Choosing a project for NaNoWriMo 2013

For the twelfth year in a row, I'll be participating in NaNoWriMo and have decided to revisit and "reboot" one of two ideas I've worked with in previous years.

In the previous two posts, I listed excerpts from each project to give you an idea of which things I'm considering.

What I'd like now is for you to read over those excerpts, linked below to make it easier, and then go fill out the handy-dandy survey to pick which one you'd rather see I focus on for the month of November.

Laikhostra
Untitled Lesbian Selkie Romance

Vote for your favorite here.

The poll will be open until 31 October 2013, so that I can begin writing on 1 November 2013.  

Thank you for your assistance in helping me choose the project to reboot and attempt to finish this year during NaNoWriMo.

NaNoWriMo 2013 Possible Project :: Excerpt #2

I first worked on this project as a fanfic idea for Addison Montgomery of Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice fame, then chose to change it to an original novel project instead in 2008.  Both versions are set in the Puget Sound area, more specifically at the Point No Point Lighthouse in Hansville, WA.  The final version may or may not have the town/distinguishing features changed.  I haven't decided yet.

This story does have a supernatural bent, as it involves a female seal-shifter, or selkie, specifically shifting into a harbor seal.  I am still doing research into local indigenous stories and legends that involve skin-shifters, particularly of the pinnaped variety, but am willing to entertain changes in that vein if necessary.

There's no title on this piece yet, as I'm still waiting on that information from the story itself.

NaNoWriMo 2013 Possible Project :: Excerpt #1

Laikhostra is a project I've been working on since 2002 and the very first year I participated in NaNoWriMo.  There are actually several other excerpts from this universe here in my journal, so you may be familiar with the characters.

 

Fiction Friday :: "At First Sight"

Yes, I'm a day late on getting this up, but considering I let a whole month go by without posting anything, I think I'll let that slide.  *g*

Note :: This was originally written on 31 October 2010.  This one delves into the background of Kerai and Zandra's relationship in the Laikhostra universe.

Where did July go?

I cannot believe that it's been a full month since I last posted anything here.  Strange things have been afoot, to say the least.  So I'll take this opportunity to get caught up and start over again.  This is going to be based on the What's Up Wednesday posts, but with a slightly different structure.

What I'm Reading
I've been reading a lot of books on art journaling this past month.  I'm not sure I'll actually do a lot of it, as it seems beyond my skills level, but I'm getting interesting prompts for things I can try in my own art journals.  I've also been doing a full series reread of the First People books by W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear in publication order, as I'd initially read them out of order.  The overlying themes make much more sense when they're read in order.  I'm currently halfway through People of the Lightning, and remembering why I love these books so much.

I'm thinking of doing a reread of Sea Magic: Connecting with the Ocean's Energy by Sandra Kynes and a couple of my writing books, just have to decide when and all.

What I'm Writing
My July writing word count totals got quite a boost.  In fact, I had the highest total word count month in my life for July, to the tune over just over 100k words written in various projects.  The background work on one of the stories I'm co-writing got a whole lot of new information, thanks to my RP work over on Twitter.

I finished up the poetry for codename: Podfic Poetry last week.  Just over 1000 words of poetry in three different styles.  Now it's just a matter of waiting for my partner to do the podficcing for it.

The rest of my projects are still behind, but I'm planning to make up for that this month.

What Else I've Been Up To
I've been doing a lot of crafting this summer.  Lots of ATCs being made, mostly of the Zentangle variety, with or without watercolor accents.  I worked on a few crocheted projects, too, mostly a couple of hat patterns.  And work is still slowly apace for the redoing of the office with BD.  Once that's done, I'll start on my bedroom.

What Inspires Me Right Now
Well, I suppose life is still inspiring me.  And the Zen of lines in artwork.  Told you I've been doing a lot of Zentangle work lately.  LOL!

What’s up with you today?

What's Up Wednesday for 3 July 2013

It's What's Up Wednesday again!

First, an update on my goals from last week.  I managed to accomplish four of my ten goals from last week.  Between the awful heat causing mini-migraines and the BFF stress, a lot of my concentration and productivity was utterly shot.

• Final word count was 7125 words
• Went through my "possible submission options" folder and did a major cleaning.  I even have a couple of options to work on for submissions now.
• Got my Ons/Offs posted & updated my profile over at Elliquiy
• Posted two sneak peek ficlets for Laikhostra.  A day late, but got them posted.

What I'm Reading

• Journalution: Journal Writing to Awaken Your Inner Voice, Heal Your Life, and Manifest Your Dreams 
• The Art Journal Workshop: Break Through, Explore, and Make it Your Own
• People of the Lakes

Nope, haven't progressed beyond these same three books. I need to be fixing that ASAP, if only because  two of those books are due early next week [along with like 6 others that I haven't touched yet].  I'll have to see if reading gets done this week or if I have to renew them again.

