Tag Archives: work in progress

Saturday Snippet: Spellbound #2

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Today’s snippet comes from my dragon-shifter WIP, Spellbound:

Wylde sprang away, crouching next to the fallen deer, her wings receding into clawed hands which spread, splay-fingered, on the ground. The doe’s brown eyes were wide, still hanging on. Wylde stroked her fingertips against the velvety nose as nostrils flared and unflared. The doe shuddered and then the last breath left her lungs and she was merely a shell of herself. Her soul ripped free with one final jerk. Wylde, graced, watched as the whisper of a ghost found her legs and took off into the woods, her spectral form blending in to the wisps of mist gathering around them before disappearing.

“Thank you, Free One.” The Wyvern’s voice was thick as she uttered a soft Vanlan prayer and sliced her claws across the doe’s throat. Ribbons of crimson flooded free and Wylde bent down. Heat still pulsed off the corpse, the smell of the blood sickly sweet, making her mouth water.

With both hands, she lifted the deer’s heavy head, bringing it close and licked the blood flowing from the wound. The taste of the doe’s lingering energy made Wylde’s stomach roar, a gargoyle statue brought to life by the pallid light of the moon.

And baring her fangs, she began to feed.

Writing Woes…

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Argh. I’m having issues, man. I’m not happy with my WIP, Souljacker. I loved the idea. I loved it as I wrote 11k in 7 days. Lucy is wounded and snarky, but cute. Her voice is sharp and witty. I liked it even, for the first 20k. Then it started dragging its feet. I skipped a few days of writing, just avoiding it. I’m now at 35k and each word is like pulling teeth. With rusty pliers. And no laughing gas, even.

I know myself well; I do this pretty much every WIP. Some of them I give up on, are just halted indefinitely at 35k. Some of them I powered through and finished. I just need a moment to say…

Brain: AHLKFHLDSHKASD THE PAINNN! Why do you make me do this?! I hate it, I hate it, nonononononononooo! -flails like a 4-year-old throwing a tantrum because Mommy won’t let her get a Barbie doll-

-cough- Now that that’s over with. I know my solution. I’ve always known my solution. I need to push through it. I need to sit down, figure out where the heck I’m going with it. Outline the rest of the novel, scene-by-scene with Sticky Notes; transfer it over to a Word document. Write 1k or 1 scene a day, even if it sucks major eggs, deleting the Sticky Notes with each scene I check off. By Jan 1st (my goal-date, giving me 35 days at 1k a day = 35k = 70k (which is my usual length) I’ll have a finished book ready to go out for edits. By spring, I’ll have a shiny new story ready to share with the world, which I will more than likely love and forget all about the pain.

If I know this, why am I resisting (and complaining :P ) so much?

-off to wallpaper her screen with Sticky Notes-

Officially Under Construction

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As you might be able to tell from the generic-looking preset header…I’m finally getting my blog under construction (cue applause…no? crickets work too!) I’ve figured out exactly how I want my banner to look, I’ve picked out the stock images I’ll be buying, and it’s just a matter of putting all the images together in one final image that I cannot -wait- to finish :) It’s so…me and I’m so excited to reveal it :D

Meahwhile, I’m working on getting two of my YA shorts edited, polished and ready to submit to Smashwords. They will be freebies, to give you a little taste of my writing style. You will be able to find them shortly under the Free Fiction section of My Projects. Descriptions will be up soon, but they’re both romantic and about Faeries. (I’ll admit, I went through an uber-Faerie phase! Who hasn’t?)

And on the Camp NaNoWriMo front…yeah, I’m not gonna finish before the 31st! LOL. BUT I did get a short story as well as most of an adult romance novella (I’ve got about 5 scenes to go before THE END!). I’m gonna work like crazy to see if I can reach the end of Bonedust by August 31st…but as for reaching 50k? I doubt it’ll happen. STILL. I’m proud of myself.

At the same time, I’m working on Wolfsong’s query and synopsis, as well as the plots for  a possible sequel (although it can easily stand alone), and I hope to start sending it out to agents by January 2012.  I’ve been busy, but it’s a good feeling to start accomplishing stuff again.

I need to jump back into my shifter/kelpie WIP, Hunger, and finish it before November, because I do plan on competing in NaNoWriMo again! Probably another full-rewrite, rather than a Shiny New Idea (though I’ve got a crapload of those!) Which would be epic if I won, because that would mean I’d finished…4 books this year? Go me!

