Stuck in the RV of Camp NaNoWriMo

I'll be here if you need me.

Here it is, 11:30 PM on the night of May 31st. Camp will be starting in a half hour and I had completely forgotten all about it until now.

lol oops. OOPS.

Well, it's not the end of the world. I know what I'm doing. I know where the draft is going. (I think.) My big pain in the ass right now is just trying to figure out when I'll have to time to write 2k a day when my life is revolving around ~super serious~ edits (of my own work and others') and further research into the future of my business. And oh, the freelance writing. CANNOT FORGET THE BACON.

I'll be okay. That's what I tell myself. Shit, I finished how many Nanos while going through college? What the hell am I worried about? Just because I'm stuck in my parents' house in what's gearing up to be a hot summer (hot summer, a hot hot summer) and can barely focus on one thing let alone four...wait, am I whining? I don't know. This whole entry is just stream of conscience blather.

...It is so hot in my room that my keys are sticking. sjdflkasjfa.

ANYWHOZER. I'll be fine. I know I will be. I'll finish Camp AND finish the edits of CROSS//Rebirth and send its broken shell to my first beta reader by the end of this upcoming month. I know I will! That's not me psyching myself up. I actually will. And panic the whole time.

Pshaw. So who else is camping this month? Are you juggling all your other writing projects at the same time? I think that's my problem. I'm used to my time being sucked up by NON writing enterprises. Now it's like "oh you want me to do more writing. It's like you think I'm a WRITER or something, jeez."

Here's my Camp profile~

http://www.campnanowrimo.org/campers/hildred

Two Blog Hops of Note: One Ongoing and one Next Month!

Hey all! Finally getting back into the Blogger writing world with a couple of blog hops. The first one to mention is Vicki Orian's "BE INSPIRED" bloghop going on now (I do believe). The point is to answer ten questions about the origins of any book you're working on and then tag 5 more people to answer them. So, more of a meme, but should be fun for a spell anyway!

"Answer the following ten questions. Then, tag five people to answer the questions. (You can use the same ones, or make up your own. Just remember - they all have to be about the writer's book!)"

1. What is the name of your book?

CROSS//Rebirth

2. Where did the idea for your book come from?
From a dream I had back in 2007. The best dreams.

3. In what genre would you classify your book?
Urban fantasy. (With healthy doses of science-fiction.)

4. If you had to pick actors to play your characters in a movie rendition, who would you choose?
I...I have no idea. I really don't think about this. I really wouldn't want this being turned into a live-action movie. It would turn out absolutely HORRIBLE oh dear god the CGI.

5. Give us a one-sentence synopsis of your book.
Sorcerer killing everyone in the universe; couple kids reborn a few dozen times and bitter about it - with t3h ghey.

6. Is your book already published/represented?
No. Slated for 2013.

7. How long did it take you to write your book?



First draft was completed in 2011. Took a few month break to work on other novels and picked up edits in late 2011. Currently doing the last full-draft edit before sending it off to betas.

8. What other books within your genre would you compare it to? Or, readers of which books would enjoy yours?

I really have no idea. It's not THAT ORIGINAL to not be compared to anything else, but I've personally never read much else like it.

9. Which authors inspired you to write this book?
Nobody, really. I've been writing for a couple decades now so I just go off my own ideas and have my own writing style pretty much down.

10. Tell us anything that might pique our interest in your book.
LESBIANS. Let's be real that's pretty much the making or breaking point for most potential readers out there. Yay society.

Oh let's see. I should tag five people eh. Hmmm~

- Carrie Butler
- Susan Roebuck
- Will Halford
- JA Bennett
- Susan Francino


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Next it's time to plug the Girl's Just Wanna Have Fun Bloghop on June 22nd, hosted by Jaycee Delorenzo and Victoria Smith. Premise is to write a ~chat~ between two female characters from your book while answering the questions provided. Basically, they're all about t3h boyz and dating them or something. So I HAD to sign up since, if anyone's been paying attention at home, LOL LESBIANS. What better chance to write some cynical / bitter conversations than with a couple lady-loving-ladies. I know you're looking forward to it. BECAUSE I AM.

