Made It!

*Brushes off hands*

Another NaNo done and I achieved my goal. My story now is at 51,213 total words, or about 28k written in November. I do feel a bit guitly about going rogue, but I accomplished what I wanted to--for now. After all, fifty thousand does not a book make.

Thank you NaNo for giving me the encouraging place and a deadline.

I'm still not quite sure what The Long Day is, but I've put some ideas on paper. Now to go back and properly flush them out.

Kick in the Pants

Man, I don't know how the rest of you who have full time jobs find the energy to write. After a day of teaching I have no creative juice left. Granted, I work with emotionally, and physically challenging students with behavior issues. Still, I'm sure many of you out there have stressful jobs too.

*shakes out limbs*

Okay, now that I have that out of my system...

I've decided to cheat.
I'm going to be a November NaNo rebel.

One of the biggy rules for NaNoWriMo is that you are supposed to work on something new: no writing before Nov 1, except plotting. But, I'm going to come clean here, I'm going to use NaNo this year to see if I can push Water, Water, Never There over the 50k mark. The point of NaNo is to get the writer to commit time and to focus on a goal. I'll be doing that.

Mea Culpa.

I Published a Book!

I did it! I self-published my historical fiction book---Rule Number One: Know Thy Enemy.

It's pretty exciting to hold your own book. Now the challenge is selling it. For me, that's a two pronged problem, probably one shared by many writers.

First, I have to ask people to buy it. I'm not someone who's naturally comfortable with sales. For example, I wasn't one of those girl scouts who sold a ton of cookies. Most of my cookie sales came via my mom who'd take orders at work. My mom's not around anymore, so time to pull up my big girl panties, as the saying goes.

Second, people are going to ask, "What's your book about?" You'd think this part would be easy--I've spent a great deal of time thinking about it, writing it, editing it...editing it again...and again. (You see where I'm going with that.) But for some reason, I have a hard time summarizing what it's about. Phil (my beloved) calls it my 9 second speech. I see all the bits. When I focus on one part, the others feel left out.

Truth be told, it probably has more to do with the nervousness of putting my baby out in the world and fearing rejection, so I find myself hemming and hawing. So, let me practice here.

Rule Number One is about a young woman whose marriage seals an alliance between two powerful kingdoms. Though wary that the prince is as kind as he seems, she's relieved to finally be free of her abusive brothers. Then she's kidnapped from the royal garden. Rescue comes quickly, but rumors soon fly about the legitimacy of the child she carries. If she doesn't figure out who orchestrated the kidnapping a usurper could lay claim to the crown.


You can purchase Rule Number One: Know Thy Enemy here. And please, go to Amazon and leave a review!

You can hear me read the prologue and/or read it for yourself, and chapter one too by clicking here.

The end, that isn't an ending

Camp NaNo is over and much to my surprise I ended the month with 23,000 words! I'm feeling kind of jazzed to keep on.

I came upon an exciting scene where my MC meets up with her mother, a woman with an ax to grind -- well, who can blame her? M'miri killed two of her other mothers.

If you want to know how it played out you'll have to read my manuscript!

You know how some scenes just sing? This was one of them. It was a fun scene to write, and I'll admit I'm rather proud of it.

Still not 100% sure I have a novel length book, but the odds are feeling a lot better.

Update: Water, Water, Never There

Well I must say I'm feeling pretty excited. I just upped my word goal to 20,000! Three weeks ago I didn't think I'd hit 15,000. I still don't see a full lenght book, but you know, it might not be impossible.

So far I've discovered there are culling squads in some towns and villages. People are so full of hatred towards Elementari for things that happened in the past that they are rounding them up and killing them, like rats carrying the Bubonic Plague.

Also, there is this stranger who can pull the moisture out of M'miri. At least, I think that's what he does. He's still a bit mysterious to me. I suspect we'll learn more about him.

Then, kind of against her will, M'miri has picked up companions.

And get this, her mothers drown people and eat them! No wonder she hit the road. A lot can happen in 17,000 words!

Camp NaNoWriMo - Water, Water, Never There

Well, I've decided to see what I can coerce out of my WordSpring story which I've decided to title: Water, Water, Never There.

I've registered for Camp NaNoWriMo and set myself a very modest, though currently overwhelming, goal of 18,000 words.

That's the advantage of Camp, you get to set your own word count goals--and for the first 2+ weeks you can revise it up or down. Since I've no idea what I'm going to write, this seems like a safe challenge.

I've got that fear of failure lurking over my shoulder, but I'm going to banish my 'inner editor', as NaNo's YWP calls it, and try to remain positive!

