Getting Crafty: Recycled Dictionary Page Coasters

In another fit of craftiness, I cut into my old dictionary for writing related words. There are an awful lot of them in you get specific about it.

By the time I had gotten sick of finding words and their definitions, I had quite a pile. In fact, I ended up making four sets of coasters and still had a pile left over. I suppose that means there is another project in the wings.

All the stuff you need.

To make a set of coasters, here's what you'd need:

Ceramic tiles
Mod Podge
A brush
Words
Tissue Paper

1. Cut a square of tissue paper to fit the top of your tile and apply a layer of Mod Podge.



Mod Podge Tissue Paper to the tile

2. Once the paper is affixed to the tile, find the words you want to use. I went several different ways with this. On one set, I burned the edges of words that had long definitions. On others, I used stripes of words and made more of a collage.

3. Mod Podge the words on top of the tissue paper.

4. Let the tile dry.

5. Apply a top layer of Mod Podge.



Mod Podge your words onto the tile.

6. Cut a square of felt or cork. I used felt because it seems some mice got into my shed. (Where I'd last used the cork to make a new washer for my rustic water pump. Some ants had eaten the old one. Stupid ants.) The mice ate my cork. Stupid mice. Shredded cork doesn't work very good for this so, yes, I opted for felt. Felt is also much cheaper by the way.

7. Using Tacky Glue, affix the felt t o the bottom of your coaster.

8. Sit back, have a tall, sweaty drink and enjoy your craftiness.

Some of my finished tile coasters.

Rewriting: To write again

So I've launched into a major rewrite of an old project. I'm not talking a little revising here either. Now that I've seriously been at this writing thing for a while, it's interesting to see how far my stories have come. For instance, the novel I wrote back in 2007 that I thought I loved.

Don't get me wrong, I still love the idea and the fact that it was my first attempt at writing a novel through multiple POVs. I rather like all my characters. But the level of telling and the whimpery female MC... Gah. It makes me cringe.

And so, the rewriting process, or mine anyway, goes a little something like this:

Open document.
Consider reading entire story from 2007.
Decide re-reading story will taint new ideas because I remember what the main issues where that made me shelf the thing in the first place.
Paste entire story into a new document.
Close the original and back it up for safe keeping.
Adjust new document to novel format to make eyes and brain happy.
Shuffle original words to halfway down the page.
Read the half page of words.
Scroll back up and start writing from scratch.
Once the gist of the original text is rewritten, delete old text and queue up the next half page
Write more.
Delete more.
Delete entire crappy paragraphs without rewriting them.
Enjoy ah ha moments where I can pull the story threads tighter.
Enjoy making characters much deeper.
Delete more old words.
Rub hands together evily.
Write more.

Yes, my method introduces new typos. Oh well. The retyping of all old words allows me to make better word choices, sentence structure changes and maintain the current voice of each POV character as I round them out much better than before. Allowing myself to keep old sections makes the voice and telling inconsistant with all the progress I'm trying to make.

I hope all this effort will be worth it. I'm already loving how the story is coming together and can see fixes to some of the plot problems that bogged it down before. The percolator has been mulling this one over for a long time.

Chapter three is halfway finished and I'm gleefully writing the twisted mind of Kenric. Not that he's totally twisted, he just sees the situation a little differently than the other characters.

Now, please excuse me as I go milk the giant cow and get back to writing...err...rewriting.

The percolator strikes again

There are times when we need to step back from our novels to give them time to lose their shiny luster of newly written awesome so we then see them more objectively and fix them. Sometimes that means weeks or months or years.

After completing a novel critique last week and pondering my overall plot comments, something clicked in my percolator and *poof* I knew how to fix one of my old novels. I love when this happens. I wish it would happen more often. I'd have a lot more done writing-wise. But it would seem my percolator can only do so much, so often.

I brushed the virtual dust off my 2007 NaNo novel yesterday. New notes were created as I reacquainted myself with the characters and their plotlines. A new chapter one is in progress.

While the novel went over well with crit buddies, I'd worked myself into a pantser corner around chapter 22. The princess needed to marry someone. Her aunt was roaming the countryside building up support for the princess. Her uncle (from the other side of the family) was gleefully sitting on her throne and putting the final touches on the wedding of his faux son to the faux princess. The man the real princess needed to lead her army was stuck in a distant country. Any of the men she could marry to gain hold of additional forces sucked.

The pieces were all there. And there they sat. Staring at me. Glaring. Waiting impatiently for me to make the story work.

Funny how writing notes on how to better pull the plot together for someone else, triggered an epiphany for my old novel, but hey, I'm not going to ponder this miracle too deeply. I need that thought power to fix this story.

There's the obvious character modification, then some plot holes to patch up and about 15,000 words to add to bring the story to it's conclusion. Let's just hope I can get this done before April, when I hope to launch myself into a new project that hit me the other day.

Guess that means I better get writing.

Bucket List Progress

Greetings from the frozen northlands of Michigan.

I'm happy to be able to cross off a little of my writing Bucket List already. Funny how actually typing and posting a to do list can light a fire under your behind.

Short #1 has been revised, sent through a round of critiques, edited, and sent off into submissions as of this morning. That feels good!

A synopsis for A Broken Race as been created and is now resting for a few days to see if it still works once the relief of getting through that task has passed.

Not on my list, but something I'd always been going to do: I finally hung my novel wordles in my tiny writing area. If you have not played with wordles before, beware, they are procrastination friendly.

Every time I finish (that's a relative term) the rough draft of a novel, I create a word cloud from it. In some ways this is a visual reward by seeing my words artfully displayed. More useful, though not as much fun, is the visual of which words I'm overusing.

Creating a wordle for the two novels I consider really finished, and comparing them to the old ones was also gratifying. Words like looked, smiled, glared, etc are all much smaller or not used enough to even be on the cloud anymore. Gotta love progress.

Reclaiming My Space

Since the arrival of my laptop three years ago, I haven't had much use for my old computer desk. My big old desktop computer left the house, which meant I had some storage space under my desk. NaNoWriMo moved in, specifically stuff I gather throughout the year for regional events. Then that began to over flow onto my desktop, because really, I wasn't using that for anything either. My desk is too small for a crafting station so it became a NaNo catchall, piled high and stuffed underneath by the time each November rolled around.

Even my good computer chair with the awesome back support had become a storage zone, though sometimes more for clothes than anything else. It certainly didn't fit under my desk anymore so it begged to have stuff piled on it.

