Nanowrimo Spotlight: Christina Ochs

Good evening! It’s spotlight time again, and tonight the spotlight falls on Christina, who is christnick over on the Nanowrimo site, and blogs at The Rolling Writer. Here’s Christina introducing her history with Nano:

This will be my third official Nano and my fourth Nano experience, since I participated in camp in July.

I’d heard about Nano for years, and always had a few friends participate, but I never felt like I had anything ready to work on. In 2012, I got an idea for a romance novel, which was very strange, because that’s probably the one genre I never read. I managed 50k, and had a pretty good time doing it, but realized it was not the right book for me.

I was better prepared in 2013 and did some planning for a series I’ve been thinking about writing for at least a decade. I reached 53k words, but realized it would need a lot more work. I spent the next few months completely revising the plot and fleshing out the characters and started writing again in the spring. In July, I made a big push and wrote 90K words. Still not done!

At this point, I have about 50K words in new scenes to write, so I hope I can finish this third draft in November. If I finish early, I’ll just get started on the next book in the series.

I’m a big fan of #NaNoWordSprints on Twitter, and my fondest memories are of sprinting just about every day with my fellow writers. There’s an incredible sense of community and everyone is so encouraging. It’s especially great toward the end of the month as participants start hitting their goals. There’s a little celebration every few minutes.

What are you writing about this year?
I’m completing the third draft of my NaNoWriMo 2013 novel. It’s a fantasy retelling of the 30 Years War (1618-48) and is the first book in a series of four or five. There’s a chance I’ll get to the end of the draft before the end of the month, in which case I’m ready to start on a first draft of the second book.

What is your favorite book – you have to pick just one!
That is so unfair! I have so many favorite books.

Six Sentence Sunday: The Gnomes are Missing, 5

Happy Holidays and Merry Six Sentence Sunday to you all. After this week, it looks to me like we have five Six-Sundays before they end – January 27, 2013 will be the last SSS.

We’re still in a flashback, with my main character, Kinwer, meeting his first Gnome friend:

“So if you’re eleven… how long until you’re full grown? They say that men don’t live as long as we do.”

“I might be as tall as I’m going to get by the time I’m seventeen.” Kinwer counted on his fingers. “I’ll be a man by law once I’m fourteen.”

“Gosh,” Gibbs repeated.

Thank you very much for reading! I’ll try to send out Xmas presents or cards to everybody who comments!

Six Sentence Sunday: The Gnomes are Missing, 4

It’s Six Sentence Sunday – which will be ending after January 2013, so you better get your sixes while they’re hot! 

I’m continuing with sentences from the opening of my Missing Gnomes story.

“I’m only eleven. Father is a man, and he’s MUCH bigger than me.”

“Bigger than you?” the little creature replied.

Kinwer raised his hand as high above his head as he could. “This tall – maybe a little more.”

“Gosh… I’m Gibbs, man-child, and it’s my honor to meet you.”

Thank you very much for leaving feedback!

 

Six Sentence Sunday: The Gnomes are Missing, 3

It’s Six Sentence Sunday – which will be ending after January 2013, so you better get your sixes while they’re hot! 😉

I’m continuing with sentences from the opening of my Missing Gnomes story, with a slightly tweaked title.

First Six Second Six

For a moment Kinwer had actually thought he was seeing a baby, but no baby could have moved with such purpose or examined the stones with such authority. “Are you a…” he said, and ran out of words, because he didn’t have any clue what he was looking at. He’d never heard about gnomes before.

Gibbs looked up at him, skittered away around a boulder, then poked his head back out at Kinwer. “Are you a – a big man?” he asked, in a high, clear voice.

“Umm – I’m not a full grown man,” Kinwer said.

Thank you for any comments!

Six Sentence Sunday: Missing Gnomes 2

Hello friends, followers, and welcome back to Six Sentence Sunday. Last week I started with the opening to my new ‘Missing Gnomes’ manuscript, so I’m going to carry on. Thanks in advance for all your feedback.

It made him smile to think of the first time that he’d met Gibbs.

It had been nearly a year ago, and Kinwer had been wandering around. The pruning had been done and there weren’t that many birds to scare away from the fields. Kinwer’s best friend, Rayslo, had just left the village with his family, because Rayslo’s grandfather had died and left them his butcher’s shop in the city. Kinwer knew that Rayslo was having lots of exciting adventures in the big city, but thinking about that just made him lonelier.

And as he’d wandered around the hill, he’d spotted Gibbs – a tiny little figure like a baby just learning to walk, picking up the stones on the hillside and the riverbank and peering at each one closely.

Six Sentence Sunday: Missing Gnomes

Hello friends, followers, and fellow Six Sentence Sunday-ers. Thanks for all the great thoughts last week, and once again, I’m moving to a new piece! ‘The Snow Job’ is finished, yay! I’ve started a new manuscript to finish off November, and I may need to do some revision on it soon, because I want to submit sample chapters for it to the CSSF Novel Writer’s workshop in Kansas next year. So I’d love to hear what you all think about the opening scene!

Kinwer tried to look like he was actually about to do morning chores all the way through his father’s north wheat field. Once he was next to the fence he checked back at the farmhouse to see if any of his family was watching, ducked between the rails, waded across the stream, scrambled across the rocky ground and around the hill, and stopped at a mound of earth about as tall as his father. “Hello, Gibbs – I’m here.”

There was no answer. Kinwer circled around the mound, so that he was even less likely to be spotted by anybody from the farms near the village. He wanted to be patient for Gibbs’ sake, but he couldn’t wait here long.

I’ll send some friendly gnomes to visit everybody who leaves feedback! 🙂