NaNoWriMo... AGAIN!

So, it's November.

You know what that means, right?

NaNoWriMo! 
(aka National Novel Writing Month)

Yup, I'm writing another novel. I don't know when I'll find the time to squeeze it in around work and college and work and more college... Yeah.

But I do have some secret weapons:

-M&Ms
-Write or Die
-Fingerless gloves
-Friends who are also writing!
-My Snowflake document 
-A NaNo playlist full of soundtrack music that fits my story
-A Pinterest pinboard full of images that make me excited to write
-My sketchbook

My novel this year is fantasy with strong elements of steampunk. It's set in Victorian London. I've been doing a lot of research in the last year or so getting ready for this, and I STILL don't feel qualified to write about a real time and place. So I'm just going to toss all my nonfiction books about Victorian London out the window and write the dang story first.

Title: Twyndyllyng

The story revolves around a young inventor named Alexander "Phoenix" Gaffney, the son of two ornithologists. He's working on a revolutionary invention that could change history forever if successful - the world's first flying machine. His only problem: ever since boyhood he has been cursed with a degenerative disease that will kill him if a cure is not found.

His mother, who gave him his mythical nickname when he was first diagnosed, raised him on fanciful stories of a powerful being called the Twyndyllyng, the magical link between humans and birds. If anyone could help him, the Twyndyllyng could. However, the Twyndyllyng has not been seen for over a century, and for Phoenix, time is running out. And if by some miracle, he can find the Twyndyllyng, he may find that she's not at all what he expected.


That's it, folks! What are YOU doing this November?

Another Round of Novel Writing

Yes.
It's that time of year again. November is, after all, National Novel Writing Month.

This will be my 7th year participating in NaNoWriMo, and hopefully the 7th time I "win," ending the month with another 50,000-word novel. I'm preparing to block myself from Facebook, lock myself in my dorm room, attempt to avoid any and all distractions, and write like there's no tomorrow.

Call me crazy, but this is my favorite activity of the year. This year I'm doing something totally new: I'm trying the seat-of-the-pants approach. No outline, no extensive worldbuilding, no research. Whee!

So what am I writing? Having been thoroughly inspired by books such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Airborn, and Leviathan, I'm going all-out Steampunk!

Y'know, like this:

Or like this:

Even though I don't have an outline, I do have a general idea of where I'll be heading with the plot. Here's a short teaser for Silver Sky:

"In an imaginary world where all compasses point to the Queen's palace, an awkward, bookish young woman named Sylvianna is shocked to find that her rich family is actually made up of feuding sky pirates. She's kidnapped by the worst of them all, a man named Sean Fletcher... her long-lost father.



As she reels with this discovery, she struggles against her family history, social expectations, and her own secret desires for adventure. But eventually, she realizes that she must become what she most hates -a pirate- to stop the empire from destroying itself."

Want to join the writing fun? Head on over to the NaNoWriMo website and get yourself signed up!

Creative Activities, Contests, and the County Fair

Hey, everybody!

Summer is always a busy time for me. In the last few weeks:

-I wrote a Wild West retelling of "Rumplestiltskin" and won a writing contest! My story will be published in an ebook collection. I will give more details once it's out.

-I applied for several scholarships.

-I participated in our County Fair, winning several ribbons in photography and art. 

-I started a personal exercise program, and stuck to it (so far). My secret weapon is audio books-- I can only listen to them while I'm riding my bike, walking the dog, etc.

-I read plenty of books (currently reading Firebird, by Kathy Tyers).

-I wrote a couple thousand more words in my steampunk/fantasy novel.

-I did a digital painting for a contest hosted by the Paper Wings Podcast. You can vote for me! I would greatly appreciate it if you went to this link and clicked "like" on the sidebar. That's it. The entry with the most "likes" in each category will win a Wacom Intuos tablet. The Grand Prize of all the entries will get a live critique of their work with the hosts of the podcast, Disney artist Chris Oatley and Lora Innes, creator of the webcomic "The Dreamer," of which I'm a big fan. Voting is only open for one week!

Sorry! I'm writing a novel at the moment! Please leave a message and I'll get back to you in December.

