Nanowrimo Spotlight: Nicohle Christopherson, Author of Write Accountable

Good morning! Nanowrimo has already started for some lucky writers in certain parts of the world, but here it’s still going to be about twenty-four hours before I start my Nano-ing. And today I’m shining the spotlight on wrimo Nicohle, who you can find on the web at Write Accountable. Nicohle, how long have you been participating in Nano?

My NaNoWriMo experience is limited to NaNo’13 and CampNano attempts. While I won NaNo’13, by a landslide (150k+), I found CampNano to be difficult. Setting my own goals made it too easy to give up, I think. Plus, my support structure for it had all but vanished. However, I wouldn’t trade any of my attempts for the world. NaNoWriMo has given me valuable experience, and proven to me that being an Author is something I can do, something I can strive for!

What are you writing about this year?
This year, I am a NaNoRebel. What that means is, instead of the traditional fifty thousand words, I am doing something else entirely! While my goal is still 50k, I’m taking the first two chapters of my 2013 victory novel, and turning them into short novels, instead. The goal is to have them publish worthy by december! A hard goal, but I’m going to get my name out there!

What is your favorite book – you have to pick just one!
Oh, that’s a close one. There are a lot that have stuck with me over the years. But I think the one that influenced me the most, honestly, would be Mercedes Lackey’s The Black Swan. It’s a retelling of the old Swan Lake story, This time, from Odile’s perspective. It drove home to me how important it is to see things from the supposed villain’s perspective. And how just a little change in the narrative can provide a much more pleasant outcome to a classic tale.

What advice would you give to all your fellow Wrimos?
Just power through it. Fall in love with your story a million times. And if it’s boring, CHANGE IT. I ended up with a completely different story by the time I was done with Nano, and I might again this time! So, let NaNoWriMo help you grow, and don’t worry about winning or losing.

Sneaky Ninja question! Are you more of an optimist, pessimist, or exactly in-between?
Oh No, I can’t believe I didn’t see it! No, but really, I fully consider myself an optimist. I’m one of those people that may see a glass as half empty, but realizes that hey, there’s a faucet, and we can always just refill it.

Nicohle Christopherson is an up-and-coming author, with her soon to be released Kurylian Saga as her subject for this NaNoWriMo. You can find more work by her at Write Accountable, a blog she updates once or twice a week, at least. She haunts twitter @NicohleC.

The Lost Ad Astra Notes: part 1

So, it’s been nearly a month since I went to the Ad Astra science fiction convention in Toronto, but I didn’t post that much about it because that was in the middle of the A-Z challenge, and the good letters like A for Ad Astra and C for Convention had already passed. And I didn’t pull my notes out as soon as May started. So here are my somewhat scattered thoughts.

My overall impression of Ad Astra was that it was ‘more Polaris than Polaris.’ Polaris 24 was my first hotel-based convention, and in some ways it was crazier than the conventions with bigger celebrity guests at fancier venues, like Wizard World or Fan Expo, because there were so many really cool panels going on, always something interesting happening, the action starting relatively early and ending really late, scrambling to find some time to grab a bit of food in between panels that I really wanted to get to. Those are all the ways that Ad Astra was moreso than Polaris.

And it was at least as much crazy fun.

So, my Mom picked me up at work this time to drive me into the city, on the condition that I at least try to buy any of a long list of Mercedes Lackey books for her. The drive went reasonably well, except that we got somewhat lost actually looking for the driveway into the hotel, though we spotted the building quickly enough. Then there was a bit of a wait for my room to be ready when I was checking in.

I registered, started going over my program and the schedule to see what panels I thought I’d be able to make, and a friend from the Firefly fan group, Colleen, spotted me sitting in the lobby and asked if I could keep watch over her suitcase for a few minutes, and I agreed. Then she got dragged outside by her grandkids and I had to hang around for a while until she got back.

My first panel was with Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon, who were a lot of fun; that one was about continuity in an ongoing series. Then a panel on how to find good beta readers, which had lots of interesting tips. I was making notes like crazy on whatever came easily to hand – the iphone for one panel, a palmpilot for the next, and so on. I’ll put together as many of the notes as I can and share them with you all.