Long time, no post. Seriously. I can't remember when I last posted. My apologies to those of you who may actually be checking on this once in a while. I shall try to be better in the very near future.

News? Let's see. "A New Resonance Volume 7" came out last month. I'm one of the 18 up & coming haiku poets in it, which is both exciting and humbling. If you'd like a copy, please inquire at haikuchicken (at) gmail (dot) com.

Russ is deploying in less than 2 weeks. Trying really hard not to think about it in a direct fashion, only in terms of "could you clean out the roof gutters before you leave?" I have plenty of yardwork to keep me busy, plenty of haikuishness to keep me busy, plenty of anime to watch, plenty of books to read, and plenty of writing to do, but when it comes down to it, 6 months is 6 months and I'm not looking forward to having him gone for that long. Still, there are plenty of folks who have their beloved absent for longer than that, so I have no room to complain.

"Pawn" is currently a headache. I am currently combating it by imbibing cucumber-flavored Dry Soda + Hendrick's gin. I will let you know if it helps.

That's all. Time to be unproductive.

Well, I did it. For a 6th consecutive year, I wrote a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. Actually, I wrote a 52,552 word novel in 19 days. Now I am going to watch some Doctor Who (Season 5). Whoo hoo!

Hi folks! Sorry about the recent lack of updates. (And I was doing so well there for a couple of days!) But I'm back, and so is the novel.

Yes, the novel was not around for a while. Flatlining word count. Not good. I blame the Seabeck haiku getaway. But that's over for another year, so back to our regularly-scheduled novel.

No, wait! I restarted my novel. Not once, not twice, but thrice! However, I am pleased to report that I have made it through day 2 of my "fresh new novel," so starting over is no longer a threat. The fact that I've got a LOT of words to write before Nov. 30 is a good motivator for sticking with said tale. The other motivator is the fact that for the first time in my NaNoing history, I am writing a sequel. Okay, technically, I'm rewriting my NaNo novel from 2007, which is "Nullum Desiderium," which is the novel that begat "Pawn," but the words are new. I'm not referencing the original novel or using any of same writing, though I am rewriting the same scenes and inventing new ones. Does that make any sense? I figure, if folks can plot out their NaNo novels weeks and months in advance, then why can't I rewrite a story that I'm eventually going to have to rewrite anyway? Because in looking at what happens now in "Pawn," compared to what originally happened in "Nullum Desiderium," there are so many fundamental changes to be made, it's beyond revision repair. So rewriting it is, and what better time to do that than during NaNoWriMo?

Anyway, I'm at 7,050 words. Many, many more to go, but as long as I've got a steady stream of Armin van Buuren to listen to (with the ocassional dose of Franz Ferdinand), I'll make it.

I hope.

Eep.

Started over last night. 723 words later, I went to bed.

Spent today getting stuff ready for the Seabeck haiku getaway.

So the word count has flatlined, and shall continue to flatline until I get back from Seabeck. Then we shall see...

Doubt. Despair. Ditch. That pretty much sums up Day 2 of NaNoWriMo. I don't know why I thought this year would be any different, why I thought that I'd stick with what I wrote yesterday. The same thing happens every year. On Day 1, I write 1,667+ words, feel all proud, and then on Day 2, the magic is gone. Poof! And then, after doubting my sanity at attempting NaNoWriMo another year and despairing that I won't be able to come up with anything decent to write, I ditch Day 1's progress and start over. And every year, I vow I'm not going to do that again, that I will stick with whatever muck I have written and just write through it, but I never do. I cut & run & start over. And the worst part is, it works.

Anyway, so now I'm back to square one. Not the best place to be on Day 2, especially not with four days of Seabeck looming (but in a good way) at the end of this week. Is this a sign that I shouldn't be doing NaNoWriMo at all and instead should be pouring my writing energies into "Pawn"? I've spent the past 5 Novembers engaged in this crazy pursuit of 50,000 words, and have achieved it each time. What am I trying to prove with a 6th year? That I truly lack common sense?

But for better or for worse, I'm too damned stubborn to quit. I have restarted later in November than this. I have written thousands of more words before I ditched, too. I can do this. And while much of my stubbornness is genetic, there's something more behind it. If I can start over and still manage to write 50,000 words by 23:59 on Nov. 30, then anyone can. YOU can! So I'll keep writing if you will. Okay?

Stay tuned . . .

On a happy note, "The Good Neighbors" #3 by Holly Black and Ted Naifeh just hit the shelves! Can't wait to buy a copy. Excellent books for lovers of all things fey.

Day one of my 6th NaNoWriMo!

After considerable pondering of character names, I finally came up with a couple suitable ones, then set about trying to think of an opening sentence. Unfortunately, baby name books are less helpful for that particular task. Nevertheless, the opening line came to me and I was off & running!

Did I mention I'm one of those "seat of the pants" writers you hear about? Don't plan my NaNo novel out at all before Nov. 1st. Maybe I'll have a vague idea of a character's name or a setting, but I usually discard it by day 2 or 3 anyway, so what's the point? I know this method doesn't work for a lot of people (the majority of NaNoers, I'd guess), but it has worked for me for the past 5 years, and I wouldn't have fun with it (or succeed) any other way.

Today's word count: 1,865 (goal: 1,667).

This year, I'm noveling on my iPad, Fluffy. Why do I call my iPad Fluffy? Ever read "Nick & Norah's Infinite Play List" by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan? Have you at least seen the movie? Do yourself a favor and read the book. Highly enjoyable. It'll also explain the name of my iPad. I'm reading their third and newest book, "Dash & Lily's Book of Dares." The fact that it takes place around Christmas is throwing me off a bit (having just finished Halloween), but I love it!

