#NaNoWriMo 2014 (Year Two)

It's getting close to that time of year again! If you remember, last year I participated in my very first NaNoWriMo and came in just over the 50K goal! In introduced a female lead by the name of Sterling Addams who would be solving crimes and mysteries taking place in the underground world of the New York City subway system. At the time I wanted to work exclusively on my Sterling Addams Mystery novels every November. But this has changed!

Last Winter felt like it lasted FOREVER! In that time of constant cold, one that I thought would never leave the city, I came up with an idea for a Young Adult novel. After fleshing it out for several months I discovered the only way for me to truly do this story justice was to write 3 novels (at least). I wanted to write this during the Summer, but I couldn't. I just wasn't in the "write about Winter cold" kind of moods in the middle of June!

With that said I'm switching it up this year and I'm going to work on this Young Adult novel I've had on my mind since it's conception earlier this year. Originally my idea had two female lead characters. Best friends. They are still in the story, but I just wasn't connecting with them. Not like I was with the lesser character. I became attached to him right away and I just knew he had to be my main character. So, without further ado, here is a sneak peek (and VERY rough draft) at the synopsis:

Thirteen years ago today I was born in a small hospital, in a small town, named Snow, located in the great state of Texas, on a day my parents always like to remind me was one of the hottest that year! My life has never been easy, especially when I started going to school. I stutter. Mostly when I'm nervous, which is almost every time I'm called on in the classroom. But what's worse is not so much the stuttering as the shaking. The more I stutter, the more I shake. And when I say shake I mean classmates would break out in the hokey-pokey during recess and claim they were mimicking me. I've tried to control it but I can't. So now my closest friends (of which there is few) and my worst enemies (of which there are countless) all call me by the same name, "Shakes."

Nothing amazing ever happens in my town ironically named Snow. I say it's ironic because of what happened at this years Fourth of July picnic. The weather, for as far back as I can remember, has always been just about perfect on this day. The whole town gathers to celebrate Abigail Martin's birthday because her extremely rich parents thought it only right that their daughter should be born on a day when fireworks are a natural occurrence. The town doesn't complain because it means the Martin's pay for all the decorations, fireworks, and free food you could ever hope to get your hands on! Only this year, just as Abigail is about to cut the kick, the signal for the fireworks display to begin, both she, and I, seem to freeze in time, as what appeared to be a snowflake lands on her nose and disappears just as quickly as it appeared. No one else noticed it, but we did.

On July 5th our town wakes up to a dusting of snow on the ground. Not just our town, but after listening to the news, the entire United States, and parts of the world, that wouldn't normally have snow this time of year, or at all, now see it falling...and not stopping...

Abigail and I, with a little help from friends and people we meet, quickly realize it is up to us to get to the bottom of this snow storm and stop it before it's too late!

Oh, I forgot to mention one more thing: My name is Frank Cunningham and I'm blind.

Camp NaNoWriMo Countdown (April Edition)

For anyone who wasn't aware, November 2013 was an amazing month, because it was the first time in my LIFE that I started and finished writing a novel! I wrote over 50,000 words in exactly 30 days and trust me when I tell you it was NOT easy! But like when I got my first tattoo, immediately after I finished it I wanted to jump right into writing another one, and another one, and another one! The ideas kept coming for me to expand upon this first book I wrote, "Murder on the 'A': A Sterling Addams Mystery" which I intend to turn into a recurring character with several book titles and ideas already lined up.

But somewhere in between spazzing out about that book in November and the SEVERAL months of cold weather and snow and more cold weather and more snow, a storyline came to me. It was faint at first, but as all great stories do, this one just kept growing and growing in my head till I just had to write it down. This story has not left my mind since and is begging to be written. Unlike my mystery series which is geared towards adults, this idea I've had in my head is for the Young Adult genre. And what better time to dip my toe into the magic of the YA world than during these Spring/Summer months with Camp NaNoWriMo?

Lately it seems that's a majority of what I've been reading so it stands to reason that I would come up with an idea, drawing from some of the many YA authors I've read already, namely: Marissa Meyer, Megan Shephard, Veronca Roth, Christopher Paolini, JK Rowling, Ransom Riggs, etc.

