It's that time of year again, when the leaves change color and descend all over the yard and get into the pool. The pool itself now feels abandoned and who would want to swim in its freezing waters anyway? The squirrels are scampering around hiding their nuts and then forgetting where they hid them; the bears are on high alert, stuffing themselves as much as possible and looking for suitable dens to spend the winter in. People are beginning to retreat indoors sooner in the day than a month or two ago; the rich aroma of baked goods permeates the interior of the house. The family board games are withdrawn from the attic, the closet or under the sofa where they've spent the summer chatting with the spiders and dust bunnies. The wood-stove and heaters are lit by dusk and dawn to stave off Winter's chilling approach. Curled by the fire with a good book, a soft cozy blanket to keep your feet warm, a mug of delicious hot chocolate or perhaps mulled apple cider, and a plate of yummy cookies fresh from the oven is a pleasant way to spend an afternoon or evening in the autumn weather.
While its a wonderful season for baking, gathering around the fire, reading those dusty books of yours while the rain drums rhythmically on the roof, and the air smells all spicy and alive; its also a great season for writing. October is famous for being an Autumn month - after all, its a very classic month; but its November that I'm going to post about today. To a great many writers and everyday people with stories to tell, November is National Novel Writing Month or, as we fondly like to call it, NaNoWriMo. NaNo is that great wonderful time of the year when authors from all over the world get together {virtually and sometimes literally} to each write 50,000 {or more} words in 30 days. Its grand fun, a wonderful challenge and one of the most effective ways to bash out a novel that you can go over later at your leisure and try to translate from a jumble of words into a book that may or may not actually make sense. You can also make quite a few like-minded friends while procrastinating on writing your book.
NaNo first appeared in 1999 and has increasingly grown over the last thirteen years. I first found it in 2010 when my best friend Chelise told me about it. At first, I thought, "Write 50,000 words in 30 days? Um, how is that possible?!" However, I looked upon it as a challenge I was determined to conquer {side-note: my siblings and I were never enrolled in competitive sports despite being very energetic and, well, competitive}, and, despite that particular November being one of the worst months storm-wise we'd ever had, I finished before midnight on November 30th with 50,000 + words. After I did a slap-dash job of editing it in February my word count was just under 51,000. Anyway, I'd had a blast and I was hooked. And my beautiful story, The Cleveland Mysteries, finally had taken form and was on its way to delivery {a.k. self-publication}. Last year, 2011, I again participated in NaNo and wrote the sequel to my first book, the final word count of which was around 55,000 when I was done. I had personal competition from one of my best friends, Joanna, which made it extremely exciting. After NaNo, she offered to edit my book and proceeded to tear it apart and point out everything I'd done wrong. I hope she's up to doing it again this year because I intend to write the third book in the series. I'm not sure about my husband's challenge of "This year, 60,000 words dear" but I'll do my best.
The Cleveland Mysteries was first conceived in 2009 when I was working through my high school curriculum for my Jr. year. I was studying rubies in connection with Proverbs 31 and thought of how I could come up with a more creative fun way for other people like me to learn about gems and minerals without really having to well, learn about them. The answer came fairly quickly: write a book about rubies. I dug around my notebooks where I keep story ideas and character sketches and found one among three or four similar sketches of a sizable homeschooling family. I don't think the sketch had an actual story to it; it was more of the characters themselves and the interplay between siblings and homeschoolers vs. public schoolers. Well, I slapped the two ideas together, tweaked it a bit, renamed a few people, and ta-da! My story was all ready to be written. Volume one, as mentioned above, was born in 2010 and entitled The Lost Rubies {my plan for this firstborn is to revise it over the course of 2013, shake out most of those grammar and spelling errors, and dress it up in a shiny new one-of-a-kind cover my husband designed for me}, the sequel was born in 2011 and entitled The Missing Emeralds - my plan for this one includes finishing the editing process and publishing it for the first time ever, also in a shiny custom cover; and finally, the third installment will be called The Vanishing Pearls and will be written this November. My plan for the third book is to write it, ship it off to the capable hands of my editors, edit it, dress it in a custom shiny cover unique to itself, and publish it. Hopefully by this time next year, when I'm getting ready to dish out the fourth book, I will have all three first ones published.
The first three books are very crucial to the series. The Lost Rubies introduces the characters {of course} who are the Clevelands: Mr. and Mrs. Cleveland, Ardella {22}, Nova {18}, Dermot {17}, Garvey {15}, Orson {13}, and Levina {10}, and Ambrose Donahue {25}. It describes the Clevelands' daily life {which is important}, lays the foundation for the interplay between the characters, hints at the conflict surrounding Ardella and Ambrose's respective pasts, and sets up the foundation for the sequels. The second book, The Missing Emeralds, features Ambrose turning 26. Okay, so that's not all it's about. The sequel dives into the many layers of Ambrose's past and unravels a large chunk of him, revealing to the audience why he's guarded, why he's so fascinated with the Clevelands, and hints at his mysterious habit of showing up at odd times. It also adds another layer to the foundation concerning his affection for Ardella and her own past. The third installment, The Vanishing Pearls, I will be brief about. However, I will tell you that it contains a test of Ambrose's connection to the Clevelands, and explores Ardella's darkened past. The turning point that everything hangs on and which ties Ambrose and Ardella together better and more tightly than they realize, takes place in this book and which will be the trickiest part to write. Obviously it features pearls.
I plan to hopefully turn out 7-10 books total in the series. That or just write till I run outta good story ideas. Please comment with your favorite gem stone, suggestions, questions or ideas for future stories in the series, and I'll do my best to reply in a prompt manner. Cheers folks and enjoy the lovely autumn weather!
