Celebration Time!

NaNoWriMo


Today is the last day of NaNoWriMo! We’ve all raced, sweated and slogged water, food and chocolate on the run - and now, now we are at the finish line with words in tow! Yeah! Don’t forget to validate your word count on the website so you can collect your special prizes. By the way, you can still add to your word count after validation in case you’re waiting to eek out that last little phrase.

Congratulations, NaNo’ers!

This is no small feat!

If you have won by passing 50,000 words, you must be elated! If you have not passed 50K don’t fret – as every writer knows, having some word count is far better than no word count. It’s just that those over 50K now have more work ahead of us in editing, lol!

Celebration Giveaway!

To celebrate my household skating over the finish line for NaNoWriMo (me and my teens have won!) and to celebrate MuseItUp Publishing’s December Launch, I’m offering a giveaway through the good folks at CSN stores!

One lucky winner will receive a $35.00 gift certificate. All you have to do is join my blog and leave a comment on this blog post. Also, optionally, if you’d like to be on my email list for my writing newsletter, please leave your email with your comment like so: avidreader-at-gmail-dot-com. That way spammers can’t grab your email off the internet and I can send you the newsletter when it comes out. You can join my blog through Facebook on Networked Blogs or through Blogger. Through Blogger you’ll need a gmail account which is fast, easy and free. If you have already joined this blog or my homeschool blog, just leave a comment on this post on this site or the other.

This will run from today through Thursday night at midnight and then Molly will pick a name out of a hat which I’ll announce on Friday in this blog post.

As some of you know, I carry my backpack with me everywhere, yes, even to fancy social events. I always have my notebook and pen handy and more often than not, my netbook as well. My teen authors-in-training are carrying notepads and pens with them everywhere in their own backpacks now – it’s becoming a family tradition...or quirk, lol! It’s never too early to encourage a budding writer and CSN has an amazing selection of children’s backpacks if you have a child who would like their very own writing kit - it would make a lovely Christmas and/or Chanukkah gift.

MuseItUp Publishing Launch!

 Hope to see you at the party tomorrow for MuseItUp Publishing and for Boston Wrimo’s, I’ll see you at the TGIO party in the Hub!

And at this turning point, MuseItUp Publishing is having our launch party all day tomorrow! Please join the readers group (this is mainstream) to be eligible for spectacular door prizes! It gets even better… we’re having a sale in the bookstore.

Holiday Special: Get 25% off any purchase from today until December 10th.
Use code: HC2010D at checkout in the discount code box before going to Paypal.



Write on!


photo credits: morguefile.com

Happy Thanksgiving & An Invitation!

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Launch Party!

As many of you know, I work for MuseItUp Publishing as an editor and an author.  December 1st we're having our Grand Opening!  All the details are on my writing blog.  I hope you can join us! 

I have edited several of the YA books that are releasing and they are excellent.  If you have any questions, feel free to send me an email.

December 1st we'll have fun and games for everyone, and now the two houses have two reader's groups as well.  The mainstream line is family friendly and I daresay children can go online for the contests.  I'll check that out with my publisher but since there's no adult content, it should be fine!

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Happy Thanksgiving!

It's our family tradition to stay home on Thanksgiving.  I love getting up early to put the bird in the oven and pad around in my slippers setting out breakfast for when my sleepy heads get up.  In the next few days, me and the girls will bake cranberry bread, apple and pumpkin pie and prepare vegetables ahead of time.  Our fat turkey is thawing now on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator.

If this is a difficult time for you due to illness or the economy, or you know of a single person who is alone for the holidays, there are several local churches who are serving Thanksgiving dinner to families in their areas.  Pick a few in your town and give them a call.  Chances are that if that one isn't, they know which ones are. 

Kell's Restaurant in Allston is serving a free Thanksgiving meal (Christmas, too).

Here are some places on the North Shore.

A country club in Halifax, you need to call ahead of time.

I tried to get a Boston listing but couldn't find any online.  If you know of a church nearby, or other facility, be sure to leave it in the comments section for others.  And you know, if you burn the bird on Thursday, you can go have dinner there, too! 

Sneak preview, I'm hostessing another CNS gift certificate giveaway in honor of finishing NaNoWriMo on November 31st and the launch of MuseItUp Publishing.  Details to follow!

photo credits: morguefile.com & MuseItUp Publishing

Do You Need A Writing Program?

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As many of you know, I'm doing NaNoWriMo again this year, with my teens for homeschool.  I've seen a lot of the writing programs that are out there and each have their merits but NaNo offers something more valuable, I think.  It gives you experience.  NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month.

