why not?”

I’d toyed with writing novels over the years, but never really made much progress.  I’ve only been pursuing fiction seriously for about two and half years now, so the challenge of NaNo aligned nicely with my desire to get out there and tackle a big project.  I managed to come in just under the wire, crossing 50k on the last day of the month, but I learned a plethora of valuable lessons about myself in the process.

Guest Post: An Intro To The Topic of Character Development!

Greetings Readers,

Once again, my name is Mark Allen and once again, I find myself filling in for Chris today!

As some of you are no doubt aware, tomorrow Chris celebrates his 36th Birthday but what many of you are (hopefully) not aware is that he is currently spending in a specialized temporary witness protection program offered by Monoc Securities in a recent settlement between certain paranormally active splinter groups of the mafia and the White Court brokered by the White Council via their reluctant representative Harry Dresden to protect a few people (Chris included) who accidentally ended up getting married in Las Vegas.

Now normally, of course, this would be easily resolved by a visit to city hall the next day, filling out the 19-d annulment forms, paying the filing fees and then it would forever expunged under the blanket rule of what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

Sadly, circumstances have forced an exception to said blanket rule when a few days ago it was found that a group of supposedly harmless Mummies exhibited at a special showing as a promotion for the Luxor actually proved to be an ancient group of White Court vampires who planned to use an ancient marriage ceremony regarding the souls of their collected fiances with a White Court aura fueled Las Vegas party to end all parties (literally) to create a god.

So in the meantime while Chris finds himself staying in hiding with a noted member of the White Council in Chicago, not able to use any of his electronics to feed the blog, it again falls to me to fill the void!

Fortunately, I was already in the process of drafting a few entries regarding the subject of character design for aspiring authors when a few days ago I found myself composing a response to the RPG Challenge for MyIGN, however I soon realized that I would probably need to create my own post due to the excessive verbosity levels imposed by my boundless enthusiasm for the subject so I’ve decided to see if I can combine the two to offer an intro to a few of the posts I’m still in the process of working on finishing up!

Nano spotlight: Jana

Good morning, friends and followers. It’s time for another spotlight interview of a brave National Novel Writing Month writer, and to that end, it’s my pleasure to introduce Jana.

How and why did you end up participating in National Novel Writing Month?
I first came to Nano because several friends on livejournal were doing it. At first I didn’t think it was that good of an idea mostly because I didn’t quite understand what it was all about. Once I researched it, and knowing my own competitive nature, I just had to do give it a try.I couldn’t let my friends beat me, after all. Seriously though, that competition with them keeps us all going. I’ve been doing this for a handful of years now and I really enjoy it.

What are you writing about this year?
I’m working on a fantasy story (non-erotica so I guess I’m technically writing it under my other pen name). The four name characters are Archana, a Living Goddess (a mortal embodiment of the goddess) who has been kidnapped but escaped; Sverre a young Yaarian priest who lost an arm to a fire wizard in the civil war (which the Yaarian lost) a decade before. He finds and aids Archana; Ethon (the fire wizard) and Charis (the princess and queen to be) who have been keeping the peace in their country only to be betrayed by Charis’s mad father. The four of them have to find a way to stop the mad king and his power hungry son and save their country.

What’s your favorite part of Nanowrimo and why?
Beyond the writing, the people I meet. I have to saw the Athens OH nano’ers are some of the best people I’ve met in this rural area of OH. They’re fun people to hang out with and write. I’ve met a lot of people in the forums but my local group really keeps me going (along with some of my close friends who all do nano). I really love our word wars and sharing snippets of our stories.

Who’s the best character in your Nano?
Right now that would be Archana and Sverre. They are very fully realized and they play off each other so well. Their banter is my favorite part so far. Mixing a young woman who has lived a highly isolated and rarefied life with a very angry more earthy man has been interesting.

Sneaky Ninja Question! What superpower would you want to have?
I’d like to be able to affect luck. Imagine all the good things that could come my way or the bad luck I could give to the annoying (because I’d probably straddle the line or good and evil)

Jana Denardo’s career choices and wanderlust take her all over the United States and beyond. Much of her travels make their way into her stories. Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Mystery have been her favorite genres since she started reading, and they often flavor her erotic works. In her secret identity, she works with the science of life and gives college students nightmares. When she’s not chained to her computer writing, she functions as stray cat magnet.