It's National Novel Writing Month! (aka NaNoWriMo)

So, you probably won't see much of me for awhile. I do this every year (hopefully, this will be my sixth "win"), and I absolutely love it. If you've ever considered writing a novel, you might want to check this out.

I'm writing a YA Christian fantasy novel again. The title is Greenheart, and it's the prequel to last year's novel, Bluewillow. I'm writing by hand, so I haven't had any time to type up any excerpts yet, but I'll be sure to do that... in December. :)

Here's a (rather lengthy) one-sentence summary:
A curious orphan who talks to trees learns that he is one of the Flickerfew, and struggles to master his strange talents to save his world from genetically engineered wild beasts and the evil that controls them.

At the librarians' request, I made a display about NaNoWriMo at my local library, which you can see in this picture (go ahead, you can click it if you want to):

And of course I couldn't resist making a web banner for my novel:

That's all for now, folks! See you in December!

Summer Reading

After another long interval between my infamous sporadic posts, I present you with my summer reading piles.

Yes, piles.

First we have my in-progress pile. These are all books that I'm currently reading. I tend to read a lot of books at once. That way, if I get tired of one book, I can put it down and pick up in the middle of another book. I'm a migratory reader.

Starting from the bottom of the pile:
The Life of the Forest, by Jack McCormick - I'm reading this non-fiction book as research for my next novel, Greenheart, which will mostly take place in a temperate rainforest. I want it to feel real, and this book is very helpful and interesting.

Digital Art Revolution, by Scott Ligon - I picked this book up because I love creating digital art with Photoshop, and I'd love to do more with it. It's got tons of weird artwork in it, but it teaches some great techniques and tricks with Photoshop.

Getting Into Character, by Brandilyn Collins - This book on creating three-dimensional characters requires a lot of thought, because each new thing presented is so unique and revolutionary. It's taking me a long time to read it, because I'm trying to fully understand each concept before I move on. I think it will definitely help my writing down the road.

Writing Fiction for Dummies, by Randy Ingermanson - The ingenious "Snowflake Guy" wrote this awesome book for writers of all ages and experience levels. Everything is laid out, clear and concise. Even though I've read almost a dozen books on writing, this one offers some questions and exercises that have made me think about my writing from a different angle. I recommend it!

The Restorer, by Sharon Hinck - I'm re-reading this one because I like it so much. An ordinary mom gets sucked into a fantasy world on the brink of war, and she's expected to become some warrior hero? What's not to like? (Besides, I think Kieran is one of the best characters of all time.)

Emma, by Jane Austen - I've seen several different movie versions of this classic story, but this is the first time I've actually read it. It took me awhile to get into it, because I just didn't like the heroine, Emma. But then I realized that you just can't take her too seriously, and I began to really enjoy it. It's a lighthearted, comedic romance story.

Airborn, by Kenneth Oppel - I bought this book used at my library for about 10 cents. I knew nothing about it. It's amazing! It's an alternate version of history set at the height of airship travel, with sky pirates, mysterious flying mammals, and lots of swashbuckling adventures in the clouds. I love it so far! (I'm really starting to like the "Steampunk" genre)

Start Here: Doing Hard Things Right Where You Are, by Alex and Brett Harris - This is a sequel to the awesome book Do Hard Things. It's full of encouragement, ideas, and practical advice for teens who wish to break free of the low expectations placed on young people today. Teens have raised money to build wells in Africa, sailed solo around the world, made award-winning movies... what will you do? And more importantly, why are you doing it?

As soon as I finish reading all of those books, I'll move on to my to-read pile:

100 Cupboards, by N. D. Wilson

The Unicorn Chronicles book 4: The Last Hunt, by Bruce Coville

Brightly Woven, by Alexandra Bracken

Stravaganza: City of Masks, by Mary Hoffman

Over Sea, Under Stone, by Susan Cooper

Heartless, by Anne Elisabeth Stengl

Adobe Photoshop CS3 Classroom in a Book

By Darkness Hid, by Jill Williamson (not pictured)

And that's just a fraction of the books I'd like to read. *sigh* So many books, so little time. What have you been reading? Have you read any of these books?

Also, I seem to have forgotten to announce the arrival of my free paperback copy of my novel, Bluewillow, from CreateSpace. Here's a picture:

I made the cover, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. My sister agreed to pose as my main character (I turned her hair blue in Photoshop). Sorry that my flash sorta washed things out. It looks better in person.

