It's the 2014 Wormfest!

 

This week marks the 2nd Annual Wormhole Week celebrating advances in science and all the amazing stuff those geniuses come up with!

For 2014, the theme is to name one thing where science advances mankind, and one where the same technology with unforeseen consequences will go too far and set mankind back. 

My selection is something that's been coming up a lot lately within my work (I'm a therapist): social media.  My clients will talk about time they spend on Facebook and I keep running into the same phenomenon: it's actually disconnecting people.  Rather than having an actual conversation, a REAL connection, we are instead connecting with these surface-level representations of people.  Sure, I can see pictures of your kids and I can catch up on what's going on with your hobbies but I'm not actually connecting with you.

The real danger (or least the issue that's coming up most often within my sessions) is that we see these presentations and we think that counts as connecting.  I sent a text, I left a comment, I posted a link- I connected.  But did I really?  Then why do I still feel so lonely?

A ridiculously intelligent woman named Sherry Turkel talked about this at great length (and with far more eloquence than I can manage) in 2012 and although it's a long video (20 minutes), it's so WORTH  it to watch.

"We expect more from technology and less from each other."

I appreciate the irony that this blog is in and of itself a form of social media.  I like to think that you all reading this post and leaving me your comment makes us connected on some level- but it's never going to replace the need for me to spend time snuggling with my sweetie, hugging my friend and having an actual face-to-face conversation complete with all the stumbles and slip ups that mark my humanity and let the other person see the unedited me.  That's what technology cannot give us.  We need to connect, for real.

Celebrating the release of Escalation by Stephen Tremp.

 

Together, Breakthrough, Opening, and Escalation follow the lives of the unlikely participants from innocence to a coming of age through sacrifice, betrayal, passion, lust, unconditional love, and hope. Escalation is an international thriller and will appeal to fans of modern-day science fiction, action, horror, and a bit of romance for the ladies.  (Click the pic above to get yours!)

Celebrate the Small Things- March 14th

Happy Friday to all, and especially to this hop's founder, Viklit!

This week I'm celebrating:

My Truly AMAZING Co-workers  It's funny- the thing that I liked most about my last job was my co-workers or "work family".  I was a little scarred upon leaving them, not knowing who would await me at my new job.  Well, turns out my new work family is just astounding.

I had a mini-freak out in group supervision yesterday about all of my insecurities and fears (cause when it comes down to it the work we do really is pretty damned hard).  You know what I got?  Support.  A deluge of support and love and "I feel the same way" and "It just means you're doing an amazing job" and "you're a rock star" and so many other overwhelmingly supportive things I can't even recount them all.  It gave me a warm fuzzy that lasted all night long (actually, I've still got it).  I LOVE my co-workers.  And I'm astounded that I got so lucky as to be a part of this group.

Walt Whitman's Poetry  I wrote about it on Tuesday, and I will be writing more about it as I keep reading but suffice it to say that it's seriously effecting my outlook on things.  Several times this week I've found myself thinking of his words as I interacted with clients, listened to both the struggles and triumphs, contemplated the nature of things.  I don't think I've been this affected by poetry I read since high school.

MUPPETS!  Guess what I'm doing this weekend?  New Muppet movie!!!  *screams and throws arms in air in a decidedly Kermit-like fashion*

 

 You can, needless to say, expect to see a review on here by the end of the weekend...

And now, as always, time to make like a bunny and hop along...

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1. Suzanne Furness The Word is. . .	2. Julie Flanders	3. tara tyler
4. Lara Lacombe - Romance With an Edge	5. Life, yoga and other adventures	6. Ink in the Book
7. My Baffling Brain	8. Tyreans Writing Spot	9. Writing Off the Edge
10. Lexa Cain	11. The Write Game	12. Writers Mark
13. Entertaining Interests	14. Reading, Writing and Everything in Between	15. Effectively Human
16. Diana Wilder - About myself, by myself. . .	17. Pasha, From Animal Shelter to A Sheltered Life	18. S. K. Anthony
19. Queendsheena	20. Bouquet of Books	21. melanie schulz
22. Shah Wharton's WordsinSync	23. Intentional Insights by S. Kelley Harrell	24. Simply Sarah
25. M. J. Fifield	26. Constantine	27. Nana Prah's Blog
28. Thoughts and Ideas from Deanie Humphrys-Dunne	29. The Beveled Edge	30. Fiction and Film
31. Mere Joyce	32. Life Happens	33. Rhonda @ Laugh-Quotes
34. Shells, Tales and Sails	35. dreaming of publication	36. Ashley Nixon YA F, S; A LF
37. OnBecomingAWriter	38. Viklit	39. Words World and Wings
40. J. A. Ward Writes	41. TF Walsh	42. Celebrate the Small Things. . . and the Big Things!
43. Scribbling In The Storage Room	44. Kim Graff	45. Just Get It Written
46. Fanny Barnes Thornton	47. The Enchantress	48. Anything BUt Ordinary
49. Bames Live	50. The Block	51. Lisa Casian
52. The Beauty of Eclecticism	53. The Blog of Author J Lenni Dorner	54. Julie Jordan Scott: Let's CELEBRATE!
55. Tina @ Life is Good	56. Taking time for YOU!	57. Women's LifeLink
58. lLittle Big Girl	59. Tizzy @ Creative Therapy	60. Inside the Secret World of Allison Bruning
61. Here's the Story (WR)	62. Secondhand Shoes, A Novel	63. Celebrating Accomplishments and Joyful Times
64. Growing Our Food	65. The Writing Room	66. Another Week to Celebrate Family
67. My Little Avalon

