Float like a butterfly! Sting like a bee!

I feel like a boxer getting ready to step into the ring.  Bouncing around on the balls of my feet, my hands all taped up, shadow boxing.  Trying to keep all loose, rolling my head on my shoulders. Listening to my entourage telling me that I am great, I am a champion, that I can knock this punk out.  First round KO!

What they don't know is that I am going to have to go the distance a full 10 rounds and if I get a unanimous decision all the better.

Rocky! Rocky! rocky!


Okay honestly I am not exactly sure where I am going with this whole boxing thing, so I think I’ll drop it.  


So here I am now at the car wash!  Listening to videos of 49er highlights and just chillin.  
I really do like the car wash.  This is a "full service" hand wash car wash. Where you hand them over the keys and they vacuum it out and you're left sitting around for...30 to 40 mins.  So if you have time you just hang out at the car wash!  Its a rather nice day. Should I add a scene in my nano effort set at a car wash?  

You know that's an idea.

I am a paper carrier and I stop by a grocery store almost everyday.  Sometimes when I go by around 4 am in the morning, when it's dark and cold and wet, the store manager and I guess guys who deliver the potato chips and who knows who else, I see them sitting outside on those electronic scooters.  Just outside the main door, feet propped up chewing the fat.  

Okay for me this is funny because one, it's COLD!  We are like five miles as the crow flies away from the ocean.  So you're getting that off the ocean breeze and it's cold foggy and/or the marine layer rolls in.  It's damp.  
What in the hell do they talk about at 4 am in the morning?  How long do the hang out?  its very strange and since I don't hang around long, I am just there to
drop off a bundle of 4 New York Times papers, it's not like I am privy to their
conversations.

I just find it very odd, humorous but I've been accused of being odd before. *shrug*

I think I am prepared for my Camp Nano.


I have my snacks. I have my idea and my outline. I have to stay loose and relaxed or else this isn't going to work.  I also have to stay open to new plot ideas as they come barreling into me like rude teenagers who are running around without looking where they are going.
the one thing I do not have is a library of music to listen to, to inspire me.  I should probably get some but it's kinda late.

Oh well!  Nano for me starts in…six and a half hours.  I’ll be asleep for the official start!

Although that's not my name! I've got the eye of a tiger! I am "gonna fly now!  Mama told me to knock

You know that's an idea.

I am a paper carrier and I stop by a grocery store almost everyday.  Sometimes when I go by around 4 am in the morning, when it's dark and cold and wet, the store manager and I guess guys who deliver the potato chips and who knows who else, I see them sitting outside on those electronic scooters.  Just outside the main door, feet propped up chewing the fat.  

And yet there are these guys sitting outside on these scooters, feet propped up.  In their "dress" shirts, aprons, and khakis.

I just find it very odd, humorous but I've been accused of being odd before. *shrug*

Oh well!  Nano for me starts in…six and a half hours.  I’ll be asleep for the official start!

But once I am done with work, I’ll swing by the Starbucks and sit around for a little bit and see if I can’t hit the day’s word count. 

Wish me luck!

The calm before the storm

I went shopping on Monday and got snacks for the grand adventure.  If I do this right thought I’ll be spending at least two hours a day at the local star bucks early in the mornings, after I get off work.  Which means buying at least one cup of coffee and maybe a tasty and typing for two hours.  I am kind of excited and kind of not.  Typing up 50k words a huge undertaking, especially when you’re nervous.  

I’ve worked on the outline, but some “touchstones” up but it’s not a step by step follow this or die outline.  I just put up ideas of where I want it to go.  If I meander to point to point all the better.  I liked to have loose outlines like that.  Gives me room to wiggle and walk around in circles if I need to.

To get my mind off the project, I went to a baseball game on Monday;. That was wicked fun!  Thanks Arra for taking me.
I am keeping a close eye on my football team, Go 9ers!  I am hoping that we can go to a Training camp, but I dunno if they’ll be open to the public this year. They are doing a lot of construction on the new stadium.  I am hopeful though, it would be a lot of fun.

I got my nails filed down, so I am now able to type like a fiend again. I love my little notebook it’s so small and the keyboard action is so nice and springy. The board is also just the right size. Not too small and not too large my hands fit it very nicely too.

