It has been brought to my attention by the wonderful kaz_mahoney that LJ is not sending out proper email notifications right now... So if I missed responding to something, that's probably why.


Oh, and I have to say -17 degrees last night is way to cold...

Well, the Gulf anyway.

And now I being the process of editing Senior Year Bites. My query letter is written and awaiting editing. I must being research on who to query. So much to do. Oh well :) it's fun. Right?

So I made it to 50K this morning, for which I am extremely grateful and proud... Though my last few pages are going to be summarily trashed. My last paragraph consists of something along the lines of 'omg I can't believe I'm fifty seven words short and I hate open office's over ambitious word counter.' I was just done... Couldn't think of any other crap to write in my novel.

I still love my novel, but the last bit needs to be reworked greatly and of course finished... but that is what editing is for.

Now I'm going to work on my other deadline for today... The dreaded Query letter I am supposed to have done today for review... and then editing... and writing... and it never ends but I love it so much.

Oh, and the purple comment... when you validate your word count your status counter turns to purple when you win on the NaNo website.

Does the 50K happy dance. Yay I'm purple!!!! More later.

If I wasn't online, but... I am. :)

Oh, Solstice (above)got her first mouse today... which was stolen by sophie... hehehe. As it gets cold they are coming in a lot more.

44,000/50,000

Ran over 40K last night and I'm at it again.

I has new cooling fan for my laptop, the kind that sits underneath it. So far it seems to be working well. :) I'm gonna play pandora while I write to test that theory.

Ok, I'm just over 38K. Word Count goal for today is 41,667. I'm closing the gap and almost caught up.

Yay Me.

LOL, em well... not completely epic.

I live in an old farm house, so I expect mice. We don't have many mice though as it gets cold outside they try more and more to move into the warmth of the house. No mice in the cupboards though. Sophie, the kitty pictured above, was once an outdoor kitty and she used to have to feed herself until she came to live with us. Therefore she loves hunting the mice. She's caught four... now 4.5. She kills them quickly and if we don't find out about it eats them... then we find out about it when she pukes them back up - which is really really gross... but whatever.

Last night I was just getting ready to write the first words in a word war when my Irish Sailor comes in saying "Tux caught a mouse and he wont' give it to me."

I sigh, tell my partner I'll be right back, and go to help catch Tux.

Now Tux has been an indoor cat since he was 8 weeks old exactly. He catches mice. He learned that trick in the crappy trailer I lived in for a while. But he plays with them. So he'll drop it, chase it, catch it, carry it around, bat at it... etc. Until the poor mouse starts to twitch. Then he just kind of looks at it as if it is a broken toy.

So Tux is carrying around his mouse. He's more interested in giving it to me, but he still doesn't want to give up his toy, so the mouse gets away a couple of times, but he catches it again and we're getting ready to try and get the mouse to put it out of it's misery when Sophie completely owns Tux, darting in to snatch the mouse from right under his nose. We catch Sophie because we are not interested in cleaning up mousey puke.

Poor Sophie did NOT want to give up her mouse in any way shape or form. It took us ten minutes and prying her jaws open to get the mouse, now dead, away. We gave her and Tux a treat of food right away so they knew they were good but Sophie was not real happy with us. She has since forgiven us, but I feel kind of bad for her.

I also suspect this mouse is one they have been stalking for a while.

So the score is Sophie 4.5, Tux .5, Solstice 0 - Mouse 0.

All, Author Jim C. Hines jimhines is doing a book drive to donate books to Domestic Violence shelters. You can find details here:

My fingers flew today as I cranked out just over 5k to bring my total WC up to 25,028. I'm just over halfway. YAY! And I'm only a day behind. Tomorrow I will need to write a little over 3K to get back on track, but I think I can do it.

And of course I'll get to 50K by the end of the month.

Edited to add: I forgot to mention that my super wordcount was largely due to the help of Ann who word warred with me for several hours... Thanks!!!

I'm at 20K now.  So I'm only a day behind.  Work is kicking my butt but I think I'll still pull of a "win."  And I love my story.

Tidbit

It was almost a relief to be buried in the dark stacks at the back of the library after the oppressive hugeness of the hospital. At least I was used to the library.
 

Elizabeth had assumed I was looking for a cure for memory loss, so she had found that section and we were currently pulling books off of shelves and skimming them. I was itching to do the research I wanted to do, but I knew I wasn't going to find anything else in the small section the library had on demons. I really had no idea what to even look for, so this was as good as anything until I had another idea.
 

Finally we admitted defeat though Elizabeth had a bunch of ideas she wanted to try regarding my memory loss. I wasn't sure how to respond but she was so enthusiastic about helping me that it was hard to say no to her ideas.
 

I almost ran into Elizabeth's back when she stopped suddenly in the parking lot.
 