Knowing there is quite a craze and a following within the Young Adult world I know I have my work cut out for me even attempting to enter such a realm, but you won't know till you try and so here I am, about to embark on this very different mission. For starters I am going to do something in my book that I believe appears in just about every popular Young Adult novel, there will be NO romance or love triangle, whether it be obvious or subtle. I realize by choosing to leave that aspect out I may be losing a large audience but quite frankly I don't care. I find that 99.9% of the time the Young Adult books I've read would survive just fine (or might even fair better) if they didn't have all that stuff in it. I know with teen angst being what it is today that most YA readers want that in the book. I would also guess that more than half of those who read YA books are in fact much older than the target audience (I am included in that, and proud of it). I'm sure the author knows this and therefore they probably put those romantic scenes in their for that reader as well. Whatever the reason, just know, as I embark on this journey, I am leaving that out of it.

Otherwise, my idea is set in the future, it's rather dystopian in nature but it's not otherworldly. I'm sticking to planet Earth. You won't find any aliens or cosmic life forms or anything like that here. I almost hesitate to divulge this until I've started and finished it but I do want to give you a taste in the hopes that you can at least tell me if your interest is piqued enough to want to hear more about my progress?

Synopsis:

It’s July 4th, and the people of Snow, TX are gathered together to set off fireworks and celebrate Gabrielle Roberts Sweet Sixteen birthday as they've done every year that she can remember. It’s the kind of town where everyone knows everyone else. It’s a farming town that has managed to survive a decade long drought followed by, what the town still shudders to think about, "The Great Flood of 2092." It didn’t last long but the damage almost bankrupted the town. But the people overcame, as they always have, and according to news reports from around the world the city of Snow, TX is now the most sustainable area anywhere. It's also the most secretive. No matter what this small town has had to endure, and with just a population of 572, they are able to withstand anything, be it natural or man-made and someone wants to know how.

As Gabrielle begins to cut the cake the knife in her hand stops rather abruptly when  the town begins to sing “Happy Birthday." Having her birthday celebrated by an entire town always makes her nervous no matter how many years it’s been done. And just when the knife is about to make its first cut, a snow flake falls on the tip of her nose, causing her eyes to cross. From that day on it’s done nothing but snow, not just in the small town of Snow, TX but across the entire world. This trilogy follows the lives of the town of Snow, TX, especially Gabrielle who, with the help of her best friend Abigail and Shakes, a blind orphan boy, they travel across the globe to uncover the truth behind this phenomena.

Is this constant snow fall an unstoppable result of Mother Nature? Or is someone controlling her just to uncover a secret the city of Snow, TX and its townspeople are just not willing to share?

Discover the secret, uncover the lies, and learn the truth as Gabrielle, Abigail and Shakes have to save the world in order to save their town.

The Now What Months...

It is almost 6 weeks since I finished my very first novel ever! NaNoWriMo gave me just the right amount of inspiration and motivation I needed to do what I never thought possible. I wrote over 50,000 words and after taking a 5 week break of not even daring to look at one single page of my manuscript, it's time to dust it off, grab my red pen, and start revising my rough draft.

Now that I've written over 50k words I feel like this moment is what I've been dreading even more than the process of writing it. Revision takes more than just fixing grammar, it's also looking at dialog and descriptions, two things I feel I have not mastered in the 30 days I was writing. But the time for excuses have come and gone. I wrote it and it's my job to complete the task. I know there are some who competed who would leave it as is, walk away, and never change one word or comma. Nothing wrong with that. But I do dream of having my book on a shelf in Barnes & Noble one day. Or perhaps finding my book on it's 4th week of being in the top 10 New York Times Bestsellers list.

Not till I got as far as I did, did I ever think it would ever be possible to be on a mission to have a completed book that I would show to publishers and agents and the like.

But before I can even get to that point I am on a mission to revise 20 pages every other day. This will be a daunting task that I will probably procrastinate on for many of the days to come, but my goal is to have a working 1st revision by March 1st.

I'll have further updates and developments then.

Wish me luck!

