NaNoTGIO and Ali Cross

Whew, November FLEW by. It feels like it was just yesterday that I was writing about starting NaNoWriMo. Now, here it is, 3 days into December and NaNo is over.

What was my first NaNoWriMo like? CRAZY. I didn't really have a lot of expectations for NaNo. I wanted to win, hoped I would win, but I wasn't expecting anything other than getting my motivation back.

So, did I get my motivation back? Yes and no. Yes because I want to write now. My NaNo WIP will be put aside for now and I'm going back to the WIP I was working on before I lost my motivation. But no because I'm still behind on things. I'm not caught up on critting and not sure when I will be. I need to read, need to write, need to catch up.

But am I happy I did NaNo? YES! And I'm planning to do it again next year. It was good for me and that is all that matters. I needed something to get me in gear and NaNo did it.

Let's get to the real question on everyone's mind. The one that matters most. Well, maybe not *most*, but the one that is up there...Did I win? Did I end the month of November with 50k words written or not? Well...YES! I did it. I barely made it, validated my word count at 11:59pm on Friday, November 30th. BUT, I MADE IT!

My NaNo novel isn't that great. It's going to take some major editing, especially on the last half, but it's done. I wanted to win, wanted to get it done, to reach the 50k goal, and get my motivation back. I did that, so I'm a winner. :)

I have more news I wanted to talk about today...I'm subscribed to Ali Cross' newsletter and I just got something in the email this past weekend that is very exciting. :) Coming in this month is the third installment in her Desolation series. WOOT! I haven't had a chance to get to the second book, but still very excited that there is a third one coming out soon.

Also, there is now a website for the series. Yay! Check it out: DesolationSeries.com. There's also a Tumblr and Pinterest for the series. Yay, yay, yay. Lol. Yes, I'm excited. This series is one of my favorites and Ali is too. :)

Here's something else, straight from Ali's newsletter :

December 1st-15th, I am participating in an online signing party! This means you can buy my paperback books at discounted prices, and pre-order your signed copy of Destined (Desolation #3). Just visit my blog and order using the Paypal button on the right sidebar. 

Desolation number three will be released on December 12th. So, check it out. If you haven't read Ali's books, go get them. And if you're not following Ali or didn't even know about her...Go to her blog now. It's great, the series is great, and Ali is greater than great...She's AWESOME!!

That's all for today. Hope you all have a wonderful Monday. :)

 

The Road Trip and IWSG

Okay, here's story number two of the 'What I Did Last Summer Blog Hop'

A couple summers ago, a friend of mine came to visit from Ohio. I decided to drive her back-with my sister so there would be three of us to alternate the driving. I rented a brand spanking new and oh so pretty car, and we headed out that night.

We drove from Oklahoma, through Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and finally Ohio. I won't say the trip went smooth, but it wasn't too bad until we hit Indiana. Because as soon as we were nearing the Indiana/Ohio border, a MEGA storm hit. Rain was pouring down on us at first, which made driving a bit difficult considering the busy highway, but it wasn't too bad.

Suddenly though, the rain became tons of hail bigger than softballs. Driving was near impossible, but we were on a highway and there were no overpasses or anything to take cover under. So, we pushed forward, very slowly, and just prayed the hail would stop soon.

It didn't stop soon. No, it started pounding the roof and windows of the car. My friend was in the backseat praying that we'd make it through alive, my sister was driving and trying to keep her composure, while I was calling my kids and my niece and nephew because we honestly feared for our lives and wanted to tell our kids we loved them.

As the hail pounded the windshield, cracks began forming, and we started freaking out even more. Semis were swerving all over the road, sight was near impossible, but finally we found reprieve at a gas station.
We stopped, waited out the storm, and continued on our way.

Finally, we reached Ohio, dropped my friend off, and turned around heading back for Oklahoma.
My sister and I were certain the return trip would go well, we were wrong. But it wasn't that bad, well, okay it was.

We were driving along in the dark when-BAM!-out of nowhere we hit something, hard. After stopping to look back and make sure there wasn't a dead human body behind us, we kept going. It was dark, the area was unknown territory for us, and there were no stores around. By the time we reached a gas station, the car was acting weird. Being still nighttime, we didn't spend much time looking it over though.

The next stop we made, in the daylight, we popped the hood to check out the car. Whatever we hit had pushed the radiator back.

Oh well, nothing to do about it, we were still miles from home and with the wild trip, it made more sense to us to just keep going.

I returned the car, battered and beaten-no longer brand new and pretty-to the rental place. Luckily, I spent the extra to have insurance, so no cost for the damages. And that's a huge luckily because that car was totaled.

Insecure Writer's Support Group

I'm a big not-fan of too many topics in one post, however my Monday double post did not go well. I still have a LOW number of visits to my guest post from author Terri Bruce. Which sucks even more because there's a GIVEAWAY on that post. If you missed it, go check it out.

So, I'm posting the IWSG post in this same post. Which is okay really because I kinda whined in that one post a week or two ago so I don't have a lot to say.

As many of you know, I spent a lot of August (and really, it's been going on for a while) being unmotivated. I struggled to accomplish much of anything. Last week though, I found my motivation and got back to writerly things. I'm caught up on crits and I sent my completed MS to a couple people for a read through. Now I just need to get back to my wip, keep caught up on crits, and get some reading done. Plus, I need to get back to my blogger friends, I've been neglecting y'all too much lately. :(

I may have found my motivation, but keeping is proving to be a challenge. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed though that I can get back to 100% though and next month's post will be awesome.

Happy guessing and writing everyone. :)

Slowly, but Surely

So, as many of my regular followers may have noticed, I didn't have a Thursday TAG! posted yesterday. There was a reason for that...

I'm still working on what I want to do that's more related to my genre, but I have many things that will stay the same. My schedule won't be back to normal until Monday, September 10.

This coming Monday, I'm not only participating in a blog hop, but I've also got a second post scheduled.  And then on Wednesday, I've got the blog hop still happening on top of the Insecure Writer's Support Group post. (That one should be exciting...). Because of the double posting on Monday and Wednesday, those are the only days I'm posting next week.

But, come Sept 10, I'll be back on it. I've got a little motivation back and I'm going to push myself to find the rest. I don't know where this funk came from, but I'm crawling out of it-even if it's a slow-go.

Anywho, that's all. Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Friday!!! :D

Thoughtful Tuesday - Motivation

Well, I've been barely posting lately, and I hate it. I like my schedule, but I honestly have trouble asking people to read and comment on my blog when I can't get to theirs. I've been so busy and it's my fault. I lost motivation somewhere in the last few weeks. Critiques are backed up, no writing has been happening, and of course-no blogging except Thursdays most of the time.

I don't know where my motivation went. This funk I've found myself in sucks and I don't know what to do to get out of it. I start to, I get a crit done and think, YES! One down. Then I look at the long list of crits and I'm done. I get lost in cleaning or organizing the house, browsing the internet, procrastinating on AQC. My friends have been supportive-even the ones who're waiting and waiting for their chapters to be critted. I've got some of the best cheerleaders and yet, I can't seem to just get things done.

I'm writing this post because I've neglected my blog and my readers, and I don't like that.

So, I ask you, my loyal readers, does this ever happen to you? Do you lose your motivation to do writerly things? Other non writerly things? Do you ever just feel like you've lost your mojo and have no clue how to get it back? What do you do (if anything) to help get yourself back on track?