Anti-Nano Rides again

Happy November! Good luck to everyone doing Nanowrimo this year. May the words come fast and often. As usual, I will not be doing Nanowrimo but, as is now tradition, I will be joining in spirit with Anti-Nano.

For newcomers, Anti-Nano is my way of tapping into all that gooey writerly energy and enthusiasm in November without over-taxing my knackered wrists, arms, and (currently possibly cracked) finger bones. My rotator cuff problems mean I can't really commit to a daily writing schedule, especially in the colder months when the weather aggravates the various joint/muscle complaints I have. But I do set myself a personal goal every November and I try to check in here on Mondays and Fridays, with snippets as per usual on Wednesdays, to keep myself accountable and hopefully give you guys something to read.

So! The goal this year is sort of nebulous. I want to write 1k a day on Through Fire, which is pretty doable...starting next week. This first week of November, I'm running a sale over at Common Brimstone before closing for a couple of months. So I'm currently swamped with perfume orders and foresee spending pretty much every evening this week and all weekend working on those so I can close the shop next week and focus 100% on writing for a few months. So whilst I'd like to get some words down this week, I'm not going to stress too much if I don't.

I'd also like to start on Pale Queen, the companion novella to Through Fire. I'd also also like to start redrafting In Cold Blood, and I'd also also also like to start prepping AFTERLIFE and DEMONIZED for self-publishing. I think the best plan is aim for 1k a day on Through Fire in the week, then allow myself the weekend to work on other projects. I also have an Amber Morgan story on the go, but that's fairly low down the priority list right now. Oh, and I'll probably also have edits for THROWN TO THE WOLVES at some point this month.

So yeah, Nebulous, in that I have a ton of stuff I want to work on (as usual) and only the vaguest idea of how I'll manage it all. I think as long as I make steady progress on Through Fire, I'll be happy. I haven't done any writing since before going to Iceland, so Anti-Nano should be a good way to get back into the rhythm of it. Beyond that, we'll see. Wish me luck!

Wednesday - The End

Yes. Last night I typed THE END on Dark Days, or at least the first draft. Huzzahs! That's one Anti-Nano target reached, and ahead of schedule too. I'm setting the manuscript aside for a week or so while I wait to hear from my beta reader, then I'll set about polishing that baby up ready for submission. I'm never quite sure whether I'm happy with a book or not when I first finish writing it, but the closing pages of Dark Days made me feel the same as the end of UNDERTOW - exhausted, a bit dirty, but grimly satisfied.

So, what next? COLD NIGHT MOON is out next week (EEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!), so I'll be around for all the usual book release nerves/promo/excitement. Otherwise, I plan to spend a lot of time with my Amber Morgan hat on, working on Wild Blood MC 2. If you're interested, I'll be doing my Monday and Friday check-ins, and Wednesday snippets, for that project here. You can also follow me as Amber on Twitter and Facebook. So if you like contemporary romance and paranormal m/f romance, you'll probably like Amber! In fact, if you like me, you'll like Amber just as much, I would imagine.

Monday Check-In

So! Another Monday is upon us. Ugh. How was everyone's weekend? My Saturday consisted mostly of taking Fergus to the vet for his annual boosters. He bravely hid under the kitchen table when I tried to get him in the carrier, and had to be fished out by my mum, who was willing to endure his wrath since he hates her anyway. As usual, once he was at the vet's, he quite enjoyed himself. We have to go back this weekend with a urine sample, as he's been drinking more than usual lately, and that can be a sign of renal problems in a cat his age. So wish us both luck with that!

Sunday was a good writing day - almost 3k on Dark Days, which means the end is absolutely in sight. Ideally I'll wrap it up today and then leave it aside for a week before doing some editing. In reality, I'm in the middle of my Christmas rush at Common Brimstone, and if I'm going to stay on top of my incoming orders, I'm going to spend most of my evenings making perfume rather than writing. So...we'll see.

In other news, I have a release date for COLD NIGHT MOON! November 16th - save the date for my new Urban Wolf short story. I've seen the mock cover and it's beautiful <3 Really can't wait to show that off to you all!

And in other other news, the annual Evernight Readers' Choice Awards are open for nominations! Here's the scoop:

***NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN***

Nominate your favorite Evernight books of 2015 during our READERS' CHOICE AWARDS!

Leave your name and email address at the end of the nomination form for the chance to win a $25 Evernight GC!

VOTE HERE!

Reader Nominations: Monday, Nov. 9th - 18th

Voting: Nov. 21st - 30th

Winners announced first week of December

Evernight books published between Nov 1, 2014 - Oct. 31 2015 are eligible.

My eligible books, should you wish to vote are, BLOOD WITCH and THE SEA WIFE. I also have some Amber Morgan titles that are eligible, and you can see their details here. I think that's everything for today - back on Wednesday (or sooner with that beautiful new cover, hopefully!).

Friday Check-In The First

I'm happy to report that I'm on target to finish Dark Days (maybe) this weekend! "Maybe" because I'm not quite sure how much wrapping up I want/need to do, and because I'm not quite sure what my absolute finishing point is for this book. Lola has to decide to do Something, but I don't know if she should decide now or at the start of Book 3, so...

And I'm also wary of rushing because I can see the end is in sight, which I think is a big weakness of mine. Once I see the finish line, I want to charge headlong towards it and just be able to say "DONE!" The problem with that is...it doesn't make for very good book endings. But hey, that's what second drafts fix, right?

Inaugural Anti-Nano Snippet!

I'm feeling pretty chipper about Dark Days! There is even the possibility I could finish it this very weekend if I keep the weekend free (and apart from taking Fergus to the vet, my weekend is free at the moment so...fingers crossed!).

So here's a snippet which is as spoiler-free as I can make it this late in the game....

Anti-Nano Begins Anew!

Good luck to everyone who started NaNoWriMo yesterday! May your words come swiftly and your...blockages...be few? Your writing blockages. All blockages.

I am not doing NaNo, because I know I can't commit to the minimum daily word count due to my shoulder/arm problems/perfume business/day job/inherent laziness/old episodes of Raw is War/delete as appropriate. But I love the spirit of NaNo, so I always aim to commit to something writing-wise in November, and thus, Anti-Nano was born.

The principles of Anti-Nano are simple: pick your goal and hop to it. Whether it's to write a certain amount each day, finish that story you've been avoiding for months, or brainstorm ideas for your epic, game-changing ten book series, you set the goals and pace yourself accordingly. My usual Anti-Nano goal is just "write something every day," but I'm adjusting that slightly this year and giving myself two goals.

1. Finish the first draft of Dark Days. I'm so close! The end is definitely in sight, and I feel like I can by done by mid-November if I stick to my current pace.

2. Once Dark Days is wrapped up and has been sent to my brave volunteer beta reader, I'm going to work on my next Amber Morgan title, Wolf's Hunt. It's not impossible that I could finish that before the end of November, but I'm not aiming for that particularly. I just want to crack on as much as I can before the end of this year.

My caveat is that I have two short stories scheduled for release in the next couple of months, so I'm awaiting edits which, obviously, take precedence. So my goals may jump around a bit depending on when the edits arrive and how intense they are.

I post check-ins on Mondays and Fridays, and snippets on Wednesdays (if I can find non-spoilery snippets for Dark Days this late in the game). Hopefully this will be a productive, creative month for everyone!