Tag: national novel writing month

Song of the Week

Aoife O’Donovan, “The King of All Birds”

Good morning and happy Monday!

I am happy to announce that I achieved my Camp NaNoWriMo goal of 30,000 words for the month of April.

A screenshot of the NaNoWriMo Stats page, showing 30379/30000 total words

I am about halfway done with Part Three of The Book of the New Moon Door! I’m setting another 30,000 word goal for May, to finish the draft.

On the subject of New Moon Door, the next chapter will post to Patreon tomorrow. I’ll have the latest chapter of Journey to the Water up here on Wednesday. Because I’m spending all my writing time on New Moon Door, there won’t be a new episode of The Well Below the Valley this month, but I hope to pick it up again soon.

In case you missed it, I’m going to What the Hex Witches’ Market on Saturday, May 6! You can find all the information you need, plus a sneak preview of my new bookmark, at this link. Entry is free! I hope to see you there.

As always, I appreciate you. Have an excellent week.

Year in Review, Part the Second

2022 is almost over. Where to start?

I lost my beloved cat Odin, my steadfast writing buddy, this year. He was the sweetest, most anxious boy, who needed constant hugs (over the left shoulder, so he could rub his face against your face). No one could ever replace him, but we did adopt a kitten in the summer. Shepard has adjusted well to her new home, and gets along all right with Solaire (who quite liked being an only cat for a few months).

This was also a year of civil engagement for me, as I voted in all four elections by mail so that I could work at a polling place each time.

I did some writing, too!

  • I published Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea in January! It is now a real book that you can hold in your hands, keep on your e-reader, and/or place on your shelf. If my math is correct, I’ve sold 97 copies so far. It’s not much, in the grand scheme of things, but that’s more people than I ever expected to read anything I’ve written.
  • I continued Journey to the Water, the sequel to Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea, and though Eske’s adventures aren’t finished yet, he’s made a lot of progress.
  • Though I didn’t finish NaNo this year, I did complete Part Two of The Book of the New Moon Door! Those chapters will continue to post week by week as I begin Part Three.
  • I started adapting my Call of Cthulhu module, The Well Below the Valley, into the script for an audio drama, released (mostly) once a month on Patreon.
  • I started The Tarot of the Gates, a collaborative project with Brooke Marie Miller, my very good friend and the artist behind the Figuratively Speaking Tarot.
  • Also with Brooke, I went to my first event as an author: Bitchcraft Fair Milwaukee!
  • The second Reader Poll indicated some interest in an email newsletter, and I finally started it at the end of October.
  • Lastly, I did finish a (truly awful) draft of the “big book,” a 500+ page manuscript, and read it over.

Here are some of my goals for next year:

  • I want to finish The Book of the New Moon Door and publish it by the end of 2023.
  • I also intend to finish Journey to the Water for a 2024 release.
  • The script for The Well Below the Valley will continue! It’s too early to say when it will be finished.
  • I want to make a plan for the publication of the Tarot of the Gates book and deck, and get started on that.
  • I hope to go to more events in 2023 and sign more books!
  • I’ll return to the “big book” and start a better draft.
  • I’m not great at short stories, but I want to be better, and publish some short fiction on the blog.
  • I also want to write more discussion posts.
  • To help with my reach, I want to do more with Twitch and YouTube.
  • Depending on when my current projects finish, I might start a new serial novel.

Happy New Year! May 2023 bring you good things.

Song of the Week

Poe, “Fingertips”

Good morning! It’s Monday again.

Between my many, many projects, the holidays, and various personal complications, I’ve lost track of NaNoWriMo and I won’t be able to finish. It’s the proverbial plate I’ve chosen to let drop so I can fulfill my other obligations, including getting chapters out to you on time. Even though I won’t “win” this year, I made a ton of progress on The Book of the New Moon Door, and will be finishing Part Two this week! Like I’ve mentioned before, this has moved up the timeline, and it’s looking like I’ll be able to publish New Moon Door next year.

Also happening this week: a new chapter of Journey to the Water goes up on Patreon tomorrow, the latest chapter of The Book of the New Moon Door will be up here on Wednesday, and a new episode of The Well Below the Valley will also be on Patreon on Thursday.

Also also: the November edition of the newsletter will go out Wednesday! If you’re not signed up yet, put your email into the box at this link, and then check your inbox for a confirmation email. (You won’t get the newsletter if you don’t click the confirmation link.)

As always, I appreciate you. Have an excellent week, stay warm, and stop by again soon.

Song of the Week

Halsey, “I Walk the Line” (Johnny Cash cover)

Good morning.

My heart goes out to the queer community of Colorado Springs today, and I find comfort in the thought that for every person who chooses to do evil, there are twice as many who choose courage, justice, and selflessness.

Not much to report this week; I’m behind on NaNo again, and I’m not sure I’m going to manage to complete the challenge this time, but I have managed to make a lot of progress on The Book of the New Moon Door. A new chapter will be up on Patreon tomorrow, and the latest chapter of Journey to the Water will be up here on Wednesday. I’m also working on the next episode of The Well Below the Valley, which will be published December 1st.

Have an excellent week and tell your friends you love them. As always, I appreciate you.

Song of the Week

Kamelot, “On the Coldest Winter Night”

Good morning! I hope you’re well on this chilly Monday.

