Let me live vicariously through you!

Thanks to a bug that made me lose almost an entire week of necessary writing, I cannot take part in #PitchWars. I always seem to miss the awesome opportunities. *sobs quietly* If it's not having a baby, it's sick baby, or worst of all - sick me. Seriously, you don't want to be in my house right now. I think my roof is where all germs percolate and become bigger, badass versions of themselves. Outbreak? Child's play. Contagion? *scoff* I don't need no pig-bat infested banana to bring you down - my virus is home made.

:P

If your manuscript is finished and polished, go check out bios from mentor links on Brenda Drake's blog. All of the mentors seem awesome. They're witty and fun and the competition has been fierce amongst the mentors. I can't count the number of times I saw Ninja stars, poisoned apples, and bows & arrows tossed around cyberspace. All in good fun, though. As far as I know no mentors or unicorns were actually hurt during the verbal throwdowns.

I've been stalking following the mentors since the #PitchWars hastag pinged my radar. I would know ;) If you take part, let me know so I can stalk your every move as well. Don't worry, I won't hurt you, I just gots ta know!

Hopefully I'll be ready when the next pitch event rolls around. Please let there be one soon!

*wish granted*

Oh - here's another pitch opportunity I just picked up on: #PitchMas. Again, I won't be able to take part because submissions can be submitted on 12/6 via Twitter.

*sobs loudly* *disturbs cat who offers a dirty look as he stalks to a quieter corner*

But seriously, let me know if you pitch. I'll hold hands with you, make you coffee (note to self: must recall how to make coffee), and offer chocolate as we wait for your result.

Good luck to all!

The next big thing blog hop

You heard the news about Pitch Wars the other day, but have you considered it for yourself? I know it's a scary prospect to put your baby out there for the world to judge - I know I'm terrified - but this is an opportunity to get advice from someone in the know before you enter the slush pile.

The very generous Kathleen Doyle has passed along a blanket invite for "the next big thing" to anyone interested. This is a chance to shoutout your MS and hopefully catch the eye of the mentors prior to pitch time.



1. What is the title of your book?

Damaged

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

Well, the idea nudged me back in 2010 based on the whole "Dec 2012" prediction. I wanted to borrow the theme, not actually say "boom! and there were zombies". The question became: what would we do the monsters of our imagination became real? Worse, if they wore the faces of our loved ones? In this alternate now, the change came much earlier than 2012 and the result was an infection of the spirit rather than the body. We are given strength, stamina, and enhanced senses, but the cost is our humanity. Is there a cure? Can the intruding spirit be eradicated once it's embedded in our soul?

Oh, but I should clarify: there are no zombies in my story. My only interest in a zombie is using it for target practice.

3. What genre does your book fall under?

Urban Fantasy - with romantic elements

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

The best part of this exercise? Putting faces with the names :)



Daniella Alonso as Carmen. But with blue eyes. She's burdened by her mom's death and has waited 22 years for her revenge. She lives by certain rules and lumps her life into black and white boxes. She avoids the grey, she's not good with grey.

Blake Lively as Madison, Carmen's closest friend. She's sexy and she knows it. She would love for Carmen to live by her example for a day in the hope of permanent removal of stick from ass - in her expert opinion

 

Shahid Kapoor as Dev - the man who insists Carmen put aside her goals for his. As men sometimes do. At least he's got a good reason for being all "I am man, cook me dinner". His little girl needs saving.

Kidding. He does not ask for dinner. He's sure Carmen would knock him on his ass if he tried

Aimee Kelly as Ella. She might seem like the victim now, but she's got baggage as heavy as Carmen's and will have her own day to act on it

 

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Carmen, born with a spirit dragon that resulted in her mom’s murder, secretly seeks the killers while formulating a cure for her unique case of Animism, but must set it all aside to release Ella from her lab before the director dissects the youngest known person marked by an Animal and bottling her "gifts".

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I'm open to either option - as long as someone helps me with marketing.

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

I wrote a complete first draft about two years ago. Since then I've digested articles and guidelines and methods on writing. Prior to this NaNo, I ripped apart that first draft and restructured the story. You could say I'm in heavy edits now. That's what I tell myself anyway.

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld, Devon Monk's Allie Beckstrom, Nalini Singh's Guild Hunters, and Jaye Wells's Sabina Kane series. I aspire to mimic these wonderful author's grit, heart, character, and world building, but I'm sure I fall way short.

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I wrote a great many stories that will never see the light of day because I couldn't connect with my own characters. Carmen's story is the first one I had a visceral reaction to. We both had difficult childhoods that shaped us into the women we are. I can't do any of the cool things she does, but I want to be with her as she overcomes her demons.

10. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Strong women who think for themselves, magick, and inner demons that literally mark you. You'd better read this now as a how-to guide for dealing with your demon. There's an end date, after all. Supposedly 12/21/12. Shoot! We've got to move quickly!