Now my family is reading it together in the evenings. *gasp* So many people listening to my writing at once! Aaaaahh! Panic attack!! *ahem*

That's all for now, folks!

I'm Editing Right Now

Sorry I haven't been blogging much lately-- I'm right in the thick of National Novel Editing Month, a.k.a. NaNoEdMo. It's inspired by NaNoWriMo, but instead of writing a novel... you edit one.

You can read last year's post about it here. Last year I failed. I didn't make it to the goal of 50 hours, even though I did make quite a bit of progress in my plot. This year I'm working on The Shadow of Rebellion 2-4 hours every day.

Anyway, I should get back to editing now. I just thought I'd let you all know what I'm up to.

Cheerio!

Novel Update and Excerpt

I finished typing out the rough draft of Bluewillow! It took me nearly as long to type it out as it did to write it by hand, but it was fun to read my novel as I typed it. And I think it was good that I did it this way, despite the extra time.

My impressions: It will need a lot more editing than I first thought. Some sections --whole chapters even-- made me wince. And I'm not sure I should go deep into editing it now, because this is the second book in a trilogy, and I haven't yet written the first book, Greenheart. When that is written, I'll probably have more things to add in and take out of Bluewillow, to make them fit together as a series in preparation for the last book, Redtail.  I have lots of work ahead of me. And this is all for just one of my trilogies. *sigh* I love writing.

So, I think I'll start planning Greenheart soon and let Bluewillow rest for a few months. However, I'll let you see a little bit of the beginning, just to tease you. :) Remember, this hasn't been edited yet. So don't holler too much if you see a typo. And of course, all text is © 2010 Rachel H. No stealing. So there.

The Flicker Chronicles Book 2

Bluewillow

Chapter 1

The Willow Girl

I appeared on a blue and misty morning under and old man’s willow tree. That’s the beginning for me, though I must have been at least eleven years old. The old man later told me that I had a fever so high that my lips were white and my eyes were black and shining riverstones. All I can remember is the fog on my skin— cold and blank.

Hands lifted me away from my tree and wrapped me in quilts, and I slept. Whispered conversations floated in and out of my mind, but I couldn’t understand them. I did not dream. Only darkness smothered me.

I woke with two cats on my legs. They stared at me. Light came in from a rectangular hole in the wall, high above me. It was a morning kind of light. One of the cats began to purr.

“So you’re awake?” The sudden voice of a man made me sit up straight, scattering the cats.

There in the doorway, silhouetted by the brilliant outdoor light, stood an old man. He leaned on a twisted staff, and a bush of hair stuck out from under his cap. Behind him crowded several curious heads, all hoping to get a glimpse of me.

I rubbed my throat.

“You thirsty?” asked the man. He swung into the room and poured water from a pitcher into a wooden mug, which he held out.

I took a sip and looked up again. “Where am I?”

The old man looked back at the others, still in the doorway. No one spoke. His eyes glowed gray in the windowlight when he looked my way again. “Begging your pardon, miss, but who are you?”

And that’s when I knew. Or rather, I didn’t know. That was the problem. My memory was as clean as the waters in the willow-pond. I set the mug on the bedpost and let my hands fall into my lap. “I can’t remember,” I said.

To my surprise, the man’s lips cracked into a wide grin, and he winked at me. “Then I get to name you!” Several people behind him murmured disapproval, but the old man shook his head. “I found her, didn’t I? I found her, and I’ll name her!” He tapped his nose a couple of times.

I winced. With all those people, strangers looking at me in silence, I felt like a freak on display. I fidgeted, wishing I could crawl out the window and disappear.

At last the old man brightened. “Audrey!” he said. “Your name is Audrey. Audrey Bluewillow!”

A chorus of aahs rippled into the room. Something about it made me uncomfortable, like being left out of a happy ending.

“Why?” I asked him. “Why… Bluewillow?”

“Found you under a willow, didn’t I? And the first part is for obvious reasons.”

Now I was nervous. “What do you mean?”

“Girl, don’t you realize…?” He frowned at me in apparent sympathy while I waited helplessly. He turned and rummaged in a drawer, muttering to himself the whole time. He pulled out a shard of smudged glass. “Look in the mirror, Audrey,” he said. I flinched.

