NaNoWriMo Day Five and Six (AKA Spackle Woman, Maid of Mortar rides again)
Today’s Word Count: 3,532
Total Word Count: 11,709
Words to Go: 38,291
Well, that was a weekend and a half. Saturday’s writing session was interrupted by my decision to finally fix my office door. See, the previous owners of this house replaced all the door handles with new brushed nickel ones, but they didn’t chisel out the proper recess for the strike plates (the section that goes on the door frame and covers the hole where the latch bolt goes). They just screwed ’em on and that was good enough.
Except that it meant my office door was getting harder and harder to latch, especially as this house settled over the years. Finally I couldn’t latch the door at all, which meant that the J Crew could come in any time they liked.
So on Saturday I brought up a chisel, a mallet, a drill, and some wood filler and decided to fix the situation. I took off the strike plate after checking to see where I’d need to put it in order to allow the latch bolt to enter, chiseled out a new recess in the door frame and enlarged/lowered the hole for the latch bolt, closed up the old screw holes with filler, marked out where the new screws would go, drilled pilot holes for them, re-installed the strike plate in its new position and screwed it into place.
Et voila, my office door now latches. Even better, I can now lock it, which will allow me to do stuff that I don’t want the cats interfering with.
And then there was Sunday. I got my words in, which is something, but man…
A section of our front walkway is subsiding, forming a tripping risk. Ramón decided that we could fix this ourselves and spent the year collecting bottle jacks and all the equipment we’d need to raise the subsiding slab and put gravel and expanding foam under it.
Sunday was The Day. We spent the entire afternoon excavating holes on either side of the subsiding slab, attaching clamps to it, setting up the bottle jacks, attaching the clamps by chain to a 7’ length of 4×4 wood, putting the 4×4 on the bottle jacks, and raising the slab.
Well, we did raise it, after much sweat, toil, and swearing. Unfortunately we also raised the slab next to it (something that we can’t see is connecting them) so it didn’t made a damn bit of difference. I finally convinced Ramón to let me call the pros and have them come out and fix it. I mean, we already dug the holes—all they have to do is grind off whatever bit of concrete is attaching that one slab to the subsided one, drill holes in the subsiding slab, pump expanding foam in there until the section raises to the proper level, and they’re done. We’ll fill the holes back in.
Ramón muttered that we were getting too old for this shit. He also said, “This looked so simple on YouTube.” I reminded him that everything looks simple on YouTube. And I may have wanted to do a swan dive into a bucket of rum and coke afterwards but restrained myself.
NaNoWriMo Day Four
Today’s Word Count: 500
Total Word Count: 8,177
Words to Go: 41,823
Today was a tough one—we had a massive rain system move through the area and I was aching as a result which interfered with my ability to write (I can write when I’m depressed, I can write when I’m sick, I can write when I’m tired, but when my finger joints feel like they’re filled with ground glass I have to back off). Even so, I’m still well over the NaNoWriMo limit for the day and I’ll see if I can make up some of the personal shortfall over the next few days.
The story itself is chugging along nicely—after a fraught “family” dinner at the palace Crystal has been invited by her rival for the throne Veronika to the Harvest Ball, mainly so that she has to sit there and watch Veronika dance with the Buff Lords (because Veronika is incredibly insecure and tends to lash out when she feels threatened). What neither of them know is that an official from Arceneros (aka the continent of Uskela’s Coventry) is about to make a dangerous proposal to Crystal, after which a bunch of rocks are about to start rolling downhill, muwahahahaha.
In between writing I need to prep for 20Books to 50K™ 2022 in Las Vegas. I’ll be selling and signing books at the RAVE book event at Bally’s (soon to be Horseshoe) on the Strip on Friday, November 18th. The event is free to the public and a bunch of major indie authors will be there so if you’re in the area I invite you to stop by and check out our wares.
And now I hear the Elderly Cat yowling from the living room so I’d better see what he needs now.
NaNoWriMo Day Three
Today’s Word Count: 3,052
Total Word Count: 7,677
Words to Go: 42,323
Actually made my personal word quota today, which was nice. Also got a bit more into the Harvest Ball scene where someone makes a dangerous proposal to Crystal which starts all the rocks rolling downhill, muwahahahaha. Plus I got some more work done on Shifter Woods: Growl (I figure I’ll flip back and forth between the two books in case I get stuck on one).
That being said, today was one of the days where it really felt like pulling teeth to get the words out. I banged out the first K pretty easily, but after that I had so many things pulling at me that it was hard to get back into the flow of things. Now, this is my job so I have to ignore those things and get the words written regardless, but I’ve definitely had easier days. I think it would help if my sales would pick up a bit, but for some reason people keep checking out my books on KU, reading a page or two, then checking them back in. And yeah, I know that’s the whole purpose of KU, so that people can try out a book and return it if they don’t like it, but I’m not used to this level of, “Eh … no” from readers.
