Fingers are crossed!

So for the past few weekends I’ve found a good way to meet some much needed writing goals. It probably won’t be the best thing for my wallet in the long run, but it is definitely making me more productive. On Saturday mornings my sister and I make a trip to the local coffee shop and then it’s required writing time. It doesn’t matter what we’re writing, as long as we’re putting words down. To be honest I thought the change in scenery would be more helpful for her than me. It’s tough writing at home sometimes because there are far too many distractions: cleaning to be done, games to be played, decorating, gardening, etc. We don’t ever go to the coffee shop normally, especially not to stay, so we’re kind of conditioning ourselves to get in writing mode whenever we visit. Each time I’m able to write a little longer, and produce a few more words without even trying to churn out much. It’s something I’ve started to look forward to all week and it has certainly made my weekends more productive.

In other news, I’ve struck some luck with the Savvy Authors writing pitches last month. They finally posted the results from the final person I pitched to the other day. After seeing that I hadn’t made the cut on the last three, I wasn’t getting my hopes up. Then I saw my info listed and discovered that Christa Heschke of McIntosh & Otis, Inc. wanted a query, synopsis, and the first 15 pages of Suzie’s Nightmare. Needless to say I’ve been stressing out about this for a good bit of the day trying to pull together all my resources. As much as I want to say that I expected my book to spark some interest, and my sis pointed this out, the fact that I’m having to put things together speaks otherwise.

Totally keeping my fingers crossed!

The First in a Series: Not as Easy as it Sounds

So sure, Camp NaNoWriMo is over for a few months. Yes, I did win it, but this novel is not nearly done yet. It still has quite a bit to go, and more importantly, I need to figure out how to end it. This must have been how Tolkien felt when he had to split up his epic storyline into three books. Not that I am comparing myself to Tolkien’s incredible writing, but it just isn’t always easy to break a tale into multiple, satisfying parts.

There’s a sweet spot for the first book in a series: it has to be both fulfilling in its own storyline and leave the plot open for expansion. I think Fellowship of the Ring was a good example of that. When the Fellowship itself was broken, the first book was completed, hence the title. Another book that was way more obvious with its sequel setup was Terry Pratchett’s The Color of Magic where you feel like the next page should show you how the story ends, but it doesn’t. That’s the cliffhanger he leaves you with. Now I haven’t read Pratchett’s second book in the series, but both of these series start in very different ways. How much of a cliffhanger is too much? How contained should the story be in the first book? Questions like these are tough to answer.

Personally I think somewhere in between is best: finish up some theme, some minor story plot, some point you want made and leave the rest of the storyline open. After all a reader wants to have some amount of conclusion with the first book. Otherwise it feels more like an excuse for a reader to pay twice for the price of a single book. Even in The Color of Magic, you get to find out that yes, the world does indeed rest on the back of a tortoise.

Of course that raises a ton of other questions, but those are for later.

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So here are the latest updates on Madam Cloom’s Garden, my other world fantasy novel starring the independent and sharp-tongued Shaleigh Mallett. When she and her father get into a car accident, Shaleigh gets transported to another world where stone lions talk, castles are invisible, and bridges can’t be trusted. The magical land she’s arrived in hides many dark secrets, and Shaleigh may not be as welcome as it seems.

Project: Madam Cloom’s Garden

Current Word Count: 52,816

New Words Written: 2,536

Progress: A little breaking and entering, then bit of recovery time leads to some awkward conversations about life and death.

Commentary: I’ve definitely slowed my pace since NaNo is over. I get about half the amount of words in each day, but I’m not interested in keeping that breakneck pace. That’s kind of a good thing though because I need to slow down more as I explain more features of the world and get into more complicated (and philosophical) conversations with the protagonists.

Total Words for 2013: 55,993

Didn’t Think I’d Make It

I totally won Camp NaNo! *tosses confetti*

That’s even with this annoying stomach bug that tried to waylay me when I still had 5k left to write. So pleased I got so much written here at the end! I honestly didn’t think I’d make the April Camp NaNo this year because of an annoying sickness, and with so few words left to go.

The story of course is still not complete, but it’s far closer than it was. This book is probably going to be the first in a series, but I just have to figure out where the cut-off points need to be. I’m thinking somewhere between 60-80k is a good length for a YA fantasy book, but we’ll see how this goes.

Project: Madam Cloom’s Garden

Summary: Shaleigh’s world is so complicated, that it’s no wonder she’s known for being rebellious and argumentative at school. With her father constantly crying over what he’s lost, and a friend going through major life changes, Shaleigh finds herself feeling more and more out of touch with the people around her. She feels isolated, ignored, and angry.

Then she and her father get into a car accident, and her entire world changes. When she’s greeted by a talking stone animal, she realizes that she’s either dead, crazy, or in another world. But the beautiful land Shaleigh has landed in has its dark secrets, and she’s not as welcome there as she believes.

Current Word Count: 50,280

New Words Written: 11,701

Progress: Teagan and Shaleigh are back in the real world for better or worse, and are having to deal with normal problems. Well, I guess getting attacked by a street gang isn’t exactly a normal problem, but still, there isn’t any magic involved at least!

Total Words for 2013: 53,457

 

Look what I got in the mail!

The copy is much bigger in print than I thought it would be! I have to say that the page quality is excellent too, in fact the whole print job is wonderful. It did take a while for it to show up when I purchased it from Amazon, but it was definitely worth the wait!