#NaNoReMo: What Walt Whitman Can Teach Me

I’m only a few pages into it but already I am absolutely astounded by the amount of love that this man has for the world he lives in, the body he occupies, the people he interacts with, the nature he sees, smells, feels and the entirety of the life that he lives. It just floors me.

Through his eyes everything- literally everything in existence- is a gift. And you can choose to accept it and if you do it can be used as a tool to build you up. (And it is equally true that it can tear you down, or that you can choose to reject it. But he rejects nothing.)

If you want to learn how to love your fellow man, read Walt Whitman. If you want to learn to love nature equally to the love you feel for the caress of your lover’s body, read Walt Whitman. If you want to let the morning light move you on a spiritual level, read Walt Whitman. If you want to embrace death rather than fearing it, read Walt Whitman. If you want every experience of your life to alter your perspective on life itself, read Walt Whitman.

At least, that’s what I’m getting out of it.

Graphic Novel Review: The Sandman Volume 3: Dream Country

Important Links: Neil's Site, Good reads, my previous reviews of volumes one and two

I was in love with this series after the first volume and although I am still very much enamored of the series overall I have to say that this is my least favorite thus far.  Why?  It's not because the quality of the writing or the artistry has diminished- not at all.  And It's not because they took the story in a direction that I didn't like.  No, it's because they dropped the story altogether.

Not that the transition from one to two wasn't a big shift- it was.  The first one is a quest for our title character to regain objects lost to him, and it takes him on a long, strange journey.  The second is a continuation of the story line of seemingly minor characters who appeared in the first and shows us more of the aftermath of the Sandman's disappearance.  It's a different story with different main characters- but it's part of the same time line.

This volume is not.  It's not even a novel, actually- it's a collection of short stories.  And while they all involve the title character in some way, they are otherwise completely unrelated- stand-alone tales with few commonalities.  And I couldn't hep but feel sort-of derailed after the first two.

Not that they're not good stories.  In fact, in some ways I'd say they're superior to the first two.  It seems that everyone involved is getting more comfortable with their own voice- whether it's the written words, the drawn lines or the brushed colors.  And these stories are poignant, heart breaking and haunting.

The crowning achievement is (of course) the award-winning A Midsummer Night's Dream.  (Click the link for all the rabid fan-boy loving that story deserves.)  Shakespeare lovers off all walks will absoltuley explode with love for that story, and for Neil himself.

The first and last stories are by far the most disturbing- one a look at what happens when a man's muse comes in physical form, and how completely one can devour another; and another a look at the ultimate cost of invincibility that will forever alter your view of superheroes.  They're both rich with dark, impossibly layered looks at the things that exist only in fantasy and yet are so steeped in the true reality of human qualities that you can't help but feel deeply disturbed upon reaching the end of them.  These are crosses between fantastical dreams and nightmares that leave you with a myriad of questions you never wanted to know the answers to.

The second story- A Dream of a Thousand Cats- is another question.  One you never thought to ask, probably, and the implications of which lead to a thousand more.  And yet, for reasons I'm not entirely sure of, I found it to be the most lackluster of the bunch and ultimately forgettable.

The last entry- not a finished story but a script- is a gift for those who ever wanted to know how a comic book gets written.  It's not only the typed pages of the script before it was drawn, but an actual conversation between the writer and the artist that shows you the inner workings of how the thing actually ends up getting made.  Stuff like this is usually never made publicly available and I have to give major props to everyone involved for being willing to pull back the curtain and invite everyone in to the process.  It's a gift for fans, no doubt.