But we’ll see. No one knows what the future holds! Anyone else planning on doing NaNo this year? Do you already have your stories chosen, your charrie bios filled out and your plots fiddled with? Or do you wait until November 1st and just jump in?

Sunday #ROW80 Check-in, Updated Goals, SocNoc & The End!

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So. I joined #ROW80…to give myself goals, and to keep myself blogging. Is it working? Heckno. I’ve fallen so far behind with the blogging aspect that I’m like “Dude, srsly? We have to BLOG?” xD Yes, yes we do. I’m majorly ADD lately, zinging from one subject to the next…and Wednesday and Sunday pass without a blog post. LOL Whoops. My bad. I seriously need to create a giant sticky note. Or a reminder…or something.

Anyway: what have I gotten done in the past two weeks, you ask? Well I shall tell you :3

I finished Wolfsong. Completely and utterly finished the first draft. Well…yes, technically it’s a first draft even though it’s a rewrite of an older work. I didn’t use one bit of wordage/dialogue/etc from the Original (which was 50k and…well, bad LOL) Wolfsong is also the longest piece of work I’ve written to date at 75,000 words! -cheers self on- I never thought I could write so much :) And it might puff out a few thousand words once I get to work on the edits!

Also, a little mini-squeal: I’ve had a couple of betas read Wolfsong. They’ve picked out a couple of inconsistencies and “hey, that should be-”‘s and overall gave me good reviews and requests for a sequel (which, I have a cast for but no plot atm! Someday!) I’m very pleased with myself–and with this version of Wolfsong. -hugs the cast-  Thank you, Revel and Reena, for reading :D

And, ladies and gentlemen, I’ve decidedly joined SocNoc! 5 days in, and I’ve got a whopping 11.3k on my new YA Paranormal, Hunger. Very proud of myself here. Hunger’s cast is decidedly a little strange and are giving me small bouts of issues, but I’m bulldozing through. Changes are for rewrites, yeah? XD Yeah! So. Bulldozing on…

Now, for my Goals. I have decided to change them a little bit.

1: Write 1667 words (or more) a day on Hunger.

2: Edit 3 chapters (or more) a day on Wolfsong. (this involves the notes/suggestions Revel and Reena gave me)

3: Get my buddy Sadie to teach me how to format Wolfsong for CreateSpace (so I can get my NaNo-won free copy!)

4: Submit Wolfsong’s file/cover file to CreateSpace and get it approved and sent out :D

Just gotta get through June…and then I’ll let myself think about new betas, maybe another crit-partner, and how I wanna pursue publication: indie or traditional. Big Scary Things! :0

Sunday #ROW80 check-in and getting back on the horse (again…)

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Ohboy. I haven’t done any check-ins for a week or two now. My bad, but life’s been hating me lately. Between drama on both families, my stepdad getting fired, as well as my Grandma getting a treatment done at the hospital that was supposed to make her stronger (but only seemed to make her weaker!) and just…blah. Stuff. Very sucky stuff.
It seriously zapped my writing muse. Yeah, true, I probably could’ve pushed through and written anyway…but when my desktop picture is depressive and gory and I’m cranking My Chemical Romance as high as it will go just to feel the angst? LOL Yeah, I decided writing wasn’t high up on my priority list. So I skipped it.
But I’m back now; life has settled down (for the most part) and just in time. I am… -counts- 4 scenes away from The End on Wolfsong. I’ve decided to do SocNoc in June and am pondering ideas for that. My friend Sadie Hart has just finished her novel Big Cats Don’t Purr…and it’s making me a bit competitive. >3 So! I wanna get this DONE. I am READY to see “The End”!
Anyway, I’ve lost track of all my wordcounts.
But I’ve done 5,908 words since Friday morning, bringing me to a total of 69.9k and my longest piece ever written to date :)
I aim to finish this thing by Friday. Let’s see it happen :)

Happy Mother’s Day and #ROW80 Sunday Check-In

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Whoo, first off: Happy Mother’s Day to everyone who is a mother, whether your kids are human or canine :) I personally adore my Mom: she’s my best friend, my inspiration, and though we don’t always get along, I love her. Thanks to Office Depot (lol, I took my ink cartridge back and exchanged for the right one…and got 7 bucks back!) I was able to treat her to a Mother’s Day caramel iced coffee while we were in Fort Wayne. I felt special.

But anyway! #ROW80 wordcounts, here we come!

Thursday: 1,839 words.

Friday: 1,667 words. This was a hard day. I bellyached and moaned until late into the evening…and then bribed myself. I ended up wordwarring/sprinting with myself to get that 1.5k goal.