NaNoWriMo Update! Week 4 (THE END)

You are reading the above correctly! I did it! I crossed the rubicon, I climbed the mighty mountain, I slayed the beast, I rolled the dice of life and they came up sevens! It was NOT easy for one minute. If I had a do-over the first thing I'd have done differently was not have so many days of non-writing take place. I don't think I would have been scrambling to write the last 11K+ in one day if I had dedicated the suggested 1,667 words a day. But hey, it was how this went down and I'm not too mad about it cause, as I said I DID IT!! To be able to write those two damn words, THE END, was glorious. I can't wait to do it again!

My final word count came out to something over 51K as you can see below! I also posted a chart of my progress so you can see the days where I stayed the same because I wrote nothing and those few days where I had writing spurts of over 5K in one day. Everyone is different and this was how I made it through:

So, what did I write you might be wondering? It is such a mess of ideas and story all tossed down on the page I could wonder the same thing but worry not, I wrote it so I'm fairly sure I know what it's supposed to be. As I shared before it started out to be a mystery series whose main character is Sterling Addams. There is a permanent set of seven characters where this novel is told from the POV of three of them. Now, I've never come across a story that does that so it wasn't like I had a guide I could follow when doing this. Most novels that go with a main character writing in the first person will do one, at most two peoples POV. I had to be different and go with three! But I felt it was the best way I could tell the story for right now.

For some reason writing in the third person I was finding very difficult because I'm so used to thinking and speaking in terms of "I" it was hard for me to get out of that habit. Who knows, maybe I'll wake up with morning and start talking in the third person and change the WHOLE structure completely! Between you and me I hope that doesn't happen. It's written and for the exception of a few time line issues, description fixer-uppers here and there, and a WHOLE lot of dialog clean-ups, this is how it's going to stay.

Let's see, I said it's a mystery. I said Sterling Addams is the main character. Anything else I should mention? Hmm, it all takes place within the New York City subway system. I made up Transit District 13, a team of 5 who are in charge of catching criminals underground that no one knows even exist. It's not as easy as you might think to do.

How did I come up with such a convoluted idea? Well, I figured I ought to write about what I know, and I'd like to think I know the NYC subway system since I've used it practically all my life. I enjoy Agatha Christie and while I know I could never tell a mystery quite as good as she does, mysteries have always fascinated me ever since I was little. Whodunits are fantastic. I hope I've created a good one here. It's got murder, computers, drama, and great background stories for each one of my characters. I'm proud of what I was able to accomplish. Much more than I thought I ever could.

Pat on the back for me and the other thousands of NaNoWriMo writers who embarked on the same journey I did. WE MADE IT!! HURRAY!!

Below check out a possible cover...just playing around with Photoshop for about thirty minutes. Simple program I highly recommend.

Oh, and just because it wouldn't be official without it, allow me to share the certificate us novelists get for crossing the finish line as unscathed as possible. Our brains may be mush and our fingers may be cramped, but we are victorious!

I want to thank everyone again who believed I could do it. I had many moments I didn't think I would make it. Especially Friday and yesterday when I got hit with writer's block. I think the idea of actually crossing the finished line scared me more than anything. But I persevered, I carried on, I kept on keepin' on, and here I am! Do you hear that? It's the Rocky theme music playing in the background! Ah the sweet smell of success.

Okay, enough of this congratulating myself. When I begin the editing process (which I don't intend on beginning till December 8th cause I need a break!) I'll share a few chapters here and there of course. Who knows, I just might get published and by this time next year I'll be calling on you all to support by buying my book! A Sterling Addams Mystery coming to a book store near you!

Till November 2014 NaNoWriMo! It's been fun!

Top Ten Things I Am Thankful For

I'm going to try and keep this relevant to the reading and writing world since this isn't my "personal blog" but it's my book blogging (and occasional movie, music, writing, blog). With that said, here are 10 things I can say I am thankful for from the year 2013:

I am thankful for...

- ...having read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, thereby discovering the BEST book I've ever read in my entire life.

- ...the helpful words and encouragement I have received from fellow book bloggers throughout the year, especially the Bestselling author of the Lunar Series, Marissa Meyer, who I still can't believe finds time to answer my questions whenever I ask.

- ...the library of 6 bookcases I was able to create in my bedroom to house all my books and keep them safe and neat.

