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NaNoWriMo 2017 Begins!

 Writing  4 Responses »  Tagged with:
Nov 012017
 

October is over! Tomorrow I’ll be checking the count of comments made throughout the month of October and notify the winners of the Celebrating All Things Spooky contest, so stay tuned for that!

In the meantime, NaNoWriMo is here! Have a motivational picture from a couple years ago to get in the writing mood.

My plans have come together a little more clearly over the past few days. My novel now has the working title “The Threshing Night,” which I changed yesterday from the previous working title, “The Darkest Sun” (which I thought of the day before). It is YA fantasy.

I have three main characters figured out, and I have a good idea of where the story will go for the first five chapters or so.

That doesn’t include Chapter 1. I started writing at midnight with Chapter 2, because I’m not positive about the first chapter yet. Writing out of order is unusual for me, but this is a weird situation where I know my first chapter isn’t the first chapter.

So far, I’ve written just under 6,000 words, so I’m off to a good start!

What about you? If you’re participating in this year’s NaNoWriMo, how prepared do you feel?

Preparing for NaNoWriMo 2017

 Writing  No Responses »  Tagged with:
Oct 252017
 

Image courtesy of National Novel Writing Month.

It’s that time of year again! NaNoWriMo is on the horizon!

(For those of you unfamiliar with it, NaNoWriMo refers to National Novel Writing Month, where people attempt to write at least 50,000 words in the month of November.)

I’ve been officially doing NaNoWriMo since 2009, when I wrote the first draft of Agent of the Relari.

Some years, I go into it with a strong idea of my story and characters, filled with excitement to get writing. These years go very well for me, like in 2014 when I wrote 94,000 words of The Nightbringer and last year when I wrote 78,000 words of The Time of Adversity (then using the working title Unto Dust).

Some years, I go in with barely any ideas, which is what happened in 2015, when I squeaked out 50,000 words of Elven Ascendant and haven’t touched it since.

In contrast, I spent the past months editing both The Nightbringer and The Time of Adversity and like those stories quite a bit.

This year, I feel as though I’m somewhere in between. I didn’t have any solid ideas for a long time, but now I think I’m going to write another YA fantasy novel. A few characters have begun to form in my mind, and that’s the most important part for me to start writing.

My plot ideas… are shaky. They keep changing. This definitely isn’t a 2014 or 2016 NaNoWriMo where I’ll go into it knowing the general course the story should take. Still, I feel I’m at least a little more prepared than I was in 2015.

What about you? If you’re doing NaNoWriMo, do you already know what you want to write?

Celebrating All Things Spooky 2017

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, My Stories, Writing  18 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Oct 022017
 

Welcome back to another October’s worth of celebrating all things spooky! For its fifth year, we have new stories to look at, more horror games to discuss, and a new horror game giveaway!

I recently announced the reprint of my Lovecraft-inspired The Book at Dernier, available now in print from Amazon with an ebook version coming soon.

This year also saw the release of It Came Back my horror novelette (another story inspired by H.P. Lovecraft) published by The Book Smugglers this summer. It is available as an ebook.

Final Masquerade, which includes my horror story “The Artist,” has a fantastic new cover this year, and you can also pick up copies of “Sand” (in The Mad Scientist Journal) and “Rokurokubi” (in Wicked Words Quarterly).

And if you prefer something on the lighter end of the spectrum, my zombie comedy The Zombie Mishap, published by Griffin Publishers, is available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

All of my stories available in print will be available at my book signings later this month, as well. You can find full information on all my stories here.

A Horrific Giveaway

Now, let’s move on to the giveaway! This year, I have a selection of horror games to give away, all Steam copies:

  • Dead Age
  • Lakeview Cabin Collection
  • Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location
  • Dead By Daylight

As with last year’s contest, this one isn’t random. Instead, it will be based on your participation in discussions on these blog posts. When October ends, I will tally the scores to determine the winner.

Rules

  • No purchase is necessary.
  • Only comments made between October 2, 2017 at 1:00 PM EST and November 1, 2017 at 12:00 AM EST will be counted.
  • Comments can be made on any post on this blog, not just Celebrating All Things Spooky posts.
  • 1 non-spam, non-anonymous comment = 1 point.
  • You must use an email address or website URL (or include another way of contacting you) in your comment so I can contact you if you win.
  • You must have at least 10 points at the end of the month to win.
  • The person with the most points will get their first pick of the four games. The person with the second most points will pick second, and so on, until all four games have been given out.
  • The winner will be contacted on November 2, 2017.

If you have any questions, let me know and I’ll clarify the rules. Enjoy your spooky October!

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