What I'm Writing
Other than the RP that is going pretty swimmingly again, after a bit of a dry spell due to the aforementioned stress and heat, my writing's been pretty slim again this week.  But we seem to be in a lull week, so let's see if we can get it going again, yes?

Fiction Friday, Part 2 :: "Unexpected"

Note :: This story was originally written on 31 October 2010.  It's another bit of character and world development for Laikhostra.  This time, we get a bit more on Kerai's mate, Zandra, and the relationship they share.

Fiction Friday, Part 1 :: "Precision"

Posting a day late again, but it's still within 24 hours, so I say it's still good. :)


Note :: This story was originally written on 31 October 2010.  It's another bit of character and world development for Laikhostra.  This time, we get a bit of an introduction to Kerai's mate, Zandra, and the relationship they share.

Summer has arrived!

Well, we've definitely hit the summer weather here in Puget Sound!  For the record, I'm not much for weather much higher than about 75F.  Once it hits 90F or higher, I'm done.  Heat can cause migraines for me, so there you go.

But we're currently sporting a temp of 79F, just edging out of my comfort zone.  Thankfully my home office is in the basement, so it takes quite a bit of heat to make it miserable down here.  And we do have 4 different portable/window A/C units if they're absolutely needed.  We haven't had to use them in at least 3 years now, so I consider that a good thing.

One thing I will say about the hotter summer temps is that they can play into BD's odd sleep patterns.  Case in point: Before going to bed at 0600 this morning, she put some chicken in the oven to bake low and slow while it was cool.  I woke up at 0730 to the lovely aroma of baking chicken and took it out of the oven at 0800.  Of course, I had to nibble a bit to make sure it was fully cooked.  The rest will be shredded and included in BD's enchilada casserole that is so very yummy!

Have been working on some of my goals for Ready, Set, Write this weekend.  Fiction Friday didn't get posted yesterday due to a few different reasons that I don't want to get into right now, but I'll be doing both last week's story and this week's story as soon as I post this one up.  Have had a nice talk with my Podfic Poetry partner today, so know where to start on that.  And I still have plans for working on the Elliquiy and Epic goals this weekend yet, plus maybe a couple others. We'll see how that goes.

So how's your weekend going?

What's Up Wednesday for 26 June 2013

Welcome to the inaugural post for "What's up Wednesday" at Vibrant Scribbles.  This is going to [hopefully] be my weekly post to keep on track with my goals and such.  Well, and let y'all know what it is I'm up to currently.  So let's get started, shall we?


What I'm Reading

• Journalution: Journal Writing to Awaken Your Inner Voice, Heal Your Life, and Manifest Your Dreams 
• The Art Journal Workshop: Break Through, Explore, and Make it Your Own
• People of the Lakes

As you can see from the first two books, I've been doing a lot of research into the whole art journaling phenomenon, as well as smashbooking/junk journaling, as a way of expanding on my creativity.  I love finding new ways to explore creativity and inspiration, so there you go.  The last book is a reread.  I've been slowly rereading the entire series of books by W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear in order, as my first read of them was wildly out of order.  It's amazing the parallels you can see when you read them in order. LOL!

What I'm Writing
Right now, I'm not doing nearly enough writing.  Am hoping to start fixing that this week.  Oh, I'm getting wordcount goals, but it's mostly due to some RP I've been doing, not "marketable" work.  Granted, the RP work is character development and background for some fannish work I've got going, but again, that's not marketable work because I'm a firm proponent of the "no money for fanfic" rule.

There are several irons I'd like to get into the fire this week, all of which are going to be my Ready, Set, Write goals for this week.  Some of these are holdovers from the last set of goals I'd created in my previous post for my first week of Ready, Set, Write, and will continue to be so until they're fulfilled.  I managed to get one of the four goals completed, which was signing up and getting vetted over at Elliquiy. I haven't done anything over there yet, but I was working on a different project that required my time. Now it's time to start working on writing over there.

Ready, Set, Write!

So I've signed up for this project, thanks to Nicole prodding me over on Twitter last night.  It's a perfect way for me to rejuvenate this blog AND get my original fiction writing going strong again.  Better to try and fail than not to try at all, right?

So here's my list of goals for this first, partial week of Ready, Set, Writer.

• Work through my "possible submissions" sites to find at least 3 good matches to work with in the coming week
• Sign up over at elliquiy to get my vetting process started there
• Pull out the Laikhostra story files & start looking at where I need to go next
• Read one of the book preview copies I have & write/post a review of it

That's a lot of goals to accomplish by Tuesday, but if I get off my butt, I can do it.  I can't consider myself a professional writer if I'm not doing any professional writing, can I?  No, I didn't think so...

Fiction Friday :: "Ritual"

So I'm a little late on the Friday part of it, but I've decided to start doing this wonderful Friday Fiction idea that I learned about fro a friend on twitter.

Note :: This story was originally written on 31 October 2010.  It's another bit of character and world development for Laikhostra, this time centered on Kerai, one of the main characters, and the religious beliefs she ascribes to.