The 2009 Pub Challenge

Patricia told me about this interesting challenge. I'll be taking part this year. It sounds like fun:

Thanks to those 2008 Pub challenge participants who made it a great success! I hope you’ll consider joining the 2009 Pub as well. For those who didn’t participate last year but want to read more 2009 releases, join us. New members are always welcome! The challenge lasts for all of 2009.

Here are the 2009 rules:

1) Read a minimum of 9 books first published in 2009. You don’t have to buy these. Library books, unabridged audios, or ARCs are all acceptable. To qualify as being first published in 2009, it must be the first time that the book is published in your own country. For example, if a book was published in Australia, England, or Canada in 2008, and then published in the USA in 2009, it counts (if you live in the USA). Newly published trade paperbacks and mass market paperbacks do not count if there has been a hardcover/trade published before 2009. Any questions on what qualifies? Just leave a comment here, and I’ll respond with the answer.

2) No children’s/YA titles allowed, since we’re at the ‘pub.’

3) At least 5 titles must be fiction.

4) Crossovers with other challenges are allowed.

5) You can add your titles as you go, and they may be changed at any time.

6) Sign up here: http://1morechapter.com/pub/?p=1

Have fun reading your 2009 books!


I'll probably be borrowing Vampire Hunter D Volume 12: Pale Fallen Angels Part II, which is released sometime in March!

Let the blood drip from the forehead: NaNoWriMo Begins

I haven't quite sweated blood yet, though my character is feeling that level of stress at the moment. I'm having fun with it this year. I got to know my characters before I began, and it's really given me a boost. I reached 10,500 last night, and it was a great feeling, only three days into the game. Plus, my school work hasn't suffered yet, so that's an added bonus.

I'm very excited about this year's story, and I've been using a few methods to keep it going on track. I didnt' get a chance to outline, though I basically knew what I needed to write for my Prologue and first chapter. I've begun outlining as I write, only one chapter ahead, so that I don't ruin the future chapters for my over-excited self.

Tonight I'm planning to pass the 12,500 mark. Here's hoping.

I'm having fun, basically. Plus I washed the dishes. I'm feeling so very productive.

I'm also extremely happy that my friends are participating as well. You can smell the fiction in the air. I feel like M. Burns: Exxxcccccelllenttt.

Excellent, indeed, crazy old man. Excellent, indeed.

NaNoWriMo: All the Cool Kids are Doin' It

Well, I'm breaking in my blog for its first post of the NaNo season.

It's that time again. The coffee bags are sitting anxiously in my top drawer, candies await on my roomie's side of the live-in closet we call home, my laptop wallpaper is presenting a word count a day calendar for the month of November, OneNote is hosting a new folder with pre-NaNo notes...Yes, indeed, National Novel Writing Month approaches.

My project this year is an idea I had four or five years ago for a young adult novel, The Last Crusader. I'm excited. I could vomit. Character sketches, plot outlines, and writing soundtracks are all in the works this week as I prepare for a month of novel writing. I'm especially excited about this year. Not only do I have a solid idea for a story, I'm going to have several friends participating. That means the pressure to finish is on: a great thing for a struggling novelist.

So here's wishing my fellow novelists good luck. I won't promise, but I'm pretty sure the procrastinator inside will make me its whore this upcoming Nov.--which means several blog updates for my handful of readers. Actually, I'm pretty sure that handful will also be procrastinating by writing blogs about their novel writing process....

Well, happy reading...and writing, everyone

Alrighty. If you think that someone might be slightly peeved with you, calling them 15 times in two days will not make it better. Especially if you're going to meet said someone face to face by the end of the week. An old associate has been calling relentlessly to talk about important things in his life and is now complaining that the answering machine has a better relationship with him that we (my roomie and I) do. If it thinks that calling that often will make us sensitive to his needs, he obviously didn't have a good relationship with us in the first place.

Why won't the madness end.

Oh, I'm sorry, the phone's ringing...Gotta go.