Another NaNo bites the dust

Ahhh the sweet feel of victory after a long battle...even when that battle was with yourself and your own self-impossed deadline created by some crazy people.

It's kinda how you feel after you stop pounding your head against a wall- for a month ;).

This NaNo had some good and some bad- we'll start with the bad ;)


This year just felt like I was doing alot of of fighting with myself. Could be because I was doing something different with this book (a stand alone romantic fantasy) or something else. But it just felt like I was fighting alot!

My hand hurts. Ok, sounds whiney, but my right hand didn't like this-LOL. I type with three fingers, mostly with my right hand...

It took up time I could have spent doing something else- ANYTHING ELSE.



The good :)


It got my writing and creating mojo back- that alone is worth all those long horrific hours and a sore hand.

I now have the bones of what looks like a kick ass good book- we'll see how I feel in a few months- but this one could rock big time. AND it's a stand alone! WOOT!

I got to play with other writers on Facebook, Terra Firma Farscape, RWA, and through Buddies on NaNo- it is great to really be hanging around writers in such a situation- we're crazy, but we're together.

It was a great challenge- a marathon for writers- and I crossed that 26.5 mile line :). Feels really good.

So, the long and short- NaNo was the best of times and the worst of times. But now it's over :). I'm planning on letting the mess set for a mo nth or two- and in the meanwhile polish up and edit the other books and start sending them to my chosen targets ;). I think I'm a better writer for finishing NaNo.

Sometimes you need to call in the dragons

Welcome all- today I’m doing my best to come up with a blog that actually makes sense. Ya see, NaNoWriMo has eaten my brain- very sad. It’s even sadder when I mention that I am behind on words, my week-ends are filling up faster than sales on Black Friday, and my characters have decided to go on strike. It doesn’t look good.

So when I was thinking about what I was going to do, I thought- how could I make things really messed up for me as the writer (yeah- I did- of course this will screw up my characters do- but in a different way).

I decided to add dragons. Now, even though I love dragons and they are in the title of my blog, I have yet to put them in any of my books. They are in my NEXT planned book (always have something waiting in the wings is my motto ;)), but not in any I’ve done so far.

So, the other day I added dragons. Now I’m not completely insane, while at first I thought about making them part of my world building from the beginning, I managed to talk myself out of that horrifying idea. The idea of diving back into the jumbled mess that is a NaNo dirty draft and throwing such a major element in just made me shake in fear.

So, they’ve now become part of the “big bad” issue. In fact, adding them actually gave me a bigger frame for my story and a few more layers of betrayal to deal with.

Now I wouldn’t recommend adding dragons (or blowing things up- I am fond of that technique as well) for everyone. But sometimes pulling in something completely from left field and forcing it into your story is just what the writing doctor ordered.

Shake things up and ya get a whole new yahtzee score ;).

It's all about the stream

"In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins- not through strength but by perseverance." H. Jackson Brown

Ok, I would have liked a more humorous quote, but since yesterday was the half way point for NaNoWriMo- this one really fit well.

NaNo isn’t a race, but a challenge of sheer stubbornness. Normal people- even normal writers- wouldn’t subject themselves to writing 50,000 words in 30 days. (Unless there was a very big deadline looming over their heads and the editors were threatening to hunt them down and beat them with sticks.)

NaNo is painful. LOL_ ok, there may be some folks out there for whom writing those kind of word counts isn’t a problem. But for most of us, especially us working full time in non-writing jobs folks- it hurts.

But, like working out each day, it feels good when you’ve finished.

I just did a 10,000 word week-end to catch up and try to get a bit of a cushion for a few days this week that I know I’d have a big zero. It was nasty sometimes, wonderfully amazing others (ok, far more of the former than the latter ;)). But it felt great afterwards. I think for sprinting especially there really is a writer’s high. We may not physically be getting the adrenaline going, but mentally we are stoking those fires and really get the rewards.

And we can’t give up.

NaNo is a great proving ground, not just for writing, but just to show us that when we set our mind to something, we can achieve far beyond what we expect. Regardless of whether someone wins or not- just trying is a success. Most people are too quick to limit themselves, to shake their heads and say “I could never do that.” Usually it’s followed up with a justification- the “real” reason they say they can’t do it.
But most of them time is they just don’t trust in the power of the stream. That big old rock may be laughing now, but give me enough time and I’ll beat it.

If you’re NaNoing- good luck and KEEP AT IT! If you’re not, each day find something to push- to just keep at some task you think is impossible. Little by little, you’ll find you’re stronger than you know.

New characters- old friends

Well today finds me in the midst of nano madness. As always this event is crazy, insane, and so much fun it's not even funny.

But this year I found myself having more trouble than usual. My characters were strangers!

Now, yes, new characters are always strangers- they're new after all. Part of what I love about being a writer is getting to know these very cool new folks. But this time I found myself really missing some of my previous characters.

Maybe it’s an affect of now starting my fifth “world”- I’ve already got four very healthy worlds with very healthy casts living in my head. Maybe since there are so many, my heart wants one of my familiar faces to pop up. Someone I know and can laugh with.

This hit me the first week of NaNo- it wasn’t that I didn’t like my characters, it was just a longing for the ones I already knew. Sort of like the second season of a beloved tv show- you already know everyone so that awkward getting to know you phase isn’t needed and you get to jump right in.

I wanted to jump right in but my mind didn’t know these new folks (Karthen and Sakari) so I had a wee bit of a conflict.

But something happened this week-end. I started just running with the characters. I made a list of how they were different from my others- the good the bad and the ugly.