My long gone little writing zone was starting its December to October metamorphosis from desk to NaNo pile again until I had the bright idea to reclaim my space.

This idea was born of two things: back pain and me.

Me because this is the year of me. One of my excuses for not writing more is that I use my computer on the couch downstairs...surrounded my other family members. I can get some writing done in the morning, but work quickly absorbs my day. The moment the kids come home from school, all hope of quiet thought is abolished by xbox games, you tube videos and my son game chatting online with his friends out loud. I needed my own space back.

After a few weeks of wracking bronchitis coughing, my back wasn't feeling so hot. In fact, I couldn't get out of bed without help. This also meant lounging on the couch with my laptop meant a lot of pain and getting up from the couch also required help. Using the comfy recliner was no better.

This sad state of physical being prompted me to get myself back to the chiropractor. After looking at  xrays of my spine, he informed me that, "Wow, I don't normally like to say things like this is a train wreck, but yeah, this really isn't good." I should probably note that I'd been seeing this guy for years (years ago) so his dark humor was appreciated.

That meant I needed to sit up straight until things were back in line or suffer the very painful consequences. Remember that chair serving as a clothing rack? Yeah, so did my back. Time to clean!

Three bags of garbage removed later (when did I accumulate that much outdated computer and writing related stuff?) and my NaNo regional pile relocated to new storage areas out of sight, I'm happy to report that I've reclaimed my writing space.

I guess that means I should get to writing, huh?

April is looking blogtacular

In an effort to be more on top of blog posts this year, I had a crazy moment (if you believe that was really just a moment, you don't know me very well) and signed up for the April Blogging from A to Z Challenge.

I hope to be busy revising a novel during April as my Camp NaNo effort so this means I'm going to be extra busy writing. But what the hell, I like writing and I'm all about me this year.

To get back to my long neglected host of discarded darlings, my theme will be Characters. Specifically, my characters and not just the discarded ones. I'm pretty sure I have enough to cover the entire alphabet. I'm also pretty sure at least one of them will be force feeding me those words at some point in April.

Until then, I have some brain wracking to do. On further thought, I'm should also probably brush up on some self defense tactics.

2013 Bucket List Challenge Blog Hop

What will you cross off your Bucket List in 2013? 

First off, thank you to Dana Sitar for hosting this blog hop. Check out her book, A Writer's Bucket List, available starting today.

This Blog Hop Challenge is to make a list of my goals for the year. Now they'll be out here for all see. Bring on the guilt monkeys. 

Part of my focus on me resolution involves making more time for writing and not frying my creative brain at work so I have nothing left when I sit down to write. I don't need writing disaster like NaNo Novel 2012. No sir, I really don't. That was depressing.

So how about something more uplifting? Like some things I'd like to accomplish this year?

1. Keep Trust bouncing around in queryland. No more downtime for that one. It's had it's years of rewrites and edits. It needs to move out now. It is currently out and I have a whole list of places to send it so no excuses for this one. Unless it finds a home. I suppose I should somewhat rephrase this goal rather than be utterly pessimistic....keep it bouncing around until it finds a home or I decide to make a home for it.

2. Get A Broken Race out in queryland. I've put off getting submission materials put together for that one for a good six months now for lack of time and motivation. Apparently this finished novel and the list of presses I'd like to send it to aren't going to magically connect on their own.

3. Get at least two more short stories published. I've got two out in submissions right now. If they both find a home, I can cross that off my list and focus on #4 and #5.

4. Revise at least two short stories that have been languishing on my hard drive so they can join the others in submissions. I've already started on one, but that start consists of opening the file, staring at the cursor and getting frozen on the thought that I might screw it up worse if I start messing with it. Time take deep breaths and get on with it. There's always the back up file if I manage to suck all the magic out of the words.

5. And last on my list: Revise and FINISH one of the darn novels that's just sitting there doing nothing but glare at me for years. I've got Camp NaNo in April or November NaNo to conquer this if I don't manage to find the time elsewhere.

These are all attainable goals. I can do this. Deep breaths.

What's on your bucket list for 2013?

Reading: January Summary

Part of my resolution this year was to make more time for me to do what I enjoy. One of those things is reading. Another is critiquing for my writing buddies. When I can put these together, relaxing things happen and relaxing is very good.



 

I had the privilege to critique a novel for one of those aforementioned writing buddies. Making it through a whole novel with chapter by chapter crits usually takes much longer than a few weeks, but I'm fresh off a new resolution here so I made record time through Niko and the Shadows. It turned out to be an enjoyable YA Fantasy read with enough darkness to keep my interest. I hope to see it in print someday.

The angel angle was good, something different from what I've read before as far as angel romance goes. However, there are only so many times the MCs can blindly misunderstand each other for the sake of the plot that I can handle.

A collection of short strories that spans touching, quirky, and funny. My favorite was a story about a the death of a mother which was very easy to sympathize with and touching, yet laced with humor.

Getting Crafty: Writer's Blocks

We all fall victim to the dreaded writer's block now and then.

I've seen many different ways to solve this problem, but why buy one of those cute little block or sets of dice when you can make one? As a bonus, you get to pick the words. And yeah, I like to throw in some fun words to get the wheels turning again. As another bonus, you can choose words that best fit your genre or let the blocks fall where they may.

All you need is a bag of wooden blocks from the craft store.

I used 3/4 inch.

A bottle of craft paint. I like black.

Words. I used an old dictionary that I'd be saving for crafty purposes.

A small bottle of Mod Podge

A brush for paint and one for the Mod Podge

It's all downhill from here. The gathering of supplies always seems to take the longest for me. That could have something to do with the amount of supplies I have to sort through... I'm overcoming my craft supply hoarding problem. I swear.

1. Paint your blocks

2. While the paint dries, find your words. You might have to choose words that fit on your blocks or adjust your font size so they do.

3. Use the Mod Podge to affix your words onto the blocks. Working one face at a time across however many blocks you're doing allows for some dry time. Be sure to keep a dry side down as you work or your pretty word will stick to your work surface and the block. It's not a good thing. Trust me.

4. If you like an aged look...you know to show that you combat writer's block a lot...or maybe just like to challenge yourself frequently. Yeah, that sounds better. Rub the corners and/or edges across a sheet of sandpaper.

5. Let everything dry.

6. Sort into sets. Six is a nice number. I used one bulk bag of blocks and made four sets of six. Yes, for those of your doing NaNoWriMo locally next year, you'll be seeing these.

7. Get writing!

 

Wondering how to use these things?

