Posted on

What Happened To NaNoWriMo 2017?

As you may have noticed it has been dead silent since about halfway through NaNoWriMo 2017. It isn’t because I just gave up on my book. I got sick, sick enough to call out of work, which is unusual for me. I almost went to urgent care. Even though I returned to work, all I did was sleep and work.

For the first time, I didn’t finish NaNoWriMo. That being said, I took the month of December to complete a whole new draft of Shao Island (the name is going to change). Shao Island has long been a favorite of mine and I will be continuing to work on it this year.

NaNoWriMo 2018 will see some big changes to Shao Island as last year changed a good amount of it too.

In the last month or so I have created a short story based on Shao Island titled The Unwanted Shadow. I have been through a few edits on Scribophile for the first two sections and hope to submit it to a writing contest/journal/thingy. That is why it won’t appear on here for now.

Just today I submitted a flash fiction piece about Alyssa (one of the MC of Shao Island) seeing the magical city for the first time to a flash fiction world-building content on Scribophile. This will be coming up on here after the fifteenth or whenever voting finishes.

Shao Island is officially becoming Purple Fire. I needed to make a change to the series because not every story is happening on Shao Island itself. This will make book one Purple Fire Book One: Shao Island.

This is just an update for now. More content will be coming out shortly on the blog!

Posted on

NaNoWriMo 2017: Update and Nemesis

Hello all!  Come at you with an update on my NaNoWriMo 2017 project.  So far it has come a long way with every day being at least a little over the mark.  Currently, as of writing this, I am at 7,848 words.  This is a little behind today’s estimated progress but I am not done writing for the day.  There are still 6 hours left in the day after all!

Here is a picture from this weekend, settling down to write with a glass of vodka.

Was a fun weekend of writing.  I got through some challenging spots and felt like I nailed some dialogue.

Here is a sample from chapter two:

Brushing his suit coat to the side, Lincoln took a seat on the cushioned chair inside the psychiatrists office. There was one thing to be said about these department mandated sessions, the chairs were more comfy than anything he could expect to find in a trooper barracks. Lillian Cornwall did her normal shuffling of papers in her hands before looking up at him. Was that something they taught head headshrinkers in school? Make people feel like you have a whole folder on them and remind them about it?

Nemesis Challenge

This year NaNoWriMo Seattle is having a challenge with Detriot.  Part of that challenge is having individual nemesises, nemesisi?  I applied to have one and was assigned Ivy Ice.  Check out Ivy’s profile and I’ll let you know more when I hear back from them!

Posted on

NaNoWriMo 2017: Detective 139 Setting

As I posted about Sunday, my NaNoWriMo novel this year is about a police detective who undergoes a tragedy with his partner during a gang bust. I originally got the idea for this story when I found an entry listing for mystery short story. They wanted a story based in either Seattle or Spokane. I started writing Detective 139 until I hit a patch of writer’s block. When I went back to find the entry listing again, I couldn’t find it.

I always liked the idea I had for Detective 139 so I decided to bring it back for NaNoWriMo. Here is a little bit about the setting of Detective 139.

The story starts out in a part of Seattle that is known for both the good and the bad, the Central District. While we don’t see much of the area, we get the few moments before the raid on a gang house. In real life, the Central District is full of many people who are great and wonderful but at the same time, there are also a handful of the bad ones. Some houses in the area are run down. Flophouse isn’t exactly what you would picture the target house but that is what it is.

Seattle is only the start of Detective 139, the real setting is Sun Mountain Hotel. Sun Mountain Hotel is a fictional hotel that sits in the Snoqualmie Pass. During the summer it is a fun place to go hiking and explore but during the winter is when it really starts to become a fun place. Seattle doesn’t have much of a Christmas, so when he is ordered to go on a vacation, Lincoln chooses Sun Mountain Hotel.

Driving up to the hotel/spa is just a good example of how dangerous the trip is going to be. Covered in snow, the road is slippery and enough of a distraction by itself, but when you factor in the constantly falling snow that is so thick you can barely see in front of you, driving is the last thing you want to do. But on a divided highway, there isn’t much of an option.

Rumor has it that Sun Mountain Hotel is supposed to be a luxurious place that people go for vacation. But Lincoln finds the place to be far from that. The lobby of the hotel looks like it hasn’t been cleaned all day. The staff look like they are trying to handle too many things at one time. One thing does win out though, at least the building itself holds that luxurious feeling. That is until you go to a floor. Hallways in the hotel are just like any other hotel and the rooms are nice, but nothing too special.

Outside of the hotel there is a land of snow. Some of the hotel guests have crafted paths around the hotel in the snow but there are trails that are not explained by the guests. Whether they are from animals or something more sinister, who knows? Exploring the high mountain paths and trails can be extremely dangerous in the weather that is coming down.

This is what I have for the setting so far. Of course, it will continue to develop as I write and you will get to experience that with regular updates. In the next preparation post you will learn more about Detective Lincoln Thomas. Keep your eyes open for that post!

Posted on

New Theme and Revision Commitment

Hello!  For 2017 WordPress rolled out a new theme, Twenty-Seventeen.  I really liked the theme so I decided to switch over to it for now.  It creates a slightly less cluttered appearance to the site.  I am still looking to change a few things here and there to make it perfect so please bare with me if you can’t find something you are looking for.

Besides that, 2017 is here.  That means that I was finally able to join many others in making a revision commitment for my NaNoWriMo 2016 novel.  Shao Island Chapter 1 has been revised and there is already a comment on it.

I am working to create some revisions to it.  I have gotten several comments about how Chapter 1 was written and trying to decide how to handle it.  I’ll let you know when there is more available!