Back from A Writing Vacation

Yes, I missed last week. I was away from home! For several days!

Since I hadn't been out of the house overnight for several years, this was a really big thing. My husband (who lives about 2,000 miles away), had to be in Minneapolis for the week. He flew into Omaha, picked me up, and we drove up to Minneapolis. He did work stuff. I stayed in the hotel room having a wonderful little 'writer's retreat' during which I finished a short story, wrote two and a half outlines and did research on two other books.

Here are some pictures:

http://www.zettesworld.com/minnesotatrip.htm

I loved it. Not only did I get to spend some time with Russ, I had a very quiet, peaceful time. I did not do any other kind of work during that week. It was a much needed vacation from my four jobs, as Russ pointed out. (DAZ Newsletter, FM site, Vision Editor and publisher, County websites... oh, and then there is that writing stuff.) Of the four, DAZ and Vision would likely be considered full time jobs by most people. The DAZ newsletter is weekly, so that takes up a lot of time. Vision needs more time than I can give it, to be honest. FM takes a lot of my time, but it's not steady. And the county website stuff has slowed way down lately.

Which brings us to writing. I want to write. I want to write more than I do now. I don't see how I can get any more time without quitting one or more of the jobs, and that's not going to happen if I want to have food and Internet. Not to mention paying for FM, though I did have some nice contributions this time, and we slipped over the edge so I could pay it. Next up will be a site just for Vision if I can swing it next year.

Oh, did you see that? How I start out talking about writing and it goes right back to FM and Vision again? That's the way things are going in my life.

But I have two and a half outlines for NaNo. They all are fantasy this year. One is just a straight fantasy adventure, Wildlands. The second is the last of the Silky books. That one is really calling to me to get it done. The third is an urban fantasy that I hope to have outlined before November 1. It's the sequel to Summer Storm. I also have one lone, little Young Adult contemporary mystery outline that I've had for a while that I'll throw into the group and see if I want to do it.

My plan, as always, is to write a full novel for NaNo. I often do more than one novel, but I plan on one. If that goes well, great. If it doesn't, I'm not worried about other stuff I think I should be doing. I just haven't quite decided which is THE novel this year. I suspect it is going to be the Silky one.

There are two other pieces I'm working on, but I can't see that they'll be anywhere near ready for NaNo. That's all right. I need something to start out 2010, too. I always start a new book on the first day of the year, and this will give me December to finish up research and to outline. The two books are Foundling: The Story of Tom Luck, which is a Victorian Fantasy, and In the Shadow of Giants, which is a sci-fantasy. I've loved doing the research on these two. If I had more time....

But I don't. So I'm looking at the 3 or 4 outlines that I have in hand. That should be more than enough for anyone to think about. I'm working at getting fired up for NaNo, too. Last year was pretty bad for me. I was depressed about spending a second set of holidays alone. This is year three. I don't want to think I'm getting used to it, but I guess I am.

I hope that the DAZ work doesn't take too much of my time in November. I would love to really fall into NaNo this time and get a lot of writing done.

Oh, and it looks as though I'm going to adopt myself out to a different region this year. I'd really like to find a place with a lively on-line presence at NaNo and one that would actually be interested in what I'm doing. We'll see if I do it and now that goes!