My fingers trembled as I lifted the milky glass to my face. At first I could see nothing at all. Little by little I began to make out my features— first just shadows, then my ordinary mouth and nose, and my blue eyes. I smiled at my familiar reflection in relief and almost gave the mirror back when a late ray of morning sunlight peeked over the edge of the window and blinded me for a moment. The gasps of the onlookers made me rub my eyes and look again in the glass…

Blue. 

My hair was blue.

The Thing About Plot Bunnies

What is a plot bunny?

plot bun•ny
noun
A seemingly exciting plot twist idea for your work-in-progress that takes the form of an adorable, infuriating rabbit who leads you down a winding trail that either goes on forever, and never ends anywhere; or takes you through a dark and scary forest; and sometimes ends up in a happy meadow; but most often it all ends up with you, the writer, falling into a rabbit-hole and having lots of wacky adventures in an insane world with oddly familiar people who vaguely resemble your characters.

How's that for a run-on sentence? Maybe I can get this definition into the dictionary.  :)

THE END! And some excerpts!

I'm DONE! Yesterday, I finally finished my NaNoWriMo novel, Bluewillow! I'm so relieved and glad to be done writing for awhile. The final word-count is 76,114, which is only a thousand words over what I estimated it would be. That's almost 200 hand-written pages!

Here's a brief synopsis of the plot:

Bluewillow

The Flicker Chronicles book 2
A girl with blue hair wakes up under a willow tree and can only remember other people's memories. She sets out to find a mysterious inter-dimensional portal that could somehow be the key to her past, but she gets caught up in a struggle between colorful worlds. Will she turn to the true King before it's too late?

Here's the banner I made for the book: 

And here are a couple of short poems from my novel. I wasn't expecting to write any poetry, but these just appeared on the page without me really thinking about it. :) And then I put them to music, and turned them both into songs.

"In the wings of the morning, in the depths of the earth

Ring songs of great value and words of great worth

The birds of the air and the fish will cry out

When the people are silent, even stones will shout."

And then a silly one:

"My honey went away, away, away,

In search of another day, away, away.

My dear sweet girlie

Went all a-twirly

And fell into a portal swirly

And made my head turn gray, away, away."

Later, when I type out my book and start editing (it needs a LOT of editing), I'll post some longer excerpts. But for now, I need to turn my attention to other things, namely Christmas. I enjoy making gifts for my family, but that will require a lot of time and energy, so I'm putting my finished draft aside for awhile. 

Swine Flu and Novel Writing

Yeah... I'm sorry I haven't been posting at all during November. I wanted to keep you guys updated with my word-count goals and excerpts from my novel, but less than a week into the month, I got really sick. I never went to the doctor to get tested, but I had all the symptoms of the H1N1 swine flu. I had a fever for nine days, and felt poorly for over two weeks.

Of course, that didn't help with the novel writing. I've never been sick during National Novel Writing Month before, so it was a frustrating time for me. I wanted to make it to at least 75,000 words, and hopefully finish the whole story, but with several days in there where I didn't write ANYTHING, I was really behind. My parents kept telling me to give myself a break, but it was hard when I've been planning this book for months, and looking forward to NaNoWriMo all year.

It was also hard to accept that I would be writing alone this year. In all the other years of NaNo, my brother was writing with me, and then my dad tried it and my younger sister did it for a couple of years. But this year, the others weren't able to write novels for one reason or another, so I was alone. (And since I was sick, I couldn't go to any write-ins with local Wrimos.)

I did make it to 50,000, though, and then for the last three days of November, I wrote over 5,000 words a day!  Yay! My final count is 70,213 handwritten words. So even though it felt like a terrible month, it was not totally unsuccessful.

And yet, my book is not yet completed. *sigh* Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to write I go... And when I finish, I'll come back and post a few excerpts for y'all to pick on and admire. :)

Snapshots of My Autumn Life

A tree fell on our house a few days ago. The wind was pretty strong that day, and we didn't know it, but the limb was rotten. It made quite a clatter. I thought the cats had gotten into the dishes and broken a few, but alas, it was our maple. And I wanted to build a treehouse in that tree! I guess it's a good thing I didn't. (We made a movie instead.) The tree guys came and chopped it all up and put it through the TREE SHREDDER! *wince* Terrible. Just terrible. And they didn't stop there! Oh no, they had to cut down two other trees near our house! Of course, those were dead already, but I feel like we're losing trees right and left. Last time a storm came through we lost Gandalf and part of Treebeard (now he looks ever so much more like a real Ent).