Day 14 Nanowrimo update

So, I’ve been working on my new book for just about two weeks now – and I have to say, it’s going pretty great. Having a lot of fun, discovering more about the Star Patrol universe than I thought I would considering all the years that I’ve lived with Brett Walker and Melissa Dempsey in the back of my head – but there are some things that you just don’t discover until you’re walking the walk.

My current word count is 36,534 at the moment. I’m hoping to get a few hundred more done this evening before I go to bed.

Some of the cool stuff about my book so far:

• The mysterious character of Exec, the second-in-command of the ship, opened up and I found out more about her at the most unexpected times – though maybe I should have expected them. For instance, the Captain gives her a little pep talk on an open comm line about how he thinks that she’s the right woman for this mission – and since he’s her superior, he can speak to her in a familiar fashion, as the ensigns and even lieutenants under her can’t.
• Even though I hardly plotted out any of the high fantasy sequence, it came out pretty well in true Nano fashion – not quite ‘whenever anything gets too boring have somebody burst through the window with a sword in his hand’ but close.
• The stuff after the end of my original outline, though, which is the stuff I’ve been working on since Saturday, though, is possibly the most fun – after we’ve had first contact with the aliens and are trying to figure out the getting-to-know-you stage of human-Breian relations.
• One of the coolest bits of this is that I know all of this weird stuff about Breian history and the Archon’s discipline of knowledge that my human characters don’t, yet – but I’ve also absorbed this intuitive sense of how to play out the secrets that I wouldn’t have had a clue about back in 1998. There’ll be time.
• And I really like the little bits and snatches of Jody Quinton and Gary Peterson’s budding romance… so much so, in fact, that I’m almost wishing that they could be the main characters, instead of Brett and Melissa and all of their angst. Oh well…

How’s your nano going? Have you ever taken an opportunity to go back and work with an idea from many years ago and see how much you’ve learned as a writer since then?

Six Sentence Sunday, Nano edition continues!

Hello.

This six is from later in the same scene as last week, after Brett’s spent a while observing the alien natives while Jody tries to communicate with them.

One of the natives suddenly spoke up with a rather long and enthusiastic speech, but he was facing one of his fellows, not Jody, and both of them broke out into renewed activity while the third stood near the cart and watched the new people. Jody let out a sigh that seemed to deflate her inside, leaving a very tired and very sick young woman standing before them.

“What’s wrong, Jody?” Colin asked, in a way that might have been encouraging if the question wasn’t so pitifully obvious.

“There’s not engaging with us in terms of real communication,” Melissa put in. She wasn’t a languages expert like Jody, but from her communications studies she must have picked up some of the theory. “The key to translating an unknown language isn’t just getting vocabulary – it’s getting context.”

A different kind of blog anniversary today.

Hey, everybody. First off, today is the last day of voting for the Rule of Three blogfest shortlist. I didn’t even make the long list, but I had a great time on my creative trip to Renaissance, and there’s some really great stories to read and vote for!

Moving on – today will be my 365th post, which kinda seems cool enough to celebrate, and maybe even look back and commemorate where I’ve come. First off, I’d like to give a little shout-out to my followers and readers, and all the friends that I’ve made over this blogging journey so far. Thank you so much for every kind word, every insight you’ve shared, and just for being there.

And as an anniversary present to myself and my readers alike… I put together a unique little highlights reel. This list has 12 posts that I always rather liked, but never seemed to make much of a splash. Maybe if I plug them hard enough, one of them will get a comment.

1. Please allow myself to introduce… myself
2. In search of some good feedback swaps
3. Switching POV and voice
4. Locked inside by my own fear
5. A little netbook trouble
6. Ran out of snowflake. (Nanowrimo 2010, day 20)
7. New goals for December
8. Getting published – what’s the next step?
9. Another Brian Henry exercise to share
10. The first Kansas stories binder
11. Blogosphere spotlight: Cerebral Lunchbox
12. Campaigner spotlight: It’s better than you think.

Hopefully, I’ll be meeting you all in the blogosphere for years and years (and thousands of posts) to come!

Nano Spotlight: Tina Hayes (and her Badass Character)

Good morning, busy Nano-ers. Today, I’m pleased to spotlight Tina Hayes and help her plug her search for a Badass Character name!