Saturday: Mrrr. Nada. Just had no inspiration, no muse. I roleplayed a little bit…does that count? -shot- XD Okay, I KNOW it doesn’t count, but I needed a break! :0 I had fun either way.

Sunday: As of 6:21pm? Nada. BUT I am going to remedy this. I -will- write tonight, I -will- reach my 1.5k goal and maybe surpass it. I’m -almost- at my omg-candybar scene, the one scene in this version that I loved in the first version. I have one scene to write (and it’s an argument scene, ohboy…not good at those!) before I get into candybar-heaven. So I’m excited. And I’m determined. And even if I have to wordwar by myself for two hours, I -will- get those words.

Total words for the week (not counting Wednesday): 3,506. Hm. Not as good as last week’s 8k+…but hey, it’s still more than I would’ve gotten had I not written at all! So yay, go me!

As for Wolfsong, I am on Chapter 17, and my total wordcount is 55.4k. I hope to breach 60-62k by Wednesday’s check-in! I’m so looking forwards to starting a new project, silly enough as it may sound. I will be finishing up Wolfsong hopefully by the 20th, and then 20th-30th I’m aiming to write Aliel/Shae’s short story, still untitled as of yet. I’m eager. Then we’ll see what project I pick up for SocNoc >3

50k! and Wednesday #ROW80 Check-In

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As I sit here, listening to my brother blare his saxophone in the room above me, I realize: I really would like to stab myself in the eardrums. Okay, maybe not. But I would like to stab him…or shove the sax somewhere I wouldn’t have to hear it ;) Anyway. #ROW80. I am so on the horse this week. Very proud of myself. :)

Not only do I have the drive to FINISH this monster… I also have a short-story idea for two of the side characters…and I’m wading through plot-ideas for the sequel. Which I may attempt for SocNoc by KiwiWriters in June. We’ll see; I utterly failed SocNoc last year. Didn’t even breach 6k. LOL.

So, wordcounts!

Sunday:  I posted Sunday in my Sunday Check-In…but I added a few hundred words, so I felt I deserved to post it today too :D My final total for Sunday is -just- under my goal, at 1,440 words.

Monday: 1,719 words.

Tuesday: 3,056 words. On a freakin’ roll.

Wednesday: 2,419 words and counting. If I write anything else before midnight I will, of course, add to this next check-in :D

Total of 8,634 words for four days. That is a little over 2k a day. WHOOTWHOOT!

And, last night at 3:40 am…I breached the 50k marker! I breached not only 50k, but Wolfsong v2 is now officially longer than the original. I’m gonna guess at the end it will be around 65-68k total. Which will make it my longest novel. Ever. EEE :D -excited wiggle-

Unfortunately, my good mood was spoiled by my printer…who decided it didn’t like the ink cartridge we got it. Derp. I bought the wrong kind. -headdesk- Oh well. Guess my grandmother will have to wait for her Wolfsong update XD How I love loyal fans.

Getting Back On The Horse: Sunday #ROW80 Check-In

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I’m slowly getting back on the big ol’ Writing Horse. After a pretty bad fall (hey, it’s really high up, don’t judge!) I was hesitant and wary and scared, I’ll admit. I eyed Word like it was a hungry kelpie ready to rip my face off…and then procrastinated. A lot. Typical avoidance behavior. Yeah, yeah, I practice avoidance behavior a lot too. What can I say, I’m a nervous person!

Either way, I feel I’ve got my feet jammed in the stirrups and my hands wrapped in the horse’s mane. I started at a walk… Slow-and-steady wins the race.

Thursday: I don’t remember…but I calculated my 37k from Wednesday’s check in, to my total…and think I slacked. I should really tweet this stuff -so bad- So zilch!

Friday: 1,035. Not quite my goal of 1.5k…but still. Trotting now. Getting braver. Getting a little more confident.

Saturday: 4,035 words. Really picked up the pace. Not just a jog, but a freakin’ lope! My goal was 40k. I wanted that 40k so bad! My friend and critique partner, Sadie Hart, had passed the 40k threshold and was gliding into 45k range on her WIP, Big Cats Don’t Purr…and I was uber jealous! :0 I wanted to kick and scream… Okay, not really. But I wanted 40k! I ended Saturday night (read: Sunday morning at 2:45 am) with 42.1k… Very proud of myself.

