Nanowrimo is off for me this year, as I have a Deadline.

Hee. I have a deadline.

I have nothing but a bottle of Izze and my will to get me there. Onward!

But first, have a snippet. I like snippets.

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The Good the Bad the Unread.

This one doesn’t make me quite so jubilant, though I can understand the reviewer’s point about technical issues. Something to watch out for while I’m revising Something Beautiful, at least.

And this makes it all better:

The fact is, I felt like crying when I finished this book because I became attached to these people and I loved being a part of their lives. And that is why I’ll be watching for more books from Jenna Jones. I think Dune deserves to find love, and his story would give me a chance to revisit all of them. I miss them already.

Because that, friends and neighbors, means I’ve done my job.

From Rainbow Reviews:

All of the situations and strong characters combined to a phenomenal story about life, love, and what real people go through to find their path to everlasting love.

This calls for a great big WOOMCH!

So there’s been plagirism wank.

I have three thoughts about this, which I will get to eventually:

1. this so needs to be a drinking game
2. the perils of POD publishing houses
3. people like being authors but not being writers

One. The drinking game.

1. Vehement denial of all wrongdoing: take a sip.
2. Threatening the people who discovered/exposed the plagirism: take a sip
3. Blaming the plagiarism on stress/mental illness/physical illness/past trauma/past life trauma: take three sips.
4. Emergence of sock puppets in the guise of spouse/agent/sibling/therapist/dog groomer: take a sip.
5. Threats of internet lawyers: take a sip.
6. Appearance of internet lawyers: take a shot.
7. Appearance of internet lawyer who has no understanding of copyright law/the First Amendment/basic rules of grammar: take two shots.
8. Grudging admittance of wrongdoing and half-assed apology: take three shots.
9. Acceptance of responsibility and sincere apologies to the offended party: CHUG LIKE A FRAT BOY ON SPRING BREAK.

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How to Write a Book

My favorite is number 7: “Never have a mental breakdown before 11 p.m.”

Oh, I know that feeling.

My absolute favorite book about writing, by the way, is The Unstrung Harp by Edward Gorey. It’s not about how to write a novel. It’s about what it’s like to write one.

This is so frustrating.

I had ideas while I was at work, so I scribbled them down in my notebook for when I came home.

And now I’m home, and I’m tired and my eyes hurt (I have eyestrain far too often) and my brain feels like sludge. I need to retrain my brain to have these creative sparks after work, when I can write, rather than during, where I’m expected to do other things.

Also, it amuses me that with all the editing I’ve done this last week, the word count has basically been the same. Of course, I’m only 50 pages in so far . . .