So yeah, the whole updating thing didn't really happen. But I did start grad school, did take on a complete overhaul of Seven of Wands as my writing project. I'm about 100 pages into the rewrite in three months. The feedback I've gotten is excellent and is really helping me with my style.

In other news on a whim I started Five of Swords for NaNo. I wasn't going to to NaNo this year, really, because of all the work with grad school writing and my regular job (I have a writing workshop class this year, which equals a lot of grading, on top of my other classes). It was just going to be too much. But as I looked at the bars filling up for my writing buddies' word counts, I realized I couldn't not do it. And this way, besides, I'll have a draft of the third book in the trilogy. Something to work with. That's all I need right now, and then I can officially say I've written a trilogy. Of course, Hanged Man desperately needs revising and all, but that will wait. I'll overhaul 7W and draft 5S and get to overhauling HM when I get there.

I'll try to be better about updates and epiphanies about the writing, as well as the NaNo updates. Right now I'm around 5,100 words. I know. Psycho.

So I haven't updated this thing in two months. Oops! There's been a lot going on. Not a lot of it has been writing related, unfortunately. But one thing is, and it's a big thing. No, I'm not being published (yet). But I did apply for an MFA in creative writing program, and I was accepted! I'm getting my master's in fiction writing! w00t!

Hopefully with summer here I'll be able to do more writing and update this thingy a little more often than every two months.

I want to write prequels.

I already have titles and basic ideas for them. It'd be a trilogy with one book for Damien, one for Evangeline, and one for Roderick and Silas. And I also have ideas for books that are more futuristic, but utilize the same consistency of reality. I'm thinking set after the Concealer trilogy, when things with Delphi all go down and the worlds take a turn.

I've also applied to grad school to get my Master of Fine Arts in fiction writing. Maybe I can use all these crazy ideas for assignments during the duration of my program.

After having in mind that Ange's mother had a falling out with her family for years now, literally, I know what caused it. I know what started it and what the fall out was, and why she left and never wanted to come back. It's a pride issue for her, because what happened was very embarrassing, and her parents were furious with her. But the reasons she left had to do with Damien, and as a result of all of it I think he can relate to Ange better in Hanged Man than he at first thought he could.

So, uh, evildamsel, I'm pretty pumped to share this with ya, considering this has been a major point of contention with my series for awhile.

Really, it just came from out of nowhere. I was talking with maiafay earlier and she was sharing her novel stuff with me, so I opened up my documents and got to thinking about some scene with Ange screaming at Damien that he doesn't know what she's going through, feeling so out of control. And he reveals that he does, which led to the revelation of what forced Evangeline (I renamed Emmalynn) to leave for good.

This is a major step.

The subject literally translates to, "the end, it is finished," etc. It's from a Rushdie novel by the name of Haroun and the Sea of Stories, and it actually pertains to the status of Seven of Wands.

Date and Time: 11:20am on 4th March 2007 (last day of vacation. OMG teh sad! ;_; )

Wordcount: 122,000 precisely.

Page count: Just a little something different. Keep in mind this tally is with double spacing and page numbering: 416. In the usual format I work in it was 254.

Comments: WOW. Not sure how I feel about the very end, but it references some things from earlier in the novel and sets up for The Hanged Man pretty well. The characters are just where I want them and the plot is where I'd like it to be. Of course now I have a load of editing to do on HM, but that's alright; with 7W done I have good ideas of what I need to add. I wanted to get a jump on 5S, but I think I'll work on adding to HM first. I have a bit to do on the timeline as well. Mostly I don't want things to move as quickly as they were originally.

With those thoughts in mind I suppose I should go do something productive like fold laundry or bake banana bread, or, heaven forbid, actually correct papers and quizzes that I've had in my bag since last week. Oops. BUT I FINISHED A NOVEL!

So I'm on vacation this week, and already I've written about 6,000 words of 7W since getting home Friday night.

Here's the update:

Date & Time: Tuesday February 27, 2007 (happy birthday, Josh--like he even sees this, but oh well) at 6:34 pm.