How and why did you end up participating in National Novel Writing Month (the first occasion you did.) 
I believe it was in 2006, which was also the first year of the ABNA (Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Award). Their forum was where I first learned about NaNo, if I remember correctly. I was eager to pen my next manuscript, so NaNoWriMo sounded like just the thing for me. I didn’t ‘win’ NaNo that year, but I’ve been hooked on it ever since.

What are you writing about this year?
A party girl and a work-a-holic are being forced into an arranged marriage, which they aren’t at all happy about. If they don’t walk down the aisle, they both lose everything they hold near and dear. As the story unfolds, readers will learn how and why her grandpa and his mother set it up, and watch the love/hate relationship that results when the happy couple reluctantly plan a wedding together. Subplots abound to spice things up, including a couple of sleazy old flames and blackmail. I’m toying with the idea of working a paranormal thread in too.

What’s your favorite part of Nanowrimo and why?
It’s amazing to realize how many productive hours I can pull out of my busy schedule to get in my 50,000 words. Makes me kinda wonder how I waste so much time the rest of the year. I love it when words just seem to pour through the keyboard in the middle of the night when I’m sleep deprived, gobbling up junk food. The way everybody cheers each other on, swapping goofy suggestions to keep each other going is pretty special. My absolute favorite part of NaNoWriMo has the be the sense of accomplishment each day when that little word graph grows to match my word count, the way the whole process makes people feel anything is possible if they’re stubborn enough to commit to something and follow through.

Who’s the best character in your Nano?
The beautiful Briella Monroe. I just love her! She’s a tough cookie who doesn’t let anybody get the best of her. Crafting unique jewelry for the family business is the only thing she loves more than partying. She doesn’t give a damn what other people think, but she’d do anything for her grandpa or her best friend Dillon.

Sneaky Ninja Question! What have you learned from writing?
Oh, you wicked Ninja, that is a sneaky question!

I’ve learned that writing is cathartic, since I can work out issues through my characters that would never be possible (legally) in real life.

Check out the NaNo related ‘Name My Badass Character’ contest going on at my blog: http://tinadchayes.wordpress.com/2011/11/05/my-name-my-badass-character-contest/

Happy NaNoing!

Thanks, Tina! I’m submitting an entry for the contest right now!

Guest starring Badger as Johnny Fox…

Today’s word count: 22,727! Yay for me.

I’ve been thinking about one of the minor characters in Act Two who’s been very fun to have in my Nano – he’s basically just a figment of the fantasy world that my characters are trapped in. But the coolest bit, is that I mentally cast him as Badger from Firefly – not just Mark Sheppard, but specifically Badger, because Mark’s a really versatile actor, but Johnny is almost exactly what Badger would be if he crossed over to this particular fantasy world – and got a different accent.

Johnny is a trade baron, with convoys and caravans crossing the land, and running the entire show from the tiny village of Connaw, near the northwestern edge of Darkwood forest. There isn’t that much to Connaw, but all of it is under Johnny’s thumb, and he likes that better than being based in a larger town with bona fide nobles and guardsmen and who-knows-what else to deal with.

My main characters come to Connaw in the first place because Fox’s supply wagon is the only way for them to sneak into Breia Manor, deep inside Darkwood, and two of them get cover jobs as caravan security guards. Unfortunately, Johnny becomes suspicious of them for something that was really just an unfortunate co-incidence, and they end up having to deal with him to save their own plan. That’s when we find out that Johnny wants something from Breia Manor too.

Unfortunately, the plot is soon going to be leaving Johnny behind – after one more bargain for information, my main characters will be heading off to the mountains to find three-armed wizards. But it was great to have him around for as long as he was in the story.

Quick Nanowrimo update: Day 8

Feeling back on track again. I realized yesterday that I’d overcounted by about 100 words on Sunday and missed a few weekend milestones that I thought I hit, and then yesterday evening I was tired and didn’t feel like writing much when I got home. This morning I was all excited to write on the bus – and then the bus was 25 minutes late and got really crowded because it was essentially carrying two full loads, so I didn’t have enough elbow room to use the Alphasmart. Ended up just reading the whole way on the palmpilot.

But I crossed the 20k line on the bus ride home, and I’m off to the first unofficial write-in at Chester’s beers of the world. Whoo-hoo!

How’s your November writing journey going so far?