NaNoWriMo: The End is Nigh

It's been a rough month and with only two days left and with some 30k words left to write on Whispering Winds I'm left with only this: It is a great start.

I still plan on writing more over the next two days. I will add thousands of words. Of that, I'm sure, but I don't believe I'll make the goal of 50k. That's okay. It was a challenge that has still improved some facet of my skill. Which skill has yet to be seen, but I know it's there and that's enough.

Whispering Winds has gone back and forth between this is going awesome and this is complete crap. Isn't that how so many projects go? The story has a foundation that I do want to keep working with and I will.

My wonderful husband sat me down and addressed my frustrations with this story. He didn't say much. Instead he let me rant and rave about pieces that just weren't falling into place quickly enough to meet the 50k word count. From characters acting out to scenes that just didn't fit. He sat through it all and it helped. The story seems more clear at the moment and I plan on adding to it.

It is a great start and I'll keep it tucked away in a folder for later, but once December rolls around my goals change. Throughout this month another story has been demanding my attention. My dreamweaver story is very close to being complete and if I've learned anything it's that I should not put off one active story that's rolling along perfectly fine for a brand new project. That's just asking for trouble and a mistake I won't be repeating.

Peace and Love!

NaNoWriMo: Where I'm at (or not)

Hello all you lovely readers!

I meant to update my NaNoWriMo writing progress once a week or so this year, but life has once again gotten in the way of my plans. I live in Upstate SC and we've been having wild fires blaze up on three sides of us. I've lost some of my favorite hiking trails and smoke has been very thick around our home. There is also the unrest throughout the rest of the country that has a lot of people in a muddle.

And that's why I am soooo far behind on my writing goal. So so so far. Whispering Winds is standing at roughly 16k as I write this and I'm hopeful that I can add at least a few thousand words today. However on the 18th my writing goal should be 30k. That's a lot of writing to catch up on, but I'm going to tackle the task and do my best to catch up!

The story itself is rolling along rather slowly. Characters are redeveloping themselves as I go and the scenes have shuffled themselves about into a brand new order. So really, the outline has flown out the window again. Happens every year. :)

I have a few writing buddies who are so close to the 50k mark and I'd like to give a shout out to them and the other awesome writers meeting their goals.

To the writers standing in the boat with me I can only say: You've got this! Never give up! Never surrender!

That's it for now.

Peace and Love

Full Moon Releases (Nov 2016)

Let's escape reality for a little while and indulge in one of these new paranormal romance releases! 

Once a Gypsy by Danica Winters

Helena has always struggled to fit in with her Irish Traveller family. It’s not just her opposition to getting married or her determination to attend university; Helena also has one talent that sets her apart from the rest of her clan—the gift of the Forshaw, the ability to see the future.

Graham is the groundskeeper at a manor in Adare, Ireland. Though the estate appears idyllic, it holds dark secrets, and despite his own supernatural gifts, Graham can’t solve Adare Manor’s problems by himself. Desperate for help, Graham seeks out a last resort: Helena, whose skills are far greater than even she knows.

When he promises to teach her to control her powers, Helena resists, afraid both of the damage her abilities might do and her increasing attraction to the handsome groundskeeper. Her entire way of life is at risk: Any involvement, especially romantic, with non-Travellers like Graham is forbidden. But Helena’s future is anything but certain, and fate has other plans for her family, her powers, and her relationship with Graham.

Released Nov. 1st by Diversion Books

Flying Through Fire by Nina Croft

 

Winged monsters have been seen in the skies, and a pestilence follows in their wake, threatening the very survival of mankind. Only the crew of the Blood Hunter knows where they come from, and only one man has the power to send them back—Thorne, a human/dragon hybrid in possession of mental powers beyond comprehension.

Candace Decker doesn’t need anyone to look after her—she’s a badass werewolf more than capable of protecting herself and those she loves. All the same, she’s always been drawn to Thorne’s strength. In an uncertain world, he’s the one man who makes her feel safe. And what Candy wants, she usually gets.

But while Candy is tenacious, Thorne’s willpower has been honed over ten thousand years. He might want her, but the last thing he needs is an infatuation with a young, impetuous werewolf. Candy makes him lose control, and that could have disastrous consequences.

As the threat escalates and they become separated by time and space, Candy must find a way back to him, because while Thorne alone has the power to defeat the dragons, only together can they finally bring peace to the universe.

Released Nov. 7th b Entangled Publishing, LLC

Lucifer by D.B. Reynolds

Montreal, Quebec . . . A charming city on the St. Lawrence River, historic, sophisticated, but beneath it all lies an extensive underground where treacherous vampires are plotting to seize the country.

Lucifer Scuderi is a vampire—handsome and charismatic, a powerful hunter of unusual skill—who arrives in Montreal to take on the most important hunt of his life. Someone has kidnapped the mate of Canada’s ruling vampire lord, and it’s up to Lucifer to find him before his death sets off a crisis that could engulf the entire continent.

Eleanor Morel lost everything—including the love of her life—when she became a vampire. But now, twenty years later, she’s a trusted bodyguard to the Canadian lord, Sophia, and the only person Sophia can count on to lead the search for her endangered mate. But what Eleanor doesn’t know is that the special hunter she’ll be working with is none other than her long-lost love. And he’s demanding answers.

Lucifer’s love for Eleanor burns as hot as his anger towards her for leaving him. But they’ll have to find a way to set history aside and work together if they’re going to unravel the twisted betrayal that threatens not only Sophia and her mate, but the whole continent. Because the European vampires are on the move. And if Canada falls, the rest of North America could follow . . .

Coming Nov. 18th from BelleBooks

That's it for this month's Full Moon Releases. Remember if you're an author or just an avid reader with a great title to add to the Full Moon Release List let me know!

Be on the look out for a NaNoWriMo catch up post later this week.

Peace and Love!

NaNoWriMo: And So It Begins

Yesterday was the official start of NaNoWriMo and so let the race to 50k begin!

And so I have. Yesterday I got just under 2k words typed into my WIP, Whispering Winds. Most of that was even for the beginning of the story. I'm going to try and avoid skipping around through scenes, but I know it'll happen anyway.

This year my story is completely new. The idea began last year when I was working a second job in a gas station. The place was haunted, I swear, and gave me the eerie feeling that made me wonder about how a ghost romance would work. I tucked it away and jotted down notes here and there while I focused on my other works. When I missed the Camps I knew I was going to take the big dive into November and this story poked it's head up from the haze. I spent October doing research and loose plotting.

I use images a lot to help inspire my muse. Finding images for a ghost story romance is harder than I thought, but I did manage to find a few things that speak to the story. The one below I'm using as the temporary cover for Whispering Winds. I played with it a little, but it has been the closest image I can find that brings to mind two of my main characters.

  

Every author uses different things to inspire them. Some do all the research, character building and plotting before they write the first word. Others go by the seat of their pants and just start writing, more than willing to work out the details as they go. I'm somewhere in between. I do a lot of research and get to know my characters before writing most of the time, but it's during the writing that I learn their quirks. That can lead to a bit of a fight as I'm writing, but it's a nice surprise too.

That's it for now.

Peace and Love!