NaNoWriMo, Netgalley, and Not Having Enough Time to Read Everything I Want to Read

I pretty much bottomed out after my last post.  Still haven't gotten the car out of impound.  Still don't know who the killer is for sure.  One of my goals for the coming weekend is to at least get through that chapter.  Jack Whitlock must solve this case!

So I've been on Netgalley for over a year and it has eaten up way too much of my reading time.  Instead of reading things that sound good for free, I should focus on ones that I would actually pay to read.  I'm tired of most of the ARCs I read only being three star reads.

Camp NaNoWriMo progress report

I pushed past 60,000 words in my rewrite of Between Hell and a Hard Place yesterday.  Right now, I'm struggling with getting a car out of the police impound lot but I'm very pleased with the second draft so far.

I'm really glad I added Otis Reed and Nick Ambrose and took out the hacker character from the first draft.  The Parker family (the Brissette family in the first draft) is much more sordid.  I'm not sure that I'm not changing who the killer is at this point.  I only have five or six chapters of old material to edit/adapt but there are some new things I have to add.  The old draft was 75,000 words and I'm thinking this one is going to be around 80,0000.

I'm going to shoot for having this draft completed by Wednesday but we'll see.  The weather has been really nice lately so it's hard to stay inside.

Camp NaNoWriMo - Day 7

Camp did not start well.  I wrote 1000 words on the first day before deciding I hadn't done nearly enough prep for the story I had in my head.  I pulled the plug.  However...

... I dusted off Between Hell and a Hard Place and have been furiously editing it for the past few days.  I took out one supporting cast member, added another, and switched some locations around.  I've also got another suspect, which is going to make the story veer off into Parts Unknown fairly soon.  Oh, and I'm changing the vaguely Russian drug dealers into redneck meth dealers.  I'm flying high at 40k, which sounds like a lot but only 10k are actually new words.  Since I don't plan on claiming any prize goodies, I'm counting myself as a participant anyway.

Final Countdown

Camp NaNoWriMo kicks off tomorrow.  Tonight, I plan on watching TV while doing some last minute research.  I still need to think about the monastic society Simon comes from and come up with my emergency list.  Since I'm telling the story in a non-linear fashion, I can actually hold off on some of the research.

The ideas are still coming, which is good.  However, the big blurry bit called The Middle is still unclear.  Fortunately, my unorthodox structure will make for some nice workarounds until I get things where I want them.

In other news, I bought a Groupon this morning for getting a photo printed on a piece of slate.  Now I have to figure out which one I want printed on it and who I want to give it to.

Friday

So a friend of mine just left work for the last time as he starts a different job on Monday.  We've worked together for twelve years.  It doesn't seem like very long in the grand scheme of things but it's the equivalent of starting school with someone in first grade and seeing them most days until graduating high school.  It's a depressing day.

In not as depressing news, I'm feeling pretty confident about April's NaNoWriMo prospects.  I need to take a few minutes between now and Tuesday to make my emergency idea list but I'm feeling pretty confident about things early on.  I've got the beginning and the end and I know how the frame story is going to work.  Some of the middle is still murky, though.

I'm toying with the idea of releasing it for free on a dedicated blog several chapters at a time over the course of a month or so.  After editing, of course.

If I do NaNo in July, I'll either do the Mysterium sequel or do the steampunk vs. kaiju thing I've been kicking around.

Another Camp?

Just noticed Camp NaNoWriMo is coming around again.  I've been throwing some ideas around the last week or so but I don't know if I'll have the concepts ready by April 1st.  So, not sure I'm throwing my hat into the ring.  Although I really want to write the first chapter.  How many books have you read where two people and a dog are flying a beat-up old car near Neptune on the first page?

I don't remember if I specifically articulated it on the blog but I've been reading a lot of self published freebies on the Kindle lately, testing the waters, as it were.  I'm confident that I can hang with a lot what people are putting out.  I've also had some interesting conversations with some self-published authors via email, like Edward Lorn and Jason Brant, and self-publishing some of my stuff doesn't seem as unlikely as it did a few months ago.

The way I look at it, my army of followers on Goodreads are going to be a huge asset whether I go traditional or selfpub.  Since fledglings are usually thrown out of the nest with little promotion behind them anyway, why should I take a smaller piece of the pie when I don't have to?  Something to think about.

My reading funk continues, although I've read a few gems like The Ruins, A Simple Plan, and Galveston in the last few weeks.  I keep thinking that I've reached my reading limit and should vomit forth some words soon to free things up.  Or at least make with some editing.

I didn't sell anything at my art show a couple weeks ago but I did sell one of the photos I had on display the following week.  I didn't make what I wanted on it but I did manage to pay for all six photos with it.  Now if I could sell another one and pay for the frames, I'd be in the gravy zone.

To Thine Own Self Be True

I lost interest in the novella I was writing.  You'd think I'd learn that when I set out to copy something, I never finish it.  This time, I created a Doctor Who type of character.  I think I should stick with detective fiction featuring my own characters instead of trying to write sci-fi featuring Doctor Who with a lick of paint.

That being said, I've got some fresh crime ideas in my head.

In related news, I've watched three seasons of The Wire in the past three weeks and I love it!  That may be why I'm thinking about crime fiction so much lately.  I'm also really digging True Detective.

A blog post with actual words in it

Writing stuff:

1. I'm working on a novella.  I am pleased with the progress I've made in the last couple of hours.
2. For some reason, I don't look upon self-publishing novellas and short stories on the Kindle with as much disdain as I do novels.  By that, I mean self-publishing my own stuff.  Other people can and do self-publish worthwhile things on the Kindle all the time.
3. An idea I've been kicking around with another writer/reviewer is a series of 10-12 linked novellas, published as a serial novel on the Kindle.  Then, we'd do a paper copy of the entire series/season, as it were, possibly doing a Kickstarter to raise money for kick ass artwork.

In non-writing news, Brittany and I had this exchange the other day:

B: Why does that weird old lady part her jeep by the side of the street and sit in it.

D: She told me she patrols the neighborhood two or three times a day to make sure nothing bad is happening.

B: Wow, I didn't know our neighborhood was that dangerous.

D: The hasn't been a robbery in 25 years so we should thank her.

B: Glad she risks her life like that.

D: It's the criminals that are risking their lives when they step on her turf.