1. Consider writing a story or your next chapter.

2. Look at blinking cursor until your eyes dry out.

3. Remember you have help and toss the blocks on the table.

4. Use the words to construct your scene/chapter/plot.

 

Apparently my story is about a husband who is a lush hanging out too long in a restaurant in another town. This causes some sort of commotion (probably because he drunkenly tumbled into someone from this other town...the wrong someone), and now he's launched a year long battle. Way to go mystery guy. Way to go.

In the case of a scene or chapter, there's a distinct possibility that using all the words isn't going to happen, but the idea is to get your creative juices flowing again. Take inspiration where you can and get those fingers moving!

 

 



Considering going Indie?

Indie Publishing: I've been told to take the leap. I know several sucessful authors who've done it and love it. For various reasons, I'm just not ready to join them quite yet. But that doesn't mean I don't want to learn the ins and outs for future reference.

That's where this link to the upcoming IndieReCon comes in. Sign up now for this free, three day extravagaza of Indie Publishing information. What to see what's on the agenda? Here's the link. While the online conference happens Febuary 19-21, you can sign up now for reminders and giveaways.

I'm all signed up. How about you?

Slowly catching up with the world

In my quest for a me focused year, I've managed to find time to watch a few tv shows I've been meaning to watch, scarily, for a decade in one case. Since December Netflix has indulged my desire to watch:

Capricia, which I never got to watch on tv because I was mourning the end of BSG. Why do they force these related series on us faithful viewers so soon after the end of our favorite show? Give us a little time to want it again, people. I didn't need more of this (am not joining the angry throng still upset about it only lasting one season), but I did enjoy seeing how the cylons began and getting hints, that I'm more than happy to fill in myself thank you very much, as to how these events played into the series that we knew and loved.

I finally manged to wrap up my spotty year of attempting to get to the entire series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which I also totally snubbed at the time of it's original airing, though for no particular reason other than it just wasn't my thing at the time. Not that it was my thing now either, but carrying a show over that many seasons and keeping the main characters still interesting and evolving is certainly something to appreciate.

Firefly is also on my watch list. Never watched that at the time either, despite the rabid fans telling me that I should. So far the most amusing thing is seeing actors that have been in so many other shows since now in this role. Haven't become a rabid fan as of yet.

I also tried to give Lost Girl a chance because it sounded interesting, but after a couple episodes I don't have much good to say so I'll leave it at that.

Thanks to the doctor informing me that I have bronchitis, I haven't been overly active, I've spent a good deal of my evenings wiped out and in bed coughing long before actual bedtime. Since my laptop has some loose wiring in the monitor that makes it go blank every time I cough when it's on my lap, I've started watching Eureka - yet another show I meant to watch but didn't make time for. So far, this is my favorite of my tv show quest.

And with this updated, I'm off to edit some short stories, juggle a submission, and get some work done before my my medicine puts me into a nice cough-free sleep.

Bookstore full of stupid

A couple months ago (I'm a little behind on posting) I found myself in a bookstore killing time before my son's school band marched in a local parade. This was the little local bookstore where I spent the majority of  my childhood Saturdays, pouring over the shelves, picking out my book (or two) for the week. (Toys? Screw that, buy me books!) I don't get there much these days, due other stores located closer or buying books online, so it's always a nostalgic visit.

I was standing there, perusing the magazine's (one for writers, if you must know), when I found myself next two a pair of women. Mother and daughter, (at least they seemed to be) were looking over the long shelf of magazines, complaining about the price and quality of the available offerings. Apparently the realization that we're not pricing things in the 1970's hadn't hit dear old mom. And then I was hit by this snippet of conversation:

mom: I was going to get one of those Kindles, but they're so expensive.

daughter: They're not that bad, and they're so handy. Way easier to carry around than books.

mom: But you have to buy books to put on them!

daughter: Well yes, that's true.

mom: If I'm spending almost a hundred dollars on a Kindle, I damn well better get the books for free.

me: *mouth falls open*

daughter: Well, you can get a lot of books for .99 or some for free.

mom: I don't even know those people. The books I want all cost money. If they want to sell those things, they need to have all the books for free. I can buy a lot of books for a hundred dollars.

me: *wonders if she's seen the price of printed books lately*

mom: It's ridiculous. If I want to buy a book, I'll get the book. Why would I buy a Kindle and have to pay for the book too?

me: *walks away before causing a scene*

I wonder if she thinks her postage should all be free because she bought a mailbox?  Because she bought a car, should the gas be free? Maybe that Xbox she bought for her grandkids should have all the games for free too?

*headdesk*

I'm sure she wouldn't consider working for free, but the rest of us should. Yeah right.

Now available: Found

I am happy to announce that the winter edition of Allegory is up and it includes my short story, Found.

For more about this story, check out my recent Next Big Thing post.

Beyond that exciting news, I'm enjoying NyQuil filled days and nights as I recover from this evil cough/cold thing that has been haunting my chest and lungs since New Year's Day. Thank you to the person who decided to come out to celebrate New Year's Eve despite the fact they weren't feeling quite right. I am now feeling quite wrong. Blech.

Beyond that, I'm making time to continue my reading spree, and I managed to edit a short and get it back out in submissions. I have two more short stories to put back into my juggling routine and then I'm set to dive into novel submissions. And revisions on several more.

One thing at a time. And right now...I think that thing is a nap.

Beginnings Blogfest

We're back on me again with making time...for blogging. Can't say as I've had much of that lately either. So as I was flitting around, catching up on blog reading, I came across the Beginnings Blogfest and thought, why not?

Almost exactly three years ago, I began this blog in hopes of pushing myself to finally get something published. Four published short stories and a host of other writing projects in the works since then, I'm happy to say that the public shove worked.

Now, if I could just get on getting one of those novels out in the big world. It's always good to have goals, right?

January 18, 2010
So, I wrote a novel.


Eventually. It didn't start out that way.

Twenty some years ago it was six pages of scrawled pen marks. Then I took a creative writing course in school and the story grew to a hundred pages on an ancient clickty clack typewriter. Barrel of liquid white out anyone?

I wrote sequels!

At this point I realized the first story needed work. I don't remember why I realized this exactly. Sanity slipped in for a second, most likely. I rewrote the whole thing and expanded it. It was the most awesomest novel ever.

I let someone read it.

They informed me that it wasn't the most awesomest novel ever.

