#NaNoWriMo2017 Wrap Up - So How'd You Do? #IARTG #amwriting #amediting #Walker

We're now three days post-NaNo, and winners across the internet are crowing about their victories. Some wrote well in excess of the required 50,000, while others squeaked by with only a word or two to spare. What was my total, you ask? Um, around 30,000.

 Okay, less than 30,000.



This marks the second consecutive NaNo where I haven't met the 50,000 finish line, and honestly I'm okay with that. While I certainly don't take on challenges without intending to meet them, I had a few things going in in my writing life that took precedent. Here they are, in no particular order:

1. I had to prep and finalize the marketing plan for Walker, which releases on December 5.
2. I completed a round of revisions on a short story that has been accepting to an anthology, releasing in March 2018.
3. A writer friend contacted me, needing help with his own story (since his story concerns folklore and tattoos, I was uniquely qualified).

There were also the million and other distractions that life throws at us every day. While I probably could have burned the midnight oil and squeezed out another twenty thousand words, I concentrated instead on the quality of my prose rather than the quantity. In doing so, I leaned several valuable things about my story:

1. I need to decide if it will be a mystery or a coming of age.
2. I need to increase the stakes earlier in the story.
3. I must decide how much of a paranormal element I want to include, since right now it could go either way.

Most importantly, I learned that I'm still in love with this story--because lets face it, we've all gotten wrapped up in projects we ended up hating. I've cleared some time in January, and hope to complete the full plot at that time. After that, it should all come together rather quickly.

Crap. I just jinxed myself, didn't I?

Have you preordered Walker (Gallowglass #2)? It's only 99 cents, but it won't stay that cheap for long.

   

Walker (Gallowglass #2)
Preorder here --> http://amzn.to/2idd1pq

Who is hunting the gallowglass?

When Karina and Robert relocated from Scotland to New York, they expected things to settle down. New York is known for many things, but a hotbed of supernatural occurrences isn’t one of them. Karina returned to her life as a graduate student, and agreed to teach a class over winter break. That was when things got weird: first she and Robert encountered an angry centaur, then a fairy enrolled in her class, and Karina learned that her mentor just might be a deity. When the Seelie King started making unannounced visits to Karina’s apartment in the middle of the night and warning her and Robert to be careful, she knew things were serious. All of these events led to a single question: Who doesn’t want the gallowglass on American soil?

Meanwhile, Chris has problems of his own. The university grudgingly restored his teaching position, his agent and publisher are hounding him for a sequel to his worldwide bestseller… and he wonders if he can teach again. Write again. Hell, he can barely even speak to a woman after what happened between him and the Seelie Queen. Then a woman—a fairy woman—comes into Chris’s life, and damn it all if he doesn’t want her to stay there.

The god plays their hand, and the Seelie King calls Robert to his side. Alone and more frightened than she’s ever been, Karina tries to solve the mystery of who is hunting the gallowglass. Will Karina find the answer in time, or will Robert be lost forever?