I wonder if the local NaNo group is going to be doing Camp Nano?  I should post something on the boards, although seriously don’t think they are doing anything.  I hate to say it, but I really don’t like out local mod or his co moderator.  They are the two biggest reasons why I don’t go to the write ins.  The woman wants to “help” but she more interferes than helps...and He is, I hate to say it, stuffy and a bit of a stick in the mud. I really don’t care how successful he has been he’s got the energy level of a turtle.

I would like to hang out with other ppl and write a bit, but if I have to do this solo I will cause I am really not alone.  I dunno how many other people are doing Camp Nano but I think it’s a grand idea.

I am hoping that the online community wakes up I know Twitterverse is buzzing. I am hoping that there are word wars. I do well with those.

So to calm down my nerves, since I am prone to anxiety attacks I’ll probably go off to the ocean for a little bit. May take this notebook or something and wander around and just enjoy myself.  I really don’t want to get to be feeling overwhelmed. That doesn’t do anybody any good.

Here’s to a successful Camp!

Lets break out the Smores!

What to do when waiting for edits

I would say it's a great day but...

Have you ever had the feeling that you have bitten off more than you can chew?  Or, you come out of a planning session feeling pretty good about the progress you've made, only to sit back and realize maybe you haven't made as much progress as you think you have?

I've been working on a book!  Well I kind of finished a book and sent it off to my Auntie because she insisted.  So she is currently doing...I am not exactly sure what she's doing. Holding me up I suppose. So to fill up time, and because I have an overactive idea generating mind, I started a NEW story. 

The original idea was of a "spoiled" entitled girl. A lead cheerleader, the popular girl who is now the popular senior who thinks she deserves the world! Well she has it...the world in her little town in Wyoming but what she really wants is the attention of the popular jock in school.  

Unfortunately for her, he's not interested.

Enter our Main female character. An outsider to this little town. She's from the big city and immediately attracts popular boy's attention.

I thought it was a good concept, so I ran with it. I decided to make it about werewolves...well I called them Wolven and scattered them about. Made a pack, a ranch, and a commune out in Wyoming.

I started to work and tinker and named characters and start to develop them. Who is this person? Who are their parents?  Where did they meet? When did they marry? How did they get here? That sort of stuff.

I tinkered some more and realized....

There wasn't a strong enough conflict.

*bummer*

Back to the drawing board.

Rule number one in creating a story:  Think of an original idea.

Rule number two:  Conflict conflict conflict!

And then I thought...this is too much work. 

So I decided to cheat a little bit.  When in doubt, copy.

Conflict and a ready made template.  So instead of a rather boring, stuck in Wyoming werewolf story with no conflict, I've moved my story to San Francisco.

Now it's a San Francisco Wolven versus vampires, Romeo and Juliet type story.  Two clans alike in dignity in foggy San Fran where we lay our scene.

uhm...kind of.

Since I don't want to recreate my wolven pack, I am shifting them into SF. Getting rid of that Main female character (goodbye Celena!) and creating a new Female Protagonist (hello and welcome aboard Vivian).

Creating a strong antagonist (so far he's unnamed. I was going to name him Seth but it doesn't fit the time and place where he was born)

I am recycling most of the wolven pack. Keeping the young male alpha (our Main male protag) but making him 19 instead of 17 in the original draft. His father Erol has been murdered instead of wandering around the country as a loner.  Killed on orders of our lovely and "sympathetic" antagonist.

Today I spent the day in the coffee shop reworking this Wolvenheart story idea. Making it Romeo (wolven) and Juliet (vampires).  

I had to look for a name for my antagonist the uber evil villain (the Capulet) and if homeland protection is monitoring internet searches they're probably watching my IP address thinking: "What in the world is this person working on?"

I just hope I am  not alone when it comes to being a complete spaz in doing research for a story.

My wolven and newly created vampires are settling in nicely to San Fran,  and I am enjoying writing about a place I loved to live and places I know.  

I just hope Aunt Fran doesn't totally disrupt my flow when she sends back my novel.  That one needs another 30,000 words added to it and I am eager to fill in the blanks.

It's a writer's life for me!