I wish I could write dark romance. That’s extremely popular at the moment. But I can’t write about something that doesn’t personally turn me on and bully/mean/nonconsensual/dubcon heroes make me want to smack them. Give me a cinnamon roll hero and a competent heroine any day.
NaNoWriMo Day Two
Today’s Word Count: 1,625
Total Word Count: 4,625
Words to Go: 45,375
The goal was to get 3K words down on the story, but I don’t know if I’m going to make that. I am … I don’t know. Tired, pissed, not in a good headspace to write. Part of it (and this sounds so petty and childish, I know) is due to the fact that JJ is still peeing in his bed. He had a UTI last week, got antibiotics for it, and is definitely feeling much better, but the bedwetting is actually a new symptom that could be related to his urinary tract being irritated or the fact that he’s 21 and well into kitty dementia. Either way it means I have to wash his bed and the cushions it sits on daily because for some reason he always manages to get beyond the pee pad I place under the bed. And the house has a definite odor as a result.
I’m doing my best to stay on top of it and wash everything as necessary, and he will get up and go over to pee on the pee pads in front of the boxes (if they’re clean enough he’ll climb in and pee there, but they have to be immaculate and with four other cats in the house that’s not usually the case). But he still wets his bed regularly which has added significantly to my laundry load.
And then there’s the fact that my Amazon ads aren’t getting a lot of impressions and I’m not sure why, but the result is I’m not getting a lot of KU borrows. Which means I’ll have to go in and tweak the most successful ads and see if I can get Amazon to promote them more. And I have to finish setting up my online bank account because they’ve just rejiggered everything and somehow my login credentials got blown away in the process. And I have to wait for the nurse at the gastroenterologist’s office to call me and schedule my colonoscopy (nothing’s wrong, I do a preventative check every five years). And I have to start prepping for the trip to Vegas for 20Booksto50K™ 2022 in a week and a half, and I still have to switch our two cell phone accounts into one, and cancel the cable, and look around for some contract work to cover the rising costs of *waves at the world*, and worry about the upcoming midterms, and and and.
I would very much like a break where I don’t have to take care of anything, make any decisions, or worry about how things are going to be paid for. But as that’s not likely to happen any time soon, I shall keep calm and carry on. Maybe I can knock out that last 1.5K after treadmill time.
NaNoWriMo Day One, and Julie Powell
Today’s Word Count: 2,042
Total Word Count: 2,042
Words to Go: 47,958
Today’s blog post was supposed to be about how today was the first day of NaNoWriMo 2022 and why I was using it to finish Crystal Blade (Paladins of Crystal 2). Mainly, it’s a good excuse to nail my ass to a chair long enough to finish a book, especially one that already has about 20,000 words. And I’m proud of my word count for the day—didn’t make the 3K I was aiming for but I’m also taking time out to make dinner and write this entry so I still may add another K once all that’s done.
But then I read about Julie Powell. For those of you who aren’t familiar with her, she was the brash, hilarious writer who started a blog called The Julie/Julia Project in 2002, with the goal of cooking all the dishes in the first volume of Julia Child’s Mastering the Fine Art of French Cooking. And in a tiny apartment in Long Island with the assistance of her husband Eric, she did just that, blogging about her efforts at Salon.
Much to Powell’s surprise the blog went viral, spawned a book, and later became the basis for the movie Julie & Julia (Nora Ephron’s last film) starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. All of this allowed Powell to quit her job as a secretary in Manhattan and become a full time writer. Her second book, Cleaving, followed her desire to train as a butcher offset with the ups and downs of her marriage. It wasn’t as popular as Julie & Julia but I thought it was the better book.
Today I found out she died on October 26 from cardiac arrest. She was 49, an age that seems impossibly young and wrong for that kind of death. And while my heart goes out to her husband, family and friends, I’m also a little (well, more than a little) freaked out that someone of my generation and with a similar background and occupation died so young. It’s a cold reminder that tomorrow isn’t promised to anyone, and you need to tell the people in your life that you love them and work on making your dreams come true now instead of thinking, “Well, someday…”
So I’m going to work on this book because it’s part of my dreams. And I think I’ll dedicate it to Julie, another sarcastic secretary who made good.
Cover Reveal: Darke Passion (Darke Paranormal Investigations 1)
Hey folks! Rosanna Leo’s awesome new paranormal romance Darke Passion will be available on March 21, 2023 (pre-orders start February 7, 2023), and here’s the cover reveal!
Cover artist is Kelly Martin of KAM Design. If you want more information, here’s the Goodreads link!
