I'm a NaNoWriMo 2011 Winner - Hooray!

Well I did it! I entered NaNoWriMo for the very first time, and I succeeded, and I won. Tonight at midnight I validated my novel with 50,168 words. The best thing is, I haven't even finished yet but I am so close to the end I can taste it, and it is sweet!

It has been a long, hard month. My poor baby daughter has become very well-acquainted with her toys and the popular British children's TV channel CBeebies. I haven't cleaned the bathroom in a long time, but I did hoover the house vaguely, and I have dusted in the last two weeks, I think.

My laptop and home computer have been used and abused, and my husband barely knows who I am. I have stayed up late practically every evening, and got up early in the mornings, and neglected any number of household chores and jobs on my to-do list. But it doesn't matter, because I won something! I didn't win a specific item such as a cash prize or a gift.

I printed a beautiful certificate with my name on, and I now have an almost-complete first draft novel which will be edited during the next two months, and then despatched to various agents and publishers for approval. It will be published next year, though the time depends upon the final publisher.

Congratulations fellow NaNoWriMo winners, and to everyone who participated in the challenge. It was fun, and inspiring, and motivating, and totally worth it.

Compassion and Love Hurts (A Redcliffe Novel)

A fellow author has decided to focus on the theme of compassion in his novels, and also on his blog http://www.tommach.com/.  This got me thinking, how does Love Hurts deal with this issue? Do my characters feel compassion for each other, do they have strong decisive morals, or are they completely indifferent?

My heroine Jessica Stone believes herself to be an independent and compassionate woman. She does not show prejudice, she lives a good honest, hard working life, and she is friendly to everyone that she interacts with. But when she discovers that the man she loves is a vampire, and his brother is a werewolf, her morals go out of the window. In her confusion she experiences adultery, pain, heartbreak and terror.

Following her tumultuous experience after the revelations of the people she loves, Jessica is thrown into turmoil about her own feelings. Her friends and lover have betrayed her in the worst possible way. How does she continue? Well her story is still being told as I write the sequel Love Kills. The title alone may give you some idea where this paranormal romance is heading.

Will Jessica show compassion and remain faithful to her vampire Jack Mason? Or will she share herself with his werewolf brother Danny? Or will she leave them altogether, and make a clean break and a fresh start?

The Indie Writer does NaNoWriMo

November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo to everybody involved or aware of it.  This is an international competition, which has no prizes and no entry fees.  Participants are simply expected to write a novel with a word total of 50,000 during the month.  It is a wonderfully simple way of motivating yourself to finally write that story that has been festering in your head for all these months or years.

I have entered this competition.  Having published my debut paranormal romance novel, Love Hurts, in July this year, I now need to write the sequel.  Indeed I need to write the whole Redcliffe series, but this is my starting point.  I decided that NaNoWriMo would be the ideal opportunity.  It would motivate me to actually finish another piece of work, instead of procrastinating and avoiding the inevitable.

My sequel is called Love Kills and picks up the story of Cornish bookshop owner Jessica Stone as she recovers from her life threatening injuries sustained from a werewolf attack.  She is settling back into normal life, but struggling to deal with the reality of having a vampire boyfriend, and werewolf friends.  She is also working through the revelations that she is a witch, and deciding whether she wants to pursue her training and unlock her powers and abilities.

Finally, Jessica’s best friend and business partner has just given birth.  The new baby will throw up all sorts of challenges between the friends, and also between Jessica and her lover Jack Mason.  That is where my story stands at the moment.  As of today (Monday 7^th November), my word total is 19,148, and I am very pleased with that.  It was easy to start my novel because the story was already in my head.  Indeed, I had begun the story while I was finishing writing Love Hurts, but I had to separate the novels out, and make time to write Love Kills. 

That is why NaNoWriMo is important to me.  I have informed all of my close friends and family about the competition, and warned them that I will become a social hermit while I get my novel finished.  My plan is to complete the 50,000 words, and hopefully even write more than that as quickly as possible.  I certainly have the story; I just need to find time to write it around my duties of motherhood and housework.  But now that I have told people, they will expect me to complete this challenge, and that is my motivation.  NaNoWriMo, I will succeed!