When do what you must is all you can do...

          I'm sorry I missed my Sunday post... Another bout of flu is going around the city and this one is kicking my ass. I got everything; cough, trouble breathing, sore throat, fatigue, excessively runny nose, lag(ie-my head is stuffed with cotton). I will say that from Friday till Tuesday I did not get a full nights sleep; waking up multiple times each night to blow your nose or change position because you can't breath is a bitch.

          Anyway, it means that I've only gotten an extra 1000 words or so finished, bringing my total up to 57,221 words. I did try to write... the results were laughable enough that I just decided to concentrate on getting better. My doctor has said that I can try going back to work tomorrow, so hopefully tomorrow or Friday I'll be able to get started again. 

          I did realize I had a few extra scenes to write so the sick time hasn't been a total waste. And three months to write a book while working full time is entirely reasonable, so I'm still very proud of myself. 

          One thing sick time as been good for is reading. I've now read 37 books this year with another two on the go and a few books in my to-be read pile. In particular, I've found an urban fantasy series that I have to share with you. It's called the Fated Blades series by Steve Bein. 

          The first novel, Daughter of the Sword, is about a female detective in Tokyo working in the narcotics department. Her new boss, a misogynist, assigns her to a case from another department when they ask for help; an attempted theft. The sword in question is undoubtedly worth quite a bit of money, but its most important quality is that the sword has become imbued with kami(spirit). When she finds a link between the attempted theft and her current case(a massive shipment of cocaine being brought into Tokyo by an unknown dealer), its up to her to solve both cases before time runs out.

          If you're at all interested in Japanese culture, history or just want to read an urban fantasy that isn't your typical werewolves/vampire fare this is it. A solid four star read. Here are some links to pick it up on Kindle or Kobo, if you're interested. (Before you ask, nope, I'm not getting any money from this, I just really enjoyed the book. I mean, just look at that cover!)

Far-Seeing from 56,000 words

          From the lofty place of 56,379 words, I can see a bit further than I could when I was only at 50,000 words. The first thing I notice, is that I have a lot more writing to go... okay, not a lot, but more than I thought. At my best guess now, I have 1-2 more chapters (1.5 - 2k each) to get out the end conflict of my novel. I'll also have an expected 2 chapters and one tenuous scene of epilogue material (another 1 - 2k each) which means that my novel will probably be end up being around 62,000 - 63,000 words long.
          The second thing I realize is that despite the advice to write every day when you get home, it can be really difficult, even when you're excited as hell to write. A few weeks ago I hurt my foot and despite taking some heavy duty anti-inflamatory's and some pain killers, my foot is still really hurting me when I get home from work. It means that either I'm being too tough on my foot or that something more serious is up with it (more on that when I see my doctor in two weeks, so until then, I'll take the prescription and do what I can).
          The third thing I've discovered is that sometimes life likes to kick you in the gut just to see you spew all over the ground. I'd rather not talk too much about it here, but I've got family that got some bad news from the doctor... not life-threatening, but it could be life-changing and it leaves me feeling uneasy. At least, I can say that life took me out to dinner before it kicked me in the gut though.
          This last thing I'm going to talk about has nothing to do with my writing life or life kicking me in the gut. Near the end of February, I signed up for WowBox, a Japanese Candy subscription box. It finally arrived yesterday. I got some pretty awesome stuff in it, but the main thing I've taken away so far is that these snacks thus far have been insanely sugary.  Good/Bad, I'm still deciding, but sugary, is something I can say with conviction.
          That's it for me today though... hopefully, I next time I write in this blog it will be to tell you I'm done my novel! We'll see though. I'm getting close, but it all depends on how much time I have to work over the next little while. Either way, I'm looking forward to it.

50k words and I feel like I'm dancing on Sunshine!

          This week, I managed to hit 50k on my novel! I must admit, I am damn impressed. It's a lot more than a month, but I am quite comfortable in the knowledge that I am only able to keep up that level of writing over a smaller period of time and that I need a break afterward. If I sound to you like I'm justifying, I am, slightly. I feel bad that I can't seem to keep up that level of writing on a permanent basis. In the meantime, I'm left not reaching my goals. On the other hand, today helps to remind me that even if I'm taking more time than others or even more time than I want. It may take me longer but I'm still getting there.

          One thing I did have to remind myself and accept was that I am not writing to reach a certain number of words, but that I'm trying to tell a story. Somewhere along the way, I forgot that and then I started looking at my novel and realizing that I probably don't have enough story there to reach 70,000 words. It was hard, but I eventually reminded myself that it was the story that mattered, not the word count.

          After coming to terms with this, I realized I probably only have another 12,000 to 15,000 words left on this novel. I'm so close! I'm sorta hoping that I will be able to make it before the end of the month. I'd love to start off April with a week of intense reading and then starting to edit and making my novel bible for the first book. I'll keep you updated either way! 