- ...the ability to have read nearly 100 books this year! I think I passed 50 which I honestly never thought I'd do when I started out this year with only a handful going under the DNF list.

- ...all the book signings I attended this year. Some of them less memorable than others but they all come with experiences I will cherish forever.

- ...my job, which gives me the finances I need in order to purchase the amount of books I do! "When I get a little money, I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food and clothes." ~Erasmus

- ...ALL my twitter friends on my book blogging account, @nycbookworm84 who read my blog, and especially Between the Covers blogger, Heather, who always RT's my posts and comments on them. She's the best!

- ...The Collaborators! It came about VERY last minute and we've only reviewed two books so far with another one coming up before this year comes to a close. Alaina, whose blog is aptly titled That's What She Read, and I are two very different people and who better to get a zany kind of collaborative review from than two different people?! Look out for WAY MORE collaborations in 2014 with a possible 3rd person joining us ever now and again...

- ...NaNoWriMo! That's right, I'm so thrilled to be fully committed to this challenge/goal/mission, however you want to categorize it! It's made up of great people that make up a large community of writers, reminding me of a dream I once had when I was a teenager of wanting to write a novel.

- ...writing my very first novel from beginning to end! It's not November 30th yet but considering I am well on my way to passed 40K words today I'm more than positive I will make it to the 50K mark (probably more) and it will easily be one of the greatest moments in my life! There is some kind of feeling that comes with accomplishing a goal you never thought possible. I urge anyone reading this to find whatever that goal may be and go for it! You'll be surprised at just how easily you're actually able to do it!

What will you be thankful for this Thanksgiving?

NaNoWriMo Update! Week 3

Week Three came and went so fast I hardly believe it. This week I decided to put my reading on hold till December 1st. I can write more on my iPhone going to and from work that way. And I think it's helped.

Something else that helped was the last two Saturdays. From 9am till 8pm I wrote my heart out, taking an hour break here and there along the way. This Saturday was by far the best I've had, I wrote 6,571 words in total. Allow me to share stats to you that I STILL am finding pretty unbelievable:

Day 7: 4,325 words written

Day 14: 8,077 words written

Day 21: 22,716 words written

TODAY: 31,236 words written!

Just seeing how far I've come from that first week. Actually, how far I've come from the first two weeks where I was a bit erratic with my writing. Next year I'm going to start the month strong by making sure no reading takes place in the month of November.

This third week I learned that even though I was WAY behind the whole time, I caught up to being within 9,000 words of where I essentially should be today, which is at the 40K mark. I had great friends encouraging me both in the NaNoWriMo world that I met through tweeting and in my life personally.

I started with an outline that I never ended up using. I wrote down character profiles for each main character that I never ended up following. I even made up names for every possible person I would encounter, but as you might have guessed, I never used them either. Turns out everyone really is different with how they write. I thought I would need to be a "by the book" kind of writer, following all the rules and tricks of the trade that other writers have used and later become the successful successes.

I've learned, the hard way, that there is no right or wrong way to writing a novel. I will take this bit of knowledge and use it towards my next novel and my next one and my next one. Remember, after you've written it, the REALLY hard part begins. I have done NO editing whatsoever. Not going back to fix blatantly obvious mistakes has been something else I learned this week. And boy have I made some really eye cringing mistakes. But I made a note of them and kept on writing. There will be plenty of time to edit. This is not to hone your editing skills, this is to train yourself to simply write it all down and edit later. I will update with how the editing process goes for me from December - February, which is how long I'm giving myself to do any additions, rewrites, edits, etc.

My writing days are far from over. How exciting!

NaNoWriMo Update! Week 2

Posting this a few days late and a few words short but I feel the need to update you guys on my progress. For starters, although I am only half way to where I should be (if I were keeping pace with everyone else participating) I am further than I ever thought I could personally get! What's even better is that I'm STILL writing. I've been sort of a flake when it came to writing a novel for a long long long long time. Finishing this would be my first and I'm excited to get to the finish line!

I started with an outline that I drafted, along with character profiles, before November 1st even arrived. I can say with great certainty that the only parts of the original outline I kept in what I'm writing, is none! Don't know how it happened but I found just writing and letting my mind and fingers dictate where the characters would go next and what they would say next is working better for me than being led by a pre-determined outline. I guess it's true when they say every writer's style is different. Whatever works best for you is something you should do no matter how unorthodox you think it might be.

