Four hours of freedom

Midnight will be here in four hours and some change.  This isn't the least prepared I've ever been for a National Novel Writing Month but it's close.  I plan on throwing some things in early on in case I get stuck later.  Like some mysterious spider creature in the woods everyone calls The Red Widow and cannibal mole people living beneath the hills.

Still, I feel fairly confident.  I know my main character pretty well and I can't wait to write some stuff featuring his childhood best friend, trailer park resident and hunting enthusiast Doyle Reed.  The bad guys still need some work but I probably don't need them until Sunday or Monday so I still have some time.

In other news, Fall has reached the maximum color level so there will be some picture taking this weekend.  In other other news, I'll have to change my reading goals again since I have another Lawrence Block ARC coming my way sometime soon.  It occurs to me that I should figure out how to get paid for reviews instead of just giving it away like a common strumpet.

Shit, I still need to come up with the name of my main town.  I'd better go...

One Week From Tomorrow...

I'm slowly hammering out the battle plan for Steelgrave, this year's NaNoWriMo project

Things I'm pretty sure of:

1. Jonah Steelgrave, 
2. his childhood best friend Doyle Reed
3. the relationship between our world and the world beyond the portal
1. The world beyond the portal's time flows differently.  A minute in our world equals an hour on the other side of the portal.  Consequently, sixty years pass on the other side for every one of ours.
2. There may be more than one portal
4. the magic system (a combination of The Magicians by Lev Grossman and the Granny Weatherwax books by Terry Pratchett)
5. the setup
6. the whereabouts of Jonah's missing mother at the beginning of the novel
7. the ending

Things yet to be done:

1. coming up with credible villains
2. the names of Jonah's childhood sweetheart and her husband
3. Jonah's father figure and his role in the proceedings
4. enough plot twists to keep everything going
5. the name of the town
6. the master "if I get stuck" list

Looks like I'm doing this

With a little over two weeks left, I'm officially tossing my writing hat through the NaNoWriMo ring.  I'm attempting a Rural Fantasy novel this year.  It makes more sense to me that nasty creatures would be lurking on the fringes of society rather than in booming metropolises.  Here's the teaser:

Jonah Steelgrave has been running from his eldritch destiny for almost a decade, fleeing his former country life for the big city.  When an ex-girlfriend asks him for help locating her missing sister and tells him his mother hasn't been seen in town for over a month, destiny finally wraps its bony fingers around his throat... 

Things to do:
- come up with character names other than Jonah and his mother.
- make the emergency list