First Scene - magical realism or fantasy?

Several weeks ago I wrote about my first conference and the scene I came up with during the magical realism workshop. I thought I'd post it here. Maybe typing it up will give me some storyline inspiration.

*************

There was a time when the Elementari were prolfic and welcomed in every town and encampment, their gifts deemed to bring good fortune. But memory of that time was fading. That was before the Long Day. In this age, children born with sense sight were often drowned at birth or abandoned.

-------

M'miri left the fire circle and wandered up the hillside overlooking the settlement, through brown, brittle grass that crunched underfoot. The bag of coins the elders had given her jangled on her hip. She crested the knoll and circled around. Vibrations tickled the hairs on her legs, letting her know she had found the spot.

She sat down and waited. M'miri closed her sight eyes and opened sense sight. Soon she began to see them. The droplets of moisture drifting lazily in the air. Concentrating, she drew the droplets together. As they joined, their masses increased. They could no longer drift about aimless and carefree. M'miri could feel their wieght pressing down upon her.

As the first raindrops fell, her sense sight closed. She opened her sight eyes and headed down the hill, leaving this village behind. The wind picked up, her scarf blew off exposing her long blue hair. M'miri scooped the silk as it tried to escape in a swirl of dust. She listened to the rain hit the dry leaves of the trees behind her. Down the road lay another settlement in need.

******

Okay, I know this needs some editing (I read the passivity and alliteration in some of the sentences I was typing!) But, it's a start. Now to see if it lights a spark.

WordSpring

This weekend I had the opportunity to attend a writing conference held at one of the local community colleges with a few members of our local critique group. I wasn't sure what to expect from a writing conference, certainly not one held at a jr. college. I was pleasantly surprised.

Butte College has been hosting WordSpring for several years, this being the 5th Annual. It was a one day affair. I attended four workshops. Three were good, one was meh. Not a bad percentage. Classes were offered by staff from Butte College and published authors.

The workshop I was most excited about was one on Magical Realism. I had no idea what MR was, but it sounded intriguing. The definition given by the presenter was a little vague. I must admit, I'm still not 100% sure about the difference between MR and Fantasy.

Please let me explain my confusion. He said that in MR most of the world is pretty much like this one, whether present day or past, but that within this 'ordinary' world was an element of magic. At this point I kind of thought I understood.

Then someone asked for examples. He offered (among others) Harry Potter. This was hottly debated by audience members and where my confusion comes in. Much of Harry Potter is the normal world, but magic shows up in many places in many forms. Not only that, but there are mystical creatures everywhere one turns. If Harry Potter is MR, then what constitutes fantasy? I could feel my understanding of MR slipping away.

People agreed to disagree and we moved on. Towards the end of his time he told us to take five minutes and try to write a MR scene. I mulled over his words: like this world but with an element of magic.

Element. I guess I fixated on that word. I wrote my scene and when time was up he asked us to share it with a partner. I shared mine with a woman from my critique group. She was impressed and refused to read hers. On the ride back home she told everyone that I had this awesome idea for a book.

Now, who doesn't like to hear that? The problem is, I felt like an impostor. At the moment, I've no idea about any other aspects of the story. She has such faith in me, I hope that inspiration seeps into my consciousness soon.

I Published a Book!

Well, I did it! I self published book one in my historical fiction series.

It is titled: Rule Number One: Know Thy Enemy
It can be found Here

This was in the works a long, long time. It started as something I'd mull around/daydream about driving to and from work at a bookstore in Aptos, CA. I had about a 15 minute commute each way, and it helped me pass the time.

I took a different job, with a longer commute, and when I wasn't singing to my Joni Mitchell tape (yep, I said it, tape) I'd ponder what mischief Genevieve was getting into or out of.

I got married, had kids, and the story didn't go very far. Then, one day as I I stood in the middle of my living room practicing how Genevieve would challenge one of her detractors I stopped. If I'm acting out an imaginary world...in my 40s...isn't that a little crazy?

Then I had a 'Eureka!' moment. It wasn't crazy if I was doing it towork through the characters in a book. I needed to become a writer!

I bought my self a notebook and began writing. That was ten years ago. Egad! Well, to be honest, I didn't yet consider myself a writer. I mean, people like Stephan King, Emily Bronte, and JRR Tolkein were writers, I was just Geri. It took me eight of those years to allow myself to 'come out' as a writer.

So, here I am, with a book--an actually book--in my hands with my name on the cover and my words inbetween.

I hope some peopel buy it, and more importantly, enjoy reading it.

Geri Copitch, author