Anyway, that's the pain of autumn storms.

A few nights ago was the first frost, so we raced down to the garden after dark to save the food! We covered my dad's (GIANT) pumpkins with cozy quilts and I picked my herbs. My dad also had a ton of tomatoes, so we filled two whole boxes of 'em and brought them indoors for safekeeping, a.k.a. canning. My mom has been busy making pizza sauce and salsa. And tonight we had sausage tortellini soup with fresh tomatoes and basil and parsley. Mmmm... perfect for cold weather!

I felt like taking a nap this afternoon, but when I climbed up my ladder to my loft bed, this is the sight that greeted me. Five innocent* cats had already claimed my bed, and there was no room left for me. So I was forced to lay on the couch instead. I know, I'm hopeless. I can't even fight off snoozing cats for my rightful place.

*Sarcasm.

The muted colors of early autumn...

And last but not least, a makeshift cover I created for my upcoming Christian fantasy/sci-fi novel, Bluewillow, that I'm going to write for NaNoWriMo. More on this soon!

Are You Ready?

50,000 words. 30 days. It's coming... Will you be ready?

Join the fun! Write a novel! www.nanowrimo.org

A New Cover for My Novel!

I was out taking senior pictures for my brother and my cousin this afternoon, and towards the end of the day, we discovered a tunnel under Main Street and I instantly thought of my novel. I handed my camera to my brother and made him take MY picture for once, as I ran through the tunnel.

Then I brought it into Photoshop and played around with color, levels, and my new "tech" brushes. And voila, I became my main character, Kimble Haansvoy, STEW agent 1121!

(Click to see a really large version) What do you think?

The First Chapter of My Novel

While I anxiously wait for word about my computer, I'm letting you have a sneak peak at my book, The Shadow of Rebellion. I was in the process of revising and editing it when my computer stopped working, but I printed out the first two chapters before the big crash, so I didn't lose all of my hard work. Please read and comment!

Some background: The Shadow of Rebellion is the sequel to my first completed novel, The Shadow of Greed, a science fiction/spy adventure about a secret academy that trains elite warriors for the galactic government, and how two students are targeted by assassins when they discover a sinister plot. (If you click on the link, you can purchase it at Lulu.com) I wrote the first draft of the sequel last November, and it ended up at about 100,000 words-- the longest thing I've ever written.

Note that while these books aren't explicitly "Christian," they were written by one. I brought up themes that are important to me, such as loyalty, family, truth, and sacrifice. Now, without further ado, Chapter One!

The Shadow of Rebellion

Chapter 1

Kimble struggled against the grabbing mud at her heels. Panic overruled her senses and she gasped in the darkness. They were coming for her! She couldn't run. She couldn't scream. In a wild spasm she broke free and her hand fell on fabric.

A sheet, damp with sweat.

She closed her fist around it and forced herself to breathe in, though the sour air caught in her throat and made her gag.

Light. She unclenched her fingers from the sheet to turn on the lamp. The closet door loomed across from her, draped with a clean uniform. Her roommate's pets shifted in their cages on the wall. Dilly's bed was next to hers, empty.

"Dilly?" she whispered.

No answer.

Kimble shivered. She slipped out of her clammy bed and itched her elbow. Dilly was not in the room. No one was supposed to leave their room after curfew, and Dilly always abided by the rules. She must have had a good reason to risk her good reputation.

Had she left because of Kimble's nightmares? Her dreams often caused her to groan and call out, and Dilly was a light sleeper. Kimble winced and sank to the end of the bed.

The door broke open with a bang. Kimble jerked her head up. Dilly jumped inside and fumbled with the lock for a long moment before it finally clicked shut.

Her friend's face was in shadow, but her sharp breathing betrayed her. Fear ducked into the room.

"What's wrong?" Kimble asked urgently.

