What’s up Wednesday? Crashing from Nanoland back down to Earth

What’s Up Wednesday is a weekly blogfest to share the answers to a few simple questions… Join us!

What I’m reading:
Finished “Academ’s Fury”, just hours before the ebook expired back to the library ebook. Since then, I’ve started “Sheepfarmer’s Daughter”, one of three Paks paperbacks that my Mom gave me for my birthday, and started listening to stories via the PodCastle and Toasted Cake podcasts again. I kinda fell off fiction podcasts during November, partly because I was listening to my soundtracks so much, and the fabulous Storywonk Nano podcast; something else had to fall out, but I’ve got plenty of stories queued up on the iPhone now!

What I’m writing:
Well, I reached 60k for Nano at Wafflepalooza, and I’m really happy with where my incomplete books got to. Since December started, I haven’t done any actual writing, but I do want to work on synopsis outlines for both books, as well as getting back to the Flash Fiction course.

What works for me:
Riding the wave of Nanowrimo for a victory lap, I guess! Pulled off another 10k between Thursday and Sunday, which is pretty good.

What else I’ve been up to:
Enjoying not going out for write-ins nearly every day. Playing around with my Dana Alphasmart wordcount software a little more, with keyboard shortcuts to copy values from field to field, and changing the deletion routines so I can just delete scratchpad 2 out of 4, instead of having to delete 2, 3, and 4 all at the same time.

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What’s up Wednesday? That sweet sense of Validation

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What I’m reading:
Still mostly “Academ’s Fury” in library ebook format, from Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera series. I’ve been taking it slow and not reading that much because I’m busy with Nano stuff.

What I’m writing:
I validated my 50k for Nano this evening! Both books are going well, though I’m briefly blocked on “Never Found” and flopping back to the sci-fi for tomorrow.

What works for me:
Writing on my own twitter sprints, hosting a virtual write-in for dozens of internet strangers in a coffee shop, apparently. I got 2k done in about an hour and a half, whoohoo!

What else I’ve been up to:
Went out for burgers with my family at “The Works” in Jackson Square, where I had my first brisket on top of a cheeseburger. (It was kinda like a cross between roast beef and bacon, yum!) Also went to visit my Co-ML ThornesQuest, who’s having some health issues and is in the hospital.

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What’s up Wednesday? Snow! (Or is that down?)

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What I’m reading:
Still mostly “Academ’s Fury” in library ebook format, from Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera series. I was actually busy and stressed enough a few days this past week that I didn’t read anything much!

What I’m writing:
Nanowrimo word count is up to 38,266. Still working on both the urban fantasy, “Never Found”, and the futuristic Sci-fi, “Hypermappers”.

What works for me:
Going to write-ins is still great for my word count, and my soundtracks are proving fertile ground for inspiration. I actually realized recently that I needed to flip one song to the other soundtrack: Doc Walker’s “Rocket Girl.” With a title like that, maybe I should have known it was science fiction, it really fits for Ariann and Jeff as a couple.

What else I’ve been up to:
Went bowling for the Hamilton Nanowrimo midway party, which was a lot of fun! And today we had a surprising amount of snow for mid-November, with the resulting commute issues, sigh. (I was on public transit today, though I’m not sure if it would have helped to be driving.)

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What’s Up Wednesday? The Nano-est time of year

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What I’m reading:
Well, I’ve finished reading “Furies of Calderon”, enjoyed that quite a lot, got the sequel “Academ’s Fury” from the library as an ebook, enjoying it so far. Also finished “Gossip Girl” and enjoying some graphic novels, mostly “Chew” and the last IDW Doctor Who run with Matt Smith’s Doctor.

What I’m writing:
My split Nanowrimo is going quite well so far! I’m almost at twenty-five thousand words just now, and have been flipping back and forth between “Never Found” and “Hypermappers” without any particularly stressful issues.

What works for me:
Flipping back and forth between two novels! I’ve been concentrating a few days at a time on each project, and using my soundtracks as mental cues, so if I decide that I’m finished with Never Found, I stop listening to its soundtrack right away and listen to a little of the Hypermappers soundtrack before I start writing that. I’ll probably ramble about the soundtracks in another blog post soon.