Sunday: 665 words, but not for lack of trying. I’ll probably add another thousand to it tonight before bed. I just wanted to get Sunday’s post out on, well…Sunday! LOL

SO: total words for #ROW80: 5735 words for this week. Bringing my total Wolfsong wordcount to 42.8k -pats self on the back-

Next milestone: 45k! I’ll get there, slowly but surely! As I said before, hoping to finish this by the 20th of May! This gives me…19 days! I can do it!

24.2k and ya gotta love excitement :)

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Hit 24.2k today in Wolfsong, my YA werewolf paranormal WIP. Starting to get into the meat of the original 2005 version of the story. I need to set aside an hour tonight and skim-read and take notes on how the original chapters work/the characters/etc…but I’m writing it from scratch; I hope to finish Wolfsong with not even one line of dialogue from the original!

I got an email from an editor from the anthology my short story, Burn, is going to be in. My copy of The New Fairy Tales Anthology by Aurora Wolf Press will be here within the next few weeks. I’m very excited to read the stories! Burn was one of my favorite shorts to write. Getting that email today made me go: “Man, I wish I had a few more shorts I could send out for this year” but I really don’t have time in the schedule I’d set out to really DO shorts…and then I remembered: I’d written a short for a werewolf anthology that got rejected because it wasn’t in the genre. The Hunter. 

I quickly opened up the file and reread it. It is…not what I remember in the least. I wrote it for the whole Urban Fantasy vein…and it is very… Strange. It’s almost borderline horror. I don’t write horror, but this… This made me grin and cackle at the end. I felt excitement as I read it, making little changes as I went. I’m over the moon. Sure, I remembered I wrote it…I just don’t remember it being so well-written? It pleases me to no end.

So I’m going to spend the next few days looking for a “home” for The Hunter. Until then, I’m going to keep writing Wolfsong. I aim to hit 25k tonight. And 30k by Sunday. I may amend that to 35k by Sunday, though, depending on how the week goes!

21.4k and a hectic week!

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This week’s been kinda hectic.

First, my anxiety has been acting up and being funky. I’ve struggled with anxiety/panic my entire life and for awhile, it ruled my life. I was a hermit at one point in time (though dog obedience in 4-H brought me out of my shell a little). There was a point where I’d somewhat beaten it, thought I was “stronger” than the medication and went off–you guessed it–cold turkey @.@ Stupid idea. I was good for a month, then nosedived. Had to quit my job and it just sucked. I got stable again with the help of my lovely therapist/shrink combo…and now it’s picking up again.

I’m ignoring the Voice Of Reason (ie; my mother) who says my anxiety had been managed back when I was Gluten Free…but I fell off the GF bandwagon. I’m not Celiac, but I am semi gluten-intolerant… My grandma/mom have gone GF and it’s helped them a lot. It also helped me…but the food choices aren’t great on a strict budget and, well…not as tasty because none of us cook really LOL. So. Yeah, yeah, eventually I’ll return GF…but until I’ve got money coming it, ain’t happening. Still, panic attacks in the car suck.

Then my stepdad found a dog on the street, no collar/tags and…of course, being Greg, brought her in to live with us. Take note that we have six dogs and nine cats already; a full house. Still… We called the shelters, visited the vets, I put an ad on Craigslist. The dog was a young, 1-2 year old gorgeous shepherd/boxer mix, brindled gold and black like a freaking tiger. She was very dominant and in the three days we had her, she tried to up her rank in our little pack. We called her Charlee. Fortunately for us, via a shelter volunteer and Craigslist, we found her owner! Yay Charlee!

Then we had my stepsiblings (all girls, ages 5, 10 and 15) for the weekend. They’re…well…they’re kids LOL. The youngest, Brooke, I adore but she talks sooo much. And now that she’s really carrying on convos, she keeps coming into my room and interrupting me. We ended up watching some Wake Up Kitty youtube videos together cuz I may not like kids, but Brooke’s cute :) But they’re all home now. Bad news is, we get them against next weekend because Easter is our holiday.

Once again, I am thanking the Gods (or…my grandma, ILU GRANDMA) that I now have a desk/computer/net set up in the serenity of my ROOM. Not only would I have not been productive all week? But all weekend as well. Instead I gained several thousand words, totaling me in at 21.4k as of 11pm Sunday. Hard to believe I just started the 4th of April. I’m actually getting into the plot, starting to grin and love it…even though this is a rewrite and I basically know what happens already! But still, this is an adventure within itself.

And just gonna give a shout-out to my friends, Janee “Wizzie” and Sadie, for reading it as I go and pointing out errors…this is a wonderfully awesome help. I love my friends <3

Thinking about hopping on the #ROW80 thing while I’m at it :) We’ll see come Wednesday!