Wordcount: 112,101. This is officially the longest single thing I've ever written. It's surpassed the fanfiction version by 4k words already. It's past the current version of HM by 12k. And it's getting longer.

Notes: I'm very pleased with how the story is progressing. I'm liking the characters and their dialogue, and how they respond to situations. Angeleigh has become a character unlike any I've ever worked with, and the relationship developing between her and Vanora is very interesting. Delphi showed up in chapter 25 or 6, and Janus came back for one last round of being a bastard. I still love Silas, even if he does become progressively more and more creepy.

I'll probably work on it a lot more tonight and tomorrow; I'm trying to finish it before vacation's over, but that shouldn't be hard at this point. After that it's adding to HM and then coming up with an actual plot for 5S. It's got themes and ideas and things I know need to be resolved from the first two books, but it lacks plot. We'll see.

Date and Time: 10:09pm, 19 February 2007

Wordcount: 100,102

Notes: I broke the 100k mark on "Wands" today. So far there are 24 chapters. I've done some really good work condensing things from the draft version and reworking them. The chase/capture scene works REALLY well, I feel. Even evildamsel, who's been an awesome beta and knows what's supposed to be happening, felt suspense at it. So I am much pleased.

I don't know how much longer this will go on; probably another 20-30k or so, but we'll see. I also have ideas to add to The Hanged Man which should up its wordcount substantially. And I'm getting more ideas of things I want to happen in Five of Swords. I need to do some drabbling with 5S so I have little pieces to work with, the way I did with HM and 7W. Vacation's coming up, at least. On the to-do list is definitely finishing 7W and then doing a quick first edit so I can submit the early chapters to a contest. We'll see how it goes.

Date: 16 February 2007, 6:57 am (ugh)

Wordcount: 95,937

Page count: 199

Notes: We had a snowday on Wednesday, and on my to-do list for the day was finishing chapter 23, which just did not want to get written. I did finish it, condensing quite a bit of information and using a few parts from the original draft. Once I realized that I didn't have to start a new chapter and I could use some information from the old version in the current version's current chapter it went much easier.

This is a long weekend for me, and I'm 4,063 words (about one average chapter) away from the 100k mark! Of course I'm sure it'll surpass that, but 100k has been the goal. And with that, it's off to another day in "paradise", aka, work -.-

Date: Monday 29 January 2007
Wordcount: 93,019
Comments: Considering the insanity that was my Monday banging out 1,000 words is pretty good. The important thing is that I wrote. I'm also at a point in the story where I feel like I'm nearing the climax, when the big stuff happens. Everything that's been building is ready to explode in my face. It's alright though, because it feels natural. It feels right, like this is the point I should be at. I am, however, struggling with some ideas of how to carry out the climactic scene. Definitely have to change how it went in the fanfic version, and change a few of the things that transpire afterward. I really have to play with it all, but I think it'll work out eventually.

In other news I got my Amazon order with the complete collection of Elfen Lied. I'm going to have to rewatch it to work on my ideas for an expanded prison scene in Hanged Man with Silas. And ponder the idea of nature versus nurture and how that idea comes into play in my consistency of reality.

Date: Sunday 28 January 2007
Wordcount: 91,286
Comments: Um, yeah, I sort of took off like a rocket at this point. I'd had chapter 19 done by Friday, and I got started in on 20. A reader also offered some concrit on chapter 2, so I went back and revised based on what he had to say. It's interesting to compare to the fanfic version (ie, the ROUGH rough draft) because I've wound up skipping through a lot of stuff and condensing in other areas. This revision/editing process is fun!

I have ideas as well for revisions and additions to The Hanged Man. Some scenes for Five of Swords are also playing in my mind as well. I reread some of my Silas/Ange snippets and got more ideas. I need a plot for that book, something to get things moving. It can't be all character interactions. There has to be something motivating Silas and Angeleigh. I'll work through it eventually. The important thing is I'm over 90k through Seven of Wands! I have quite a bit more to get through as well. This is going to be quite a bit longer than it was originally. But that's a good thing, because I've put in some good things that the first draft didn't have, and I'm happy with how it's going.