I rewrote it again and decided to go crazy and switch the entire novel from the pov of the female main character to the male main character. This was a great move, as it turned out, but whole loads of work. I lost track of how many times I rewrote it to get the male pov firmly inserted and the female to take the back seat. She did not like that! Not one bit. She's never forgiven me for it, in fact. Oh, but I had fun exploring the new pov. He grew and flourished and made the story everything I wanted it to be. Ah, bliss.

Then I let some one read it.

They informed me that it most certainly wasn't bliss.

What? How could they not love my 385,000 word novel? How, I ask?

At this point I joined a critique group and saw the light. And the editing knife. It was shiny. And sharp.

Three more rewrites, minus 267,000 words, and a host of cut characters and their corresponding subplots later...

I wrote a novel.

Reading: It does the body good

...and the overworked mind. Rather than attempt the "Calgon take me away" experience, I've taken a more reasonable approach, knowing I'm constantly interrupted by husband, kids and work. I decided to book myself on a month-long vacation from reality (in every available moment) by getting some reading done. Authors, take me away!

In the past few weeks, I've devoured:

 

Some of sentence structure tickled my critting urges but other than that, an enjoyable and lighthearted read. Lighthearted, by my standards that is--people died, creatures died, people had sex but nothing overly graphic. My only big complaint is the cover is deceiving. I went in expecting an adult male, but ended up with two lusty teenagers. Definitely aimed at a younger audience rather than forty-something me.

Much higher on my enjoyable scale. A good balance of violence, sex and sci-fi. Adult characters, were a definite plus. I'd somehow missed this series altogether, and now I will have to hunt the other two books down as time allows.

John Moore is one of my favorite comedic authors. If you still haven't read Heroics for Beginners, get thee to a bookstore and rectify that oversight immediately.

This book brought some much needed laughter to my high stress days. A humorous romp though fantasyland intrigue.

I'd been meaning to read something by Dave Barry for a couple years now so when this book ended up in my used book drive collection box, I decided to give it a go before sending it on it's way. The pacing was excellent and it was an entertaining twist on Peter Pan. I won't be reading the rest of the series, just for the fact that there's only so much light-hearted YA I can handle.



Next up, something darker or at least back in the adult arena.

2013 Resolution: Overachievers not-so-anonymous

Last year I jumped on the idea of a one word New Year's resolution. I'm happy to report this is the first time ever that I've actually stuck to my resolution for the entire year. No griping, no forgetting about it after two weeks, no feeling that I was roping myself into some unrealistic goal. No sir, it worked, and I feel so much better for it. Last year's word was: Less.

This year: Me.

Yep, a very small word, yet a very big aspiration.

This is my last year volunteering at my daughter's elementary school. After nine long years of PTO duties, I'm soooooo ready to hang up my dinged up, paint-covered name tag. My big Christmas craft project is done for the year so it's all downhill from here. This means that after June, that's a lot less obligations and stress for me.

I've been on a grant review board for the past couple years, and while I've enjoyed doing it, the one night the six meetings a year are on is the same night I have two other obligations. I enjoy the other two things more, and one of those is only for a month out of the year. This one is still up for debate, but I'm seriously considering stepping down as part of the reducing stress for me effort.

This past year, I've all but handed over my writing time to the drool-sucking monster of work. NaNo helped me find that time again, but not the creativity and inspiration that actually makes it enjoyable and readable. It's time to put an end to feeling like I need to work twelve hour days, day after day after day. Sure there will be some, but I've got to turn off work and make more time for me to do what I enjoy.

My kids are ten and fourteen, they don't need me every second of every day anymore. I need to step back with the small things and continue to hold them accountable for the things I expect them to do and find a few more things they can help out with. It's easy to just keep doing most things myself, but I could be delegating more. They're old enough to help spread the load to help reduce my overwhelming list of things I try to squeeze into every day.

Possibly most important, I will make time for me to eat lunch and breakfast. I can't tell you how many days I went without one or both this past year because there was just too much to get done every day.

I'm not sure when or how I became an overachiever, but it sure seems to take a while to recover from being one. After realizing how thin I've spread myself, I can't say it's hard to step down from everything I've roped myself into, but I do feel guilty knowing that those things might not get done by someone else. Sometimes, they just don't. I've seen it happen and I cringe. But I don't leap back into the fire. I'm not a superwoman with endless energy. I'm just me and there's only so much I can do. I have another resolution to stick to and I'd love to report another successful year. Wish me luck.

The Next Big Thing strikes again

A big thank you to Stephanie Herman of The Wild Literati who hunted my lurking self down to tag me for The Next Big Thing blog hop. Stephanie was kind enough to do some critques for me on A Broken Race a while back...back when I had time to write and put work up for critique. But Jean, you say, didn't you just rediscover your writing time with NaNoWriMo? Well yes, however, this is my really busy time of year for work so we'll get to this whole writing thing, a rant on stupidity in a bookstore, and my one word New Year's resolution in January posts.

For now, I'm going to attempt to play by the rules for The Next Big Thing. And I'm going to break them immediately (You did see that I said attempt?) by using a short story instead of a book.

What is the working title of your next book?
Found, which is a short story for those of you who skipped the paragraphs above.

Where did the idea come from for the book?
I participated in A Story a Day In May this past May, and this was one of the stories that came to me. In a day. The whole thing just spilled onto the page...or screen as it were. This was one of the few days that month that my brain worked in coordination with my fingertips and I knew I was on to something good.

What genre does your book fall under?
Horror? Paranormal? Young Adult? We'll just settle for Speculative Fiction

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
An innocent looking little boy. No one in particular.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Little Adam MacIntire discovers a special place to play with his new friend Caroline, a place where no one can hear or see them.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Found is scheduled to be published in the January 2013 edition of Allegory

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
A couple hours. That makes it sound so easy. It's not really. It just happened to be a good writing day. If you want to see why I don't have 365 other short stories waiting to be published, check any of my May 2012 posts for details.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
No quick answer springs to mind. I'm sure there are some, probably many, but I haven't read anything similar recently enough to have memory of it.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?
Every parent's fear of losing their child in a store. Been there. Sweated heavily, heart pounding, frantically searching. No sir, not fun at all. Then I wondered what the child was thinking and doing while mom was freaking out. Oh hey, I had a story to tell.

What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?
Hiding is all fun and games as long as someone will eventually find you.

And now we get to the portion of the post where I tag a few fellow writers. I'd normally tag Ian over at Views from a Bald Patch but he's already participated and had tagged me back in November. So I'm going to nudge Ray Veen since it looks like he's got a project in the works and Ryan at A Dark Corner of the Mind because well, he needs to tell the world more about this book he's been editing for almost a year now.