And now Cyndi Lauper is stuck in my head. Fantastic.

Weekly Writing Check-In: Character Birthdays and...well, nobody cares.

LOL "BIRHDAY".

Oh, Memorial Day weekend! How little you mean to the work-at-home, the freelancers, and the generally unemployed. (Read: me.) But, I am taking a bit of a break today, simply because I'm tired and I'm staring down a 25 page (single spaced in Word) chapter and nooooo not today. That said, editing is coming along as usual. This month I've managed to get through about ten chapters which is no bad business. Meanwhile, earnings are up at Hubpages. Still not making payout yet but I'm not complaining. It's still on the up and that's all that matters from that front! I am also still slogging through McCaffrey's "Acorna" series, and reading it gives me so much faith in myself. Especially in the editing department. Reading a book that has clearly never been edited in its existence really boosts ones own writing confidence~

All that shade thrown, it's May 27th. This date has two significances. The first one is that I've got about four days to prep for Camp. I was hoping to get this other chapter finished (since I like starting Nanos on chapter  breaks) but I don't think that's gonna happen. My best bet is to finish on a scene break. Will make keeping track of my total a bit more difficult, but eh. Somehow, I will manage. (However will I do that?)

The second reason is that May 27th is one of my character's birthdays and for some reason this is the only character birthday I know off the top of my head. All my other characters, I know what month they were born in (and what part, because I know all their signs) but I rarely can remember the dates. Okay. I lied. I know why I know this character's birthday - it's because her birthday passes in the first book of the series, and thus far no other character's birthday in any series gets a little spotlight in the plot. And since I methodically keep track of each day and date that passes (WOOOO 2007! fun fact - after February, 2007 and 2012 have the same days, so her birthday is also over Memorial Day in that year) I know exactly what her birthday is. (Not that I can remember my own at the moment though....)

So this week's check-in question is this: Do you know your characters' birthdays off the top of your head? Do those dates play a part in your plots? Do you even keep track? :P

Oh, and today is Miranda's 40th birthday. She's reaching flaming birthday cake territory.

Help Out A Fellow Author Self-Publish - Untold Memories by Morgan Bauman

Earlier this month I introduced a Kickstarter funding project by my good friend Morgan Bauman, who is trying to (re)self-publish her series "Untold Memories". If you're not familiar with Kickstarter, it's a way to fund independent creative projects (such as self-publishing novels, making movies, etc) with varying degrees of donation. There's a set time (usually a month) in which donations are accepted. If the funding goal is not met, you are not charged. It's all or nothing.

The reason why I'm posting about this again is because Morgan's on the last week of her Kickstarter campaign and is barely at her halfway mark of $1500. If even a few people pitch in five dollars (the lowest donation level) then she'll raise up higher in the Kickstarter rankings and get more exposure to those browsing for projects to fund. It's still totally possible for this author to met her goals of publishing!

Here's the introduction as posted on the Kickstarter page:

"The Premise

A scientist mad with grief; a mother trying to escape guilt; a little girl's worst nightmare; a mistake with unforeseen consequences.
What if your life—your world—your memories—were a lie?
This is the premise for Untold Memories, a fantasy book series. Along the way, readers are invited to unravel characters' motivations, identify the causes that set the story into motion, and put together the pieces while immersed in a fantasy world where any false move could have dreadful ramifications.
The characters in Untold Memories must work with limited information, deal with the consequences of their assumptions, and struggle to cooperate despite drastic differences in their own perceptions of their world and situation. The setting of the first book is a highly regulated and controlled society that utilizes the inherent magic of different castes to maintain a rigid, hierarchical order.
Although the first book can be read on its own, it is a part of a four book arc that uncovers many of the mysteries and unanswered questions set up by the first book. There are four follow-up books that further build on the world and delve into the lives and stories of other characters while tying up loose ends. All lingering questions should be answered by the end of the book of short stories, which cover the lives and histories of most of the characters in the series."

There is also a  a sample linked to on the Kickstarter page. Even if you can't donate any money, help out a fellow author by spreading the word on your blog and on Twitter!

