IN THIS MONTH'S ISSUE: Special Ornaments Losing NaNoWriMo Book 3 Working Title Parade Season Zahra's Earth-Friendly Tip My Personal Gossip |
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SPECIAL ORNAMENTS Traditions make the holiday season memorable. One of my favorites is selecting or making ornaments for our tree. For years, my mom made and gifted all her children and grandchildren their own unique ornament. A couple of years ago, I began doing the same for my kids. Since we decided to cut back for the holidays this year, I'll be handcrafting the ornaments like Mom always did. There will be two new ornaments, however, that were store bought. This year, I decided to splurge on a couple of ornaments to start a new ornament tradition. To celebrate my middle grade series contract, I purchased a laptop ornament and a stack of books ornament. The laptop ornament will mark the year I signed my publishing contract. I'll use a permanent marker to write the year and draw my publisher's logo (as best I can) on it. The stack of books will mark each year of publication. This year, I'll simply hang it as is. Next year, I'll add the title and year of the first book on the spine of one of the books in the stack. Each year, I'll add the next book until the whole series is listed. Maybe by 2026, I'll be shopping for new ornaments to add to my author collection! |
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Last year, I wrote about 38,000 words during November. I was drafting THE BLIND FAIRY, which will be the second book in my middle grade series scheduled for release in May 2023. By mid-January, I completed the draft. This year, I started November with the intention of not only drafting book 3, but winning NaNoWriMo for the first time since 2015. All month long, I kept pace. On November 29, I closed my laptop with 1296 words to go. I was thrilled. Success was within my grasp. Until I woke up on November 30. I'd been battling a cold for a few days. But it was a cold, right? I got up, showered, went to work, and set my sights on getting home and making it to 50,000 words before dinner. By 11 a.m., I was on my way to the doctor. The cold was beating me down. It was parade week at work, so I needed to be well by Thursday. The doctor poked, prodded, tested, and sent me home to bed. All my tests were thankfully negative. However, my swimmy head, stuffy sinuses, and worn out body kept me in bed. There would be no more writing in November. I'm also late getting out this newsletter. So I lost NaNoWriMo once again. Technically. While I didn't quite make it to 50,000 words, I did almost completely draft book 3. That's a huge accomplishment. I'll have the first draft done before I get the developmental edits on the first book, SOCIETY OF THE SENTINELIA, from my editor later this month. That's just as good as a win to me! |
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One of the coolest things that happens when you're writing a novel is magic. Out of nowhere, characters grow, plots develop, and the book names itself. I had a general idea of the plot when I began writing book 3, but the details, and the working title (it's not official, yet) revealed themselves as I wrote day after day, tapping out tens of thousands of words throughout the month. After the first week, the title began to form. Three options initially popped into my head: THE SCRAEBIN TOMES, RAIN FLOWERS, or maybe THE SEVEN SIGNS. None of them sat quite right, though. |
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Then, just before Thanksgiving, my main character Zahra whispered in my ear (metaphorically, of course), "It's a rock, not a book, I have to read the etchings on a rock." Without giving too much away, the working title for book 3 is now (drum roll, please): THE OMEGA CRAG |
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The first weekend of December is when all the parades happen in our little corner of the world. One of the magical aspects of my "day job" as a marketing director for a nonprofit that focuses on children birth to 5 is the opportunity to participate in half a dozen area parades. We walk the parade routes and hand children free books. |
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We call it the Gift of Reading. Staff and volunteers dress up in costumes or holiday-inspired garb. We hand out thousands of books in just a few days. We magically spread a love for reading throughout the lands. The look on a child's face when they take a book is what this season is all about. |
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ZAHRA'S EARTH-FRIENDLY TIP |
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We all know the cardboard wrapping paper tube is recyclable. At least, that's what I told Zahra, the main character in my middle grade series. But then she questioned the wrapping paper itself. She wants us all to recycle after we unwrap. So I did a little research. |
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According to Kimble Companies, here's the scoop on which wrapping papers are recyclable, and which are not. Regular and glossy paper without non-paper additives are recyclable. Paper with additives like metallic flakes, glitter, and plastics are not. Foil, metallic, and laminated wrapping papers are also not recyclable. Zahra's tip? Stick to the plain regular and glossy paper so you can recycle this year! |
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I already mentioned I didn't win NaNoWriMo this year. However, I've got three NaNoWriMo wins under my belt. The years were 2013, 2014, and 2015. They were my women's fiction novel writing years. Yes, I dabbled in women's fiction. After publishing three children's books, I got it in my head that I should write women's fiction. I even attended a conference in New York City to pitch one of the stories. The pitch got lots of attention. The manuscript did not. In the women's fiction genre, I have lots of ideas. Character building, point of view, and plot development, however, were not my strengths. My heart wasn't in it enough to commit to creating a readable, entertaining novel from the drafts I cobbled during NaNoWriMo. All the while, another story was nagging at me. A story about a small woodland creature who was not a fairy. I knew she lived (or was supposed to live) in a tree, because I took pictures of trees, printed them, and taped them to the walls of my home office. |
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When I finally committed to writing her story, I was all in. I wrote the novel and edited it seven, maybe eight times. Every time I re-read, fixed, edited, and polished the manuscript, I fell in love with the story all over again. |
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That's when I knew I was writing what I was supposed to write. Writing and editing is not a chore if you're writing from your soul. Did I waste three years writing awful manuscripts for pretty good ideas? No. It was part of a process that taught me valuable lessons. I learned I can write a novel-length book. And more importantly, I learned I was a children's book author. Through it all, my character building, point of view, and plot development skills improved. No, it wasn't a waste of time. It was an investment in my future as a writer. |
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