Children of the Trees is live

It's been a busy month around here. Not only with NaNoWriMo, but with short stories. I have two bits of good news to share today.

Children of the Trees is now online in Issue 15 of Liquid Imagination.

Also, I'm happy to announce that my short story, "Found" has been accepted for publication in Volume 20/47 of ALLEGORY which will be live on the web in January.

Thank you to all of my wonderful critique partners who helped me get these stories fleshed out and cleaned up. I guess this means I need to get some more stories out in submissionland now that NaNo is over.

As NaNo winds down

Contrary to what you might believe from my blogging presence, I am still on the planet. It's just, well, NaNoWriMo.

I'm happy to report that I wrote my 50,000th word last night at 9:12pm. No, the story is not done. The story will very likely never be done. It's a mess. It's easily the worst thing I've written since I started to take writing seriously. However, it didn't suck so horribly bad that I couldn't bear working on it. It had some redeeming bits.

On the redeeming list:
• Characterization practice. Since I spent a good deal of this "novel" trying to find out just who the hell had an engaging pov to tell it through, I did a lot of showing of the scene and events through many different people.

• Writing through the "bad guy". Yes, I've done the antagonist pov many times, but this guy was a different experience. He saw the world at a very different angle than everyone else. He had a very disturbing (yet fun in a writer-sort of way) mind to get into.

• Description is awesome for adding word count. This is probably why I'm light on description in most of my other writing. I'm usually focused on keeping the word count low and only focusing on the important details rather than trying to build up lots of words. However, this was also a good place to see how people saw the same things very differently.

• I made time for writing again. This was my real goal so even though the writing generally sucks, I'm calling it a win.

What sucked so bad:
• I was so stressed with life that I couldn't remember my own character's names from day to day. I had to make a list - and when I forgot to add secondary people, well on the next day, they ended up with names like "guy 2" and "nurse 4".

• I repeated soooo much stuff because I couldn't find a character to tell the story through that spoke to me like they normally do. This was also likely due to life being stressful / not being able to relax and sink into the story.

• Inane. That should be the title of this "novel". While it had a few scenes I really enjoyed writing, most of it was in the "OMG just get through this so I can get to the next plot point" or "For the love of all that's holy someone do something" category. In short, the whole lack of focus thing on my part led to mind-numbing three page scenes where two characters ate crackers and then declared they were thirsty. Tired brain no make interesting thing happen. Gaaaah.

On the whole, I'm chalking it up to a month-long writing exercise. Which makes me a little sad because this is the first time I've not walked out of NaNo with a shiny new project I'm proud of.  I guess that's what the other eleven months of the year are for, huh?

The benefit of threats

Apparently telling my floundering cast of NaNo characters to get their plot together or get off my keyboard had some effect on them. Or me.

I can usually tell when a story just isn't going to happen and know when to bail on it in favor of using my time (somewhat) more productively. This mess was going nowhere. Then I made the angry Father do something. What was the biggest conflict he could create other than slogging along as the advocate for the unfortunates? He needed to want to make a change in the mess that wasn't going anywhere. He watned to make things better for the characters, and to do that he was going to need to confront the director of the hospital. We've not met yet other than in passing mention from Eva, the nurse--which was the one POV that was really working so far.

Then came the idea that we should go meet the Director before Father go there. Oh boy, this guy is off his rocker! I had no idea. But ooooooh is he fun to write. And now, I have conflict brewing that is much more immediate than my overall plot. Yes, yes, I think we might have something here after all.

Maybe. Until things dry up again and I have to drop more threats.

The slog

So how's NaNoWriMo year seven going for me, you ask?

Blarg.

Yep, that sums it up nicely (or not so nicely). I've never written such a wandering, inane mess of attempted scenes. Thankfully. I'll give myself the opportunity to write utter crap this one time because hey, gotta try everything once, right?

Maybe something will come of it--some scene that jumps out at me that could be turned into a short story or a novella. One thing is for sure, it's not going to end up anywhere near novel territory as far as a workable amount of coherent words.

So what the hell is going so wrong this year?

I had an idea. It seemed like a good one. I had a beginning point, a character, a setting, and knew where I had to end it. You have to understand, this is way more planning than I usually put into any NaNo novel so I thought I'd be way ahead of the game. It turns out, not so much.

Jackson, my intended MC didn't have the same fun personality to write as Joshua (from A Broken Race, of which this new story was supposed to be a prequel).

So I switched to Grace, whom I'd had no intention of using for POV character at all, but hell, Jackson wasn't working so why not, and there could be some love interest there...maybe? Grace worked for a while, but after she took three pages to eat a meal of crackers, I realized that she wasn't the key to breathing life into the story I'd intended to tell.

Let's try Jerry. No, didn't intend to POV him either, but he seemed to be working and he carried the story on for a good while after I'd ditched Grace. The words started to come. Oh hallelujah! But then he dried up. Crap.

Eva! Eva didn't even exisit in the story until Grace needed a direct antagonist. Eva was doing wonders for my lagging enthusiasm. Then a prompt to add an unexpected child came up. YES! Eva had a sick child, and this I could work with! Words happened. Story happened. We learned things. We even got a bigger antagonist to deal with. I was just about jumping for joy and then I wrote a really sad scene for poor Eva and I had to put her aside for a little while before she could feasibly take on the next part of the plot. Which meant I needed to write: "Time passes" or  jump POVs again.

Back to Jackson, Grace or Jerry? None of them enticed me, but the angry-on-the-inside-priest from Jackson's chapter did.  I was all excited about writing Father Frederick for a while but now...now the story is dragging again.

Which is why we're back to: Blarg. It's just not clicking and I know this story not going to amount to much for all the slogging I'm forcing myself to do. However, it is getting the creative writing juices flowing again and I am carving out time to write from my otherwise over-filled day. I am accomplishing part of what I set out to do this month. So I'll give this story another 5k to shape up or not and if it doesn't, I'll fill my other 25k with one of my other countless projects that needs finishing or one of the short story prompts on the sidelines that needs starting.

So take that Novel-that-would-be, either click or get off my keyboard.

So what is my NaNoWriMo 2012 Project?

It seems that during my blog visiting lull, I was tagged in the Next Big Thing Blog Hop thanks to Ian over at Views from a Bald Patch. I'm way behind on following through with this, but I'll share my November NaNo Novel for what it's worth.