Slowly I began to see them for who they were, or rather who they were becoming to be. And you know what? I like them! Now, it doesn’t mean I like my older characters any less- but I think there’s room for another crew or two in my heart and psyche.

What about you? Do you miss old characters? How do you get to know the new ones?

Happy NaNoing folks!

Guest Blogger: Kerri Nelson- How Being a Paranormal Author is Better than Having Super Powers

In Courting Demons, I turn a cheating husband into a rat (literally). I kill people, bring people back from the dead, open portals between dimensions, and much more. All of this right from the comfort of my own kitchen bar stool.
I can do all that without even having to raise so much as an eyebrow (or maneuver a nose twitch—shout out to Samantha from Bewitched).

Now, what do you say to that superheroes? You’ve got nothing on me, eh?
Recently, I’ve been infatuated with the television show Heroes. Somehow, throughout having all these children in the last 3 years, I totally missed this series. But thanks to the technology of Netflix instant viewing, I’m now able to catch up on every thrilling episode. I’m currently on Season 2 so if you’ve seen past that, please no spoilers.

If you haven’t seen it, boy are you in for a treat. The premise is the idea that there are just a plethora of so-called “regular folks” who happen to have super abilities walking among us. Only they either don’t know about or understand their abilities. Or, in some cases, they are simply frightened by their abilities because they don’t know that there are others out there like them.

Now, as a paranormal author, this show really speaks to me because the writers are great at juggling a multitude of characters in a variety of settings with a lot of plots and sub-plots interwoven in every single episode. You really have to be on your toes to keep up with this one.

But it got me to thinking about whether or not I’d really like to be one of these people with super powers. What if my genetics were somehow evolved to a level that I possessed super human strength, the ability to fly, or spontaneous regeneration? Would that be cool?

Well, perhaps. But as a writer, I can have all these same powers with none of the potential downfalls. I mean, what if others found out about your powers and wanted to lock you away and study you? Or, what if you were constantly being hounded to heal people or save people? It might be neat for a while but you’d never really get to lead your own life once the secret was out there.

Now, think about being a paranormal author. I can give my characters any powers I want. I can put them through the ringer with challenges and conflicts. I can live vicariously through them without ever breaking a sweat or so much as a fingernail.
Then, at the end of the day…I can still go to the grocery store without being hounded by the paparazzi. I can tuck my kids in at night knowing that I don’t have to shuffle off the save the world before dawn. And I can even keep my manicure in good shape for longer—even with all that typing I have to do. You know, all the important stuff in life.

Thanks for hosting today, Marie. And to everyone who drops by, don’t forget to enter my Kindle contest no later than November 7th! The grand prize winner will be announced at my Twitter Party on November 8th.




Book Title: Courting Demons

Blurb:

Paisley Barton was already having a bad day before she turned her husband into a rat.
First, she was fired by her boss and then came home to find hubby in the shower with a naked blonde chick. They say that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned but this break-up may just unleash hell on Earth when Paisley casts a spell of vengeance against her philandering husband.

After her spell casting inadvertently opens a portal between dimensions, Paisley finds her family home transformed into a nightly courtroom for settling disputes between demons of the underworld and she’s the judge! If that’s not enough, she’s got to deal with a charming, ancient demon named Camden who wants to be her personal bodyguard while trying to explain her husband’s sudden, mysterious disappearance to sexy police Detective Dalton Briggs.

But Paisley will show them all that an everyday working mom is better equipped than most to deal with the mystical mayhem…and with a tempting demon hottie and a flirtatious young detective vying for her affection, she soon learns that being single again isn’t so bad after all.

“When a wronged wife turns her cheating husband into a rat, you know you have to keep reading! Kerri Nelson offers up a lot of fun and wild magic in Courting Demons!” --Bestselling author, Linda Wisdom, Demons are a Girl’s Best Friend

Author Bio:
Kerri Nelson discovered her love of writing at an early age and soon became a columnist for her local newspaper winning the Outstanding Young Journalist of the Year Award for her efforts.

After a fifteen year career in the legal field, Kerri fulfilled her lifelong dream of publication and is now an award winning multi-published author of nearly every genre under the sun (and moon) and also writes young adult fiction under the penname K.G. Summers.

A true southern belle, she comes complete with a dashing southern gentleman and three adorable children for whom she often bakes many homemade treats.

Kerri is an active member of Sisters in Crime and Romance Writers of America as well as numerous chapters including Futuristic Fantasy & Paranormal Writers and her Presidency of Celtic Hearts Romance Writers.


Read more about Kerri’s books at her website: www.kerrinelson.com
Follow her on Twitter here: www.twitter.com/kerribookwriter
Visit her industry blog here: www.thebookboost.blogspot.com


Buy Links (print and e-book versions available 9/15 wherever books are sold but here’s the publisher link—free gift available with purchase of print copy—while supplies last):
http://jupitergardens.com/Courting-Demons-by-Kerri-Nelson-print.html
or
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/Courting-Demons-ebook/dp/B005OAY7TG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316621839&sr=8-1

Giveaway for the day:
Leave a question or comment to be entered to win today’s prize: A choice of e-books from my back list!

Details on how to enter to win the GRAND PRIZE Kindle at the end of my “Dark Days of Demons Tour” located here:
http://kerribookwriter.blogspot.com/2011/09/courting-demons-blog-tour-win-kindle.html


Excerpt link for Courting Demons: http://www.jupitergardens.com/excerpts/kn_cd.html




© Kerri Nelson 2011