Ten days

The boys

This is the tenth day of NaNo. I have been having a remarkably good time this year. I'm not sure what happened that it finally clicked into place. I have finished the first draft of Team Work at a little over 82k and I'm working on the second book, Farewell to Summer, which is already almost 6k. Yeah, I'm having a wonderful time!

Work is kind of taking a beating -- but I do get it done eventually. I've finally worked out how to fit it into the writing this month. Who knows? Maybe this will even work in the future and I'll be able to write even more!

Yeah, like I need more first draft novels piling up to be edited. Okay, so next year I'll start implementing more editing time. I can do that. Good plan.

I found a very nice review of NaNo for the New and the Insane: http://writedmc.livejournal.com/2377.html?view=1865#t1865

But this year -- I am very much enjoying the rush of writing in ways that I haven't done in months. Maybe in years. I know I fought my way through last year's NaNo, but I don't remember it being this fun, and I'm trying to figure out what the difference might be. I'm still depressed about Russ living on the East Coast and hardly getting to see him at all. I still have some serious issues with the house I am in and I know it's going to be a long miserable winter --

Let's not think about that right now. Instead, here is a fun little snippet from the second book. Remember -- First Draft, mistakes, bad wording, etc.:

Devlin took lunch at The View, a very popular restaurant with another expansive view of the dead Martian world. It appealed to her tonight, all that emptiness -- but even as she watched, a tourist shuttle trundled across the ground and disappeared down an incline, probably heading for the old mines.

Humans everywhere.

She turned back to her food and nibbled at more of the lasagna, made with ingredients from earth and real meat. She liked to make it last, this one extravagance she always tried to enjoy on Mars. It was done to perfection, and the garlic bread made her mouth water just to smell it.

She was not the only one in the restaurant. She clandestinely watched the others -- hey it was her job! -- and could name a few of the ambassadors who had wandered in after some meeting. She hoped that two of them didn't recognize her, though. She was surprised that one of them still held his post, in fact, considering what she had uncovered on him during a job four years ago.

Marquesa came in and sat at a table across the room from her. This one was Private Line's top reporter, a woman for a flair for finding scandals and bringing down fools in her own way. Marquesa gave Devlin a bow of her head in greeting -- oh yes, she did know Devlin was one of the top Inner World Council Security Agents. They'd come to an understanding though: Marquesa didn't report anything about Devlin when she came to the Mars HQ and Devlin didn't have her drugged and shipped off to the farthest reaches of the fringe without any ID. So far the arrangement had worked well.