For the first week I was trying to follow all the guidelines and self-help books that claim to teach you how to write the perfect novel in under a month. But by this second week I realized none of those tips helped. The best advise I got and can give to anyone who is participating in this NaNoWriMo or writing just because is to simply write. If you have a story to share then share it. With the way the internet works and with all the sites out there devoted to independent self-publishing there is no reason why you couldn't. I could (and probably will) write this novel, spruce it up a bit, and go to a site like lulu.com (for example) to make hardback copies for my friends and family to give as gifts. I don't need to be a bestseller on a shelf to finish this book. Everyone is different and everyone who's participating is doing it for different reasons.

How exciting it's been for me, going into week three, to chat with people from all over who are participating in NaNoWriMo. Support and endless writing is what it's all about. I can't think of a better time to give being a novelist a try than in the month of November!

NaNoWriMo Update! (Week 1)

I've set out to write a novel. But much more than that, I've set out to FINISH a novel. This would be a HUGE step for me since I've never actually finished any novel that I've started. By my count I've started 3 novels. None of them I really felt were worth finishing and never really held my interest. This year is different. This year WILL be different.

I discovered my problem with writing a novel is my lack of discipline so that is my "CODE WORD OF THE WEEK"! Say it with a loud bellowing voice and it will sound MUCH cooler than it reads.

So, "discipline" when it comes to writing is pretty simple. Training your mind and your schedule around specific times when writing must take place without any distraction whether from outer or inner forces. For someone who has a lot on her mind and a lot going on every single day this is not an easy thing to do. And, it's not like writing a novel is something I've been doing for the last decade or so. In fact, the last "short story" I wrote was almost 2 decades ago! Gosh I'm old! Anyway, so here I am, 7 months away from turning 30 and wanting terribly to write a novel, even if no one but myself and close friends reads it.

As you all might know I never go small with anything I try for the first official time. So, I created a character whose background is way too big and complex for just one book! Her name is Sterling Addams. She is loosely based on a close personal friend of mine (who shall forever remain nameless) who graciously gave me permission to imagine her likeness and personality when I write Sterling's character. Don't try to guess who it is, you never will, and it's not all that important. What is important is the what and the when of this series I've created.

Sterling Addams lives in New York City. She was born in 1962 and if you've ever heard stories of NYC in the 70's you'll understand why the NYPD took it upon themselves to create TD13, Transit District 13. It is a small group of highly skilled police officers whose sole job it is to keep the subway system running as smoothly as possible. This entails solving all crimes as well as preventing them. They also have to make sure no one reports about it to the greater metropolitan area above ground. I start her story in the year 1988. It's not the first case she's assisted TD13 with but I figured it's a great time to delve into a case and allow the main characters to tell a little bit about who they are, how they met, and why they are a part of TD13, essentially devoting their lives to living underground?

Discipline has not been factoring well into my plans however. In an ideal world I should be over 12,000 words into my novel by now. Last night I just barely crossed the 5,000 word mark. With every day I don't make my goal I get more and more discouraged which pushes me further and further behind. The NaNoWriMo stats tells me at this pace I'll be lucky if I reach the 50,000 word goal by January 21st, 2014! I don't give up so easily. It can be done! SO, I write a little at work and every night when I get home from work I will be devoting 2 solid uninterrupted hours to writing. If I find myself on a role of course I'll just keep writing.

Words of encouragement are welcome!

Oh, and one more thing...tomorrow NaNoWriMo is hosting a "Writing Marathon" and I wish I could participate. Unfortunately, I have church obligations all morning into the afternoon, then my monthly family get together is taking place in my apartment immediately after church where I'll be the hostess. So depending on when they all leave and I finish cleaning up I might not be able to participate till after 8pm/ET and that's only if I'm not absolutely exhausted from everything I'll be doing! BUT, after church on Sunday I'll be putting my strict "Discipline Plan" into action!

The Writer....er....Reader in Me?? *NaNoWriMo Again*

I have a confession to make: I've been writing!

