The Last NaNoWriMo Meeting

Today was a real stinker of a day to be going out anywhere; but I attended the last meeting for the National Novel Writing Month... only to find I was the only person to attend. 

I went because one guy said he was a maybe on Facebook and didn't want to let him down just in case he arrived. So, an hour into it, and I was still the only one there with my little notebook computer plugging away at editing and fleshing out my work.

Last week, I finished my novel... yay!!! But this week, I started editing and fleshing it out with details and scenery. At the 'meeting', I managed to add 200 words onto each of my chapters between chapters 1 and 5... which brought my word count from 7,859 (this number includes chapter 6) to 7,947; which is pretty darned good if you ask me.

Anyway, I'm hoping to get past the last word count I made last week of 13,232 and get this book up to the 20,000 word mark... well, here's hoping anyway! The good thing is that I find fleshing out and editing not only difficult but also easy. Adding detail is always fun and then I'll correct the small things that aren't needed at the same time. Once I've finished the book - which still doesn't have a title - I'll throw a competition to see what I should name the book. This is always fun, as I really don't know what to name it as it's full of time travel, love, hate and is set in my hometown of Brisbane. Anyway, until my next post, happy reading - and writing.

More Work Done!

NaNoWriMo is coming into its final weeks, and I'm really excited about how my story is coming along.

However, I have one tiny, problem... minute really... it doesn't have a title.

Isn't it strange how people can write something so grand that by the end, they still don't have a title - not even a working title to get an idea of a title from for it.

Oh well, I guess I'll be finding out what it's called in the coming weeks and months as I fiddle with it.

However, my word count has shrunk a little as I've begun editing and working on each chapter... this number will fluctuate as time goes on: 13,232 words out of 9 chapters. Now, I know I said I had over 16,000 words; but like I said, the number has begun to change.

I'll see how many there are by the end of the month and let you know how it all goes by the time I'm happy with it. Until my next post, happy reading - and writing. 

Halfway Through!

NaNoWriMo is halfway through and almost everyone is getting right into their stories and books! I'm very excited about my book as it's one of those magical, time-travel style books which reminds me of 'Time & Again' by Jack Finney... very much set in real time and yet set in the magickal times of the other realms. 

I hope I captured both worlds well. 

I set it in my hometown of Brisbane and in a bookstore - where else would I set it, but in a place I'd love to work. 

I've almost finished with the story part of it - as I love to get that part of the book out of the way first before tackling what people look like and the backdrop - and I'll be fleshing it out with the details everyone needs to follow it along in the coming weekend. So far, I've written 16,395 words... which will be expanding to far more by next week! 

How are your NaNoWriMo books coming along? Leave a comment and let us know. Until my next post, happy reading - and writing.

So Far, So Good!

It's been the first week or so since NaNoWriMo 2016 started up and I'm going well I think.

But seeing I had started planning my book a few weeks in advance, I think I had an advantage in a few ways too - I think that's what has made all the difference.

Over the past week, I've written over 11,134 words so far - with more words to come over the next day or so. I'm hoping to get more work done tomorrow and over the weekend - if the storms we're expecting don't interfere too much.

How is your NaNoWriMo going? Please do let us all know if you're doing it - and how you're going. And if you're stuck, I can suggest a couple of books filled with prompts that may get you kicking along again. otherwise, good luck with your work so far! Until my next post: happy reading - and writing!

Word Count for NaNoWriMo 2016!

Okay... I'm assuming some of you guys'n'gals are taking part in this wonderful innovation for novel-writing this month.

I love it, let's face it. 

It gets my butt into my office chair and gets my fingers moving across the keyboard!

Anyway... I thought to keep you all updated with my word count - as low as they may be; or not - on the sidebar at the top of my blog. I'll be doing this on a daily basis (or by date order; whichever comes first) and you'll be able to see how far I've come.

Now, I've been working on a book in the weeks coming into NaNoWriMo... and thought to keep on writing it. However, I was writing it in longhand in a notebook, and in the last few days of October, I converted it all onto the computer to make it easier for me to look at.

Then, whenever I could, I jumped onto my tablet or on the computer and typed up as much as I could over the last few days.

Given it's only in the couple of hundreds... but I've been busily helping out my family over the last week or so. So, I am hoping to work on this more and more as time passes by. So, watch that top right hand corner and you'll see those numbers add up. But first, I'll put in the numbers for the first 9 chapters so you can see how far I've gotten - so you can see the true number of words I've done thus far.

Good luck with your book this month, and do let us all know how you're doing. After all, this is a global phenomenon and loads of fun to get you writing if you're a little blocked. Until my next post, happy reading - and writing.  

NaNoWriMo!

November is National Novel-Writing Month, and I've taken part again.

Today I took off out of the house early to be at the Logan Central Library to meet-up at the Logan-based NaNoWriMo meeting - my first - and got to meet up with another person who was a writer; and a publisher as well. 

