Hello Again

Well, its been a while since I last posted, hasn't it?
Let's play catch up. Since I last posted, I failed completly to win NaNoWriMo. I printed out everything I had written, then attacked it with the pen of the editor. [Insert thunderclap and ominous-sounding music here.] I started a rewrite, and am now about 1/3 of the way done with it and when I say rewrite, 'drastic changes to plot and setting' is probably more correct. For starters, its no longer an AU version of our solar system, its set in a whole new place that is still searching for a decent name. Wizards of the Coast has an open call for any and all sci-fi, fantesy, or horrer novels, and I am hopping to be able to submit something to that. *knocks on wood* The longer I work on this story the more I like it. Even if nothing comes of this open call, I still hope I'll be able to go somewhere with this thing.

Speaking of stories I want to take somewhere...
I have been writing a novel with some of my friends from high school for oh, four years now. We are in the process of putting together a final draft. I have the book now, and I'm still having trouble ajusting to the fact that there is only one sceen left for me to write, and after that, everything I do will just be cosmetic changes. When we started this, I don't think I really thought we would ever come close to finishing.

If you add to the the different RPGs I'm writing in, and all the school work I have (schools been in session for three weeks and I've already had two papers due) , February is going to be a very busy month for me.

An excerpt to melt your heart.

I got to go to the Christ Batty book signing last Saturday! \/\/007!
Right now I am sitting at 24,906 and I'm aiming for at least 26,672 by the end of the night but I have to stop and share this bit. It made me cry when I wrote it.

Sashinka and Aodhan are on their way back to the car after the Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve:

“Oíche chiúin, oíche Mhic Dé, Cách 'na suan dís araon. Dís is dílse 'faire le spies Naíon beag, leanbh ceansa 'gus caomh. Críost, 'na chodladh go sámh. Críost, 'na chodladh go sámh. Oíche chiúin, oíche Mhic Dé, Aoirí ar dtús chuala 'n scéal. Allelúia aingeal ag glaoch. Cantain suairc i ngar is i gcéin. Críost an Slánaitheoir Féin. Críost an Slánaitheoir Féin.” Aodhán sang the song quietly on the way out to the car.

“Was that Silent Night?” Sashinka asked.

“Yes it was.” Aodhán responded.

“Was that Gaelic you were singing it in?” The elf answered.

“Yes, it was the first song I ever memorized. My mother taught me the Gaelic before she died. It is one of the few things I remember about her. Every year on Christmas Eve as we went home from church she would sing Silent Night in Gaelic. I can still hear her voice when I close my eyes, floating through the cold night air like an angel’s song.” Aodhán was glad of the darkness in the night; it hid the tears welling in his eyes, which he blinked back stubbornly.

Right. I'm going back to work now.

Now we're gettin somewhere

I dragged a 6 x 9 steno pad with me yesterday and wrote on that. I just compose faster when I write by hand then when I type, although I can type what I have written as fast as I can read it. On one sheet of this pad I can fit about 300 words, which means that 11 pages is about two days worth of writing. If I can keep up this pace, I will be caught up in a week.
Yesterday's efforts brought my word count up to 9,559.
I just might win.

Tuesday

Today's word count is 4,243, which lands me almost to the end of Chapter 2. I am so far behind its not even funny.

Here's a quote from Chapter 2:

“The guild does not care about what happens in twenty years. They care about what happens this year. Since you left more of us have died at the hands of one of our so-called colleagues than our supposed targets. Not all of us can leave like Goerauslein did.” Sashinka shook her head as she spoke.

Scientific Progress Goes Boink?

I have made it all the way to 3,173 words so far, and I am hoping to get some more in tonight. I realized that I don't know any good Gaelic phrases for Aodhan to toss in to his conversation. A thread in the NaNo forums and a goggle search have not produced much, although I did learn how to say "May a pitiless bureaucrat destroy your ill-gotten wealth" in Gaelic, and surely that counts for something.

The genre is now Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Alternate Universe Earth. My short summary is Odyssey meets the Godfather in a solar system on the brink of war, with an Irish assassin as the protagonist. The male MC (said assassin) is Aodhan Kelly. There ought to be an accent on that 'a', but the alt+ codes hate me. The female lead is Sashinka Taumaril, an elf from Pluto sent to find Aodhan and bring him back to the city of Styx-Acheron-Plethegeron with her. Absolutely no hilarity ensues, this is a serious novel.

So I decided to take it in a bit of a different direction...

I wrote about 1,500 words, decided that I didn't like where things were going and started over. This is a bad way to meet a deadline. I wouldn't advise it. Anyway now I'm just about to where I was when I decided to restart, and I only lost a week, including those three days when I didn't do anything.

As it stands now, I'm keeping the title and two of the characters from the old plot and I'm going off in a different direction. And I have the proper background music to write this to, now -- between what the Chef and I already had and what the Leprechaun let me borrow I have 25 and a half hours of Irish/Celtic Music. Now if I had a day straight just to write (and no Internet access to distract me ^_~) that would be great. As I said above, I'm caught up to where I was when I restarted (OK, so Sasha quoted a Tennyson poem verbatim, but she had a good reason and it was one of his shorter ones). With a little bit of luck I should get another chapter in tonight.

For now, I leave you with this quote from Chapter One:

The cold November rain was drizzling down again when Sashinka and Aodhan emerged from the pub. He led the way quietly down the street and Sashinka followed him, the four-inch heels of her boots clicking on the sidewalk. They
strolled along in silence, turning first one corner, then another. The elf looked about her, it had been years since she had last visited and the years and the rain and the night did the town no favors. Buildings that she remembered as holding thriving businesses stared out at her through empty eyes lidded with "For Sale" signs. She sighed, not for the last time, her breath hanging before her in a little cloud that was snatched away by the wind and the slow rain.

Good Night Everyone.

NaNoWriMo has started

It's about 4:30 local time, and my NaNo is 24 words long. My goal for today is 1667 words, plenty of time left.
Let me say a little about my story now. The (working?) title is Die Complex, and as it stands now there are eight named characters who live in the same apartment complex (hence the second word of the title). Six of them run a detective agency, one is a carpenter at the Opera house, and the last is a free-lance computer programmer. All eight of them are part of a D&D campaign (hence the first word). The action takes place in my cities of Styx-Acheron-Plethegeron (or SAP to the locals) and Meerhaven.

And oh yes, everybody vote!

Post the first

This is my NaNoWriMo Journal. Look for updates here as the month progresses.