Goodbye, Stolen Magick (Day 7)

So, today I finished the first of the four novels I will be writing this month. (Okay, so right now as I'm writing this post, it's not finished. It's still hovering around 66k, and it's should be ending at about 70k, but by the time this is posted it will be done. Promise!

Anyway, as I was saying, Stolen Magick will be done by the end of the day, and I will be moving on to the second book in my pile.

But before I move on, I can't help but take a minute to talk about the book that I'm finishing.

As you all know (or, at least those that read my blog yesterday) this book didn't go as smoothly as I was hoping. Characters, plot lines and love interests inserted themselves in to what I already had planned out, and I found myself doing the one thing I hate doing while writing first drafts: Figuring out where the plot was going.

While I still followed the basic plot that I had figured out before I even started the book, there was so much added to it, I'm not sure it's recognizable as the book it started out as.

Looking back over the past week, though, I'm glad that those characters, plots and love interests showed up. This book is so much better than it started out, and as an added bonus, there isn't nearly as much word padding because of how much I added in.

Somehow, though, I still ended up with about 10k less words. Still not sure how I managed that, but I live with it. 70K is decent for a YA, though I'm going to look at it during editing and see if I can't add a few more words (or maybe even plot points) in there to get that word count up a bit more.

Stolen Magick was a great book for me to start with, and while I'm looking forward to writing the other three books that are still waiting for my attention, I can't help but be a little bit sad to be finishing this novel.

All good books must end somewhere, though. And I'm assuming that goes for not so great books too, so I have to say good bye to Stolen Magick.

Next up: Aliens Stole My Socks!

How is your nano going? Have you ever finished a project and been a little sad to see it go?

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Daily Word Count: 4,786

Total Word Count; 70,878

My Covers

As always, I've found myself falling behind on all of my current projects.  (Actually, I'm caught up with my planning, but just barely.  I'm surprised that I've managed to make it this far).  Unfortunately that means that the amount of time I have for blogging has been reduced to nothing.  So rather than droning on and on today (which, you all know, I'm perfectly capable of doing) I thought I would share with you the covers a friend of mine has made for my novels.

She's gotten three done, and says she has an idea for the fourth, and I can't wait to see what she come up with.  She's amazingly talented.

S.E. makes amazing covers (as I'm sure you'll all agree).  I love her work, and I'm extremely grateful that she decided to make these covers for me.  While I work on a novel, I enjoy having these covers plastered everywhere (just in case anyone was wondering what I was currently working, of course).

Are you participating in nano and want her to make a cover for you?  Visit her thread and request one. She is taking orders until the 28th of October.  I would suggest you get in while you can.

Do you like to  make covers for your novels?

Eeek...Nano!

So, it's officially October, which means that nano is just around the corner, and I find myself freaking out just a little bit.  And by a little bit, I mean a lot.  My brain is ready to explode with the amount that I need to do before November first.  I kind of want to cry.

I broke down all of my goals for you last time, so I'm not going to repeat them all, but suffice it to say, it's a lot.  More than I think I can actually finish, but I'm going to give it everything I have.

Anyway, that's not really what I wanted to talk to you about.  As you might be able to guess from the title of this post, I want to talk about NaNoWriMo. (You might want to get used to it...during the nano season I really don't shut up about it...I'm warning you now.)

With nano comes all these new challenges.  First of all, as I'm a crazy robot, I never stick with the challenge nano sets out for us.  That's right, fifty thousand words in a month just isn't crazy enough for me, so I always up my goal.  This year it's going to be four books, so I thought that today I would tell you about those books and where I am with them.

Up first is the YA urban fantasy Stolen Magick

Stolen Magick is set in a school that teaches for humans and Arcanists (though the humans certainly don't know about the Arcanists.)  For those of you wondering, Arcanists are basically witches combined with superheroes.  Each one has a specific ability (these are often the same as others in their 'power category'.  The main character,  Phaedra, starts at Arcan Academy a few months in to the school year, and soon makes friends with a group of humans.  But when a particularly nasty Arcanist by the name of Terri decides to mess with her head and instead accidentally unlocks powers that not even Phaedra knew about, her life becomes just a little more complicated.

Then we have the middle grade Aliens Stole My Socks

This mid grade is based around Tommy Thompson, a ten year old whose father died when he was six and now has a two year old sister and a step father that he hates.  His mother doesn't know what to do with him anymore when he catches an alien stealing socks out of the dryer.  He tries to chase the alien out of the house, but he ends up taking his sister, and Tommy is left to rescue her when none of the adults believe his story.  Along with his precocious friend, Felicia, he manages to make his way on board the mother ship.  The Aliens won't know what hit them.

The third book is an adult dystopian named Betraying Eden

Set in a the future when the air was poisoned during a massive war that wiped out most of earth's population, people now live in large domed cities that clean the air.  Rent is collected every month for the privilege of staying inside the safe zone, and if it isn't paid, residents are 'evicted' with nothing more than a single can of clean air.  Mordecai is the heir to the throne of Eden, though he spends most of his time on Snake's Ridge trying to help the people that can't always afford their rent.  When he gets himself, along with his two friends, Charlie and Jonah, evicted from Eden, Mordecai discovers just how harsh the real world is.

Finally I have the adult urban fantasy Birth

Unfortunately this one isn't as planned out as the others.  I do know that it's set in a world where Phoenix's exist.  Except they're not exactly what legend makes them out to be.  They walk the earth as humans and have the ability to manipulate fire.  Mag, a human, fell in love with a Phoenix, only to have him go through the burning.  Now she's raising him, and their daughter Aliera.  Other than that, I'm not sure exactly where it's going.

Those are my novels for NaNoWriMo this year.  I'm excited for them all, and can't wait to get started on them (especially now that I've written this post...I'd forgotten how much I was looking forward to some of them).  I can't wait for November to get here (though, I really can.  Really, November, you don't have to come quite as quick as October did...I don't mind). It's going to be Epic!

What are you writing for Nano?  Do you have everything ready to go yet?