Dilly didn't answer right away. She hurried over to her wall of animal cages and knelt in front of one of the smaller doors. She gently pulled out a snoring ball of fluff, which she held to her cheek.

"Dilly--" Kimble began, folding her arms.

Dilly slumped on her bed. "Someone is creeping around the halls out there," she said at last.

Kimble sat up straighter. "What? What are you talking about?"

Dilly looked away. "I-- I couldn't sleep, so I just went out in the hall to stretch my legs. But all the lights went out, and then I heard someone sneak past me in the dark! I'm sure they were up to no good." She twisted her fingers in the animal's long fur.

Kimble frowned. "All the lights went out? That is strange. They're supposed to be hard-wired..." She got up and opened the door.

Sure enough, darkness filled the hall. Kimble looked both ways. To the right, she could see a distant cross-hall with the ceiling panels glowing as usual, but on the left, the hall faded into black. "Weird. No one should have been able to turn them off," she whispered.

Dilly came up behind her, still stroking her pet frantically. "And what about the person I heard?"

"I'll check it out. It was probably just another student, out to stretch her legs or something."

"In the dark?"

Kimble shrugged. "There's got to be a reasonable explanation. Don't worry about it. I'll be right back." She snatched her gun off the dresser and slipped into the silent hall, and began to run. She trailed her fingertips on one wall to guide her, but she couldn't see where her feet hit the floor.

When she came to an intersection, she stopped to catch her breath. Both halls were pitch black. She strained her ears, but her pounding heart drove away all other possible sounds.

Then the lights suddenly blazed to life. Kimble covered her eyes with her palms and groaned. She had to find out what was going on. She had to get to the utility room. She blinked a few times in the intense light, then turned and ran again.

It was odd to be out at this hour, when all the STEW agents slept and all the halls were empty. She felt as exposed as a crater on the moon. She almost wished the lights would go out again and hide her.

When she reached the heavy door to the utility room, she was dismayed to find it locked. She rattled the handle and tried a code in the keypad, but the door refused to budge. She had forgotten to bring her computer unit, so she couldn't pick the lock. She turned and found a woman staring at her. A hall monitor.

"Agent 1121, is it?" the woman said. Her eyes narrowed. "What are you doing? Don't you know the rules? You ought to by now."

"The lights went out in my hall, and I came to check it out." Kimble swallowed. It sounded so trivial now.

The monitor rolled her eyes. "The lights cannot be changed. Even the Headmaster can't turn them off. They're designed to stay on always, even during emergencies."

"Of course I know that, but somehow they were turned off. I was going to check the computer system to see if anyone had hacked into it. Someone was sneaking around the halls--"

"Yes, I noticed," the monitor said, and frowned at Kimble. "You will receive a warning this time, but next time I find you wandering about past curfew, you won't get off so easily."

"But I was just trying to find out what was wrong! At least let me see the utility system!" Kimble hated pleading with the smug monitor, but she had to know what was going on.

The monitor jangled her keys. "I don't have to let you in there. In fact, I shouldn't. I should march you right back to your room and stand guard outside the door."

Kimble clenched her fists. It was all she could do to hold back a sharp reply.

The monitor sighed and motioned Kimble out of the way. She grumbled as she fiddled with the lock until it clicked and the door shifted.

Kimble pushed past the monitor and entered the humming room. She bent over the main computer screen.

The monitor leaned against the wall and folded her arms. "Well?"

Kimble scanned the utility files. Nothing was out of place. The computer registered that the lights were on the entire time. "Whoever it was must have hacked into the computer system," she said. "And they covered their tracks completely."

"Face it, girl, you dreamed it," scoffed the monitor. "The lights can't be turned off."

Kimble shook her head. "I'm not the only one who saw it." She logged out and turned away from the computer.

"Then I'll have to report that several students are experiencing hallucinations. I always knew the pressure was too much around here. Maybe final exams did you in." The monitor leaned forward. A hint of sympathy creased her forehead for a moment, but it was soon covered with contempt. "Maybe I'll be next. Everyone knows I have way too much to deal with in the middle of the night."

Kimble tapped her gun on the wall and glared at the monitor. "I'll talk to the administrator about it tomorrow. This isn't normal."

"You're just paranoid. Now go to your room and don't come back out!"

