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.

It has been a few weeks since I've posted anything about "Wands" or any of my writing, for that matter. The usual suspects are to blame: work... and more work... oh, and yeah, did I mention work? It's not that I take stuff home with me and spend hours grading every night. It's just that by the end of the day I'm so tired and drained from it that it's hard sometimes to muster the energy to write. It's not the sitting in a computer chair that's so consuming, it's the thought processes. Some nights my mind is just fried.

But just because I spend some time not actively writing doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about it! I've had some great ideas and good thoughts about where to take the story. With the help of the a-mazing evildamsel I've gotten pretty far with it and have the impetus needed to continue.

With that...

Date: Friday, January 26th, 2007
Wordcount: 82,623
Comments: Nothing much to say; it's taken some diversions from its first draft as a fanfiction, but I think that's necessary. It's growing into its own entity and becoming truly mine, which is both scary and cool at the same time. It's scary because as I write and as more ideas come to me the more I realize how vast this really is getting to be. But it's cool for me to think, "hey, I created this!"

I have actually gotten quite a bit of writing done on Wands over the week, like 20k words' worth. But I'll post about that later. Right now, I ganked something from a friend on my other journal, forsakenphoenix. I present the aristocratic titles of my characters:

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Very Lady Angeleigh the Functional of Walk upon Water Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Countess Antigone the Incomplete of Herring-le-hole Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Venerable Lady Vanora the Fifteenth of Lower Beanthrop in the Hedge Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: The Very Reverend Silas the Decent of Deepest Throcking Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

(LOLs, Silas? Decent?)

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Very Lord Lance the Cowardly of Giggleswich Lanken Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Imperial Majesty Cyrus the Functional of West Smeesborough Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Hehe, I have abbreviations for all my books now. 7W is "Seven of Wands", HM is "Hanged Man" and 5S is "Five of Swords". Clever? Not really, but it amuses me no less.

With all the insanity that is being a teacher around the holidays, not to mention the holidays themselves, I haven't written much. This isn't to say I haven't had ideas though. I finished watching all four discs of the anime series Elfen Lied. It gave me some inspiration for things, particularly the whole Silas Reaper is the most badass metaphysic and he needs more secure, more thought-out imprisonment. He needs to appear to be a threat. I really need to work that out some.

Most of all I wrote a snippet between my two top Prophets, Opal and Antigone. It started out slow and then something huge was revealed to me, something that will really bolster the plot quite a bit. I also decided on a new class of Telepaths that specialize in Metaphysical criminals. And I have some ideas to make the stakes higher and a plot idea that makes everything come to a huge crescendoing clash in the third book...

...I'm happy with the amount of ideas I have. I think after Christmas I'm going to work on finishing the first draft rewrite of 7W. With the time off I should be able to dedicate a fair amount to it. And then before I really get started on adding the revisions in and such I'll come up with a suitable first draft of 5S. In the meanwhile I picked up a publishing magazine and saw a contest that's being run. It's a short story contest. Short stories are one thing I have no dirth of. The deadline is in May, so I'm going to start reformatting and rereading and putting them all together to see what I can do. Even if I get a really lame placement, I'll have placed. That should help when it comes to the next phase of starting my writing "career". I write because I love it, but it'd be nice if that could start paying off a bit as well.

Merry Christmas, Happy Yule, Happy New Year, Blessed Solstice, and a partridge in a pear tree to all.

So this week's been a little insane at work and after work, so my writing's taken a backseat. Though last weekend I did go to a TGIO, or Thank God It's Over! party with a group of area NaNoErs. I nearly killed my poor little printer with the printing out of The Hanged Man, but when it was all done it was absolutely aMAZing to see it all and know that I had done that! We did some novel exchanges at the gathering and did some general talking about our books. Most people there were repeat NaNoErs, which was inspiring. I'm a little nervous about next year, because my trilogy should be done (at least the first draft stages, though I hope to be edited and sending out some queries by then) so I don't know exactly what I'd do for a project, but it's still eleven months away, I think it's not a big deal just yet ;)

