Thursday, December 2, 2010

Nano Wrap Up and December Goals

I was originally going to update you all on my Nano story yesterday, considering it was December 1st, but Talli overtook the blog world in a huge way, and my blog was part of the splash.

But today is all me again.

I wrote just over 50k of Champion of Valor in November, making me a winner! Although I still have a lot of words to add - roughly 40-50k - before the story is completely finished. Then it'll need to be edited and sent to beta readers and edited again. I already wrote the ending but I'm sure some of the details will need to be adjusted/fixed. A lot of scenes were glossed over *insert battle between X and Y* *insert battle between Z and A* lol This book is full of action scenes, which is to be expected, after all, it's about a war.

I really like how CoV is shaping up. I don't want to go into too many details but here's the basic gist:

The final war between Speica and Arnhem draws to an end as allies are gained, lines are crossed, people die, and a mage and selkie struggle to make their love work as Lucifer attempts to bring about the Apocalypse before its time.


I've mentioned this before but book I in the series, Woman of Honor has a mostly historical feel to it, with some fantasy thrown in. Knight of Glory focuses more on the fantasy. Champion of Valor has both fantasy and religious undertones. High fantasy - meaning a medieval type world. In the Middle Ages, religion was a huge part of their everyday lives so I had to include religion.

I've created a lot of problems and dilemmas for my characters. It'll be interesting to see how they fix everything and restore order, and who's let standing to see things through til the very end.

Hubby was a big help, watching the boys in order to let me get some writing in when our sons refused to nap at the same time. Wouldn't have won without him!

I also was a PiBoIdMo winner. I came up with 32 ideas for picture books. Some are better than others but it was a lot of fun to sit and think up picture book ideas. Can't wait until I have some free time that I can devote to picture books.

I guest blogged at Loraine's about previous Nano experiences. Feel free to check it out and leave a comment!

So for the rest of December, I'm going to finish Champion of Valor. If I have time there are a couple of short stories I would like to write. Prime books is publishing an anthology of urban fantasy werewolf stories. Pill Hill Press has a romantic suspense anthology. And Fangtales, the next in the Tales anthologies from Wyvern Publications, scary YA stories about vampires. So December is going to be busy, busy, busy. If I don't get to the short stories, I don't get to them, but I'm going to try. Might as well set the bar high and strive to do all I can.

How productive was your November? Did you do Nano? What was your story about? Did you win? Have you read any good books lately? What are your reading/writing goals for December?

14 comments:

Christina Lee said...

Go you! December is such a busy time with my jewlery business that writing has to fall to the wayside *sigh* Good luck!

Cherie Reich said...

Good luck finishing your novel and getting a short story done or two!! I definitely plan to do Fangtales, and I already wrote and was short listed for my story for Pill Hill Press's Fire & Ice anthology a LONG time ago. I still can't wait to read CoV!

Angela said...

I didn't do NaNo because I was in the middle of a bunch of revisions. But I'm glad you did NaNo. Hurray for you!

Unknown said...

Best of luck fitting it all in. My December is already full. I hope I can manage at least some writing time.

Donea Lee said...

Best of luck on all your goals for December!! Awesome Nano finish! Mine wasn't fantastic, but a good # of words for me, personally.

December's all about reading for me. I'm starting with "Into the Wild Nerd Yonder" right now. (basically because when I went to the library yesterday with my 15-book-list, I could only find 2 that I wanted...)

Love that you have a supportive hubby at your side! :)

Carol Riggs said...

Congrats on the NaNo win! 50K words in a month is amazing. And your book sounds intriguing--I love selkie ideas. ;o) Interesting that you also write PBs along with your novels!

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Congratulations on winning! Sounds like you have the remainder of the year planned.
I finished NaNo with almost 53,000 words and another 20-25,000 to write. But that's fine - I'm motivated and excited now.

Colene Murphy said...

Wow! Congratulations and CoV sounds reaaally interesting just off what you were able to say!

Golden Eagle said...

Congratulations! Wow, NaNoWriMo, PiBoIdMo, your story, plus new December goals. Go, Nicole!

Jamie Gibbs said...

Wow, busy is an understatement! I failed NaNo, sadly, but I've got the setup for my fantasy novel written up, which is a start :)

I like the sound of CoV - medieval religious fervour and fantasy make for a good mix. I'm looking forward to hearing more :)

Joanne R. Fritz said...

Congrats, Nicole! I'm really impressed that you won both NaNo and PiBo. I only could handle PiBo. Maybe next year...

ali cross said...

Whoa. You have been busy, busy, busy!

Congrats on all your accomplishments Nicole!

Faith said...

Congrats on the NaNo win! I made it too, and now I'm also relieved that I can focus a bit on short stories for upcoming anthologies. I plan to revise the NaNo novel in January... it's going to be quite the task!

Amie Kaufman said...

Gosh, you put me to shame, so productive!

I got down my 50K during NaNo, and as I write MG, that was sufficient to finish the book. It's now going in a drawer to marinate, and I'm returning to a book from earlier this year. December marks the start of my revisions. Here we go!