Why say it like that? Because for the past few days I'd rather clean toilets than work on this project. However, yesterday afternoon, thanks to a POV character change and some odd challenges that I was presented with, things finally started falling into place a little.

1. What is the working title of your book?
Jackson - I often name a WIP after the MC until an actual title hits me.

2. Where did the idea come from for this book?
Critique partners who suggested they would like to know more about the past of A Broken Race.

3. What genre does your book fall under?
At this point, the very broad: Speculative Fiction

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
I have honestly not given that any thought whatsoever.

5. What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?
Egads. I'm 5,440 words into this thing for heaven's sake. Uhhhhhh....
A virus culls the population until those considered flawed are the majority and now humanity must either attempt to regain their past glory or forge a new path into the unknown.

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Let's just concentrate on completing the rough draft at this point, shall we?

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
30 days, ideally.

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Can't think of anything similar off the top of my head, though I'm sure there's something out there that hasn't crossed my reading pile yet.

9. Who or What inspired you to write this book?
I think we covered that in #2

10. What else about your book might pique the readers interest?
Underdogs get control of humanity. That's got to bring some triumphant feeling with it.

Jackson is currenly eeking along at 5,440 words. Jackson and Grace, two young people are getting thrown into situations by all sorts of well-meaning 'normal' people that will shape them into the foundation for a new world...set in the old one that is rapidly falling apart thanks to lots of bloody deaths and odd challenges from my regional challenge jar.

Another story to be published

Happy news time! Children of the Trees, a short fantasy story, is to be published in the upcoming edition of Liquid Imagination. It's due out in November.

When Hemina's body and her tree dwelling people are attacked by a God in need of a phsyical form, she finds that her Goddess is missing and someone has to take up the slack.

Prepping for NaNoWriMo

One of my four dragon eggs.

Unlike most NaNo participants, preparing for November has far less to do with outlines or creating characters than it does with filling the Kitten Jar with challenges, gathering RSVPs, sorting prizes and figuring out just when the hell I'm going to actually find time to write.

October is filled with "Things I put myself through" also known as Donning the Superwoman Cape. Things like:

Preparing of 312 Christmas craft kids for my daughters elementary school (because that certainly wasn't getting done in November). I am only doing half the school this year, so hey, that less thing is still working.

Filling goody bags, sorting prizes for all our big regional events and weekly write-ins, and finally getting around to filling out and dropping off the one donation form I pledged myself to.

Then there is the matter of spending some time with crafty-daughter who declared we needed to make dragon eggs. I'd forgotten how much of a pain in the cheeks it is to blow out eggs. So yes, we made dragon eggs and then the eggs needed nests, which meant a trip to the craft store because I was out of black rocks (and we needed black rocks, I guess). Hopefully this fills my mom and daughter craft quota for the upcoming month.

Running my kids to and fro with all their fall school activities. Taxi anyone?

Getting a couple of my stories that had dropped out of submisions back in into the juggling mix, the house decorated for Halloween and cleaned enough to tide me over for the month ahead with only a little general maintance.

And, of course, working, but thats a perpetual challenge these days.

I suppose I should read over the couple pages of the short that I'm intending on turning into this year's NaNoNovel, huh? Thankfully I still have a few days to squeeze that in.

Nearing NaNoWriMo

October hit with the realization that November's noveling adventure is only 31 days away. I'd flee in terror except between the stress of work, a lingering cold and a two day migraine, well, I just don't have that kind of energy. Instead I'm sitting on the couch declaring that the Broken Race prequel is my chosen project and if that goes to hell at some point in the month, I'll fall back to pounding out short stories or filling in one of the missing middles of a past NaNo novel. Assuming there will be time to write, there's no lack for projects that could benefit from 50,000 words or any portion thereof.

Our regional forum is up and buzzing with energy. Details are being worked out for various events. Write-ins are filling our calendar. Raffles prizes are overflowing. So far, all is well in NaNoLand.

Dependablity

From my vacation to the Badlands: Even rock can show love.

Today is an odd day for me. My last grandparent has died, which leaves me a generation closer to old age and death. Only a few weeks from her 90th birthday, my Grandmother finally left this world. I say finally, because we all knew it was coming soon, even if she didn't. She didn't know much these last few years, but it didn't slow her down until the very end.

Dear Grandma wasn't the grandparent I begged to spend a week during the summer with every year. She didn't play, bake me cookies, or inspire me toward gardening or creative pursuits. She made just enough food for everyone present and not a morsel more. Though she had money, she didn't waste a penny on anything remotely frivolous. She greeted my crazy hair colors and clothing choices with nothing more than a slight eye roll and an exasperated 'oh heh'. That what all she had to say about most anything she didn't agree with. Oh heh.

She certainly wasn't the Grandma I considered fun. But she was always there. Dependable. When it came to taking me out shopping for birthdays she was there. She was always happy to provide a family Sunday dinner once or twice a month. And I always got a hug when I arrived and one when I left.

Most amazingly, though, as the years went by, the Grandmother than I'd always consider the kind, sweet, fun one grew sulky, angry and highly opinionated. Dependable Grandma, well, she stayed herself - smiling, hugging, and grateful for every visit even when she no longer had any idea who I was.

While I wouldn't mind being considered fun should I be fortunate enough to live into old age, what I truly hope to be is dependable.

Still alive and kicking

From my vacation: The Badlands 

Perhaps alive is exaggerating my zombie-like state. I'm mostly kicking with a little screaming now and then. Thanks to work, writing has ground to a standstill but ideas are percolating so at least progress is happening even if the words aren't being written down. Short stories are still fluttering about in submissions. Novels are getting sparkly new query letters. A synopsis for A Broken Race is in the percolator.

And NaNo prep, yes, that's all going on in the background too. Mostly the prep for the regional raffles and activities at this point, but story ideas are vying for attention as well. I'd like to get back into the true spirit of things with a fresh new novel dripping from my fingertips, but the prequel to A Broken Race is offering me chocolates. A few other past discarded projects are also sending me notes expressing their affection. I'm waiting for that one droolworthy idea that knocks me off my feet. Or expensive chocolates.

All work and no writing makes writers twitchy

Apologies to my usual blog haunts. I have not had the freetime to hang out in my beloved internet. Blame work. I do.

While I love the ability to pay bills, the lack of writing time is really getting on my nerves. I pity the character who gets their wish to have me work on their story next. I have a good deal of pent up aggression to vent into words. People might get hurt. No, I'm kidding, they'll certainly get hurt. Hell, they'll probably get killed.