Now for the rewrite update:

Date: 9 December 2006
Wordcount: 42,009
Notes: I've decided to do a lot of condensing of events and time from the original uber-rough draft (aka the ff version). I'm at 42k right now; in that version at 42-50k a lot had happened--but it was a lot that several people had mentioned as being extraneous and just filler that detracted from plot. So things like some of the crazy antics and the teen romance factors are getting cut. Those will still play a part, but not quite as much as they did in the rough draft. I have to recall that in that draft I was also trying to emulate a certain tone because I was working within another author's consistency of reality, and in that world silly teen antics filled up a lot of page time. I spent most of the fifth Harry Potter book slogging through them, and it annoyed me then, so I don't know why it was good idea to emulate it to such a degree in my fanfiction, especially since it wound up annoying other readers. Live and learn, I guess, hehehe.

So this version will have some silly antics stuff, because I need to bond the characters, and it's their behavior when partaking in said antics that gets them in more trouble and such. I just need to do a bunch of condensing of them, that's all. I'm aiming for another 100k novel here, which won't be hard, but I want to make the other 58,000 words worth it.

And now I'm just rambling, but that's where Wands is at right now. But I can say with confidence that if it isn't done by Christmas it'll at least be done before 2006 is over. And then I can say I wrote two 100k novels in the course of a year. Teehee.

So I hit 37k on "Wands" last night, but it was worth it because Grey's Anatomy rocked my socks off. I can slow down now that November is over.

Things learned in NaNo: It is possible to write over 135,000 words in the space of 30 days. If I hadn't had a breakdown for two days at the end I may have been able to hit 150k. But no biggie. Also next year I need to explain nicely to people that taking on a challenge and seeing it through during the course of a month is NOT insanity, nor is it 100% unhealthy. Now, if I challenged myself to drink a 12-pack and smoke 2 packs of cigarettes a day, then yes. Lecture me all you want. But working on a novel, that could have publishing, and hence money-earning potential? So yes, next year there will be an announcement about that, since now I know what it requires of me.

Also learned that things in books can happen very quickly and go really interesting directions I never planned, and that's just fun to work with. Normally, when stuck, I'd sit around and think about it and stew and be unhappy with my options. This time I was forced to make choices and push it in directions and introduce characters I'd never planned on. The Hanged Man turned out, in its first draft form, better than I could have hoped for in any time before this experience.

Shout-Outs

evildamsel/edenparadox: You are AWESOME. This book would never have been written without you, and I'm not being sappy. To take down the sap factor, just in case, thanks for all the random shit. ^.^

tonylikesfrogs: same boat as Ri up there. You gave me the most amazing character to work with. Morty is deep and complex and a true enigma, and I love working with him. Thanks for all your support and encouragement, Dear Liker of Frogs!

stakethrumyhart: Thanks for the support and willingness to read an ex-teacher's humble offerings to the fantasy world :) Inheritance FTW!

lokowolfpunk: Thank you for the banner! I appreciate you taking the time to make it. It's in my sig over on the NaNo forums, and I just love seeing it. It makes this whole writing thing more of a reality. Thank you so much.

And to others I may not have named by name, I do thank you sincerely as well. I may have become a bit reclusive in some ways, but I was very social in others ;)

K. Off to work. And I owe evildamsel a hot Riddley Wildeve UST scene, which I'm actually looking forward to writing.

So I don't think I'm going to get to 50k on my second novel by midnight tonight. I totally forgot that Grey's Anatomy is on tonight. While I'm determined to hit my goal, GA looks pretty darn good. I could always just catch a rerun and see how far I can get... I'm at 35k right now. I don't know if it's worth it to try, but we'll see.

Time: 10:14pm
Wordcount: 20,016
Notes: Anyone dare me to hit fifty thousand with this in 3 days? Only 30k left to go... But alas now I have to get to bed because I have to work tomorrow. Meh.