Reading and Writing...

          I haven't been around much this week and I apologize for that. I found out last weekend that 7th Sea had a Kickstarter event (which was successfully funded at 1.3 Million bucks just a few minutes ago), and then two books that I have been waiting on came out on Tuesday (Anne Bishop's Marked in Flesh and Patricia Briggs' Fire Touched), so I've been reading insanely! I finished both on Friday, I believe, but yesterday was filled with cleaning, writing and research... on tablets.
          Yeah, I don't normally do research on tablets, since I have one (I have multiple electronics actually). Unfortunately, on Friday it stopped working. It was at 70% power, so that wasn't an issue and I didn't bump it on anything. It won't turn on, won't charge (or at least the lights are lighting) and I decided that it was time for a new one.
          In the end, I decided on a Lenovo 7". It's a low end 7" Android tablet, which for what I want is more than enough. Literally, I use it to read on and occasionally I'll use it to game with (since I have a physics dice roller). I have twitter and FB on there, but mainly so I can share from my reading apps to them. Essentially, I wanted a glorified ereader, and thus the fact that its a bit cheap is fine.
          On the other hand, I've been using it today and  OMGosh, I am loving it. Its a great unit (and the book I'm reading on it is pretty awesome as well) and I'm very happy so far.
Finally, something completely non-writing related. I have recently taken up poi (many people know the fire spinning version of this) and I got my first set in the mail! One day, when I have any skill in it at all (since I'm still learning how to move a single poi around without smacking myself or looking silly with it) I'll post a video of me doing it.
          So, that's what I'm in currently up to. I have been writing, but not 1000 words a day. I have high hopes for this week. I'm currently at 48,000 words though, so I am doing well... this part is just a bit of a slog to get through. Most of my instructions here were "they travel and things happen" which is never an easy part of the writing process to get through. Still, I'm working through it. Another scene and then I may be very near the end, which means this book may come in (rough draft) at closer to 60k words than 70k. Which is no problem for me since I'm sure I'll realize stuff I missed or can add in later.
          Today's question is about your reading habits. What is your preferred format to read by and if you have a device you use to do ereading on, what is it?

Join me on the 7th Sea!

Alright, normally I don't put out back to back stuff like this, but what I found today is a doozy!

Okay, so most of you know that I'm a tabletop roleplayer. I enjoy playing games like Pathfinder, Dungeons & Dragons, Shadowrun... but my favourite has always been 7th Sea. This is a game of Pirates and Magic, roughly based on the myths and legends of Europe, creating a world, like and unlike our own. Not many people know about it, but everyone who does tends to become a pretty big fan of it.

And now I found out that they're rebooting it on Kickstarter.



I've got to admit, guys... I am super stoked! I am going to be a proud backer as of later today! I'm just waiting to talk to my hubby first so we can figure out what goodies we really want (A sorte deck, a sorte deck; my fortune for an authentic sorte deck)!

If you're looking for a kick-ass game to play, back this one, get a copy of the expanded rules and start playing... its going to rock!

Also, if you happen to be known as Montaigne Mike, contact me! This is your Machiavellian Fate Witch from Calgary... Any chance you've come back to Calgary and are willing to GM for us again?

Finally Better!

          Bleh. That cold was horrible. Even after I was finally better, I still spent the next week feeling tired for no good reason. Fortunately, my strength is back now. I've even started writing again (though I have not managed a thousand words in a day yet). However, despite February being so miserable, I did manage to finish some significant things accomplished.
          First off, during February as a whole I got about 13,000 words written. Considering the tendinitis and then getting seriously sick, that still means that I was writing whenever I could. I have reached 44,000 words and even hit page 100. Since the first novel only got to 175 pages on the rough draft, I can say that I'm more than half way through this novel. I'd say I'm probably approaching the 60% mark. My characters who had split off to go their different ways have found each other again and the story is progressing quite well.
          One thing that is making this novel a bit more difficult to write is that this novel originally was plotted more as a travelogue than anything else. Now the story seems to be coming together as a lot more than that. It means that I'm finding some parts that hardly get mentioned and that some places end up seeing a lot more care put to them than they received in the outline. It's pretty awesome though.
          I think I have another 30k to finish up this rough draft, which means that if I dedicated March to finishing it, I could conceivably finish this month, though most likely it will be finished the first week of April.
          I will say that half a month of not writing has been good for my reading. I'm read 30 books this year so far. According to Goodreads, that's 13 ahead of where I need to be. I'm glad for the extra though, It means that when I have weeks of no reading (or an insanely long book), I'll have a bit of a cushion to rely on. The full list is below if you're interested.