I’m bummed.  REALLY bummed.  I won’t be able to participate in NaNo this year.  Hopefully next.  I was really looking forward to seeing that wordcount go up. *sigh*  The reasons I can’t participate are GREAT, and I’ll disclose them later, but I’m still bummed.  I wish I had planned for it and done things differently this year.  Oh well!  I can’t change it now, so I’ll just have to plan better for next Fall.

Who ever thought I’d write a book about a teen demon?  I surely didn’t.  I always wanted to write YA fiction.  As a mom it was appealing, and my love of books really blossomed when I was able to go to my town library alone and spend hours looking up and down the aisles for books.  And believe me, I took hours.  But to write about a teen wasn’t always the plan.  I hated high school.  Wouldn’t want to relive that for anything.  I hate my classmates, didn’t care for myself too much, hated academics, hated that age with no privacy (Mom is a control freak), no independence, no control over my life whatsoever (wonder who I got that from?:P)  Hated it!  I was lonely and had a very low opinion of myself.

So why?  Somewhere along the way from withdrawn, depressed teen emerged this 41 year old adult who sounds like a sixteen year old.  *shrugs* Don’t ask how.  My inner teen came out, probably in other to relate and cope with my budding teen.  Suddenly pretending to think like a teen is fun.  Maybe because I don’t have all those raging hormones this time around.  *smirk*  Maybe because I can revert back to being an adult whenever the need arises too.  I’m secure in knowing my privacy and independence are still intact.  Whatever the reason, I’m having a ball.

Demons…I never had a problem with them, like I do vampires.  Demons are cool.  I just never thought I’d write about them.  I prefer the softer side of paranormal–ghosts, psychic abilities.  Demons are so messy. ;)  But somehow (again with the mystery, huh?) my heroine, Danie, went from an adult, chick-lit-type zombie desperate to get married to a 15 year old demon desperate to find her place.  Maybe not so desperate.  Although at 15 everything seems so dire.  My daughter informed me she would DIE if she had to wear a uniform to school.  *eye roll*  The parent in me came out at that point and dramatically informed her I was certain she wouldn’t D.I.E.

So, Danie has issues, and I’m having a ball figuring them out.  Must get back to my character bios now.  I need to finsih them and any other preliminary research this week and do ALL the outlining next to be ready to start writing a week from Saturday–for NaNo.  I’m so excited!!!  I’m glad to be participating in NaNo this year, but I’m beyond thrilled at the aspect of writing an entire book in one month.  That is super awesome.

Another day of writing FD under my belt and with a total of 18 pages.  Oh yeah, baby!  And more importantly, it was completed before 11 AM and I won’t be sitting in front of this monitor all day long.

I’m seeing the holes in my book.  Nothing too big, but details that need to be added, and I need more interaction early on between my heroine and the other women in the house.  That will have to be added during revisions.  I’m on page 260, want to get to 360 and only have four chapters to go, which means I may be about 50 pages shy come Thursday or Friday when I finish.  That will also have to be added during revisions. lol

Next on my agenda today, other than brunch, is outlining some of Raven’s Mind, my NaNoWirMo project.  I had some thoughts last night but was too tired to begin anything, so hopefully I’ll remember it today. :P  I’m off to do that now.  I’m realizing I need to add A LOT more external conflict to my stories.  Gonna work on that today.

It’s been a great morning!

So far, it’s 9:45, I got up at 7 and worked out and just finished 12 pages of writing.  I want this chapter to be longer, but maybe I can find places to layer on the editing round.  I am just so thrilled with the amount of pages and how fast I got done.  See, self, it is doable.

Giada’s at a sad place right now.  Another contestant has gone home, and it’s down to the final three.  She should be excited, right?  Well, the next chapter (tomorrow) she’s going to still be in a weird sort and then the following chapter has her pretty freaky.  LOL, can’t wait for that one.

Last night, I spent a few hours brainstorming Raven’s Mind (changed the working title from Raven’s Echo).  I’m at a good spot in that too and can’t wait to get back at it.  Of course there are some housely chores I’ve been neglecting that need to get done pronto, but with the kids, cooking and whatnot, I should be back to Raven by this afternoon.

Since NaNo allows space for a mock book cover, I went ahead and created one.  It’s not professional, but I’m soooo pleased with it.  For one, I snapped it together in like 15 minutes.  No sweating and pulling hair like when I created headers.  And, it’s cool.  I used two photo samples that I downloaded for the story–you know, like as a collage to look at while writing.  One is the house and the second is Raven, so it fits real well.  I wanted to include the “boogeyman” but it didn’t look right so I nixed it.

Here it is:

What do you think?  Pretty cool, huh?  :-D  I’m happy.

Ok, today I’m feeling a bit gleeful.

Not only did I complete my 14 pages *pats self on back* by late morning, I also signed up for NaNoWriMo (that was actually done yesterday) and  am rearing to go on my next book.  This one I am jazzed about.  It includes certain elements I’ve been dying to sink my teeth into, such as urban legends, fear and the feeling of being trapped inside your mind.

I’m very excited about doing Nano this year, haven’t done it since 03 or 04, so now I must get to my brainstorming, but the other thing that has me so happy is a post I read on AuthorMBA.

Self-talk!  What do we say to ourselves and how does it affect our lives.

I’m a FIRM believer in “thoughts become things”, yet I’ll sit here and think, “I suck at titles.  I can’t write well enough.  I get bored too easily.” and more.  What am I doing to myself?  So now my thoughts are filled with, “I write well.  I write a chapter a day.”, etc.  See how easy?  Oooh, I know another one…  “I write interesting blog posts.”  Huh?  Huh?