I met Emily Cooney and another older lady and sat and talked for a couple of hours - however not a single word was written down, and yet we had a lot of laughs and talked about what we were hoping to get written this month.

At our next meeting next week, I'm hoping to have written plenty. I have to catch up with the past three days' worth of work... that's 5,000 words a day. Woah! A lot of work to be done; and only a small amount of time to get it done. 

How about you? Are you doing NaNoWriMo? If so, how are you doing with it so far? Until my next post, happy reading!

Woohoo! Selling Up My Books!

Well, that got your attention, didn't it?

Don't lie, it did...

I'm kidding around. I'm not selling up all my books, just about 52 or so of them. They're in my Classics Section and I'm getting rid of them because I've already got my own lot of books which are classics themselves - yes, I have doubled-up on about a third of them.

I know, I know, I really shouldn't be doing that, but when I find an omnibus of Edgar Allan Poe, of all his horror stories, exactly where am I to go from there? So, the best thing I thought of doing the other night, while I was chilling out in my Reading Chair, was to sell the books I had received for Christmas over 6 years ago - the whole set with the magazines - on Gumtree and pull apart my collection and find the Classics I have hiding amongst the shelves.

And did I find some great classics! Man, I found some wonderful books I didn't know I had bought! But I was so happy to have found them and finally have a place to put them. When I told my Dad (who loves it that I'm a collector of books, but sometimes finds my collection a little overwhelming), he was really surprised I was getting rid of so many in one go. But when I told him what they were, he understood that when you do have a good look at what you have - once in a while - you realised you can double-up, sometimes triple-up on things and you have to get rid of them. 

So, the advert is now on Gumtree and I'm hoping to sell them all in one go to a home where there's a collector of these types of books or somebody out there will enjoy them for their content; not just to collect. Well, have you ever had to reavaluate your book collection (or any collection in that case?) Until my next post, happy reading.

ARC Books

I've been a reader of ARC books for years. They are a type of book which is sent out to a group of readers before the book is published so the publishers can tell what little things needs to be fixed. 

Now, I didn't always know about them; I was introduced to them by a friend online and she asked if I'd like to try one out. My first one was 'The Gone-Away World' by Nick Harkaway. Now, this book has since been published years ago in 2009, and was followed up by another by Nick. And getting into receiving ARC books is a good way of reading and proofreading people's works for them - and reading books which aren't out on the market yet. You really do feel as though you're seeing behind the curtain before the show has begun.

It's not easy to find ARC books - as they're not in the ordinary circles of publication. Usually you have to ask publishers if there's any ARC books for you to read for them. It's mainly done online and you have to fill out a survey to let them know what you think needs to be done - as it's not just a free book thrown your way to be read. You have to give your honest opinion of feel the book needs - or doesn't - and how the author can improve the book. 

Sometimes, this can be a sore point with the writers, but this is a good way of letting a small group of the public in on how the book works - or not - with them before the book is let out into the world. Small improvements through allowing ARC books out 6 months or so beforehand plays really well for the author. You see, when they do this for a first book, the author then knows what they have to do for the next book to be a success; no matter how insulted they feel at the time. 

The good thing with ARC books that the reader can either keep the book for their personal collection or they can return it to the publisher. I opt to keep my copies as they're something of rarity. And a lot of the times, I do find they end up in second-hand bookstores (which isn't where you're supposed to send them). I do enjoy my small band of ARC books and do wish to keep them in my collection; keep adding to them. So, have any of you done any ARC book readings? How did you find it? I enjoyed being a part of the final product of a writer's book... even if they didn't end up using my part of the survey; at least they knew where I was coming from. With 'The Gone-Away World' I did find the final copy in a bookstore and looked in the first couple of pages and found that what I had advised about making it more visual worked. The author had worked more on taking the reader along for the ride, rather than keeping us at arm's length (which was how I was feeling at the time). I felt good about that. I might see what other ARC books are on offer next year to take part in. Until my next post, happy reading.

Jack London

I love finding books about authors where movies have been made from their works. For example, 'White Fang' and 'Call of the Wild' were both by Jack London and were both made into great films. 

I have come across these books on their own in bookstores and libraries, however, I have never seen them with their accompanying books 'Tales of the Fish Patrol', 'The Cruise of the Dazzler' and 'The Son of the Wolf: and other stories' in one big volume. 

I found this particular volume by chance at my local community centre on an old library trolley where my craft group usually gathered. I happened to be walking by it (trying to ignore those gorgeously lovely books sitting there tempting me) when my eyes wondered to the large printing of Jack London's name on the spine... then, I found myself picking it up and reading the front; and found it contained the rest of the books and stories within! Oh! What a find!