I could really use a good fight scene right now. In the mood I'm in, I wouldn't place bets on which side would win.

Mermaids might suddenly find the ocean dry pumped for a good scrubbing.

Samarah, you might find the middle is one bloody fight after another with no sex until the end, which as I recall, there wasn't much sex at the end. Your patience is hightly recommended.

Jackson, your story includes a lot of blood and gore. I don't think I could make that more depressing, bloody or gory than it already is, but hey, do you really want to challenge me on that?

Bruce, my dear knight, your story already doesn't end well for you, suffice it to say, the middle will likely not be any more pleasant. What with the excess body hair, the flock of godly sheep, and your empty-headed twit of a girlfriend...say what if she talked a lot, really loudly, until she drove you all into madness? I'm open to changing up the ending. What do you say?

Maribella, I'd recommend not making any demands right now. I'm much more in the mindset of your uncle at the moment.
You don't want me writing about babies right now, Marion. I guarantee it would be some deformed, demon-possessed creature dead set on bringing about the end of your world, and while it wouldn't provide much resolution, I'm inclined to let the baby win.

Which brings me to Vayen and the gang. Really? Do I need to even go there? You know what this mood is like first hand.

Deep cleansing breaths and all that. Ahem. Yeah.

I came home to a letter

I returned from my trip to Yellowstone late last night to find a note on my desk. In light of not having all my photos organized enough to post anything trip related, I figured I'd share the letter.

Dear She Who Taps the Keys,

We hope you are enjoying your time away from us. We stand here stunned. We don't have much choice, you see, because you left your laptop behind. You've left us for a long weekend, sure, but nine days? What were you thinking? What about all those great ideas you get when you're away from the computer? How are you supposed to apply them to our stories if you leave us behind?

Perhaps you don't fully understand our plights. Here, we'll lay them out for you so you can sit your butt on the couch, plug in your laptop and seriously consider making up for lost time.

Samarah would like to know what the hell happens in the middle of her story.

Jackson wonders what happened to his family (and the rest of the human race for that matter).

Bruce also wants to know what happens in the middle of Not Another Bard's Tale. What is it with you and skimping on middles anyway?

Maribella demands to know which young man (none of which she likes) she's going to marry. Her uncle suggests himself as he's quite content to run the kingdom. No really, he'd be happy to take that plot issue off your hands.

The mermaid is getting restless and is threatening to feed your toes to her new husband if you don't finish her story's revisions.

Marion is very depressed as you keep talking about fixing her story but never seem to get around to it. She may start stealing babies from other WIPs if you don't act soon.

Oh and Vayen and the gang are quite annoyed that you've set their third novel on the back burner. Are you sure it's wise to annoy them?

We hope you enjoyed your vacation. Don't plan on another any time in the near future.

Sincerely,
Your Characters

Go ahead, freak me out.

From my pond: One of our many friendly frogs.

With now seven submissions bouncing around as they look for a home, opening email has become even more of a gut-wrenching, nail-biting, take-a-deep-breath-and-click daily trial. The odds of rejections, sometimes multiple per day are even more likely. Yes, rejections are part of the game and certainly to be expected, but that doesn't make getting email any more fun. Yet, masochist/writer that I am, I still find myself checking the darn inbox several times throughout the day. So feel free to mess with and write a comment. Nothing like seeing something in my inbox to make me freak out for just a split second.

I'll be maintaining blog silence (no new posts anyway) for the next two weeks while I take a road trip out to Yellowstone. Ah, the smell of sulfur, it refuels the creative juices. Or maybe those are churning stomach juices... Anyway, I'll be recharging all my juices and taking some photos to adorn future posts. It's been fifteen years since my last visit there so it will be fun to see what has changed along the way as we travel.

See you on the other side of silence.

Don't say no to the Panda.

I'm still buried under work and trying to finish a short story before the submission deadline. While I'm neck-deep in that...

....here's something completely different.

Can I just say, I love this Panda? I laughed so hard I was crying for the whole last two minutes. I had to watch it again. If I ever had to pick an animal that best represents me, this particular one would be it.

All set to take over the world

...Now that my army of tiny NaNoBots is complete! Mwahahahaha

I really have to stop checking in on what the other NaNoWriMo MLs are up to, because it just leads to inspiration and that leads to projects that I really don't have time for. But they're fun!

They don't need to sleep. They just do. And do. And do. And some of them even smile about it.

So how does one go about raising an army of their own?

First, visit your local robot part outlet. Mine happened to be called Hobby Lobby.

You'll need two sizes of wooden blocks. I used 1 inch and 3/4 inch. There are smaller sizes, if you want really little bots, just keep in mind that you'll need to find hand and feet parts that are equally sized.

I picked dowel hole plugs for the head knobs, 1/8 dowels for the arms and legs, wooden balls for the hands and some little rounded dowel part for the feet.

I cut the dowels at 3/4 inch using a wire cutter. They snap off really easy. You will need to sand the cut edges to get a good base for the other parts to attach to.

Using hot glue (because I really didn't have time to sit around while stuff dried), I attached the head knobs on the smaller block and then glued the smaller block to the larger one.

Things got rather assembly line after that. Attach the arms to the hands and the legs to the feet.

Because I was doing thirteen of these (the max I could do with the pieces I had purchased), I assembled all the arms and legs before moving on.

The easiest way to assemble the feet is to set them both side by side and put a drop of glue on top of them. Set the block body on top of the feet and adjust as necessary until the bot stands up.

If the legs are mostly in the middle section of the block, it has a pretty good chance of standing on the first try. Making sure the legs are generally the same size would be a good idea too, if you're going for a uniform look. My army is a little haphazard. I'm okay with that.

Once my robots were assembled--all thirteen took about an hour from opening the supplies to figuring out the first one to gluing on the last leg.

Removing all the glue blobs and stringy bits would be a good idea at this point.

Then it's time to find some paint!

I could have opted for regular old acrylic paint, but I had this hammered silver spray paint in my closet and it begged to be used.


As you might notice in the pictures, some of my robots have different feet. I ran out of the nifty little bowl pieces. Boo! But, I had some craft sticks sitting around so I snapped off the rounded ends and darn it, they made cute feet too.


Behold my army of NaNoBots!

Percolator In Action

From my backyard: A cecropia moth visited our trampoline.