Like I said, these stories are no less impressive that the first two volumes which I absolutely adored.  But I found myself struggling with them because of the lack of anchor.  Without a timeline to fit these tales into, without a narrative to tie them together and without an overall arc to give them a base I found myself feeling dissatisfied.  I think in materiel that already constantly questions the bounds of reality I need a more familiar structure to hold it all in place.

But that's just my beef- a personal preference, not a critique for the level of the work itself.  So if you like stand-alone comics then this collection will likely blow your mind.  And if you like this series you will love it no less after this.  But if you're like me, you'll likely find yourself praying that he returns to a novel structure and grounds it in an over-all story line in volume four.

It's Blitz Day for Carolyn and Charmaine!

It's Blitz day for Carolyn Brown, author of The Protector series and Charmaine Clancy, author of My Zombie Dog and Dognapped.  Stop by their blogs to say hi!

As part of the festivites, I'm featuring a review I wrote for Charmaine's latest: Dognapped.  Read on to hear my thoughts.

Let me come right out and say it: I loved this book. Based on the premise alone I had high expectations for the level of adorableness that would be contained within its pages and I am happy to say that it did not disappoint.

What is the premise, you ask? 12 year-old Kitty Walker is a typical girl trying to find her way in a new town. Upon first arriving, her only friend is her miniature schnauzer, Spade (and maybe her little brother Matty, when he's not too busy bugging her). At her mother's urging she decides to enter Spade in a dog show and learn how to be a junior handler. It's here that a lost dog who is terribly ill leads Kitty nose-first into the biggest mystery of her burgeoning sleuth career.

This book was filled with fun, mystery, humor, thrill and heart and kept my interest easily engaged throughout. The language is easy enough that most school-aged children will find it an easy read and yet there were a number of passages where Charmaine demonstrates her ability to turn a phrase. There's a ton of subtle nuances that flesh out the characters we see and she manages to make the settings feel just as real. I don't read a lot of children's books but I get the feeling that subtle little highlights like that aren't the norm.

The real heart of this story, of course, is Kitty. Charmaine captured her voice perfectly. I was a 12 year-old girl once upon a time and I remember what it felt like to be jealous of my mother's work which kept her away from me or of my brother who stole all the attention. I remember my dad who managed to massively embarrass me without even trying and the way that adults treated me when they thought I had no idea what I was talking about. I remember that perfect girl in school who seemed to have everything and that boy who I secretly had a crush on. And I remember loving my dog more than anything else in the world and often feeling like my furry friend was the only one who really understood me.

Every emotion, thought, observation and question is spot-on and I can imagine a whole host of young girls relating to Kitty in an intimate way. This book will be a favorite in many a young library, I have no doubt.

It's also a great starter-novel for your mystery fans. Kitty follows in the footstep of the greats with her note-taking, keen observational skills and intrinsic need to question everything. And this story has it all- theft, mistaken identity, random notes, misdirection and plots to conceal the truth and even murder. While the action is thrilling it's not scary and I think younger kids will be just as safe reading this as older tweens.

All-in-all, I'd recommend it to a large audience because everyone can easily find something to love in here.



Cover Reveal: The Headhunters Race

Today I'm excited to be able to unveil to you the awesome new cover for Kimberly Afe's upcoming release: The Headhunters Race, coming January 3, 2014.  Read on to hear all about this exciting release and the amazing author behind it!

Sixteen-year-old Avene was sentenced to prison at thirteen for a crime she didn't commit. Now she has a chance to win her freedom back – if she enters the Headhunters Race. Second prize isn't so bad either, an upgrade to the Leisure Prison if you make it to the finish line. To win either prize, Avene and the other prisoners must navigate one hundred and fifty miles of dense forest, desert, and worst of all, cannibal territory.

With a mechanical collar timed to strangle the prisoners if they're not back in nine days, Avene allies herself with seventeen-year-old McCoy, another prisoner that insists on helping her at every turn and a boy she's trying hard not to fall for. Together they battle nature, other prisoners, and the timed death collars to win the coveted prize. But when Avene is tested with one deadly conflict after another, she realizes there is more at stake than winning her freedom – first she has to survive.

Author Bio

Kimberly is the mother of two awesome kids, wife of the nicest man in the world, and her dog's best friend. She works by day and writes middle grade and young adult science fiction and fantasy novels in her spare time. She lives with her family in the beautiful Sonoran Desert.

