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

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

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!)

What about you? Click here to join the hop or check in with some other great writers.

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

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

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.

What about you? Click here to join the hop or check in with some other great writers.

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.

What about you? Click here to join the hop or check in with some other great writers.