The Spete Blog

It'd be great if I could be at real camp, but I'm trying out July Camp NaNoWriMo. After my spectacular failure at April's session, this time I've actually "planned" a novel, and even if I don't hit my word goal, hope to write at least once a day. I won't be writing Andrian Adventures ... People (you know, the three people who've read AA ) always ask if I'm still writing it. I'm all: I can water my wii with orange juice if I want to! Um so yeah. Anyway. I struggled for a while trying to decide if I wanted to write a fantasy or sci-fi, and determined that really all I wanted to do was write a horrible post-apocolyptic dystopia, so that's what I'm doing. I struggled for a while about how many main characters I wanted; settled on three, and then decided that since I am not the best at writing third-person POV fantasy, I was going to make it 1st person POV for all three characters.... this is going to be one helluva magica...

Well! It's Day Two of our (epic?) journey to Maine, which has so far included No stops at road-side Cheese attractions in Wisconsin A stop at Portillos in Chicago for some delicious Italian Beef Getting lost a few times (on Interstate Highways... don't even ask) Driving 13 hours but seeming to get no closer to Cleveland Listening to two books on CD (Howl's Moving Castle-- still a classic) Singing REALLY loudly to Teenage Dream, Animal, and all Cloud Cult songs Stopping for the night in Somewhere, Indiana As it turns out, driving with a Uhaul is slower than anticipated, but we're driving and driving, and we put in an extra travel day, so we will make it in time WOOHOO Maine! (eventually) :)

The long anticipated (if only for myself) day has come! Andrian Adventures is available to buy at Smashwords.com! (More vendors will be coming soon, but it takes a few days) You can purchase it and download it onto your Kindle, Nook, iPad, whatever :) Do it! And please enjoy. Andrian Adventures (can be found by following the link) Many, many thanks to Lauren Krieger for the adorable cover :) Here is the full version of it

Well, despite all my worries, I've managed to glop my novel together into something essentially cohesive and at 50,015 words, it is gloriously and happily finished! Now I have all kinds of ideas for putting it as the middle book in a trilogy... but I need to take some deep breaths and sit back and plan for a while before I dive back into a new project. As The Wish and the Wolf (as I decided to randomly name it) proved, falling into a novel with no idea of where I'm going isn't exactly a good idea. So, I gained some experience, and now have the longest novel I've ever written under my writing belt. (Although Andrian Adventures is so close and growing!) Andrian Adventures, of course, does not count as a new project, since it's basically been ongoing for the past three years :) While NaNoWriMoing (while avoiding writing) I thought up some fun ideas for AA, and those will have to find their ways into the story. Good news! The cover is almost complete, and soon An...

Well, I'm over 60% of the way there! Exciting stuff. This novel is just getting crazier and more and more confusing each day, but I am remaining optimistic that I'll be able to wrap it up in some sort of logical, if not concluding, way. ...that might be all I have to say for it. Today I plan on buckling down and writing, and spending the time that I usually spend avoiding writing researching and preparing for an interview I have tomorrow. It should be a productive day! Word Count: 30,304 Outlook: It's all good?

Yes, it's true. Today's goal was the amazing 25,000 words, and I'm there. This might be appropriate: So yes. I've killed off the character of Andrew, who was one of my main protagonists, but now I'm having all kinds of regrets about it, and I have no idea where I want to go in the second half of my novel. I don't even know how I'm going to end it. Not a problem! Hakuna Matata! I've considered starting up a novel that I quit halfway through (25,200 words in), which is far more entertaining and interesting (and that actually has a planned plot) but that might totally ruin the whole purpose of writing a novel in a month. Actually, that would absolutely defeat the purpose. So, I might work on it once I've made my word-goal for each day, but I have to stick with this and see it to the end. ...I'm halfway there! Words: 25,154 Outlook: Meh

Well! After my first week of NaNoWriMo, I have absolutely concluded that next year I'm going to plan out my novel much more than I did this year. This year I started with an opening paragraph in my head, and three vague character ideas. Being a week in, I wonder how I'm going to make this stretch to 50,000 words, but I suppose that I owe it to myself and my characters to see them to the end. They're just going to have to suffer so, so much on our way there. Also, this will give me plenty of time to develop my villains. So far I only have one, but I might as well add another one or two, just for kicks and giggles. Why not. :) My current villain goes by the name of William, and he's kind of mean so far. He has gone fishing for a magical creature and was mean to it (that sounds like something from a children's book...), and just recently he kidnapped my main character (oh no! It's ok, she's a werewolf, she can handle it haha). He likes to act all nice and f...