courtesy of liquene For the last week or so, I’ve been working on the novel I wrote in November during NaNoWriMo. Today I admitted to myself, that while effort has been expended [passive voice has been used], I’m flailing. I’ve been changing this, changing that, working obsessively on that all-important opening scene, but with very [...]
Nuanc Book Designs – “Eye Contact”
In October, I opened a shop of book cover art—Nuanc Book Designs—on Etsy. “Eye Contact,” pictured on the left, is the latest offering. Designing the covers for The Speculative Elements Series from Third Person Press and its upcoming ghost story anthology, Grey Area, has been a pleasure for me. Because I’ve gotten a lot of [...]
The Pitch
After posting about “the pitch” for my novel-in-progress earlier last month, I thought I should share what I came up with. Finally got this the way I wanted it around the end of the first week of NaNoWriMo. As for the book itself, I’m still not sure about my title, “Plasticity.” I like it and [...]
Day 5 – Showing Character
Today, my main character showed her character. Up to now, she’s been more self-involved and confused than anything else—for good reasons—but, that had to change. Even though she still has more questions than answers, she reached a point where she had to take a stand, to declare herself on one side of the conflict or [...]
Day 4 – Getting to the Point
courtesy of |Chris| Today, I could not get to The Point. I planned on writing the MC’s Fateful Decision. That point at which she makes a decision that will forever change her life and set up the action for the rest of the book. Without this, I could ramble on about the situation she’s in [...]
Day 3 – The Fun Part
Yesterday, my MC was walking home from her job, exhausted and worried, when she suddenly decided to climb a tree. They are huge trees with low, sturdy, spreading branches. Of course, she would want to throw her leg up and hoist herself into one of them! But it came as a surprise to me. It’s [...]
Day 2 – Scrivener
Two days in and all seems fresh and full of potential. I did have trouble getting started today. Not serious trouble. Once I decided it was time, I buckled down and just did it. But I certainly didn’t wake up feeling that I knew exactly what I would be writing today. I’ll let you know [...]
Day 1 – A Pitch in Time
And so it begins. It’s 3 PM and I have 1885 words written. That’s a prologue, Chapter One (three scenes), and one scene of Chapter Two.
A Month of Words
Starting tomorrow, I’m back! Nanowrimo begins at midnight tonight and I’m ready to do my first intense month of novel writing since 2009. I started doing Nanowrimo in 2001 with my first novel, Pray for Rain. Since then, there have been six other “wins.” That makes me a self-appointed Nanowrimo veteran. In case there is [...]
Unearthed Reviewed
Derek Newman-Stille of Speculating Canada writes in his glowing and interesting review of Unearthed [Third Person Press]: Once again Third Person Press has illustrated the incredible speculative work of Cape Breton authors with the third instalment of their Speculative Elements Series: UnEarthed. In discussing the anthology, Derek says, The Earth theme serves as a great [...]
Kangaroos are Cool
We’re having perfect summer weather here in Atlantic Canada. Canadians do not say such sentences casually. We say it with the same emotion as someone would say, “I won the lottery!” It stays cold far too many months of the year for us to be anything but passionate about summer. Even better is that I’ve [...]
Day 6 – 30 Nano Post-Mortem
The thing I’m most proud of after successfully finishing NaNoWriMo is that I made no foolish pledge to blog everyday during the month. The first five days I wanted to. It was a good feeling to complete my main course and then finish off with a little blogging dessert. But after day five, the novel [...]