Also, going to write-ins. Amazing source of word count and creative energy. Luckily our region has daily write-ins, and I’ve been able to make them 5 days a week. (The Tuesday and Wednesday write-ins conflict with my day job schedule.)

What else I’ve been up to:
Dealing with a little unexpected car trouble, pitching in with the @Nanowordsprints twitter account, and running around dealing with some ML stuff. (We’re going bowling for our midway party this Sunday, yay!)

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What’s Up Wednesday? It’s almost NanoTime…

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What I’m reading:
I dug up the very thick paperback copy of Jim Butcher’s “Furies of Calderon” that I got as a souvenir of the Odyssey Flash Fiction Slam in Nashua in the summer of 2013. I’m getting on for halfway through the story already, and it’s really cool, touching on some of the same themes as the Dresden Files but also very different, with the high fantasy tropes, the elemental furies and other magical beasties.

When I need to read on the bus and can’t stuff “Furies” into my bag, I’ve been reading the original “Gossip Girl” on my tablet. I enjoyed the series, just finished it earlier this year, and so it was interesting to go back and see all the differences with the way it first started.

What I’m writing:
Mostly just concentrating on getting ready for Nanowrimo, though I’ve also been squeezing a few critiques in. I’m really excited for Saturday to come!

What works for me:
The Storywonk “Sufficiently Advanced Magic” class has been really great. I’ve been figuring out lots of really cool stuff, especially about the setting for “Never Found” that I never expected to be thinking about, like werewolves making magical potions. 😉

What else I’ve been up to:
Kick-off was amazing! I’m pretty sure that Hamilton is gearing up for a record Nanowrimo, based on how many writers and novel-adjacents we had crammed into the back room of the Winchester Arms Sunday afternoon.

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What’s Up Wednesday? Revenge of the Angry Birds

What’s Up Wednesday is a weekly blogfest to share the answers to a few simple questions… Join us! Of course, I try to post on Wednesdays, but apparently I was so busy with other things that I forgot to finish the draft yesterday, or sign up to the linky list. *Headsmack*

What I’m reading:
I finished Xanth ‘Board Stiff’, and the four stories I hadn’t already read out of Larry Niven’s “Neutron Star” collection. (The four I’d already found were the ones featuring Beowulf Shaeffer.) After floundering for something new to read, I tracked down my paperback copy of Jim Butcher’s “Furies of Calderon”, and I’m loving it so far!

What I’m writing:
I finished my quick revision of “Return to Civilization” and sent it off to critters for some feedback. Still plot bunny ranching for Nanowrimo–the “Sufficiently Advanced Magic” class has gotten into structure now, and somewhat to my surprise both books I’m working on fit pretty well into a three-act outline as far as I can see.

What works for me:
Working on the bus means even when the bridge is up, that’s just more time to work on your outlining homework! 😉

What else I’ve been up to:
Well, struggling to keep Angry Birds games from taking over too much of my free time. First, I got sucked into “Angry Birds Transformers” on my iPhone, which is this crazy side-shooter. Your bird-Autobot (or pig-Decepticon) gets dropped into the level by a shuttle that turns into a train car, and you have to shoot down pigs and automated guns  before they wear your armor away, shoot at high-tech buildings to get Energon cubes (which immediately turns the buildings rustic,) and use your limited time in vehicle mode to avoid toppling statues. There are rockets that turn you into a helpless bouncing washing machine if they hit you for some reason. 😉

And Angry Birds Epic just launched a new crossover invasion tournament with another game, so I’ve been sending my bird paladins, druids, and wizards up against dragons and cartoon blobs. Let’s see, what about non-gaming activities? Got started watching Leverage, on the suggestion of some TNEO friends who thought it could help me with ‘Never Found’, loving it so far. And getting ready for Nano! The Hamilton Kickoff party is this weekend, and so Elizabeth Twist and I spent a few hours on Sunday collating hipster PDAs and stuffing gift bags.

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What’s Up Wednesday? The NanoLaunch!

What’s Up Wednesday is a weekly blogfest to share the answers to a few simple questions… Join us!