The goal is to write a 50K word novel in thirty days.  Of course it won't be perfect, it will obviously be a first draft but it wll actually be a draft instead of a wish in the back of your mind.  That boils down to 1667 words per day of fiction.  And you do this for 30 days.  Editing is not allowed so once that word is on the paper, you may not erase it until December!

Last year Elizabeth and I stayed up until midnight on October 31st and had a NaNo party with hot chocolate and our trusty pens and keyboard.  Each of us, Molly, too, finished our novels by the end of November.  Molly's was done and only needed editing.  Her's was a horror romance.  Elizabeth is still working on that novel at 114.K words now.  It's a YA fantasy.  I added another 16K to the original 52K and spruced it up to submit and it will be published in the spring by MuseItUp Publishing.  So much good came out of that month long lesson on writing!

This year, we planned our midnight madness writing party and Molly joined us.  After almost 2000 words, I fell asleep on my keyboard as did Molly; but Elizabeth decided to stay up all night and clocked in at 13K words yesterday!  That's almost a week's worth of NaNo!

What's the draw?  I think it's the experience.  You can study anything forever, until you're actually applying it you can't really know it.  There's nothing like writing to teach you how to write better.  Every word is an improvement.  

The best part for homeschooling moms is the workbooks.  If you sign up at the Young Writer's Program site for NaNo, you can download worksbooks for all grade levels.  And these are free.  Each one is excellent in how to craft a novel.  For the YWP you can have your own virtual classroom, track everyone's progress together and post fun things and writing tips.  You can also change the word count necessary to win.  So if you have a first grader, you, as their teacher, can set their goal at 10K words.  You can also order a school packet (first packet is free) that has NaNo buttons, a poster, a chart where students can sign in their word counts and stickers. 

Whether you use the YWP site or the adult NaNo site, or both like we do, each participant can make their own author pages and share a bit about their book.  You can even upload cover art for your novels.

This is a wonderful thing for homeschoolers!  There's still time to sign up!  Enjoy!

NaNoWriMo    &   NaNoWriMo Young Writer's Program (13 - 18)

Harvest Party or Halloween?

This is a hot topic these days in light of Halloween.  Are you worshipping Satan by going trick or treating?  Are you a good Christian if you hand out tracts instead of candy?  Many churches are doing alternative things for October 31st.  If you go trick or treating are you hurting someone who is weak in the faith and thinks doing anything like that is pagan?  What are you doing?

My understanding is that God looks on your heart.  God healed an Assyrian pagan who came to him with leprosy.  Then He sent Naaman right back into the pagan temple to walk the King of Assyria to his favored seat in the middle of that worship service and... Naaman was a baby Christian. 

God really is Lord of all.

What do you do on October 31st and why do you do it? 

You won't get any judgment here from me so please feel free to post.  And we all may find some new things to do.  You do have to be careful about hurting a brother or sister who thinks anything associated with Halloween is evil.  You are not evil but they may assume you are.  If you have such a brother in your midst, ask God how to speak to him, understanding he is weak in the faith as the scriptures say.  And ask Jesus to shore him up so he can walk free from fear.

Our tradition is to visit our neighborhood.  We don't do this to celebrate Halloween but to take advantage of the time when the community has their doors open to visit and our children know the difference. 

Many of the people we live with see us only at this time of year.  With all of our busyness, it's not always convenient or prudent to have coffee together.  Halloween is a time to chat for a minute.  The children get candy and we make a point of praying for each of our neighbors as we walk by their homes.  The girls dress up but not as anything scary.  I wouldn't get too upset by that if they did (as long as they weren't scaring someone else) because it can be a safe way of processing fear; it takes the power out of it.  We also teach them about the wiles of the Devil and how to avoid his religious and not so religious traps.

I've just finished publishing two horror stories for the Muse blog.  One is a tween story that is a helpful way of processing fear, as I mentioned earlier.  That really is the fascination with scary stories.  It takes fear that can paralyze us sometimes and makes it larger than life so we see how powerless it is.  The other story I wrote is a memoir story that is about a time a devilish entity tried to attack me and my friends and shows others how to deal with such a thing.  Reading the Bible is far more scary than most people realize because God educates His people about evil spirits and how to handle them.

Practicing Halloween as a pagan holiday, of course, is not appropriate for us as Christians, and we don't do that.  We also don't play Tarot cards, gaze into crystal balls or read tea leaves.  Our oracles come from God, not these other things.  But would I speak to someone who practices devination?  Yes, in order to bless them, not follow their craft. 

I'd love to hear what you do on October 31st.  Please post anonymously if you'd like to. 

Thanks everyone!