While I haven't had a change to write a darn thing lately, the time away from doing so has allowed my subconscious percolator to do its thing. Three things I've accomplished this week without physically accomplishing anything (writing related):

1. At long last, I've happened upon a title for the sequel to Trust. Now called: Chains of Gray. That only took several years...

2. I've discovered that I seem fond of two themes throughout several of my stories--which are otherwise unrelated. One is the color gray (or grey, as I prefer to see it) having some significance in various ways. The other is genetics - either the manipulation of, breaking down of or restrictions based upon them. It started with Trust, then went in another direction in A Broken Race and splintered into Devolution. Now its continuing on in the as yet untitled (Egads, yet another project to title. Let's hope that doesn't take years, shall we?) prequel to A Broken Race. Neither thing was intentional in its multiple manifestations. Giving the percolator time to wander through my stories while my body was busy allowed it to make these connections and point them out to me. At which point I profoundly said, "Huh. Weird."

3. I've had time to work on troubleshooting the aforementioned Devolution. That short story has been languishing in my 'rework' folder for well over a year. I've got the conflict down its just finding the right *bang* for the resolution that totally escapes me as of yet. It's not a twist kind of story and that might be what's tripping me up. At least this gives the percolator something to chew on while the rest of me is off in worker drone mode.

Have you noticed any unintentional repeating of things in your stories?

Dragon myself through the week

From this side it looks angry.

It's been a crazy busy week. You'd think being down one kid (he's working at Boy Scout camp for two weeks) would make for a little extra time, but no. Work has continued to devour what would usually be my writing time. Which also is my critiquing time, so sadly, I've also fallen woefully behind there too. On the slightly brighter side, I have been able to devote some subconscious effort to percolating submission pieces for A Broken Race, which is nearly ready to head out into Queryland.

While I've been so busy, I have managed to carve out a little craft time with my daughter. She's been in a 'let's make dragons out of clay' mode lately. Who am I to argue? So I sat down with her and a ball of air dry clay and we made dragons.

At this angle its more friendly.

Admittedly, I made this dragon over a month ago (work has been at crazy level for quite awhile). I then moved it to the corner of my kitchen counter where stuff that sits around collects. I figured that if it sat there, I'd remember to make time to also sit with my daughter and paint it. Great intention.

It sat there for a week and got hit with some random something that I set on the counter. One wing, a foot and several back spines fell off. I swore. Profusely. Then I got my glue gun out and fixed it.

I moved my repaired and still unpainted dragon to my desk in an 'out of the way' place so it would be safe until I got around to painting it. While it was in this safe place, it seems that I managed to smash it with a tape gun in a flurry of shipping packages for work. All that stuff that broke before, fell off again. Only this time, the wing shattered. Again, I swore profusely. I didn't fix it.

The poor dragon and its broken bits sat in a pile of clay dust for several weeks. You might say it was daring me to fix it and I was ignoring it because I was still pissed that I'd broken it again before I had made time to paint the darn thing.

Finally, after a late dinner, I hauled out my box of paints and my glue gun. The dragon got fixed. Again. It also got a base coat. Then it sat on the table for two days until I stepped away from another twelve hour day and a late dinner to begin the brain numbing process of painting scales. Four days later, its finally done.

The dragon has now been placed in an actual safe place. And if fate has it's way with the dragon again, at least I have these photos.

Getting away from it all

From my pond: Suicidal stag beetles.
For the record, they suck at swimming,
but keep coming into the pond anyway. 

The juggling of submissions is still going on, as is an overwhelming work load. So what do I do? Leave.

I planned to be gone for most of four days, but only manged three thanks to the insane heat and deer flies. I hate deer flies. I hate mosquitoes too, but together, they are a force I'd rather not reckon with. So yes, my answer to the near triple digit heat and bugs? Leave.

It wasn't all bad though. I did get to relax a little. I swam a lot in a gorgeous little spring-fed lake. And I sweated. A lot. Probably lost a few pounds. The night sky was beautifully black as opposed to home with all the city lights interfering. And there was much reminiscing.

I hadn't been to that campground since 1989, the last year we went camping as a family when I still lived at home. After my mother's sudden death, all family camping ground to a halt. It was sad but fun to go back to visit a place where we'd all relaxed together. Now my own family has been there too. It was a peaceful sort of reclaiming happy memories, part of my ongoing twenty-three year and counting search for closure sort of thing.

Now that the camping supplies are put back in order and stored away until next month, laundry is done and the house is relatively cleaned, it's time to get back into the swing of things.

Sort of.

I'm still counting today as being on vacation. Which means I'm working as little as possible. I'm not editing. I'm not designing and I'm certainly not producing anything. I have answered all my emails and I did finally manage to read Steven Brust's Dragon this weekend. That's only been sitting in my TBR pile for a year now, along with far too many other books. Oh, free time, how I miss you. I enjoyed hanging out with Vlad again. It's been years, and he's one of my favorite characters to read.

Tomorrow, I'll get back to work, but today, darn it, I'm relaxing.

Camp, edits and balls

Trala runs screaming through the paper-lined paths. "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!"

"What the heck are you talking about?" Delilah asks, peering upward. "Holy crap. She's right. Run!"

Nekar stands his ground beside Ms. Wildstar. They both watch as a wad of cloth plummets to the floor. Nekar gives it a minute to settle before examining it closer.

"Why the mass of terrycloth?" asks Blue.

Ms. Wildstar shakes her head. "It's a towel."

Nekar extracts a crumbled post-it note from within the wad and straightens it. "She Who Taps the Keys has officially thrown in the the towel on Camp NaNo." 

Delilah creeps out from the paper wads. "She finished?"

Blue holds up his translator. "Perhaps you should get one of these." He sighs. "It's a phrase meaning-"

"What's on the post-it note?" asks Ms. Wildstar.

"Story titles." A steady whump, whump, whump sounds overhead.

Trala takes another hysterical lap. "The sky! It's falling!"

Blue snakes out a tentacle and trips her. He whistles to himself as he backs away. 

"Is she submitting again?"

"Five stories at once. Hence the juggling. If you hear any hint of swearing. Do run. Worse than the sky, balls will fall on your head."

Ms. Wildstar nods. "That explains the editing snow of random words that fell thickly over the weekend." 

Nekar reaches over to pluck a shred of paper from her hair. "Hey, you got a nod on you."

"Oh god, get it off!" She shudders. "They were everywhere! I thought I'd burned them all."

"We should make sure there aren't any more laying around. The damn things breed like dust bunnies." Nekar leads Ms. Wildstar into the pathways.