You can find her at:

Website          Goodreads         Twitter          Facebook          Blog

Please stop by Meetings with my Muse to say congrats to Kim if you haven't already and stay tuned next month for all the news about her book tour!  Congrats, Kim!

CheersFest 2.0 starring the one and only Arlee Bird!

Come one, come all and cheer on!  This year's cheer fest is hosted by the wonderful Mark Koopmans, Morgan Shamy, David Powers King, Stephen Tremp and, of course, Alex Cavanaugh.  Make sure you stop by and say thanks to everyone for leading the cheer!

This year's cheersfest is roasting the wonderful Arlee of Tossing it Out, creator of the A to Z Challenge and all-around awesome guy.  There are four questions, one flash fiction piece and a bonus caption about Lee today.  Check out the list below to see everyone participating.

Four questions for you to answer - keep the retorts short – (no longer than 20 words each):

Why did Lee come up with the A-Z Challenge?
Because one day simply wasn’t enough to celebrate his birthday, so he made it 26 days.

If someone dreams about being a juggler, what does it mean?
That their latent goals of joining the circus still lurk in their subconscious.

Is a post by Mr. Bird worth two in the bush?
I’d say it’s worth at least eight seeing as he has four active blogs at any point in time.

Who could play Lee in a documentary? (Living or dead.)
I gotta go with Paul Newman- I could see both the humor and the seriousness there.  Now if we can just find a way to resurrect him we can start shooting…
In +/- 100 words, (excluding the title) write flash fiction using all these prompts:
Bird, Juggler, Challenge, Brown Jacket, Tossing

The Inheritance

It was a rather innocuous- looking brown jacket with no distinguishing marks or other signs to alert you to its true nature.  But he knew his uncle better than that.  There was no telling what devious tricks may hidden inside.

He recalled watching the juggler as a child and being amazed when, in the middle of tossing three pins in an intricate hand-off he produced a bird from nowhere which flapped its wings in a frenzy over the heads of the audience before flying away. 

He observed it and wondered if he was up to challenge of continuing his legacy.

For Bonus Points:
In +/- 40 words, can you come up with a caption for Lee’s Facebook picture? 

Why, yes- this is my prom tux... why are you laughing?

I hope you've enjoyed my contribution to todays fun.  Make sure to say hello to the BlogMan himself today 

Then hop along to see everyone's cheers.  Congrats, Lee! 

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1. Mark “Madman” Koopmans	2. Alex “Clone me a” Cavanaugh
3. Morg “the Borg” Shamy	4. Stephen “Wormhole” Tremp
5. David “Don’t Mess with the” King	6. Queendsheena
7. C. M. Brown	8. melanie schulz
9. Jay Noel	10. Philipscom/Ariel's Jottings
11. Bish Denham	12. Tina @ Life is Good
13. The Beveled Edge	14. M. J. Joachim's Writing Tips
15. Livia Peterson - Leave it to Livia	16. Ella's Edge
17. Empty Nest Insider	18. Michelle @ Writer~In~Transit
19. Nicki Elson	20. Medeia Sharif
21. Life by Chocolate	22. DG Hudson - Rainforest Writing
23. Sue's Trifles	24. Wendy Tyler Ryan
25. Defending The Pen	26. Focus
27. Sydney Aaliyah Michelle	28. Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends
29. Your Daily Dose	30. Meetings with My Muse
31. A Beer for the Shower	32. Carrie-Anne's Magick Theatre
33. Far Away Eyes	34. WRITING IN THE CROSSHAIRS
35. The Warrior Muse

It's the Dream Destination Blog Hop staring Julie and Lexa!

Today is release day 3 for Lexa Cain's new book Soul Cutter which came out December 2 and release day for Julie Flander's new book The Ghosts of Aquinnah!  So before we go any further let's hear it for Julie and Lexa!  

  We all know Julie and Lexa rock so be sure to stop by and celebrate their awesome new releases with them!  And, as part of the celebration, I'm sharing my dream destination with you all!

It's a well-known fact that great minds think alike so it's no surprise to see that one of our hosts, Lexa Cain, has a similar thought process to where she'd like to go: Scotland!  My dream vacation is a slight variation: Scotland and Ireland.  But the stars of the show are the same either way: Castles!

I've had the distinct pleasure of visting both Edinburugh (by far my favorite city of the trip we took) and Dublin but they both have one big thing in common: they're cities.  The real castle experience comes from leaving the beaten path and traveling through the moors and over the highlands to the castles.  My dream tour would hit all the big marks in both countries and leave me so steeped in history you could tap a vein and draw ink!  I don't know when and I have no earthly idea how we'll afford it but one day, while we're still young enough to enjoy it, Dave and I are doing a castle tour!  Mark my words.

