The Big One Zero Zero

Today marks a special occasion: the hundredth post here on Muses and Musings.

For some reason, this surprises me.

It’s like I wasn’t aware I was driving you all up the wall blogging twice a week since January 12, 2015’s “An Anglophile I’m Apparently Not.” And since there are 50 weeks in the year that traditionally come after January 12, it makes perfect sense that I’d hit the big one-zero-zero right around now.

So I have no excuse for being taken unaware. Then again, I never claimed to be good at math.

What I am a bit better at (sometimes, anyway) is recognizing my blessings, so here’s a recount of the writing-related accomplishments I’m thankful for this year:

• Seven books published (Maiden America, Not So Human, To Err Is Faerie, Up in the Air, The Politician’s Pawn, Moves and Countermoves, and Amateurs Need Not Apply)
• Two manuscripts written (Wing and Dagger, and Designing America), though they still need to be edited a few times over
• Two book readings for awesome local groups
• Innovative Editing Insider, my creative-writing focused quarterly newsletter
• Tables at two fairs where I peddled my books, The CHAP Convention in Harrisburg, PA, and Faeriecon in Hunt Valley, MD
• The opportunity to teach a creative writing continuing education class at Community College of Baltimore County
• Interactions with a whole slew of fun and fascinating people, some of them Innovative Editing clients and some of them potential Innovative Editing clients.

That all begs the question… How am I going to top that in 2016?

I have no idea, but I’m excited to find out. In the meantime, however, I’m going to celebrate my hundredth blog post by taking off for the rest of the year.

If you need to reach me for any editing projects, I’ll still be checking my email at jdilouie@innovativeediting.com. And if you find that you desperately need to read one of my books (and you totally do, right?), all of the links are listed above.

Other than that, I’m going to focus on having a fabulous Christmas with my family… and then working like crazy to finish the second draft of Designing America before the end of 2015.

So Happy Holidays and an amazing New Year to you all!

Thanks for sticking with me these last hundred blog posts, and here’s looking forward to the next hundred…

My Personal Challenge for November

November is almost upon us. And for writers, that means one thing: National Novel Writing Month, or NaNo!

As I explained in Monday’s blog, that’s the challenge to jot down the first 50,000 words to your next novel. What I didn’t mention is that I’ve never done it.

That’s not to say I’ve never completed the challenge so much. It’s more like I’ve never started it in the first place. In past years, I was always in the middle of a manuscript when November rolled around and unwilling to set it aside to start something new.

However, lo and behold, October dawned to the perfect situation… I had published all the books I’d planned on publishing for the year… I knew I’d soon complete the third draft of the first book I’ll be publishing in 2016 – Faerietales 4: Wing and Dagger… and I had finished up my research for Designing America, the story of the Battle of Yorktown, Virginia, and the sequel to Maiden America.

It was perfect!

Admittedly, since that was October 1st and there was no way I could go a whole month without writing anything, I started Faerietales 5: Flights of Fancy as a test run to see if NaNo was possible. I’ve always been skeptical of anyone apart from professional authors – who get paid to write all day – being able to write 50,000 words in one month.

Turns out though, it is possible! I started officially working on Flights of Fancy on October 15, and as of October 25, I was 26,000 words in. That’s an average 2,363 words per day! Moreover, I even had a social life during that time and worked some projects for my freelance business, Innovative Editing.

Admittedly, I’m also single and my day job involves sometimes significant downtime. So that certainly didn’t hurt. Neither did the fact that writer’s block hasn’t kicked in yet. I’m on a roll!

I don’t expect Designing America to be anywhere so easy, in large part because it’s a historical novel and I’m going to have to be flipping through my research books every other second to make sure I remember my facts correctly. Moreover, there’s no pressure right now; it’s not NaNo. Come next week, I might be making myself sick trying to make something happen that’s just not meant to be.

The 50,000-word deadline, I mean, not the novel itself. That’s happening one way or the other.

But hey… Bring it on! If nothing else, I’m more than ready to try.

The First Step Is Admitting You Have a Problem. Okay, I Can Do That Much...

Hello, my name is Jeannette DiLouie, and I have a writing addiction.

It all started when I was six years old and wrote my very first book with a word count of maybe 60. It seemed so innocent at the time. Not at all the kind of thing that would have me locking myself away in my apartment, shunning friends and ignoring family to focus on my addiction.

But that’s what it is. It’s an addiction. And it just seems to be getting stronger.

On Tuesday, October 13, I finished working on the third draft of my 12th novel-length manuscript, Wing and Dagger, the fourth installment of the Faerietales series. By Thursday afternoon, I had it uploaded to Amazon’s CreateSpace to order a proof for review. By Thursday evening, I had started writing two new books.

Two!

The first is the conclusion to Sabrina’s story, Faerietales 5: Flights of Fancy. The second is something much less certain. Who knows whether I’ll ever complete it…

It’s the story of Haley, a 10th grader who somehow develops the ability to read minds. It’s a power she’s always wanted to have, yet she quickly comes to realize it’s much more trouble than it’s worth. First off, knowledge isn’t always worth the cost. And secondly, if she had just stayed nice and normal, she never would have attracted the attention of Mr. Conner, who’s intent on using her gift for his own purposes.

Worse yet, I’m planning on starting still another story next month: Designing America, the novel I never had any intention of writing until my enablers (a.k.a. readers) pressured me into penning a sequel to Maiden America. Which was supposed to be a stand-alone book. I swear!

Then there’s the work I really, really, really hope to begin sometime next year: When Dignity Was a Crime. That’s all about Ariana, a spoiled little rich girl who lives in modern-day Boston and gets to go on a cruise ship through the Bermuda Triangle, an area frequently linked to paranormal activity. Her life dissolves into a science-fiction conundrum when she’s yanked back in time to Baltimore circa 1836 to experience history through her ancestors’ perspective. And since her father is descendent from slaves, that means she’s in one complicated mess.

So there. I admitted I have a problem. I’m a writing addict. You happy?

Now go away so I can get back to my plotlines.