Kimble watched the hall monitor secure the room again. There was nothing more she could do tonight. She could only go back to bed and hope that her nightmares stayed away for the rest of the night.

*

Kimble focused on her opponent. His lanky form made it difficult to pin him down, and he enjoyed taunting her with glib remarks about her height. He wasn't more than an inch and a half taller, but he was also growing like a vine. He would end up a giant, most likely, and he knew it.

Still, he was several years younger and overly confident. Easy prey.

He dove towards her with his knife extended. She batted him aside as if he were only a rowdy kitten, and hooked his ankle with her boot. He sprawled on the mat at her feet. She touched the tip of her knife to his ear. "Nice try, wise guy," she said. "Your feet are as big as your mouth."

He groaned. "Why do I have to be so clumsy?" He rubbed his shin and frowned.

"I've got to get back to my exams, Danny. We'll practice again tomorrow." Kimble sheathed her weapon.

"Aw, can't we do it just one more time?" His gray eyes grew large. "Please?"

"Sorry, can't do that. I've got to graduate first." She grinned. She was ready to move on to bigger missions as a level five agent. No more decoding endless documents and training first-year students.

Her computer unit buzzed. What now? She glanced at it. An emergency meeting had been called for only select students, and she was ordered to come to the conference room at once.

She looked back at her pupil. Danny was still sitting on the mat, picking at his boot-laces. She snatched up her shoulder bag and dashed out the door without another word to him.

She ran through the halls of the STEW Academy, her bag thumping against her leg every step of the way. A secret meeting! Could this be about a new mission?

She slowed as she passed the library, next to the conference room. Several other STEW agents were already standing in the hall. She stepped towards them, but someone grabbed her arm. "Kimble! Wait!" It was her brother, Angle. She allowed him to pull her into a corner of the library entrance.

"What's going on?" Kimble demanded.

Angle looked into the hall. More agents were gathering by the conference room. "It's about the meeting," he said. "I talked to Banu already. He's really upset." His gaze flickered between her and the other agents.

Kimble put her hands on her hips. "And?"

He rubbed his face. "He wants you to lead a team of agents--"

"That's good news, isn't it?" Kimble said eagerly. "I've been hoping for something like this!"

"No... you don't understand." He closed his eyes. "The M2 document. It's been stolen."

Kimble grimaced. She turned away from him and leaned against the wall. "Great," she muttered. "Just great."

"I know you've been in charge of that project since the Headmaster was arrested," Angle said from the shadows.

"So, it's my responsibility to get it back, right?" Kimble clenched her teeth. "Oh, this is wonderful."

Angle put a hand on her shoulder. She shrugged it off. Then she lifted her head and started towards the meeting room across the hall, but Angle grabbed her again.

"That's not all," he said. "There's something else you need to know."

Kimble folded her arms.

"The document disappeared last night, so few clues have turned up already, but the preliminary evidence points to a notorious thief called 'The Slippery One,' named so for his uncanny ability to slip in and out of the most high-security government institutions without ever getting caught. He escapes without a trace every time."

"And what does all that have to do with me?" she challenged.

Angle's electric eyes locked with hers. "The Slippery One is our father."

NaNoEdMo: March 1-31

I have finally decided to try my hand at editing. I recently signed up for National Novel Editing Month, a program inspired by NaNoWriMo, but with the goal of completing 50 hours of serious editing during the month of March. It's a big goal, and something I've never tried before. I did some editing on my novel The Shadow of Greed before I self-published it, but it was mostly to correct spelling errors and little things like that. I didn't really get my hands dirty.

But now I have a hefty rough draft waiting around--the sequel, The Shadow of Rebellion, and I know that this book will require a lot more attention... yeah. It's almost frightening to read the thing. 

That's why I put "Edit my novel" on my Big, Fun, Scary Adventures list for 2009. I know it's important to learn how to self-edit, so right now I'm reading a very helpful book titled Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to edit yourself into print, by Renni Browne and Dave King. I plan to use the checklists at the end of each chapter as I'm going through my draft in March.

This is all very new to me, but I'm eager to learn as much as I can through this project. Self-editing is one of the "courses" that I need to take in order to become a successful, published author, and I'm ready to start learning.

On to Bigger Things...

