NaNo-vember

Today is the day! It’s the start of National Novel Writing Month, more commonly called NaNoWriMo. Good luck to all of you courageous people out there working towards that goal. I’ll be joining my peeps from the Nuremburg writers group this week for our first write-in.

We’d planned for tomorrow but it’s a holiday here in Germany. Germans take their holidays seriously and everything’s closed so we’re aiming for Thursday. It may work out better as we may need some encourage by day 4.

Today also marks the 1 month mark for my new release. Blood Diamond, a Jewel of the Night story, will be out December 1 from The Wild Rose Press and it's up on the website as Coming Soon. To celebrate, here’s a little taste.

Blurb:
Dodging an angry warlord and running through the rain forest in Congo Brazzaville was not what Jillian St. James expected when she signed up with Doctors Without Borders. Yet that’s exactly what she gets after a mysterious visit from her brother.

Mercenary Mack Nichols doesn’t have much faith in humanity these days. When a beautiful young doctor denies being part of the theft of a blue diamond from his client, he doesn’t put much stock in her story.

Neither have reason to trust the other and their mutual attraction is an inconvenience to both. A betrayal and the reveal of an evil plan pit these two against an army. Can they put aside their doubts and work together to bring down a corrupt, power-hungry overlord or will their chance at love be over before it ever starts?

Excerpt:

“Are you all right, Jillian?” The husky timber of his voice sent another shiver through her, this time having nothing to do with fear.

How could she be aroused after being scared so bad? Especially with a man like this one, a man who worked for the General. She was one sick puppy.

“Jillian?” A hand came down on her shoulder and she jumped.

Finally lifting her head, she ignored Mack and trained her attention on the log where she’d been sitting.
As recognition set in, her entire body began to shake and her heart pounded so hard, she feared cracking a rib. Dear God. There where she’d just been sitting lay a yellow-green snake with ridged scales and green eyes that matched its body staring sightlessly ahead.

She swallowed, trying to wet her dry throat. “Is that—”

“An African bush viper? Yep. I think in the firelight, your hand must have looked like dinner.” Though the snake now lay dead, Mack’s voice still sounded strained.

She stood on shaky legs. “I didn’t even see it there.”

“I’m not surprised. It had coiled its tail around the branch overhead and dropped from there.”

If he hadn’t seen the highly poisonous snake, she’d be dead right now. She launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her face in his throat. She heard a thud and then his arms were around her, surrounding her in a blanket of safety. For the first time, she thought maybe he really would keep his promise.

NaNoWriMo

I’m taking the plunge this year and participating in NaNo. What’s this, you ask?

The complete abbreviation is NaNoWriMo, which stands for National Novel Writing Month. Those that sign up are committing themselves to writing 50,000 words from November 1-30.

50k seems like a lot to write, especially in 30 days. It can be done. Millions have done it. The idea is to just write. No time to go back and edit stuff as you go, just spew those words out and get them down. December is soon enough for editing.

My goal is to break it down into smaller, more manageable chunks. I know that I’m going away for Thanksgiving weekend. Add in some weekend days that I probably won’t have time to write and I’m figuring I have 20 good days to write in November. So, divide 50,000 by 20 and my daily word count goal is 2500 words.

This is a reasonable goal to me. On a good day, I can have this knocked out within 3 hours or less. Other days make take me longer, but it’s definitely a do-able goal. On the good days, I’ll probably also try to go past that mark because who knows what will happen the next day.

I think I’ve mentioned here that my hubby found an English writer’s group in Nuremburg for me. The rest of the group have joined in with me and we’re going to try doing write-ins at the bookstore where we meet. We’re kicking the month off with a scheduled write-in for Monday afternoon.

Write-ins are basically where a group of writers meet to write. I’ve never participated in one before so this is a new experience for me. I think it will be a lot of fun and helpful to keep the motivation going so that we all reach that 50k goal by November 30.

This week, I’m finishing up the prep work that I need so that I’m ready to start come Monday.

If you’re interested in signing up for NaNo, or just want more information, head over to the official website. If you join in the fun, look to add me as a writing buddy. My screen ID is Riley Quinn. Go figure, right?

Are you already signed up? Think you’ll sign up? Or do you just think we’re all crazy? :)