Dream Interview

This week on Authors answer: If you could interview any author, who would it be and what question would you ask?

This week in NaNo progress: Not much progress. I managed to catch a nasty cold from the guy doing our trim work. He had sounded terrible last week, coughing and such. And now, guess what? So do I. Yay. So now the time before bed when I usually try to squeak in a few hundred words is taken up with sleeping because that's all my body wants to do after long days of work and working on the house.

House progress: The kitchen cabinets are unboxed, most of the trim in installed and most of the house is painted. Now flooring and finish plumbing are the last major projects. Then its finishing up all the other little things we've got mostly done and the exciting details like door stops and wall plates. At least it feels like the end is finally attainable. Eventually.

Character Beliefs

This week on Authors Answer: How difficult do you find it to write characters who have vastly different beliefs than you?

This week in NanoWriMo: I managed to make 10K thanks to a big write-in day on Sunday and then went for 15K and now I'm aiming for 20K. We'll see how much higher I can go. This is really frustrating for me because if I had the time I'd have 50K by now easily. My story is practically writing itself when I have the free moments to give it thought. If only I had the time to write it. Damn you, house!

Guilty Pleasures and Snow

While I'm up to (way past really, but I'll dial back for the sake of staying in the cliché)my eyeballs in house building, and snow...holy crap, what is up with the snow already? It's barely November. Winter just finally ended what, like three weeks ago? I swear it seems that way.

Excuse me as I rub some feeling back into my numb feet that are incased in thick wool socks.

Anyway, *glares out the window at the falling white evil* as I was saying, while I'm busy with house and NaNo, which is going so sadly this year, but yes, that was expected. I still don't like knowing I'm not going to get to 50K, but it is what it is - my time for the effort this year, that is. I abandoned by intended story, not because it was bad, but because my focus wasn't there. Amazing, I know. Having gotten this far through this post already, you see what I mean. I'm now plugging away at a short story related to my novel, Trust. It's coming along...

The snow is plummeting down! Seriously. We're now at four inches in the past three hours. Not cool, nature. Not cool at all. Well, ok, ha ha, smarty pants nature, it is cool. Really freaking cool. Let me rephrase that, not nice. But when were you ever known for being nice?

Before I go wander off in search of a warm corner curl up in while I methodically smash my head against the wall, I will finally get to my point. Today's Author's Answer feature is Guilty Pleasure. And no, don't feel too guilty, my mind also leapt to several other topics before the one that this post actually pertains to: Is there an author who is often criticized that you love to read? Click, read and enjoy (and stay warm).

My Dream Writing Room

Well folks, it's getting closer to being a reality. We're busy hanging doors and installing trim. The painter is arriving in a week to put some color in my very white house. My writing room will have one cranberry wall and the rest will be soft grey. A new desk is sitting in my current garage, waiting to be unboxed. A big desk, with plenty of room to spread out notes. I'm very much looking forward to that.

What else does this room include? Jay Dee Archer asked the same question. Find out what ten other authors also have to say today on I Read Encyclopedias for Fun. A new question and host of answers will be up every Friday.

It's November. You know what that means

I send you greetings from the land of NaNoWriMo. Not only am I way overwhelmed with building the house (we're installing doors and trim now, in case you're keeping track of progress), I'm again MLing for National Novel Writing Month.

Am I also writing? Sort of. The odds that I'll make it to 50K this year in the midst of all the stress I've already got going on and the time involved with organizing events and overseeing my region, are fairly slim. Instead I'm aiming for a much more attainable 10K. If I get more than that, yay me. As of this moment, I'm sitting at 1600 words.

With that already under my belt, it sounds like 10K should be no problem, except that the majority of the work on the house from this point onward is in our court. Doors, trim, cabinets, plumbing, electrical, flooring, etc. And I can't move in until that's all done. Did I mention I need to move in as soon as possible? Yeah, I kinda have my work cut out for me.

So what am I writing? Damaged takes place in the same world as Devolution (a short I wrote years ago that is currently looking for a good home).

Gabriel and Nina are thrilled to learn they are having twins until a checkup reveals that one of them is at high risk for developing violent behavior. They are given a termination notice. Not knowing which of the twins is defective, the couple is not willing to sacrifice the other. Signing a life-long contract to be responsible for all damages done by their questionable offspring, they embark on a journey to prove the prognosticators wrong.