And now, time to move on to the real purpose of today's hop and visit the exotic lands of Egypt and Martha's Vineyard where our lovely authors' stories take place!  First up: Marth's Vineyard!

A brilliant flash of light transcends through time.
Another freezes a cloaked figure within a frame of salty mist as waves crash against a rocky shore. Her harrowing expression shadows the beacon to a pinprick.

By the next blaze, she is gone. Only the lighthouse remains.

Hannah’s eyes blink in step with each heartbeat. Images of her deceased parents and Martha’s Vineyard explode like firecrackers inside her mind.

She shakes her head.

For weeks this eerie woman dressed in nineteenth century garb has been haunting my webcam, but tonight she stared into my soul.

Why? ...

Who is she? ...

Casting aside months of research on historic lighthouses, Hannah drives to the coast and boards a ferry.

What is the strange connection she has to this mysterious woman suspended in time?

Hannah finds out.

But, it’s not at all what she expects ...

Hannah unravels a century old murder.

The Ghosts of Aquinnah
BUY LINKS:

Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Smashwords ~ Ink Smith Store

Huge congrats to Julie for her awesome release!  I can't wait to read it! 

And, next up: Lexa Cain takes us on an exotic adventure in Egypt!

The Soul Cutter is hunting again.

Seventeen-year-old Élan spends her free time videoing psychic scams and outing them online. Skepticism makes life safe—all the ghosts Élan encounters are fakes. When her estranged mother disappears from a film shoot in Egypt, Élan puts her medium-busting activities on hold and joins the search.

In Egypt, the superstitious film crew sucks at finding her mom. When a hotel guest is killed, whispers start—the locals think their legendary Soul Cutter has come back from the dead. Élan's only ally is Ramsey, a film-crew intern, but he’s arrogant, stubborn—and hiding dangerous secrets.

When Élan discovers the Soul Cutter is no scam, she finds herself locked in a deadly battle against a supernatural killer with more than her mother’s life at stake.

Élan is fighting for her very soul.

Soul Cutter
 BUY LINKS:

Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Smashwords ~ Kobo ~ MuseItUp

Insecure Writer's Support Group- December Edition

As always, a big, GIANT THANK YOU to the wonderful creator of this fantastic share: Mr. Alex J Cavanaugh!  And an equally energetic thanks to this months' co-hosts Julie Flanders, Heather Gardner, Kim Van Sickler, and Elsie is Writing.   Make sure you stop by and say hi to all our wonderful hosts!
Well, it's the last month of the year and I've been thinking a lot about my goals for 2014.  They're pretty lofty.  I want to (in no particular order): edit my NaNo novel- like really, seriously edit.  Like, maybe someday I'll actually ask someone to read the thing kind-of edit.  I know you veteran writers may be a little appalled to learn that I've never done that before.  And you'll also, undoubtedly, encourage me to just get on wih it already because geez how can you call yourself a writer when you've never even edited one of your novels?  Don't you know that's what writing is?!?  Or maybe that's the voice in my own head.  Either way, it needs to happen.

On non-writing related fronts I also plan to compete in my first tournament in January (nerves, much?) and I will continue to manage the tournament team which means booking hotels, arrainging travel plans, communicating with tournament hosts, registering competitors and all the rest.  And, as if all that weren't enough, I've got my 3rd Dan black belt test to train for!  *scared face*

Not to mention that I believe there is a pretty high probability that I'm going to get this job I want so much (more on that when I get the call) and new and exciting also means challenging and very, very time consuming.  My schedule would flip-flop to a certain extent and it would test the limits of my time managment skills in the beginning as I adapt and try to form a new routine.

All-in-all, there's a lot on my plate.  It's all good, exciting, wonderful stuff but it's also all very challenging.  And of course, I have to wonder, will I get it all done?  Will I be able to manage my day and fit in everything?  How on earth am I going to meet all these goals?

I have a huge capacity for loafing and when left to my own devices can while away the hours without accomplishing anything of note.  To not fall into that trap, and even more to set small, realistic, attainable goals for myself everyday and actually accomplish them everyday is a BIG challenge.

But I'd like to believe that I am up for such a challenge.  I'd like to believe that my committment to all of these things is strong enough that I will make the time, rise above and find my new stride. 