I know — two blog posts in two days?
Who do I think I am, John Scalzi?
Well, there’s a reason why I’m posting today, and that’s to inform everyone that Empress of Storms (Two Thrones Book 1) is free on Amazon all day today. So if you liked A Court of Thorns and Roses or A Deal with the Elf King, or just like royal romance with elemental magic and lots of conniving, you can check out Empress of Storms for the low, low price of free.
Even better, if you like it you can continue on with the series (four books, a novella, and a short story) in KU. Such a deal!
In other news I’m plugging away on “A Theory of Crystal” and should get it off to the antho editors by next week, at which point I get back to work on Crystal Blade. The fact that I’m now getting up around 7 AM and going to bed at 11 PM is making me far more productive (and the house is starting to look like human beings live here), which is a goodness.
Oh, and I have a free book out today on Amazon
My contemporary romcom To My Muse is FREE today on Amazon! If you’re in the mood for a hilarious Hollywood Cinderella story with a nosy but loving family, a ride-or-die BFF, and a hot British actor, check it out!
I’m in a fake relationship with my celebrity crush. How did I wind up in a real-life romance trope?
When too much tequila and an enabling BFF put my newest and oh-so-spicy romance novel into the hands of its inspiration, sexy British actor Tom Morrison, I’m horrified (because hello complete stranger, I thought of you while writing these smexy scenes, now excuse me while I spontaneously combust from embarrassment). I need to get the book back before Tom takes out a restraining order on me—or worse, reads the book out loud on social media.
Except that’s not what happens. Thanks to a strategic lie and an Oscar-winning knight I’m now pretending to be Tom’s girlfriend while we get his dream project made. Somehow, my screwball plan landed me in the middle of my very own Cinderella story, Hollywood style. Even better, I have a shot at a real life HEA with a gorgeous, hilarious man who thinks I’m amazing…
…so why do I get the feeling that disaster is about to strike?
Just looked at the last post
And laughed heartily. Needless to say, Crystal Blade isn’t out yet, and neither is Shifter Woods: Growl. I shouldn’t even talk about books anymore until they’re done and off to the editor because every time I do I jinx myself and something pops up to delay everything.
In this case, it was a twofold issue — in mid-August I got some extremely bad news about a friend’s health. I had promised to make this friend a queen-sized quilt and after she told our friend group about what was going on she pinged me and said, “So, about that quilt…”
Needless to say I replied, “On it,” and spent the next week or so frantically sewing together a queen quilt top. She’d given me the fabric years ago and requested a Día de los Muertos quilt so that’s what I made. The skulls are on the backing fabric; the top features these gorgeous Virgin Mary panels offset with colorful nine patch squares bordered with a bright striped fabric and edged on the outer borders with a Frida Kahlo fabric.
So once I got that done and off to the quilt shop so that it could be quilted (I don’t have a long arm machine and can’t quilt anything larger than a twin) it was suddenly September and I remembered, oops, I have a story due to F*ck the Patriarchy: Getting Smutty for a Cause. So for the last few weeks I’ve been finishing that—it’s a novella called, “A Theory of Crystal” and it’s set in the Paladins of Crystal universe so theoretically I AM working on the right series.
Oh, and then there was the followup knee surgeon visit, the PT visit, the dental cleaning, the periodontist’s visit, trying to dig out this house from all the crap that’s collected over the summer when it was too hot to clean, yadda yadda yadda. So, yeah, I’ve been busy.
But hey, at least you got to see some pretty quilt pictures. So that’s something!
Hello, August
I like it when months begin on a Monday—it feels orderly, somehow. And this is going to be a very busy first week of August pour moi.
1) I have to get ready for Armadillocon this weekend, which means researching the panels I’m on and making sure I have something intelligent to say on panel. It also means I need to get the car tuned up before Ramón and I drive down to Austin. (Don’t worry, our regular cat sitter will be staying here to wait on the J Crew hand and foot as always). I’ll be wearing my SF Writer hat this weekend and talking about TikTok, newsletters, and religion and nationalism in SFF.
2) I have to get Crystal Blade finished this week, and I’d really like to get Shifter Woods: Growl done and published to Amazon as well, seeing as it’s 75% done and I could get it wrapped up with a couple of good days.
3) I have to call up three companies and either cancel certain services or switch to a less expensive plan, plus I have to schedule the HVAC company to come back and install a float valve in the attic. So much fun.
4) I need to keep monitoring the currently running Amazon ads and add some more for the books that I didn’t get to last month. Seriously, I am so glad I took Bryan Cohen’s Author Ad Profit Challenge. It made a huge difference in my July sales, and I can’t wait to see how I do in August.
Nicola Cameron Writes 