Hubpages Wednesday: Gifu and Hiroshima

Gujo, Gifu, Japan.

I've recently started a small series of travel journal hubs called Japan's 47 Prefectures, in which I'll go into detail about each Japanese prefecture (in random order) and the top 5 things to do in them. Up first I have Gifu, the place I lived for over a year recently, and Hiroshima, a very misunderstood prefecture that's sadly only famous here because we bombed it almost a hundred years ago. I lived in Gifu and I spent about a week in Hiroshima a couple years ago, and both were very profound experiences in my life.

I pretty much have all my pics of those two areas up on those hubs, so if nothing else, if you'd like to see some pics of Japan, go for it!

Weekly Writing Check-In: Those Silly Editing Items. And Sex.

When you've been editing your own work for any length of time, you begin to notice certain things that may be unique to your own writing style that you have to batter away with a leaf blower just to have a salvageable draft. I'm not talking about "passive voice", "adverbs", "dialogue tags", or the dozens of little things we're cautioned to watch out for when editing our own or others' works. I'm talking about the writing quirks, the crutches, the things that if anybody caught you repeatedly doing it they would never let you live it down. In my craze this month to edit as much as I can of CROSS//Rebirth to get it off to beta, I've noticed some certain things I've had to CTRL+F for to search and destroy until only one or two remain in a chapter (I usually have long chapters, so one or two is usually find imo.)

- "sigh". All my characters are always sighing, and of course it's usually not necessary. This is a habit I picked up years and years ago as a crutch to display dissatisfaction, eventual fatigue, or as a way to change a character's thoughts or switch POV. I've finally stopped actually writing it so much, but it still abounds in older drafts.

- "realize". This is a new for me in this particular draft. Characters are always having these little epiphanies, apparently. This is trickier to get rid of than "sigh" because it's not a simple delete, but usually requires rearranging entire sentences to get the same idea across without making everyone look like Plato.

- "glance". One of my big things that is pretty much just a style of mine is that I focus on characters' facial expressions, particularly eyes, because this is what I do in real life. Characters' eyes usually convey their inner feelings for me. (And this carries on to others' works...sometimes i don't pick up the inner cues as well unless a character's eyes are described.) But I've been noticing a large amount of "glancing" going on in this draft. Not looking, not glaring, not peering, glancing. Well, it is a pretty word. But I have no need for so much of it. This is a word that's just driving me nuts at this  point because it's EVERYWHERE. Sometimes I just swap out for another word so my "glance" rage doesn't explode, but usually I just drop the whole part or reword it if it's really important.

Aside from that, it's just the usual. First thing I control+F after reading through the whole chapter is "that", because extraneous "that"s are my new kryptonite.

Of course, I type all of this now as I'm staring down the chapter with the super-awkward-heterosexual-generational-difference-sex-scene from hell. (Not because it's awful or doesn't belong, but because it's just so awkward,man, which is good! Because that's what I'm going for.) My brain is going to be caught between "would a reader LAUGH at this description when they're not supposed to" and "oh. oh dude what are you doing with that?! I totally forgot about this!" while I know I'm supposed to be looking for these smaller things. I've read and edited this scene dozens of times now and it's pretty much where it needs to be, but this whole "tightening sentences" doesn't work when you're giggling over the word "tight" hee hee hee!

Sigh. I realize now that I should glance through it.

I'm going in.

Hubpages Wednesday: Kumi Koda, the Japanese artist you may have heard of.

...If you're into that sort of music, that is.

This week's theme is on Kumi Koda, a highly popular J-pop artist who has made her mark as a hyper-sexualized dance machine and ballad crooner. Okay, I love Kumi. She's amazing. But she's not everyone's cup of tea. But if you like dance songs and great ballads, you at least have to click on the video below and give her a try!

Up for grabs are two album reviews of hers: JAPONESQUE and Dejavu. I recommend JAPONESQUE out of the two, but of course you should read both of them. *hint hint*

That's all for this week. Bit of a hurry because there's only 15 minutes left in Wednesday and I have a novel to edit!