And a close up of the cover. Took a bit to not get any glare.

When I last looked, they didn’t have any more copies available on Amazon, but they’ll probably be ordering more. For links on how to get a copy, click on the picture to the right.

Prickly Fairy Promises

Woe be to the man or woman who is foolish enough to break a promise with a fairy.

I think I found the tagline for this novel. I had a blast writing these last few sections, and allowed myself the freedom to pants it a little bit. Shaleigh discovered a portion of the castle that she didn’t realize existed and witnessed something she probably didn’t need to see. Oh and did I mention that an error on my part led to another interesting twist in the novel that I hadn’t accounted for? I kind of love when that happens.

Creeping up to the 40k mark on this book, and very close to the climax. I kind of don’t want the story to end since I’m having so much fun with this land, but I can’t drag my feet. Do that and you’ll end up losing your reader.

Project: Madam Cloom’s Garden

Summary: Shaleigh’s world is so complicated, that it’s no wonder she’s known for being rebellious and argumentative at school. With her father constantly crying over what he’s lost, and a friend going through major life changes, Shaleigh finds herself feeling more and more out of touch with the people around her. She feels isolated, ignored, and angry.

Then she and her father get into a car accident, and her entire world changes. When she’s greeted by a talking stone animal, she realizes that she’s either dead, crazy, or in another world. But the beautiful land Shaleigh has landed in has its dark secrets, and she’s not as welcome there as she believes.

Current Word Count: 38,579

New Words Written Today: 2,726

Progress: Dangerous explorations lead to a heap of trouble. Plus I tightened up a few details with the previous discussion with the antagonist from yesterday. She’s got the tools she needs, now she just has to figure out when to use them.

Total Words for 2013: 41,756

Time to Make a Stand

My girl has finally met the true antagonist of this piece, and she has started the ball rolling that will be heading downhill from here. This was a very complicated part to write, simply because of all the stuff going on in the background that Shaleigh is not privy to. I love the girl, but she can be a little self-centered at times, and a little too trusting as well.

It’s Day 21 of Camp NaNoWriMo, and I’m pleased to say I’m ahead of schedule. I’m really pleased that I could finally hit the tip of the iceberg that will be explored for the rest of this piece, and that this story is coming along so well. I don’t know if I’ll be done with the novel by the time Camp NaNo is over, but hopefully I’ll be able to finish it shortly afterward.

Project: Madam Cloom’s Garden

Summary: Shaleigh’s world is so complicated, that it’s no wonder she’s known for being rebellious and argumentative at school. With her father constantly crying over what he’s lost, and a friend going through major life changes, Shaleigh finds herself feeling more and more out of touch with the people around her. She feels isolated, ignored, and angry.

Then she and her father get into a car accident, and her entire world changes. When she’s greeted by a talking stone animal, she realizes that she’s either dead, crazy, or in another world. But the beautiful land Shaleigh has landed in has its dark secrets, and she’s not as welcome there as she believes.

Current Word Count: 35,853

New Words Written Today: 3,692

Progress: Shaleigh proves her grit and then makes a fateful decision.

Total Words for 2013: 39,030

Sprawling in Between the Lines

You know when you’re running a long run, and at first you feel like you’re never going to last the full time. You start out watching the clock and you keep looking at the timer going: Wow, was that really only 3 minutes? You keep going though, and you keep pushing yourself. Then around the 10-15 minute mark you feel absolutely great. You feel like you could do this for an hour without any trouble.

I think I just hit my runner’s high in this novel, and I’m loving it.

Today I got in over 2,000 words at lunch, and then put in almost another 2,000 after work, and I still hadn’t reached that point of exhaustion I usually feel when I’m struggling for words and scenes. I’ve got the second half all planned out, so I feel like I’ve got plenty of flexibility. The last few novels I’ve worked on, I figured the plot out as I went. I let the story tell itself, and I refused to use an outline. Too many times in the past the outline held me back and tried to squeeze my creativity into a box. This time though I’ve found a happy mixture.

I have a structured outline to base my story on, but allow the story to sprawl as it wants in between the lines. This story has definitely been a sprawler, but the outline has provided the proper rigidity it’s needed. I guess it’s kind of like building a house. You want the framework to be sturdy and solid, but you certainly don’t want the insides to be all solid walls and no color or nicknacks. Every house needs some comfort room, after all.

Here’s a picture of the party Shaleigh is finishing up with, though I imagined a crisp blue sky as the backdrop.

Project: Madam Cloom’s Garden

Summary: Shaleigh’s world is so complicated, that it’s no wonder she’s known for being rebellious and argumentative at school. With her father constantly crying over what he’s lost, and a friend going through major life changes, Shaleigh finds herself feeling more and more out of touch with the people around her. She feels isolated, ignored, and angry.

Then she and her father get into a car accident, and her entire world changes. When she’s greeted by a talking stone animal, she realizes that she’s either dead, crazy, or in another world. But the beautiful land Shaleigh has landed in has its dark secrets, and she’s not as welcome there as she believes.

Current Word Count: 32,161

New Words Written Today: 3,731

Progress: Shaleigh has to make an unwanted/unexpected public appearance, and then gets a personalized back-stage tour of the acting tent with some gruesome realizations. Then the action starts.

Total Words for 2013: 35,338