Time for a bit of stationary cycling, then sleep. I have tons of Seabeck haiku getaway stuff to get done before I leave on Thursday afternoon, but I shall do my darnest to not only write a 50,000 word novel this month, but also blog about it daily.

Often, it seems that I'm the last one to discover a very cool book or author. I've known of Tanya Huff for years because, frankly, when one is shelving the scifi & fantasy books at The Book Bin, and one is named Tanya, one takes note of authors with the same first name. But until I started reading "The Enchantment Emporium" last week, I'd never read any of her books.

Clearly, I've been missing out.

I might not have picked the book up within this decade, except that back when Charles de Lint was in town for a signing & to teach a class at Hugo House, there was a brief mix-up about Tanyas. Seems that Leslie mentioned that Tanya was going to be attending his class, and he was pleasantly surprised when he heard that because he thought the Tanya in question was Ms. Huff. Understandably, he was a bit disappointed when he found out it was only me, but it made me realize that I really ought to become more familiar with her writing.

So I am. And what an excellent way to spend a too-hot Sunday afternoon than on the couch in front of a fan reading "The Enchantment Emporium." A little over 200 pages into it, and I completely understand Mr. de Lint's blurb on the front cover. Well-deserved praise! It did take me a little while to catch my balance with her world-building, but it's certainly worth a bit of patience. After this, I'm looking forward to reading more of Kat Richardson's "Underground" which I've been sampling on iBooks. Urban fantasy that takes place in Seattle equals market research for "Pawn."

Well, I've tweaked Ch. 1 a bit, tightening sections & hopefully making Jared's bullying character a bit more believable (I'd been told by a few people at the conference, as well as an anonymous critiquer, that he was too over-the-top). Now, as a result of further feedback from the conference, I'm polishing Ch. 2. Again. A consistantly weak point of the opening chapters has been why Lucian agrees to be a pawn, so I'm addressing that issue in what I hope is a more satisfactory manner.

Ah, but when I'm in novel mode, it's so difficult to switch into haiku mode. (And being the regional coordinator for Haiku NW, I kinda have to make that switch now & then.) They truly do seem to involve different parts of my brain, which seems weird since they're both creative parts, and both involve writing, but it's like returning to reality after vacation, or waking from an interesting dream. Not that reality is bad, it's just different from that place I go in my head, where Lucian is at the Grosvenor Theatre with Lord Hiorne's court, half-hoping he'll find Nivalis there, and half-hoping he won't. My mind wanders to my novel when I'm in the shower or washing dishes. It doesn't compose haiku. But when I'm riding the bus somewhere, it's generally the opposite. Lucian slips from my mind and instead, I'm jotting down little poems about traffic or fellow passengers.

It's no wonder I can't seem to get any longer poems written, or short stories, for that matter. My mind is caught up enough with "Pawn" and haiku. Fortunately, I've got a few more months to decide whether to NaNo or not to NaNo in November . . .

Home again after the Willamette Writers Conference down in Portland. I've got lots to do before I send the requested pages of "Pawn" off to the fabulous agents & editors who requested them (cover letters to compose, a synopsis to nail down, and first pages to polish after receiving constructive feedback on them). For now, after a lie-in with the cat, I'm easing into the day with a cup of tea out on the deck with Belle. It's a cloudy day, but the visit of a pileated woodpecker to one of our fir trees has brightened things considerably. The fact that I can heat a rooster crowing in the distance doesn't hurt either.

And if the girl I sat next to on the train ride home yesterday ever reads this, hi. Thanks for your enthusiasm about my novel. You're now my first fan, at least my first YA fan. I hope you do get to swim with sharks someday, and that your visit to the Titanic is all you've dreamed it would be.

Over the course of the conference, I asked a fair number of folks whether they thought "Pawn" was YA or adult fantasy, and I received mixed responses. Some thought it could work as YA, others were skeptical. After some soul searching & the conversation on the train, I've decided that yes, it is upper YA. That's my audience. So I'm lowering Lucian's age a bit & shall go though the whole thing again to make sure it works.

I shall be creating a website for "The Pawn of Faery" soon, so stay tuned for details.

In the meantime, thanks for reading. I'm rather curious how many readers I've got, so if you want to give me a shout out & aren't on Live Journal, drop me a line at tanyamcdonald1375(at)yahoo.com or look me up on Facebook.

And the winner is . . . not me. Didn't think it would be, but I have been looking forward to receiving 2 critiques of my submitted work. Dave received his a few days ago, and I was fretting that mine had gotten lost in the mail since the SASE had my old Bellevue address, but the USPS is a wonderous creature, and it got forwarded along to Woodinville.

So, the results. The readers ranked the submission on a scale of 1 to 10 for ten different categories:
1. Synopsis
2. Plot
3. Viewpoint
4. Characterization
5. Pacing
6. Dialogue
7. Setting/Description/Narrative
8. Mechanics
9. Do you feel this would appeal to the intended audience?
10. Keeping in mind the intended audience, would you read more, based on the current version of the submission?

Out of 100, I scored a 92 with the first reader. Yay me! With the second reader, I scored a 68. Okay, ego has now been doused with a bucket of cold water. But in spite of the harsher scores, reader #2 had more useful comments than reader #1. So whoever you are, reader #2, thank you (even if you spelled Delkana's name wrong). You've given me a tangle of things to think about, and I appreciate it. My favorite advice, "Lots of marketing potential with the GLBT readership. I strongly encourage the author to take the story in that direction, make it clear in the synopsis, and submit it to the appropriate agency." I would love to do that, to have that focus and direction.

But first, I need to learn how to write a bloody good synopsis . . .