Friday Fictioneers – Never to die…

Thank you, Rochelle, for another week of inspiration. Thank you also to Al Forbes for the awesome photo.

‘Did you see that?’ She pointed up to stone face.
‘It’s very hard to miss.’ He looked into the eyes of the stone face, a remnant of times past. The eyes flashed and he heard a voice in his head laughing. He looked away. ‘Did you just hear…?’
She nodded. Hearing the sound of a voice beckoning her to enter the gate. It was too compelling not to obey.
‘Sis?’ He screamed as she simply vanished.
The voice in his head laughed again. ‘I still rule.’

Nano always brings the colds and flu out…

I made up some bread and it’s on the counter rising, made a pot (yes, a whole percolated pot) of coffee for a change, and now, I’m…

well, I’m not going to write,today. I’m sitting at over 15k at this point so it shouldn’t hurt me.

I’m going to snuggle up, sip hot coffee with honey to soothe throat, and maybe watch a dvd or pull out my sketch book while I wait for maintenance to come fix the under sink explosion of garbage disposal and pipes…really nasty!

Day 1 of the 30-30 challenge for Nov…

…And, already, I’m behind by about 3k.

Last night, the storms came through with high winds that took out trees and powerlines near us. Needless to say, all electronic products in our home were unplugged. The large picture window rained — on the inside! — and I spent several hours mopping up water from the carpeted office floor. I’ll be so amused when we our lease expires and we move!

So, I’m behind in word counts…not only that, I’m at a brick foundation to a steel wall on where to go with my plot, my MFC doesn’t yet have a surname (One that goes with a female, auburn hair, brown eyes, clumsy as hell, and sarcastic, but that doesn’t not start with ‘M’), and my muse has decided that the only safe place to be is in the bottom of the coat closet curled among the hats and gloves. ARGH!

Okay, now that I’ve got that scream out of my system…back to writing. (scratches head and wonders if she can count these words toward goal….?)

30-30 is Rocking!

We’re starting our SECOND 30k-30d writing challenge in less than 24 hours…at midnight EST, to be exact.

We started our group October first ahead of Nano as all of us have participated before, but aren’t particularly found of the local ML for our area. We don’t like meeting in places that serve alcohol, and not all of us drink coffee or have laptops. In fact, most of our group must use public terminals because they don’t have computers at all in their homes. We’re from a lower income bracket, but our talents are strong! So, we met at the beginning of open registration for Nano at our library and we all grabbed a terminal and attempted to login for this year’s write. Of the initial 20 of us, only two were able to get in (both because they were using laptops and email providers that are not the most popular). Needless to say, we were not amused.

So, we decided to make our own group. Since then, we’ve grown from the 20 to 200. Most of us don’t have computers in our own homes, and the majority of us write by hand. We have poets, too. And, a few artists. We’re offered a 30 day challenge… the rest is open to the individual. Our first challenge has been a success, so we decided to do a Nov challenge as well.

I’m excited about it! Tomorrow, we’re having six different kick off parties across the tri-state area. Two of the groups are going to go to haunted houses. One group is going for pizza. One is meeting at the library for trick or treat, and the last group is meeting in the coffee shops meeting room. I’m going to be trapped at home passing out candy for trick or treat, but I’ll have my laptop set up with Dragon so I’ll still be able to write between the kiddos.

Wherever you are going to write, party, or trick or treat this weekend, be safe! Check your candy before eating it. Look both ways before crossing the street. And run, I mean RUN past the cemetery on your way to the next house! Happy Halloween! Happy Writing! See you next month!

Counting down to Write!

Nano officially opens at midnight…

It’s always these last few hours that leave me chomping at the bit and wanting to race forward. My characters are set, the setting is chosen, a plot is somewhat formed but open to change as the ms proceeds. All in all, I’m all set save for the actual writing. Also, today’s weather just really, really fits for what I was going to write in the opening scene. How cool is that?!!! — feeling excited.

Although I’ve been shunned by the group, I will write on!

A group of friends, both online and offline, have banded together to write for the month of November. We call ourselves the “30-30″. Our goal is a bit more reasonable than Nano’s 50k. We are doing 30k in 30 days. That’s about 2 pgs a day, which can be written in less than an hour for most people. It takes 33 days to develop a habit, so we felt that this would give ourselves the jumpstart that we needed to write every single day. Our facebook group is small with only 12 members, but our main group has grown this last month from just 5 members to over 200! WOW!

Most of our 200 members tried to sign up for Nano’s official site this year and found themselves blackballed. Nearly all have to use public terminals which results in multiple requests from the same ISP…A thing which the official Nano considers to be wrong. So, we decided to team up in our area and write together without Nano. We’re tracking words using our word processors. We’re talking in email and chat. And, we’re setting our own meetings around the tri-state area. Friday night, we’re having a kick-off. Some groups are going haunted housing, some are meeting at the library, or at the local coffee house.

Anyway, Nano got us all started, and that should be acknowledged. We all feel sad for the way Nano has devolved, but we’re remaining strong to our gifts and talents. Our SECOND 30-30 challenge begins at midnight. Enrollment is OPEN by honor system. We don’t have the bells and whistles of the Nano official site, but what we do have is determination to see our writing goals through.