I look to some of my friends in bloggerdom for inspiration: those of you juggling full time jobs and children and book tours and marketing and blog hops and volunteer activites at animal shelters or food pantries and drafting new stories and participating in things like this to support and promote other authors.  You guys absoltuely astound me.  And I would love to be able to astound myself.  Here's hoping.

Thanks again to all the wonderful co-hosts and blogges out there who participate in the fantastic hop around the world of writerly support.  Now hop along and spread the love! 

I won!

Well, it's official- yesterday I crossed the 50k finish line and secured another all-important victory in my epic, endless battle with my inner self critic.  Plus I got lots of awesome winner goodies including this kick- ass badge!  Plus I get the bragging rights and the pride and the confidence that comes from having completed NaNo.  It's a big deal.

But perhaps the even bigger deal is that fact that I not only managed to hit 50k but I actually managed to FINISH my story.  As in "The End".  As in the thing that's eluded for almost every danged year that I've participated in this crazy challenge (which, for the record, is five!!)  And that, my friends, is the reason that this particular victory stands apart from the other four.

It's not that I've never reached the end before- I did once.  But I did it by skipping scenes, fast forwarding, inserting notes like "Write fight scene here" and generally half-assing my way to the words "The End".  So while it was a technical finish, it felt like a hollow win.  (Though it did feel at least slightly better than the three other unfinished manuscripts of varying lengths sitting on my hard drive collecting virtual dust.)

But now I have a real finish.  An honest to god beginning-to-end finish.  A real story.  Yes, I skipped a couple of scenes in the very beginning because I realized they required a ton more research and I didn't have time to do that and hit my daily word count BUT the bulk of the story is there.  I struggled through the fight scenes even though I had no idea what to write.  I figured out the transitions even though I agonized over them.  I did the hard work and I reached the conclusion.  And it feels REALLY GOOD.

That being said, there's something about this whole experience which has been very different for me and which makes it stand apart from all the others.  The entire time I've been writing this story- literally, the entire time- I was thinking about editing.  Not just editing- publishing.  Having other people actually read it.

That's NEVER happened before.  Most of the time I would think to myself "Well, don't worry about it too much- no one's ever going to read it."  This time I thought "Just keep going- you'll fix it later."

Now in some ways this was a terrible change as it kept me acutely aware of how much of what I was writing would be scrapped, changed or drastically altered upon revision.  Drafting requires you NOT to think like that so shutting that part of my brain off was a huge challenge for me this month.

But in other ways it is a very exciting development since I have never, EVER edited one of my NaNo novels before.  (Not surprising given how rare it is for me to even finish one!)  And the more I read from published authors the more it seems that the real art (read: work) of writing lies in editing.  So being gung-ho to actually try it is exciting.

I want to edit this thing.  I want to find the words that work.  I want to flesh out the characters, the settings, the descriptions.  I want to make the passages pop and get that writing to flow.  I want to do the real work.  I've never felt like that before.  Most of the time I do a happy dance, post my winner's badge and then promptly forget all about the novel.  I don't want to do that again.

That being said, everyone says to take a break before editing your first draft.  They say your mind needs some space from the story in order to come back with an objective view.  They say you're too close to it right after typing "the end".  So heading directly into editing is not the way to go.

But then I realize: I've got four other novels sitting on my hard drive that desperately need editing.  Four other novels that I've had a ton of time and space away from.  Four other novels to practice on.  So I'm going to start with one of them.

Specifically, I'm going back to my 2009 NaNo project: Factin's Story.  It's a good ole fashioned fantasy complete with magical beings, corrupt empires and lots of Inns where mysterious characters meet up, get drunk and reveal important plot points.  It stands out in my mind as one of the most fun projects and I feel like it has potential if edited.  Plus, four years guarantees a fresh set of eyes to look it over with.

Because at the end of the day, 50k is wonderful- but it's not everything.  Especially if I do it year after year with no plans for what it will all lead to.  Because as great as NaNo is, I know that I can do it by this point.  While I stressed at some points, I never freaked out that I wouldn't make it.  But editing?  Well that's a whole new frontier.  And I'm excited to give it a try.

So for those of you typing away during these final hours of NaNo: Keep Going!  No matter what happens you deserve all the kudos in the world for attempting this crazy thing.  And for those of you who finished long before I did: Yay!  We're in the winner's circle!  And for those of you who skipped NaNo or don't believe in it or who are just reading this because you're nice: thanks for reading.  Perhaps one day I'll have something more substantial for you to read.  But for right now, I'm doing my happy dance.