I can't think of anyone specific to tag, so I leave this open to anyone who's interested. Unless you're pitching to the adult genre mentors as well. In that case, I will hurt you.

;)

You don't want to miss this!

I don't know about you, but I tend to look ahead; I mean waaay ahead. For example: before NaNo even began, I was thinking about what I wanted to do with this MS after these crazy 30 days of pumping out words were behind me. I researched Pubs, ePubs, and agents, stalked on twitter, blogs, and FB to see who was looking for what. The conclusion after all of this information digestion? Jury's still out :)

However, my Twitter stalking turned up something really exciting today. Have you heard of Pitchwars? I hadn't, but following a link from a tweet over to Brenda Drake's blog, I found some pretty juicy details on a pitch contest. If, unlike me, you have a near to completion MS, rush to the finish line, polish polish polish, and take a chance!

The things you most want to know:


·        November 26: The coaches (listed on the linky below) will post on their blogs what genre/category they want to coach. They'll be very specific genres. Aspiring writers will hop around and decide which coaches best fit their manuscripts.

·        December 5: Aspiring writers will submit 3 "applications" to their top choices for coaches to the contest email (brendadrakecontests@gmail.com) during the allotted times (8AM to 8PM EST). That means, participants will send three separate emails to the contest email addressing each with one of their three top choices for coach.

·        December 5 through December 10: Coaches will read the applications and pick teammates.The coaches don't have to pick from their applications. If a coach passes on an application, it is then up for grabs and another coach, if they haven't connected to their applicants, can snatch it after notifying the applicant and if the applicant chooses the coach.

·        December 12: Teams will be announced. On the announcement post there will be instructions on how the winners must send their work.

·        December 12 through January 16: Each coach will read their teammate's manuscript and give general notes on any issues they find. The coach will help their teammate get his or her pitches ready for the agent round.

There's so much more, but you should head over to Brenda's blog for the rest.

As for me, I'm going to try to whip my MS in shape by then. Wish me luck!

I'm ahead, yet behind

Ever have one of those weeks where you don't know where your time went? This was one of those for me. For starters, I cannot recall Monday or Tuesday. I know I woke up, worked, played with kids, wrote, went to bed...but I don't remember the details of any of it. NaNo is taking its toll on me though you wouldn't know it by my word count:

33,251 words!!!!

I thought that deserved some attention. :-) I was so out of it this week that I only noticed last night how far along I'd come. That's one-third of the way through my novel ya'all!

In case you're wondering: yes, I say ya'all in life, so I have every right to use it here

And to confirm: yes, I am brown - East Indian - but that won't stop me

:-)

Back to the above numbers: part of my motivation is keeping to my timetable. Many years ago an author shared a spreadsheet that helped her keep track of her progress. I don't recall who this was (it's been too long), but she showed basic organization that I tweaked to suit my needs. By tracking my daily words against my goal, I get the satisfaction of seeing my words-to-goal shrink. Want to see what I see? No? Too bad  :-P

My story is organized in four parts (I like it better than the 3 act structure), each with necessary story points. Each chapter is allotted an equal portion of my word goal (90K/32chapters = 2813 wds/ch). Do some chapter have  more words? Yes, others less, but this helps me see my progress and where I need to come back and revise.

I track my words by day in the "word count" column. There are formulas in the other cells that do the nifty job of generating percentages for me. Completely thoughtless math - just the way I like it.

Finally, the box I had failed to notice all along: Complete versus remaining. How cool is that?
I also counted other scenes I was compelled to write, but don't have a place for, here. What? They count!

I'm happy to share my crazy, over organized sheet with anyone who's interested. Let me know.

Happy NaNoing!

Fun Tool?

You know what I found today? A free trial of Scrivener for the month of November through Dec 7th. Best part is that if you "win" NaNo '12 you'll get the full version at half price. You must, however, be a registered NaNoWriMo participant. All the details are here. 

I've read a lot of good things about Scrivener, so I'm pretty excited about this. I might try to organize my NaNo novel into the software so all my notes and outlines are in one place. Doing so will also free up space in my Dropbox. I'm pretty sure I'm close to the limit of the free 2 gigs. 

Twitter is probably the reason for my poor word counts these last few nights. I'm addicted to it. I'm a woman who loves instant gratification, and I totally get that satisfaction by Twitter. When you Tweet me back that is. Tweeters, why do you leave me hanging? I miss you :(

I've done a poor job of informing you of my word count, so here's a quick rundown:

1-Nov	2633
2-Nov	2523
3-Nov	1681
4-Nov	2100
5-Nov	2166

Total: 11,103 words

You're probably thinking I'm crazy for saying "poor word counts" above. That's because I'd set a goal of 2500 wrds/day for NaNo and I'm slowly falling behind. Although I'm on track to meet over 50,000 words, I'm not sure I'll have a complete first draft.

Want to help me out? Tweet me BICHOK (butt in chair hands on keyboard). After making a face at enough of you, I might just do it.

:)