I am slightly less behind on NaNo as of today, and I’m continuing to try to catch up. Part Two of The Book of the New Moon Door is almost done. I think I’ll be able to start Part Three before the month is out. What this means for you, dear reader, is that I’ll have a lot fewer interruptions to the posting schedule going forward, and New Moon Door will be finished and ready to begin the publishing process (including many, many rounds of edits) around mid-2023, and (tentatively) published by the end of the year. This is very exciting for me, because I didn’t think I’d be able to get another book out next year, as both New Moon Door and Journey to the Water are looking to be much longer than Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea.

So, for this week: a new chapter of Journey to the Water will be up on Patreon tomorrow, and the latest chapter of The Book of the New Moon Door will be here on the blog on Wednesday.

I think that’s all my updates for today! Take care and have an excellent week.

Song of the Week

Sara Lov, “My Body is a Cage” (Arcade Fire cover)

Good morning!

If you’re in the US, tomorrow is election day! Go vote if you haven’t already! It’s important for the health of our democracy that everyone has a hand in choosing the people they’re going to argue with for the next 4-8 years. Here’s a handy link where you can find your polling place.

I will be working at a polling place tomorrow, so the new chapter of The Book of the New Moon Door will go up on Patreon Wednesday, and the latest chapter of Journey to the Water will be up here on Thursday.

In other news, I’m already behind on NaNo. Hopefully I can catch up this week.

If you haven’t signed up for the newsletter yet, you can put your email into the box at this link. It’ll send you a confirmation email. The next issue will go out at the end of the month. At some point, when I have the mental fortitude to stare at HTML for half an hour, I will embed a button on the site somewhere.

I think that’s it for today! Have an excellent week, and stop by again soon. I appreciate you.

Song of the Week

Joe Hisaishi, “The Dragon Boy” (from Spirited Away)

Good morning, happy Monday, and a pleasant spooky/harvest holiday to you!

The first order of business for this week is the newsletter! The inaugural October issue will go out at about noon today. If you would like to receive it, and haven’t signed up yet, you can put your email into the box at this link. It will send you a confirmation email. Once you’ve confirmed, you are on the mailing list!

Second order of business: the next chapter of Journey to the Water and Episode Seven of The Well Below the Valley will both be released on Patreon tomorrow!

Third and last: NaNoWriMo is coming. My goal is to write 50,000 words of The Book of the New Moon Door in the month of November, finishing Part Two and making some headway into Part Three (possibly finishing the entire thing, depending on how it goes). This will give me a nice backlog that will prevent future disruptions to the usual posting schedule and get me closer to being able to edit and prepare it for publishing!

I think that’s all for today. Thanks for being here, and have an excellent week.

Year in Review, Part the Second

This was a rough year. The pandemic continues, as does injustice, but all hope for change has not been thwarted yet.

Here are some things I accomplished this year:

  • I started streaming again, launching the Tea and Sidequests channel.
  • My husband and I bought a house in possibly the worst market ever, and moved in June! This involved a fight with our former landlord, which is finally reaching its conclusion.
  • I completed Part One of The Book of the New Moon Door!
  • The first Reader Poll told me that the most popular next project was the sequel to Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea, so I started Journey to the Water.
  • I left my day job to focus on writing full-time.
  • As a birthday gift to me, my friends bought me an ad on the One-Shot Campaign podcast, bringing in a few more readers. (Hi there!!)
  • I officially launched my Patreon! I have five subscribers now, and I really appreciate their support.
  • During NaNoWriMo, I rewrote Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea and am now preparing it for self-publishing in January. If you missed the cover reveal, you can take a look here.
  • I continue to survive the plague (vaccinated and boosted) and fight the good fight in whatever small ways I can.

For next year, I hope to keep this going:

  • I want to publish Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea by the end of January.
  • Journey to the Water will continue, and likely finish in late 2022, at which point I will start editing it for publication as well.
  • Part Two of The Book of the New Moon Door will begin soon, probably in February after Frost-Cold Sea is released.
  • I’ve had to put my “big book,” the 500+ page manuscript I hope to traditionally publish, on hold, so I intend to un-shelve it this year.
  • I also want to start two new projects this year, one for Patreon supporters only, and another for the blog (with Patreon subscribers getting chapters a week early).
  • Lastly, I plan to expand my audience, which means publishing, being more active on social media, and continuing to write.

Happy New Year, all. I appreciate you being here.

Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea Update!

Hello, friends! The new draft of Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea is done! It clocks in at 89,811 words.

Now it’s time for line edits. Wish me luck!

NaNo Update: Calling It Here

Hello, friends. As predicted, the booster shot has hit me like a small-to-medium tractor, and my whole body hurts and my brain is mush.

The final update

I am about halfway through Chapter XXIV of Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea, with a total of 76,832 words. The draft has grown more than I anticipated! The original version of this book, published on this blog between 2019 and 2020, was 77,707 words. With three and a half chapters left, I’m guessing this new version will be well over the expected 80k.

I expect I’ll be back at it tomorrow–my second Covid shot back in April put me down for about 24 hours–and I hope to have this draft done by the end of the week. Then comes final revisions, researching ebook and print-on-demand platforms, formatting, and uploading!

I will keep you posted!

Also, check back tomorrow for the latest chapter of Journey to the Water.

I appreciate you!