#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.

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!

Read of the Town: Salinger

I was going to leave my "Read of the Town" posts to Fridays but realized a book everyone is talking about can happen any time. The Robert Galbraith book, The Cuckoo's Calling, comes to mind. Therefore, I'll post these as I see fit and whenever I hear of or see a book being read by the masses. Of course this may not be a current book either. The Great Gatsby when it was made into a feature motion picture comes to mind.

I write these as a reminder to myself of a book I might want to visit a book store and buy as well as for you my avid reader, to find something you might be interested in. I don't normally advocate reading the "bestseller" or what everyone else is reading, but every now and again there is something worth taking a peak at, even if it happens to be popular this season.

With all that said and out of the way, recently there has been some buzz about a certain author and the extensive research done into his life. Elusive as he may have been in life, posthumously, some secrets told and untold have been discovered. The author in question is none other than J.D. Salinger. The man who wrote one of the classic books of all time Catcher in the Rye.

  

J.D. Salinger has made his way back into the households of fans and newcomers alike. Unfortunately he has not made his way into my household or even my many bookshelves for that matter. I've never read nor had to read Catcher in the Rye. Although I have heard of him through that title being mentioned from time to time in other books I've read and movies I've seen I can't say I've wanted to read that book. I remember vaguely picking up a copy my mom brought home of Catcher in the Rye but not finding any interest in it whatsoever. It seemed like a "boys book" and I just couldn't relate to Holden at all. But curiosity never goes away and the fact that many are fascinated by the idea there may be MORE books he wrote that will be published next year, fascinates me as well. I am easily fascinated when it comes to the large and vast world of literature.

Of course this book is out as a tell-all book and sort of a companion to the movie that premiered this past Friday. I probably won't see the documentary that's supposed to be quite fascinating. I have been using that word a lot this post haven't I? Fascinate...lovely to say and ponder about...

Anyway, the poster leaves much to the imagination and I'm sure if I was a Salinger fan as I'm sure many still are, it would entice me to want to rush to a small intimate theater somewhere in the LES (Lower East Side of Manhattan for those not familiar with New York lingo) and watch it with my fellow Salinger-ites(??).

Will you be buying the book or seeing the movie? Have you already? Are you a Salinger fan? If so, tell me what it is about the writer or even the man that makes him admired, appreciated, and considered one of the best of his generation and even of this one?

Summary:

THE BOY WHO BECAME A REBEL. THE REBEL WHO BECAME A SOLDIER. THE SOLDIER WHO BECAME AN ICON. THE ICON WHO DISAPPEARED.

Raised in Park Avenue privilege, J. D. Salinger sought out combat, surviving five bloody battles of World War II, and out of that crucible he created a novel, The Catcher in the Rye, which journeyed deep into his own despair and redefined postwar America.

For more than fifty years, Salinger has been one of the most elusive figures in American history. All of the attempts to uncover the truth about why he disappeared have been undermined by a lack of access and the recycling of inaccurate information. In the course of a nine-year investigation, and especially in the three years since Salinger’s death, David Shields and Shane Salerno have interviewed more than 200 people on five continents (many of whom had previously refused to go on the record) to solve the mystery of what happened to Salinger.

Constructed like a thriller, this oral biography takes you into Salinger’s private world for the first time, through the voices of those closest to him: his World War II brothers-in-arms, his family, his friends, his lovers, his classmates, his editors, his New Yorker colleagues, his spiritual advisors, and people with whom he had relationships that were secret even to his own family. Their intimate recollections are supported by more than 175 photos (many never seen before), diaries, legal records, and private documents that are woven throughout; in addition, appearing here for the first time, are Salinger’s “lost letters”—ranging from the 1940s to 2008, revealing his intimate views on love, literature, fame, religion, war, and death, and providing a raw and revelatory self-portrait.

Salinger published his last story in 1965 but kept writing continuously until his death, locked for years inside a bunker in the woods, compiling manuscripts and filing them in a secret vault. Was he a genius who left the material world to focus on creating immaculate art or a haunted recluse, lost in his private obsessions? Why did this writer, celebrated by the world, stop publishing? Shields and Salerno’s investigation into Salinger’s epic life transports you from the bloody beaches of Normandy, where Salinger landed under fire, carrying the first six chapters of The Catcher in the Rye . . . to the hottest nightclub in the world, the Stork Club, where he romanced the beautiful sixteen-year-old Oona O’Neill until she met Charlie Chaplin . . . from his top-secret counterintelligence duties, which took him to a subcamp of Dachau . . . to a love affair with a likely Gestapo agent whom he married and brought home to his Jewish parents’ Park Avenue apartment and photographs of whom appear here for the first time . . . from the pages of the New Yorker, where he found his voice by transforming the wounds of war into the bow of art . . . to the woods of New Hampshire, where the Vedanta religion took over his life and forced his flesh-and-blood family to compete with his imaginary Glass family.

Deepening our understanding of a major literary and cultural figure, and filled with many fascinating revelations— including the birth defect that was the real reason Salinger was initially turned down for military service; the previously unknown romantic interest who was fourteen when Salinger met her and, he said, inspired the title character of “For Esmé—with Love and Squalor”; the first photographs ever seen of Salinger at war and the last known photos of him alive; never-before-published love letters that Salinger, at fifty-three, wrote to an eighteen-year-old Joyce Maynard; and, finally, what millions have been waiting decades for: the contents of his legendary vault—Salinger is a monumental book about the cost of war and the cost of art.