It was wasn't until I got this book home that I found out that it was a first edition from 1979, fully illustrated and that the copy of 'White Fang' was 'complete and unabridged'... how cool is that! I definitely had a great find here for just .50c! It was also a book which had been originally sold at Myers at a discounted price. Now, for those of you who don't know what Myers is, it's a major department store here in Australia which is usually very expensive. However in the 1970's, it sold things on sale and had discounted books - just like everyone else - before it upped its standards really high; and rarely does that anymore.

On the inside, where the publishing notes are, I found a couple of paragraphs about him, and I'd like to share them with you:

'Jack London was born illegitimate and in poverty in California in 1876. At fifteen he was the notorious 'Prince of the Oyster Pirates' on San Francisco Bay. At seventeen he shipped as a seaman on the Sophie Sutherland for Japan; later he served a term for vagrancy before joining the Klondike Gold Rush. He read voraciously and by the age of twenty-four was publishing in magazines; by thirty he was famous. In this relatively short writing career (1899-1916) he wrote over fifty books; h was also an ardent socialist,  a pioneer in modern agriculture, a war correspondent in Korea and designed and sailed his own ship halfway around the world.

London's most famous work is contained in his stories of the far North based on his own experiences, he wrote other stories for children (Tales of the Fish Patrol, The Cruise of the 'Dazzler') and he also wrote adult fiction, plays, travel sketches and important sociological books, the best known of which are The People of the Abyss and John Barleycorn.

He died in 1916, the world's first millionaire novelist.'

I found this short insight to Jack London interesting, and didn't wish to keep it to myself. Until my next post, happy reading. 

Unable To Read

This past week, I was hoping to get my nose into some creepy books - for October and Halloween. However, I've had enough creepiness going on around my real life to cater my imagination for yonks.

I haven't been sleeping all that great and so, my focus for reading isn't here. I started 'Magician' by Raymond E Feist and this stalled when things became complicated around my unit complex. 

Don't you hate it when life interferes so much with everything else, it stuffs up what you really want to do in your spare time? Yeah, me too. So, 'Magician' is on hold at the moment, sitting there staring at me with a bookmark only a tiny way through chapter 1. 

If only I hadn't asked the neighbour two doors down to turn down his music, none of this would have happened... no, it would have, but much later. How frustrating this is. Well, my posts should improve soon once things settle down. Until my next post, happy reading!

Banned Book Week!

Banned Book Week is coming up soon - next week, actually - and I'm hoping to dig amongst my collection to get my nose into the some pages of some really great books which were banned to the public. The week spans between September 25 - October 1.

So, what's Banned Book Week? It's a week to celebrated the written works which were banned to the public at some point in time, but people have written them to put the word out there.

Some of it was political, some of it was written in a way where it may have broached subjects which were taboo at a point in time where society just didn't think it right to talk - or even read - about it. But then, those books were banned from being circulated. 

Here's the link to the Banned Books site you can look at which talks more about Banned Book Week. I'm sure you have some banned books and didn't even know it. Until my next post, happy reading.

Travel Journals

I love to travel places - as anyone does - and what I love to do most is to pick up one of my old travel journals and read it. 

I know, I know! This sounds really corny and silly to do! But I really do love to read about the experiences I've had places and when I do, I feel as though I'm reliving it.

Has this ever happened to you? 

Okay. Now, whenever I go traveling to Brunswick Heads, I take a travel journal with me... and not just any travel journal: I take the same one! I bought a little black, hardcover sketch book and took it along to my holidays with me on year, wrote in it, then put it back on the shelf. The following year, when the time came to travel back down to Brunswick Heads, I grabbed the very same black, hardcovered sketchbook, took it back down the coast again and wrote about my time in Brunswick Heads - but a year later! However, the year later, I forgot the sketchbook and so this yearly travel journal misses a year... it has yet to make another journey to the coast with me. This was because I had had surgery on all 6 sun cancers on my hands and arms and clean forgotten to pack it - and besides, I didn't have the energy to do any writing. I did have plenty of energy to read though - as that's all I could really do.

I have begun writing a book about a travel journal though - and it's been great! However, I hit a snag really early on in the piece as I sat at my computer trying to write it. It just didn't sound right with me typing it out on the page on the screen. So, I went out to OfficeWorks and bought a nice little notebook and pens and started writing the next few chapters by hand in the notebook - and you know, the words came so much easier when I wrote it by hand! I don't know what happened, or why this has happened, but it's been going really well. I'm not sure if it's going to transfer to the computer page all that well... I'll have to wait and see.

Has this happened to you when writing a book or transferring your journals to a computer? They just didn't seem to look right up on a screen and they looked and read better in a journal written by hand? Well, I have this quandary. I wonder if it's best to have a book published looking like it's been hand-written or should it be published normally and have the unfinished appearance (like books were a few years ago)? I guess I'll have to wait and see.Well, until my next post, keep on writing and happy reading.