Writing against my will

Some days I have to force myself to sit at my desk and write. I know how the story that I'm writing ends, and where I am now, but sometimes it's just hard to figure out what's in between. It doesn't help that I write in the evenings and weekends only since I have a regular job. Or that I have a Link to the Past (possibly my favorite Zelda) downloaded in the wii.

Strangely, if I'm AT work and have nothing better to do all I can think of is my story. I write down plot points and ideas in calc sheets. But then I get home and I'm tired. I want to watch a movie or just read someone else's book.

But I open the document and force myself to get to it. Sometimes I write something crappy that I have to delete later, but sometimes I discover something brilliant! Just put the pen to the paper... fingers to the keyboard, whatever... and see what happens. If I do something awesome today, I'll write about it in my blog next.

ttfn

New Year and Kittens

It's been almost a month since I last blogged. And then my last post was only to announce that I published Resurgence. Since then, I've been busy celebrating the New Year (yeah right... that one day), writing, reading a few books (I read a mystery! So out of my comfort zone), discovered an awesome Chinese restaurant, got a cold, and adopted two kittens.

Kitties! Well, technically I don't have them. I live in a no-pet building. To those of you fortunate enough to not know what horrible thing that is, it's a building where the rules don't allow residents to own pets. Which means I can't have cats. Which means... my cats live with my mom.

Look! He's so sad. He wants to live with me.

"Silly no-pet buildings"

This year I've set myself the goal to write four more books, and hopefully publish at least two of them. My New Year's resolution for 2012 was to finish Resurgence and get it published... which I did... with two whole days to go. Because I like to live on the edge like that.

So for 2013 instead of sticking to something doable I'm going to go for four. Why not? If I don't finish, I'll comfort myself by eating ice cream. Win-win.

Resurgence

My first novel is out live on Amazon Kindle! Earlier today I uploaded it to both Amazon and Barnes and Noble. This is the book description I added:


Brielle Marshall's life completely changes on a random Tuesday in high school, during a five-minute encounter with a gorgeous stranger. On her way to an assembly, a boy grabs her hand and asks if she remembers him. While she doesn't, there is something about him that reminds her of long ago. He tells her she needs to skip the meeting; that their lives depend on it.

Attracted to the mysterious boy, Brielle does as she is told—she escapes high school, with her head filled with him. He leaves, but it isn't long before he returns and she finds out the truth: that when she was an adult she traveled through time, and is now reliving her life. That she had supernatural abilities before, which she must regain. But most importantly, she needs to remember her previous life, if she wishes to avoid a devastating future…

Resurgence is tailored for a young adult audience and contains language, mild violence, and sexual situations, not recommended for readers under the age of 17.


Check it out on Amazon Kindle here!
(edit) and B&N's Nook here! (opens in a new window)

Self publishing

It's time to get my first book published! I had to come up with a cover, which has been surprisingly the hardest part so far. What the hell do I know about covers anyway? How do self-published authors do it (without paying someone to do it)?

Luckily for me, the hubs has an Adobe programs bundle that includes Illustrator. I had zero experience with it, but it seemed like the thing for me, so I've started watching videos on YouTube. Hopefully I'll finish soon and get this thing published.

It's simple enough: a photo, some lines, and text. Why is it sooo hard?? The photo's not even complicated; it's something like this one here: rising above the clouds.

Thanks, NaNoWriMo!

If it weren't for this amazing program, my second book would still be just notes in my cellphone. But today it's a 50K-word novel (more to come) and I want to know where it goes.

But I need to take a break from typing. My brain hurts.

Johi
50519 words

Halfway there!

I'm slowly but surely catching up in NaNoWriMo (actually, I don't know about surely). But I made the halfway mark, 25,000! And it's only the 16th, so that means I can totally do it. I'm only a day off. In fact I could catch up for real if I kept working instead of posting a blog, but I feel like I had to mention the halfway mark, because it's almost epic. It's like, epi.

So I looked up a picture to share with you that expressed my feelings exactly, but saw Regretful Kitty and decided he'd do for today.

10,000 words

I'm 10 days into NaNoWriMo and I'm not exactly a third of the way there as I should (since I only have 30 days total). But yesterday I hit 10,000 words, and it felt great. 10,000 words is not much, but it's something. And it's early Saturday; I'm counting on catching up with my goal during the weekend.

Unfortunately I keep getting interrupted by my evil anti-writer self who desperately wants to know what happens in the last season of Gilmore Girls, which I never saw, and which came in the mail two days ago.

And this!! My BFF back home went to visit my mother today. She's saying hi to my small army of cats. She keeps sending pictures and I keep not writing, only thinking about how much I want to pet my cats.

It seems that my cat James has become friends with Winnie the dog. That or they're plotting against my mom.