Side note, I'm discovering what a wise ass Ange can be. She's luck she doesn't get smacked upside the head more often, hehe.

Time: 12:37am
Wordcount: 10,029
Notes: You're asking now how I went from 100k to 10% of that. Oh, right, I started the prequel to The Hanged Man. I figured what the hell, NaNo's not over yet, so let's see what I can do with this. I didn't restart my count over on the site, just figured I'd challenge myself to see what I could manage in the last half-week before the end of it all. Having a 4 day weekend is helpful, too. We'll see what I can bang out tomorrow.

Prologue: Vision of You
Chapter 1: The Verdict
Chapter 2: Homecoming
Chapter 3: Skeletons
Chapter 4: Dinner Time, or, A Comedy of Errors
Chapter 5: A Dervish Family Portrait
Chapter 6: No Need for Words
Chapter 7: Nightmare Waking
Chapter 8: Little White Lies
Chapter 9: Misery Finds Company
Chapter 10: Nine of Swords
Chapter 11: Justice
Chapter 12: Happy Christmas
Chapter 13: Numb is a Feeling
Chapter 14: Of Embers and Eggshells
Chapter 15: Midnight Confessional
Chapter 16: Glass
Chapter 17: Fools Rush In...
Chapter 18: ...Where Angels Fear to Tread
Chapter 19: Along Came a Spider
Chapter 20: Desperation
Chapter 21: Uninvited
Chapter 22: Convergence
Chapter 23: Catalysts and Meltdowns
Chapter 24: In No Position to Bargain
Chapter 25: Sublimation
Chapter 26: Unstoppable Forces of Nature
Chapter 27: Lessons in Metaphysics
Chapter 28: Minerva’s Birth
Chapter 29: The Five Questions
Chapter 30: Pandora’s Box

I'm rereading The Hanged Man and came upon an exchange between Angeleigh and Silas that made me laugh out loud:

“I had my ordeals. Everything I am and I worked for I achieved via the natural means.”

“Killing people to get what you want is hardly natural,” Angeleigh said.

“I can ask to return to prison right now,” he finally snapped. “Go ahead and destroy yourself and everyone you care about. You’re rather irritating when you’re not on the line between life and death,” he finished.

“Fine, go ahead and do that,” she snapped back, and several books flew off their shelves. “I’ll manage this.”

“Yes, because you’ve been so successful thus far,” Silas said ironically. “And it’s perfectly natural to nearly destroy a wing of a house when you’re upset. You’re really a fine one to lecture me,” he told her.


And this one between Damien and Opal:

“I’m surrounded by moping men,” she said at last. “Roderick walks around like a dog afraid of being hit. His wife’s called a few times and he hasn’t taken the calls, or called her back. Riddley... well, he’s back at the school. Silas... okay, he doesn’t count either.”

“What about Connor?” Damien asked. “He’s always crying.”

“He has legitimate reason to, Damien,” Opal said flatly. “He’s four months old.”

Damien's lovable but clueless, hehe.

When she's not angsting Angeleigh is a bit irritating, I realized. But moody!Angeleigh is fun. Another exchange, this one sans Silas:

“What the hell,” Angeleigh finally snapped. “Someone just give him the damned pepper shaker before I wind up hurling it at him!” On cue her silverware, still on the emerald cloth napkin to the left of her plate, began to shake ominously, and the crystal droplets suspended delicately from the chandelier tinkled delicately.

“Angeleigh, please watch your mouth at the dinner table,” Opal said quietly, turning her indigo eyes reproachfully on Angeleigh.

“I’d think my language would be the least of anyone’s worries about me,” she said wryly. “So is anyone going to give the guest his pepper?”

I think after being angsty and scared for so long she deserved a chance to lash out and be a moody teenager. It's actually entertaining to write her that way. And I like Silas snapping back at her. At one point in chapter 28 he calls her a smart ass, which actually fits. Before everything (that happens in Wands) Ange is a bit of a smart ass. Having Silas shoot it right back at her makes for a bit of humor. Just a bit. At least I think so...