Samplings, Musings, and Other Things From My Brain

I am currently sitting in my friends’ living room. We’ve been staying with them since Wednesday through the Thanksgiving weekend. I hope you’ve all had a good holiday. We leave Rochester to go back to Long Island in about an hour (sad), and so I figured I’d say hi before my ridiculously long, non-wi fi train ride back to Manhattan. 

In NaNo news, I’ve finished my story, but it’s only a little over 30k words. Technically, I’ve lost NaNoWriMo ‘11, but I really don’t feel like I did. I wrote a novella in about 20 days. I feel good about that. I’m currently working on my personal Wiki for the fantasy series and have started the first chapter. I plan on getting a bunch more writing done on my long train ride today. 

How is NaNo going for everyone else? I hope you’re all doing well. I have to go finish packing now. See you later!

How is NaNoWriMo going, everyone? I’m a little behind on my word count, but my story is coming nicely. :)

I heard the most excellent quote the other day while listening to the most excellent podcast.

If it’s got dwarves and elves in it, it’s Tolkien fanfiction.

-Brandon Sanderson

For those of you who haven’t listened to the podcast Writing Excuses, I suggest you head over to the Writing Excuses website and start from Season One. They’re funny and amazing, and there are a lot of good tips for aspiring writers on there. Go now! I command you! Haha…

Today is a Tazo Tea and Starbucks writing kind of day :)

In my head, Alice-my main character in my NaNo novel’s best friend-looks almost exactly like Ellen Page. This makes me very happy.

I JUST SPENT LIKE AN 1 HOUR OF MY LIFE ON THIS, GENIUS

this is legit so sick. 

(via danielle-writes)

That’s right, kids! It’s officially October, and it’s time to dust off your marble composition books, bust out your noveling pens, and figure out your plot! (if you didn’t get a noveling pen last year, you’re out of luck because they aren’t selling them anymore, but you can get your noveling pencils here)

In the month leading up to November and the ever so amazing NaNoWriMo, we figure out plots, meet our characters, and try our hardest to prepare for the month-long insanity that is National Novel Writing Month. Are you ready? Do you have a plot? An idea? 

If you’ve never done NaNo before, make 2011 your first year! If you need a writing buddy, find me! My NaNo pen name is Milkwrapper, and I’d be more than happy to friend you on the NaNo site. We can even do some sprints together! I’ll post the link to where I’m doing my sprints on NaNo Eve (aka Halloween).

My novel this year is called Finding James. This is going to be my first stab at writing a non-fantasy story. I’ve been taking a break from The Xenue Chronicles because I’ve been a little stuck, so I think that this year’s NaNo will be great for me. As I continue to plan the novel and meet my characters, I’ll tell you more about them. 

Remember to friend me and happy planning!

urdabest:

saycreative:

Times were tougher back then…

(Source: kids-ihaveastory)

So, time for a quick update I think…

Last week, I spent 99% of my time preparing myself, my wife, and my dog for Hurricane Irene. We live on Long Island, NY. Then, she hit us on the weekend. We lost power around 6am Sunday morning. I spent the entirety of Sunday writing. I wrote all about the various locations in Anica’s world and even a little bit about its history too. This is going to be hugely helpful as I write the book because I won’t have to come up with settings and backstories on the spot. Huzzah! Also, my lovely wife drew me yet another map- this one of Acasa, the “home base” of the Resistance. In short, I got a whole lot of good stuff done book-wise. Power, thankfully, returned to us by Monday morning, but I have yet to type up what I wrote during the power outage. There are still just under 100,000 people (out of the original 500,000 affected) that are still without power on Long Island as a result of Irene. I had off from work on Monday due to the storm knocking out power at the hospital. Crazy.

This week, I was quite busy, and so I haven’t written anything since the day of no power and a hurricane. Lol. The wife and I went to Brooklyn on Wednesday to see Dr. Dog and Bright Eyes in an outdoor concert, which was amazing, and I’ve been really busy at work besides that. Tomorrow (Friday), I have to bring my dog to the cardiologist for an ultrasound, and I am kind of freaking out about it. She has a “really loud” heart murmur, says her vet, and it needs to be addressed. I’m nervous because I don’t want my little furry love to be sick, and because I don’t know how I’ll afford to fix her problems if she is sick. I know that we’ll figure out a way to pay for it if she is, God forbid, ill, but it will be extremely tough. I need to finish this book and get my “big break” or something soon. ;)

Well, a three day weekend is coming up for Labor Day, so here’s hoping I get some writing done! Update you all soon. Thanks for tuning in, and I’ll share the new map as soon as I can get it scanned into the computer.

Cheers!
KMT 

The beginnings of Chapter 3. Keep in mind that this is an unedited manuscript undergoing it’s second draft after I violently disintegrated the first draft. :)

I expected to come out on the other side of the fence. I found that to be a logical train of thought. The only problem was that there was nothing logical about that afternoon. We emerged from the hole into a dense collection of tall trees. I felt a little off kilter. It was suddenly night time. The sounds of wild things creeping in the forest was overwhelming me. I was confused. I didn’t know what to think.

I leaned against the nearest tree for support as I tried to gather my mind. I looked down at Conor. He was still on his hands and knees and was shaking violently. As we were dragged through the portal, I felt like I was being compressed into a mouse hole. Conor must have felt the same way. Odille was on her feet, her blonde hair messed up but looking unshaken besides.

“That was really uncomfortable,” she stated bluntly. Conor and I both nodded, trying not to lose our pizza.

“Portal travel is…irritating,” Emery said. He looked a little green himself.

I stared at him, unsure of which of the million questions I had should be asked first, but before I got the chance, Quentin was deposited at our feet by the fence hole portal. He hopped up onto his feet, sword still drawn, facing the portal.