What I’m reading:
I’ve nearly finished the latest Xanth, ‘Board Stiff’ from the library’s ebooks department. It’s been a fun romp so far, especially since Com-Pewter finally joined the quest as one of the good guys, wandering around in an android body. I’ve also caught up on a few Toasted Cake and PodCastle episodes, and started reading a Doctor Who graphic novel I picked up years ago at a convention.

What I’m writing:
Well, I started the rewrite for “Return to Civilization” at the Sunday write-in, and I’ve been worldbuilding and character sketching for crazy on my two Nanowrimo plot bunnies (plot bunny ranching?) With big props to the Storywonk “Sufficiently Advanced Magic” class, which has been a very fun way to get ready.

What works for me:
Umm… I’m not quite sure this week, it’s been sortuv time for kissing frogs, as it were. I actually got a bunch of character sketching done in front of the TV last night, which doesn’t always work. Some of the time, I was catching up on “Castle” and “The Big Bang Theory”, but at other points I’d turned the TV to music or just off while I worked on chasing down a particular thought. And that’s kinda cool, that I can make the writing the priority and not the television. 🙂

What else I’ve been up to:
Well, I got up to see the family for Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday, which was great. Played in the Angry Birds Epic “For the Pirate King” invasion event, made it into the 3rd place spot of whatever and scored some decent prize points. And the Nanowrimo site has relaunched, so I’ve been busy exploring the new forums and organizing spotlight interviews.

And speaking of what I’ve been reading, I updated my reading lists for the year over at Stringing Words, and it looks like I’ve read 336 short stories and 62 novels already this year!

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What’s Up Wednesday? October already…

What’s Up Wednesday is a weekly blogfest to share the answers to a few simple questions… Join us!

What I’m reading:

More Xanth; I finished “Esrever Doom” and started “Board Stiff”, which the library had as an ebook. Also plowed through Larry Niven’s “The Magic Goes Away” in a few days, and read a bunch of stories from Crossed Genres, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Nightmare.

What I’m writing:

I’ve started a new round of revisions on my funny sci-fi story, “Return to Civilization”, based on feedback I got at Young Gunns. I’ve also dived into doing more prep for my 2 Nanowrimo ideas, and I’ve been doing a fair bit of critiquing.

What works for me:

My new living room table workstation! This is actually based on a setup I had a while ago – my black wooden IKEA chair is set against the broad side of the table I got from my parents, opposite the comfy armchair which faces the television. There’s lots of good lighting in that area, and I have the new refurb Dell laptop set up there, and it’s been a great place to get some work done, including critiquing and getting into revisions.

What else I’ve been up to:

Getting into the new season of “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D”, loading dual-boot Xubuntu onto my red netbook, and sorting out Thanksgiving dinner plans with the family! (Canadian Thanksgiving is this coming Monday, in case you didn’t know that.)

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IWSG: Time to be encouraging!

Well, it’s time for Insecure Writer’s Support Group, (or a day late, hopefully not a dollar short,) and I’m not feeling terribly insecure, even though I procrastinated a little yesterday. So I think it’s time to be encouraging and share some things that might help my insecure writer friends.

First off is this really great comics site my friend Danie shared with me the other day, full of illustrated inspirational messages, lots of them from writers and other creative people: Zen Pencils! At the moment, the home-page comic is based on a commencement speech by Shonda Rhimes, (creator of Grey’s Anatomy etcetera,) and the list of ‘Related Comics’ under it includes a great interpretation of Ira Glass’ advice for beginners, as well as great words of wisdom from Chris Hadfield and Bill Watterson. I haven’t explored the full catalog yet, but I want to.

What else do I have that might be encouraging to an insecure writer? Nanowrimo is on its way, and I think that’s very encouraging. The homepage forums will probably be full of 2014 awesomeness in the next few days. And I think writing classes are very cool. I’m planning on starting Holly Lisle’s How to Write Flash Fiction that Doesn’t Suck course, which Elizabeth Twist has said lots of good things about. And one of the reasons I didn’t get this post up yesterday was the welcome shindig for the Sufficiently Advanced Magic Class, which is going to be a lot of fun! It’s a great group, I can tell already.

So… I dunno, if you’re still insecure, post in the comments, and I’ll see if I can come up with something encouraging just for you!

IWSG will be up soon…

Just a quick note here to let you know that I will be posting for IWSG soon, but the evening got away from me and I need to crash.