Extra Crispy

I hope everyone who celebrates it had a nice Thanksgiving, and I'm sorry I've been scarce. For me insomnia + day job + Thanksgiving + evil/dark + ocular migraine = only 15 hours sleep in 5 days. I can function on 4 hours, but 3 is definitely not enough. By day five I was completely fried. Last night I finally resorted to non-narcotic sleep aid pills (Alteril, which actually works for me) and got in about 7 hours of very hard, dreamless sleep. Usually that resets my brain to go back to my normal 5-6 hours of sleep per night, but we'll see.

For these reasons and a few others I had to stop working on my NaNoWriMo novel, and obviously I won't be crossing the finish line. It was fun to give it a go and get out to the real-life write-ins (I made four before I had to throw in the towel). I'm disappointed, but I'm also starting to realize that what I want to do and what I actually can do are becoming very different things.

By the way, thanks to everyone who checked on me. You guys are the best.

I always say it's good to fail. You learn more, it keeps your ego in check, and it gives you the chance to start over and do things differently. It never feels as lovely as success, but it's good for me. It's also a bit like oatmeal. I really don't like oatmeal unless it's a cookie, but as a breakfast it's good for my heart and my plumbing. It'll never be my favorite breakfast (hot buttermilk biscuits and butter and honey and a big glass of orange juice will forever hold that title), but if I add some sliced bananas or raisins it's palatable.

So how are you all doing with your November novels? Let us know in comments.

Wishing You

Happy Thanksgiving from Paperback Writer.

Off to Finale

I'm taking off today to work on finishing up a deadline for my day job -- and I likely won't be back until Wednesday, 11/22. See you then.

Just an FYI

Tomorrow Photobucket should be cancelling my pro account and converting my pics to a free account, which means most or all of the photos on PBW may disappear. I have back ups of all the years with the photos, so they're safe.

I now just have to decide what I want to do with them. One option is to make my backups into e-books and post them on my Google Docs account, or (the insane option) put back 13 years of photos manually using Blogger's photo upload, which will take me a looooong time.

Also, my old Disenchanted & Company blog will be deleted tomorrow, as will my old photoblog, PBWindow. I've also backed them up and I'm making them into e-books, too, but as they're static I've decided to delete them. If you want to copy anything from either blog, you should do that today.

NaNoWriMonday: Roadblocks

The good news: my unexpected house guest is leaving tomorrow morning, and I've finally resolved all the issues caused by the malevolent Windows update. Also, my thanks to Microsoft for again illustrating so blindingly why so many of my friends choose Mac.

The bad news: I'm terribly behind on my quota for my November novel. I'm about to throw out the last chapters I've written because they're just wrong. Also, since the day job has to come first, and I'm taking off on Thanksgiving Day, I'm not sure I'll be able to cross the finish line.

Unexpected roadblocks are a huge part of the writing life. Work, family, friends and life get hungry and devour our writing hours, which drops us in the rickety seat on the emotional rollercoaster. This morning I'm tired, frustrated and not in the mood for any more nonsense. Balancing that is the fact that I had a lovely visit with my unexpected house guest; my work novel is coming together beautifully (yes, I'm writing two books this month) and I'll make my deadline next week. Also, I got the exact size turkey I wanted for Thanksgiving -- on sale, no less -- because I was paying attention instead of locking myself in the office to sulk over my roadblocks.

I don't mind failing. Success usually teaches you little to nothing except how to be a bigger ass than you already are. Besides, I can collide with as many roadblocks as life wants to throw at me and keep going. I've already done it countless times. It's when the tired part of me whines about giving up that I get really angry with myself. I may not be a winner, but a quitter? Nope. I keep going.

I'll post the latest update on Haunted House Style later today. In the meantime, how are you all doing with your NaNonovel? Let us know in comments.

Added: Haunted House Style, 11/14/17

Still Off

The technical difficulties collided with an unexpected family visitor and my carefully organized day went all to Hades. Just now I recalled that I promised to post something today, too. Please consider this something, even if it is 1:42 am. My sincere apologies, but I will be off dealing with all this until Monday.

Have a nice weekend, everyone.

Off to Tinker

I'm bailing on you all today to try and fix what the malevolent Windows update wrecked. And try not to slam my head on my desk too many times. And try not to insult the unhelpful help people.

You know, I don't mind the fixit blues when I screw up things, but when others mess with my hardware? Without permission? And then tell me it's my fault when I didn't do anything?

I'm trying to work here, Microsoft.

Anyway. I'll figure it out. I always do.

See you on Friday.

NaNoWriMonday: Week One

The first week of National Novel Writing Month went pretty well for me. I hit my counts almost every day, and doubled up on last Saturday's in order to participate in the official double-up day. I like what I'm getting on the page; Emma is as strong a protagonist as ever. I plan to go to another real-life write-in or two this week.

What I'm struggling with is being so far outside my comfort zone. Writing-wise, I prefer to be alone in my bat cave getting the work done. I'm fighting that desire every day, tooth and nail, as I try to join in with the local writing community, at least for the next month. It's not that I dislike socializing as much as a sense of being on display. People are suddenly paying attention to me when I'm usually invisible. Actually if I were invisible I'd be a lot more social. Anyway, I'm not going to cave into it, but it is a real challenge.

Also, the reason I'm so late posting today: evidently thanks to a malevolent Windows automatic update, I now can't get anything uploaded to my Google Docs account. Once I have time to spend the obligatory eight hours chatting with the help people while they have me do things that don't resolve the problem, I'll try a restore. But in the meantime, updates on Haunted House Style will have to remain in the holding queue until we figure this out.

How is NaNoWriMo going for you? Let us know in comments.

NaNoWriMo Kick-Off

I attended my very first National Novel Writing Month meeting on Wednesday, and met with about a dozen writers who are participating this year. Everyone welcomed me and made me feel right at home while I was there. The ML passed out an interesting packet, some stickers and held three word sprints that were fun. I acquired a new NaNo buddy and a writing dare, and knocked out about a thousand words, so it was a productive exercise, too. I'll be attending more meetings this month when time/life permits.

I'm doing all right on Emma's second book, too; I passed 5K this morning. I'll have to fill in some backstory for new readers, but right now I'm focusing on forging ahead and nailing my daily counts. I love writing in Emma's voice so it hardly feels like work. For those who want to follow my progress, I'll be posting links at the bottom of my NaNo posts, like this:

Haunted House Style 11/3/17

NaNoWriMo Begins

Welcome to the first day of National Novel Writing Month. For the next thirty days, writers all over the world will be racing to pen a 50,000 word novel, and I'll be one of them. I'll upload what I write and edit each day on my Google Docs account and post links here so you can follow my progress with Haunted House Style, my sequel to Ghost Writer.

Throughout November I'll be reporting on how I juggle this with my day job, thoughts on how to improve productivity, whine about problems (just a little) and otherwise detail how the experience goes for me. I also plan to paticipate in at least one of the official NaNoWriMo real-world events -- my very first time doing that -- and I'll let you know how that/those go.

If you have an account set up on the official NaNoWriMo site, and would like to be my writing buddy, my user name is Lynn Viehl, and my novel information page is here. I promise to nag you at least once or twice during November, and I'd love to hear how your novel is coming along, too.

I'm really excited about this opportunity to continue Emma's story. If you're also diving in, welcome -- tell us what you'll be writing in comments.

Added: Haunted House Style 11/1/17