Oh, did I mention that there’s still 15 days left for our FIRST challenge. Reports have it that 196 of our 200 are on target for their writing goals for the challenge. That’s AWESOME! To the four newbies, WELCOME! and we hope you join us for November!

Setting up to write… nano-style

Last night, we moved my desk into the living room near the fireplace and in front of the window. Then, hubs loaded scrivener into my desktop, hooked my mp3 player up with three albums of “writing music”. 2 days to NaNoWriMo. Today, it’s the snack run at the store to fill the shelf hubs set beside the desk for such, and I’ll be ready.

Although Nano refuses to allow me to participate in their site, it won’t stop me from my pre-determined goal to achieve the word count I envision for the month. I have my character cards ready. I have a teaser written, that’s two paragraphs like what you would read on the back cover of a paperback. And, like I said above, I have the love and support of my hubs standing beside me. He knows how much I enjoy the challenge and the time to focus on only my writing for 30 days. Just 2 more days, and a new edition to the “Hope Ranch” and/or “Sanctuary” series will begin to blossom upon my blank screen. Yep, screen. I’m not going to handwrite this year. I’m going to use the Scrivener (Ubuntu form) software for novel writing!

Thank you, Scrivener for making the freeware version for those of us who use Linux based systems. It does not go unappreciated! :)

Ready to Write!

Yes, I’m ready for the annual Nano craziness. Between a power outage, getting a dress hand sewn for next weekend’s Pioneer Days, and life in general, I managed to put together a quicky one-page outline/plotline for a new ms. Let’s just say that I’m still trying to accomplish last year’s challenge to write a story that centers around a female assassin. That said, I still feel the overwhelming need to incorporate some ‘social issue’ into the story…. so, with that in mind, I’m thinking that the white slave trade issue would work well. Of course, it wouldn’t be “white” slave trade as I’m writing scifi, but the characteristics ought to be clear enough for any reader to easily make that connection.

The one think I’m stuck on is whether or not to incorporate a particular character

Friday Fictioneers: Shopping in the Rain

Thank you, Janet Webb, for letting us spin our yarns from your picture!

)

(98 wc. I might use this scene for a beginning base to something more, later. I like it. Thank you, Rochelle for such an inspirational picture this week, and for your spine tingling story, too!)

The cart is a hindrance; bogging down, water-logged. Running for the shuttle, praying I can get things inside before it flooded, too. This made the third month of rain, now. A constant, drenching, mood-altering rain. Command Central promised that they’d fix the weather grid as soon as possible, but I don’t believe them. It all seems like a grand scheme to drive us all to evacuated. It was no secret that they wanted to “repurpose” the dome. Slamming the hatch shut behind me, and leaving the cart in the lot, I headed for the airlock. I need sunlight, after all.

Not to Nano…

As many of you know, I love to do Nano (www.nanowrimo.org) every year. I’ve been doing it every year since the turn of the millennium. That said, in the last two years, there’s been a distinct, and not so friendly, change out there in the world of Nano. I’ve seen a lot of bullying and intimidation in the forums (so much so, that I no longer participate in them) as well as through FB. This year, I found that I, along with all 20 of our writing groupies, have been “blacklisted as known spammers”, why? It appears that we all have the same ISP…well, of course we do, we all use the public library system computers to access the internet. So, needless to say, though I did get into the site via the use of a friends computer, I was unable to address the problem with the Nano people in a private way and had to throw a fit through an unrelated FB message to get to them.

Truthfully, and in all honesty, it’s not worth the hassle. Did I really seriously enjoy both the challenge and the sharing with other authors… YES! Did I enjoy setting a higher goal that would last me longer than a week…YES! Am I seriously annoyed that I had to use a fake name, fake email (which I had to create this week just to participate.)… YES! For a site that promotes that you use your real name, real *, etc. Needless to say, if it’s got me this stressed, even before I pick up a pen or hit a key, then, it’s just not worth it.

A group of us, all Nano REJECTS, have decided to form our own group where we set our individual goals, genres, and styles. We decided to run from October 15 – November 15 so we can all be done before the holiday. It will be nice not to have to hide away trying to meet a writing goal while the family is enjoying the day. All 20 of our writing group has joined, as well as about 50 others who like the date spread, and the freedom of choosing a genre and style. That makes over 70 former Nano veterans and newbies who have jumped ship. The kickoff party was great last night (tons of pizza and pop consumed). Saturday, we’re all meeting at a friend’s farm to write together and have a barbeque complete with a haunted hayride, and followed by going haunted housing!

We’ve even invited a group of artistic individuals to join our group. They are going to do a comparable challenge with their artwork. It’s going to be fun!

Nano might not want us, but it won’t keep us from writing, or enjoying the process!

To all you Nanites who may stumble upon this, I wish you all the luck in the world for reaching your goals and enjoying the month!

The big C is G_O_N_E!

Dadinlaw had surgery Friday to remove two of three brain tumors. It is a huge praise and living example of God’s love for us. Dadinlaw woke shortly after surgery and was able to speak for the first time in months! He can also now use his left hand, and feel his left side. This is better than we could have ever prayed for. We asked for mere survival… we got healing!

the cancer is gone!

The nocardio infection is gone!

The brain tumors are HISTory!

I’m just a little excited, can’t ya tell?