NaNo is over

So, NaNoWriMo is officially over. My goal was to get as close to 100 K as I could and I exceeded that goal by a few thousand words. Not sure what the final count will be because I'm not quite finished with the story yet. I'm looking at probably around 110 to 115 K.

So I'm almost finished with my first draft. What am I going to do now? Well the first thing I'm going to do is finish it, of course. But after? This puppy is going to hibernate in its own little folder on my hard drive for a while. At least a month, if not more. It's always a good idea to let your stories rest for a while.

As soon as I finish the first draft of Hackers, I'm going to beta read the third installment in my friend Joelle's serial. Once I do that, I'm at a crossroads. I can either edit Marked, which it most certainly needs since it's just a first draft. Or I can try to write some short stories and get more of them out into the big wide world in the hopes that someone will love them.

The first has merit, as does the second one. My problem with the second one is I'm not good at short stories. I always start out to write to a small word count. Then I get writing and the next thing you know, I have a novella or sometimes the start of a novel. I just don't write short stories well.

I also haven't really practiced short stories. I have a few that people have liked, that unfortunately I can't send out because they've been somewhere online for free and editors don't want those. So I'm not entirely sure what I should do.

Any suggestions? Should I devote some time to developing my short story talent (or lack thereof)? Or should I edit Marked?

Well, it's been a while

I know, I know.

I keep doing this.

I'll post like crazy for a while and then it falls off and I stop talking to everyone here for days/weeks/months on end. It's not because I don't love all of you. It's because I just don't know what to say. I mean, being an introvert I'm not great at small talk and personally I hate small talk on a blog anyway. If I'm reading a blog I want something interesting, something worth reading. And really, I don't feel like what I have to say is worth reading.

But I'm going to start over again anyway. This blog post was written Saturday night but as you can tell, it's going live Sunday morning. As of this coming week I'm going to be posting more here. At first, it's just going to be 2-3 times a week unless I find something I find that I want to share with you. Then it'll be more often.

One of the things I'm going to start doing in the coming months is sharing some of the shorter bits (as in non-novels...I can't guarantee there won't be some novella length fiction broken up into "chapters") of stories from my fantasy world of Vassa. You may remember me referring to it with Erondhal, Lytharia, Sindla, and a few other things. Yes, you're finally going to get to see a better glimpse of it.

This is coinciding with the writing and editing of the first novel I'm seriously going to try to get published - the ever aggravating Marked. (No seriously, I've tried three times to write a first draft I liked. I think I have one this time, but we'll see.) I plan on starting to query this starting in October, so I'm going to have to do a lot of work between now and then.

I am also looking for beta readers, as always. It's a little over 120k right now. It's length can change varied upon the editing I do next month and what my primary beta reader says. But I want more opinions than just one. So if you're interested, leave me a comment please?

The other thing I'm going to be doing this month, as I work on fixing up those shorts I mentioned, is reading a lot. My goal is a book a day. I'm going to post a bit about each book I read, not every day but a few at a time during my other blog posts. I've already read my first book, though I'm not going to talk too much about it because it was me beta reading for a friend - the lovely Joelle Casteel, who writes erotica/erotic romance with heavy BDSM themes. They are not for the faint of heart. She's going to be working on re-releasing her first book - Out of the Night - soon. Her second book, the one I just finished beta reading, is Gates of the Garden and will be out not too long after.

I've also got a lot of other books on my plate. I've managed to acquire more than 120 e-books from the free list on Amazon and through promotion by other authors (also free e-books from Amazon). Not to mention I was gifted a lovely romance book that I intend on reading as well. I'll be posting short reviews of those and buy links so you can pick them up on your own if you're so inclined.

If there's a topic you're curious about my opinion on, leave me a comment. I'll be glad to answer that too. Just give me some time to get back into the swing of things and we'll see what happens. Thanks to my faithful readers who have stuck with me, and welcome to new readers brought here by Facebook and Twitter. Enjoy what you see and don't forget to grab some cookies and milk on your way through the door. *grin*