And not poetry writing or grocery list writing or whatever people write when they put pen to paper, but serious outline driven, dialogue moving, character building type writing. Why? Well why on Earth not?! In the last 2 years I've already read over 80 books. Now I know for you hardcore book bloggers you can read that many books in 6 months or less without breaking a sweat but for me that is a pretty big feat. I am proud of that accomplishment and I'm already on track for having read over 100 books in just 2 years. Excuse me while I give myself a few pats on the back. *brief pause*

I hope you gave yourself a pat on the back as well for suffering through this blog post AND for reading even more books than I could ever imagine. Now that I've got my reading accomplishments out of the way and under control I thought it was high time I did the one thing I've always been so afraid to do: write a novel. And I will say I'm writing it more for myself than for the purposes of publishing it and seeing it on a shelf in a book store...NOT! I mean duh, who wouldn't want to know their book is on a shelf somewhere collecting dust?

For several decades (I find it sad that I'm old enough to use the word "decade" now) I have had dozens of truly wonderful ideas for a novel but never enough patience, courage, or belief in myself that I could follow through and finish. But something happens to you when you hit that "age" and you look back and wonder what have you done with your life. I read all these books by authors younger than myself and I can't help but think, "that could be me." And FINALLY the light bulb went off! I realized, YES that could and should be me! So here I am, days away from participating in an event that will very well be the start of something great.

That event is NaNoWriMo. I've written about it already, where I give a brief synopsis on what I plan on writing. I encourage you to check it out. This post is just a primer of my life up to this point. A life where I honestly felt I was only as good as the books I read not the words I write. So to everyone who knows how good a writer I am (even though I am VERY secretive with my writing outside of my blog) and have been waiting almost as long as I have for that moment when I can say, "it's finished," the time has come!

I have a determination like never before to write 50,000 words and to see my book on a shelf, even if that shelf is just my own here in my bedroom. The fun will not be found in how I got started or how it ends but in the journey I took along the way.

Welcome to the creation of Sterling Addams... Welcome to my journey...

NaNoWriMo is Almost Here!

NaNoWriMo for those of you book bloggers who might not know stands for National Novel Writing Month (as it so cleverly says in the graphic above, duh!). I heard about this organization last year and I "attempted" to participate, but I'm sad to say not one word was written. My writers block got the better of me and I retreated with my tail between my legs back to my comfortable world of reading books and reviewing them. This IS a book reviewing kind of blog where occasionally I might review a movie or television program. Anywho, so here we are again, less than 2 weeks away from the start and THIS TIME I'm ready!

The very simple and easy premise is to simply write, however you prefer to do so, and write some more, throughout the entire month of November. The site offers a great tool that helps you keep track of your word count for you. If you write more than 50,000 words in the month then they'll give you a prize and you'll have met the goal/challenge that they set for everyone. Of course you don't have to meet that goal, but it is a good one at that.

My goal(s) this year is to meet that 50,000 word count in 30 days but most importantly is to finish what I start. I've never really been able to finish a novel once I start with an idea. I can do poetry, I can write a screenplay, but sit me down to write a "novel" and I get nervous. But I just participated in a "twitter forum" of sorts (the first of many that they do) where I got to meet others who are working on their first novel as well so we can share tips and dispel of any fears we might have with each other. It's good to know you're not the only one attempting this for the first time.

I'm more afraid of jinxing myself than of someone "stealing" my idea but I want to share some of it nonetheless. 

My Idea:

Sterling Addams lives in New York City. A city that never sleeps and she knows this fact better than most. She learned all there is to know about the NYC train system from riding back and forth on them growing up. And because of her vast knowledge she's able to assist, in her own unique way, in certain police investigations.

Not many, in the city of over 12 million people, know of Transit District 13 (TD 13). They are a team of specially trained police officers who solve all crimes committed underground deemed too dangerous to allow the public to know about. While Sterling is not a member of this team she is helpful to them, not just because of what she knows about the train system, but because of who she knows down there as well.

Join her, and the narrator of each mystery, Sarah Jefferson, as they take you on a tour of the mean tunnels of New York City like you've never known them before. And stick with her as she solves some of the strangest & dirtiest crimes no one ever hears about.

What do you think?