“What...” Our jeep was not where we had left it. The coin meter said empty though we'd put more than enough coins into it and a shiny black car was parked in the next spot over, with a shorter, familiar looking individual leaning against the trunk as if waiting for someone.

 

I'm now behind in Nano, so what do I do?  Naturally I went out back behind my house and took pictures then screwed around on Facebook.  Anyway... 

WC 11,702.  I'm very happy to say I am ahead.  I hope to stay that way.

Here's an tidbit from my Nightmare novel.  Opening scene.

Now I lay me down to sleep... the words echoed in my head as I fought against the blackness that was threatening to claim me.

I was missing something, something that would protect me from the consuming blackness.

I pray the lord my soul to keep. The words tugged at memory. Soul.

I bolted upright, clutching at my chest, gasping for breath.

It was dark, though I could see reasonably well, the meager light illuminating the small room I was in. I stared at the bunk beds across from me where Tracy and Elizabeth slept. Faint traces of their dreams tugged at my attention, begging for a closer look – wisps of horses from Tracy – her desire to train and ride the Lipizzaner Stallions almost always colored her thoughts and galloped wildly through her dreams. Liz was dreaming of me. Always men. I shied away from a vivid image of an improbable sexual position and shook my head.

I shivered, despite the summer heat, barely kept at bay by the window air conditioner unit. I rarely slept through the nights – once had never slept at night. The night was my element, my time to roam though the skies, drinking the thoughts and dreams of a slumbering humanity. I was a Nightmare.

“Mara?”

I shook my head, trying to bring myself to the present, trying not to let the seductive lure of dream energy pull me in.

“Yes?”

Candie, the other occupant of the small cabin stuck her head over the edge of her bunk and looked down at me. Her long hair fell forward, obscuring her face.

“Are you having trouble sleeping again?”

I sighed. There was on use hiding it from her. She was a light sleeper and almost every time I started awake she did too.

“Sorry.”

“Nightmares again?”

I shut my eyes. If only she knew the truth. It was almost a joke, every time she asked I felt like laughing and crying at the same time. No Nightmares galloped their way through my dreams. I didn't dream. Sleep was a time away from the chaos of the dreamlands – a time of rest.

“Something like that.”

“Maybe you should talk to someone about it. You've barely slept a night since you got here.”

And by extension neither had she, though she never complained.

I shook my head. “I'm fine. I'm sorry I woke you.”

“It's ok,” she said brightly. Very little actually bothered Candie – her dreams were tranquil, soothing. “Sweet dreams Mara.”

I don't dream, I wanted to say as I wished her pleasant dreams as well. Nightmares don't dream. Except I was starting to...

*     *     *

SYB is finished at a little over 57K.  It's a YA so while that seems a bit short to me, I think it's ok.  I wrote close to 20K in the four days I got to write in the last week.  Maybe  I can do this NaNo thing this year.

Of course, now I get to start my NaNo novel... maybe I'll even do an outline.  LOL.   I'm going to a write in tomorrow.  Didn't go to the kick off party tonight - was told I was missed.  Felt bad about not going but I really needed some alone time after this last week at work.

Other than that I"m pretty sure I'm incoherent.  I've been up since 730am and it is now the second 1am on sunday morning.  I've been up for 14.5 hours I think.  lol.  And staring at a computer screen for most of that. 

Must back up novel then sleep.

Night all!  Good luck to those doing NaNo.

My brain works in mysterious ways.  But I suppose if I have to procrastinate writing out my outline for Nano, at least I'm doing it by writing in my current WIP.  I"ve rocked out 4K in the last 24 hours and I"m still going.  Taking a quick break for lunch.  Pizza and keyboards don't quite work well together.  My cat is trying to help.  She keeps licking my fingers while I type.  LOL.  Silly kitty.

Finished another chapter.  40K in my YA, characters are beat to hell and bleeding... bwahahah.  (of course the NaNo outlining didn't get done yet, but seriously, not complaining about a solid 2K of goodness.)

Words about learning to write from Annie Dillard, who I gather is a big deal, but being ignorant of such things, am not sure who she is.  She had some good things to say though. http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/personal_essays/annie_dillard_and_the_writing_life.php

So I did something nice for myself.  Yesterday I bought new pants.  I hate clothes shopping and I'm pretty sure the last time I went was a year ago... Pants are worn out so I got three new pairs.  I went to Ross.  I love Ross.  You can get what would normally be expensive jeans for pretty cheap.

Also... I preordered a copy of Angelic, by Kelley Armstrong.  It's a Hardbound Novella from Subterranian press that should be pretty awesome.  I don't normally buy the expensive ones, but Kelley's one of the authors that I will.

I think that's my birthday present to myself.  So back to my normal non-spending ways.  Though I think I am going to put in an Amazon order next month.   :) 

(yes, I still order from the evil Amazon.  Sorry...)