November 2009

This November I will be participating for the 3rd year in a row National Novel Writing Month, aka nanowrimo. I would be honored if you would join me in your own quest to write a novel. Haven't you always wanted to write a book? Some ideas floating around in your head about maybe writing about this fairy princess, or an alien from another world, or a Space Marine Army taking over the entire world, or maybe just an autobiography?

Nanowrimo is a free service offered to those that would like encouragement, others just "like you". It gives you the support and commitment and structure you need to get it done. The premise behind Nano is to set a deadline of 30 days. You have 30 days to write 50,000 words, which is only like 1666 words a day. If you complete the task of 50,000 words within those 30 days, you will receive a Winners Certificate you can frame and hang on your wall at home. It gives you the personal accomplishment and the paper to prove it. Most of you write 2000 words in emails alone each day, how hard could it be to write your thoughts and ideas down during that time instead. Yes you will neglect some friends, and you may become withdrawn and house confined but it gives you the incentive to do it! There are so many other people in the world that are doing the exact same thing, and you've got Nano in common. There are forums to browse in there, that can keep you captivated for hours alone just reading others posts!

I completed my first year in Nano in 2007, where I wrote A Castle Inside that was just published earlier this week. I have been excited to share the news about that with everyone. In 2008, I conquered the Nano quest again, but will admit I had a hard time. I ended up writing nearly 25,000 words in a span over 24 hours to get the task completed just a day before the deadline. But I am proud to announce that I completed it for a 2nd year in a row. This year I will partake in it for a 3rd time, with hopes of writing a Murder/Mystery. I am eagerly awaiting November 1! Let the writing begin!

Feel free to sign up for Nanowrimo, it's free. Of course they accept donations to keep the lights on, and fund other programs such as Young Writers Program that provides kids and teens with a month-long language arts experience that improves self-esteem, teaches perseverance, and radically alters their relationship to writing and literature. or Script Frenzy by writing a movie, play, TV show, or graphic novel with us in April!.

Look for me pati_blue, I'll be in the forums periodically and am in the Ann Arbor, MI region. Feel free to send a buddy request, I can be a writing buddy!

My WIP (work in progress)

This idea has been a work in progress for soooooooooo many years. I initially wrote this book when I was about 16 years old, and finished it when I was about 25. So many things have changed in this book but it's one that has been dying to be finished. I remember staying up late in my parents living room typing on the large keyboard, starting at the big giant square monitor that took up half the dining room table with it's black screen and white binary code-like font pouring my thoughts down on what my characters were going through. I've grown so much, mentally and physically and as a writer that I've needed to re-write the entire work, twice over the last 10 years. I find this novel my safe-haven....something I can always count on being there to work on. UNTIL NOW! It will be finished soon...oh yes, it will be finished.

I believe it to fall into the Murder/Drama genre now. It used to be young adult, but I threw in a couple of bloody explicit scenes so I would not recommend this for anyone under the age of 16, I guess, maybe rated R. If I can do that.

So what I'm working on right now is a novel called Blue Sky Exposure. Blue Sky Exposure, is about a psychiatric hospital in the isolated town Blue Skies, West Virginia. This hospital has been secretly exposing its patients to a non-FDA approved drug. This drug increases ones awareness of the sense ESP. Things spiral downhill when their most exposed patient Robert Dorgan escapes. Murder comes easy as Robert tries to make them pay for what they have done. Innocent blood is shed as he tries to bring down the hospital.

This book stands at 68,000+ words, and is 258 pages long and has been broken down into 34 Chapters. It does still need some work with closing loop holes and whatever happened to that one character from Chapter 3...

So as I push my way through the edits I am currently on page 165. I'm reading through it, correcting any grammatical errors and any present/past tense issues. I would have loved to be done editing this before November 1 because Nano will take over my life on that day. Editing takes probably 3 times longer than you think it does. How hard is it to read 250 page softcover novel? Now imagine reading each sentence slowly. Change one word in that sentence, now does that flow better? Are you getting the right vibe sent to your readers? How about moving this sentence behind the last one in the paragraph, now how does that sound? Wait! This entire paragraph would look so much better back in Chapter 23....ooo then I could move Chapter 22 behind Chapter 24 and.....now you can see how easy edits seem to distract each other, when all I did was start off changing one word.

I'll keep you updated...

Get to know me and what I do...

Welcome to my blog!

Come follow along with me as I venture through this quest of becoming an established novelist. Names, characters and places are all products of this authors imagination!

I am proud to announce that my first book was released earlier this week, A Castle Inside. Take a walk inside the Castle and see what you find...no it's not a haunted castle, nor one built in the early 13th century. It's a love story about those that live inside the lavish Castle that stands tall among the rolling hills in Iceland.

In a normal work day for me, I get up early and take my 3 darling kids to school. Then I come home to a hot steamy pot of coffee and my keyboard. I get 2.5 precious hours of alone time to spend on my writing before Kindergarten is released, then I am back and forth to school for the 2nd time. Now my girls and I are home for lunch then it's back to school in the afternoon to a 3rd trip back and forth to pick up my son. Now we're all home for afterschool snacks and homework. The next thing I know it is dinner time and of course bath and bed times....then I do have a few more precious hours to work. Then it's all the same the very next day.

Writing a book is like the weather, it could be warm some days as you have a lot of fun interpreting your thoughts into what you want others to think. Other days you want to stay rolled up in your pajamas and not bother with it because you want just ten more minutes of sleep. But on those warm days, once I've got it all down on paper the hard part begins. The days just repeat with the same old pattern, edit, cut, paste, edit, cut, paste. Months, yes months go by and finally....the overcast parts and the sun shines down upon your finished work. Now you have to bribe a friend to read it for you to see what kind of stupid mistakes you made on your first draft.

So feel free to follow along with me. I plan to keep an updated post about the month's trip to Nanowrimo land, along with updating how my work in progress of Blue Sky Exposure is coming along, along with the many other short story contests I partake in, how my home life intermingles with my professional life, and what kind of adventure my newest publication is taking me on.

I'm glad to have a friends and family that support me and encourage me to continue with my life-long dream! Thanks friends! Thanks family!