On November 30th, at 11:58 pm, I wrote THE END. I finished the first draft of my 2008 NaNoWriMo novel with a hefty 103,396 words. Whew! It turned out to be the longest thing I've ever written in my life! So far, that is. :)

I'm going to take a break from my novel for awhile. I need to let my brain rest. I might pick it up again in January to begin editing and rewriting, because it still needs a lot of work before I let anybody read it, even my family.  I skipped whole sections when I was writing it, because I knew that they needed time and effort that I was unable to provide during NaNoWriMo. I'm happy with the way my novel turned out, despite the many gaping holes and mistakes in it. I love writing.

So, now, in December, I'm going to try to get back to a few of the things that I've neglected lately, such as my altered book, schoolwork, and my blog, of course. I have a few posts waiting in the wings, and I've still got the feeling that I need to be writing, even though my novel is finished. I feel like I need to go on to bigger things, now that I have time to spare. I'll be thinking about what's next on my agenda...

Before I go, here's a picture of my novel cover, featuring my main character, Kimble Haansvoy. 

NaNoWriMo~ WINNER!

I don't have a lot of time for blogging these days, and just to prove it, here's my winner's icon for making it to 50,000 words in the National Novel Writing Month challenge (aka NaNoWriMo).

So, I'm working on my novel a lot, and right now I'm at about 96,000 words, and there's still two days left. I'm hoping to be at 100,000 words by the 30th of November, and have my first draft finished, too. It's a lot of work, but so much fun! I'm writing The Shadow of Rebellion, the sequel to my novel from November 2006, The Shadow of Greed. It's going to end up being a trilogy, I think.

I'm excited about this novel, even though it will be needing a LOT of editing. A lot. This is a really rough first draft for me, probably because I tried to squeeze in 100,000 words in one month instead of the usual 50,000.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I haven't forgotten about my blog-- I'm just writing like crazy right now and don't have much time. I'll be back in December, hopefully.

Storytelling in My Blood

My biggest interest is not altering old books, but writing new ones. I have so many ideas for stories that I don't think I'll ever be able to write them all. I've participated in National Novel Writing Month for three years now, and each time I produced a first draft that was over 50,000 words long. I love writing.

My brother and I have created our own competition (just between the two of us) that we have done for two years now. It's an event we like to call "Nanooks in Pajamas," or NIP for short. It's a race to the 50,000-word mark, and whoever gets there first is the winner. We both write a novel with the same title, same main characters, and when it's over we compare them. We write about our Beanie Baby husky dogs (R. Nanook and D. Nanook), because when we were little, we played many unusual adventures with them. Last year we both finished in 6 days, and this year (with the title "Nanooks in Tuxedos") we both finished in 5 days. It's a little crazy and a ton of fun. Also, we developed writing, typing, and quick-thinking skills. Most of NIP consists of a never-ending game of 20 Questions.

I don't just write silly, typo-riddled stories. I have finished one other novel, a science-fiction/action-adventure story called The Shadow of Greed. It's my second attempt at writing a novel, and probably the best thing I ever wrote. I planned out the plot in one week, wrote the first draft in 30 days, and spent a month editing and polishing it before submitting it to Lulu.com for self-publication. If you want to know more about The Shadow of Greed and Lulu.com, check out the sidebar or click here.

My big goal is to get something published before I'm twenty-one. (I did have a poem published in a kids' creative writing magazine, but I didn't get paid for it, so that doesn't really count).

However, I don't want to just write anything and get it published. The publishing world of fiction has run amuck with ungodly, evil books, even for teens and young children. What disgusts me the most is that many of these are on the top of the bestsellers list. Some appear to be innocent and well-written stories on the surface, but underneath is an insidious pulse of anti-God and pro-evil mentality. Some lure unsuspecting readers in with engaging characters, plot, and style, but there is an ulterior motive to teach them atheism and worldly attitudes. And a few are obviously evil through and through. Sometimes I can't understand how today's children are reading such disgusting things.

So my goal is to write and publish fun, clean, exciting books for children and young adults. I want to create characters who have or learn good morals in a unique way. I will try to grab my readers' attention with a clean and well-crafted story that engages the imagination and subtly show them what a godly life might look like in an interesting setting and plot.

If this is what God is calling me to do, I will give it all my energy and with His strength, write fiction to the glory of God.