 Yep, this is me. Okay, not LITERALLY me, but me nonetheless. Tomorrow not only marks the beginning of November (where the heck has the year gone) but it is day one of the National Novel Writing Month. DAY ONE!!! Yeah, I'm freaking out a little. This will be my 5th year so you'd totally think I'd be used to this, but I'm not. I'm not at all. I want to do it. I plan to do. But I worry HOW I will do it. I mean I have a title: DEAD PLAINS, Book 3 of The Zombie West Series and I have a slew of characters I know and love...but that's it. Ummm... What's going to happen first? Second? Third? And so on? I haven't got a clue. But I'm hopeful it will come together. Fingers crossed.  So far I've got my supplies to get me through, things to give me energy and to keep me focused. The first is a stack of pencils---> For writing? Oh, heck no! I LOVE my laptop and so no the pencils aren't for jotting things down or for taking notes. They're for chewing on. Oh, yeah! Slap a pencil in between your teeth and chomp down and it slowly makes you feel better. Don't believe me? Give it a try.  I have my monthly supply of Pepsi on the ready :) :) :)  The kids will go out Trick-Or-Treating tonight and I will have a slew of candy goodness to choose from (there is a parent tax on candy for taking kids all over the neighborhood). AND, I use little candies as a reward for reaching goals. Type 100 words, get a candy break. Things like that.  And of course, you gotta have some comfy PJ'S. I do. There will be no time for dressing for the next 30 days, so having a couple pairs of cute PJ'S in which you can lounge in is a must. I buy exercise clothes--cute and functional, and this way if I have to run an errand, people will think I went to the gym instead of sitting on my bum all day writing. (Good tip, huh?)
So how do you get ready for NaNoWriMo? Any helpful suggestions you can share with me to lessen my panic? Are you ready?
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 RULE 1: Don't Touch the Zombies. (No problem there). When I saw the HUGE billboard signs all over the city advertising a Zombie Apocalypse haunted house, I said, "Heck yeah! I'm totally going!" I forced my husband who was like, "We're paying how much for this nonsense?" to go with me. Then I gathered up two of my friends and convinced them and their husbands to come along as well. I haven't been to a haunted house in... jeez, I have no idea how many years. Perhaps twenty (yeah, I'm old. But I'm totally immature, so there). So we get there about 30 minutes early because I figured there would be this enormous line. There wasn't. In fact, we were the first people. Hmmm....weird. Let's just say that you can tell how awesome a haunted house is based on how many people are waiting in line before it opens--large line 30 minutes prior to opening it's bound to be good; no line...save your twenty bucks. Anyhoo...we had drove 45minutes to get there and we had money in our pockets, so we continued on. Now don't get me wrong, there were some pretty good parts to this haunted house, and the fact that my friend Becky screamed at EVERY little thing made the whole experience worth it. But for the most part, it just wasn't that scary. A bit gross. But not scary. But I must say this though, crawling zombies are a WHOLE lot more terrifying than zombies walking on two legs. You wouldn't think so, but they are! As a group we came around a corner with me at the very back (how I ended up in the back, I have no idea, because being in the back of any situation is NOT the place you want to be. Somewhere in the middle is always good). Well, my lovely group of friends and my loving husband (those jerks) went around the corner and past this dark bloody bedroom. Just as I was to do the same, this disgusting weird angled zombie girl, down on all fours, trapped me. She wouldn't let me pass. She looked something like this: 
I would move to the right, she'd scurry to the right. I'd move to the left, and she'd slither to the left. I couldn't get passed her. Do you think my dear friends or loving husband would come back for me. Oh, no! They left me behind. So I yelled to them, "If this was a real zombie situation and this girl was to bite me, I'm coming after ALL of you first!" I totally would too. Eventually, I dodged her and got by. She was one really good little actress, and even now looking back I would have to say she was my favorite zombie by far (I know, you're not supposed to have favorites, but I do). I liked her best. Good job, crazy crawling zombie girl! I jumped a few times when zombies came out of nowhere, and screamed because my friend Becky screamed, but for the most part it wasn't the zombies or the dark that scared me the most... Once again, I ended up in the very back and watched as everyone squeezed through this small hallway that had these blowup balloon-like things that you had to press and push through. I don't do tight spaces. I don't do claustrophobia. I don't do balloon-like things pressed in all around me. Everyone went through, and fear like no other gripped my chest and I had to bend over and settle myself down. Just even thinking about it right now makes my chest hurt. Logically, I knew that balloon-like things pressed in all around me wasn't going to kill me. Yet, it took me a good long time before I managed to pull myself together and go for it. I hated it. Being in the dark in a tight space with material pushed in all around you so that you could hardly move TERRIFIED me. It was the worst. Overall, the haunted house just didn't scare me as I'd hoped it would. But I did have a great time despite that. AND, I learned that crawling zombies are the worst (note to self: add more crawling zombies to The Zombie West Series). AND...I don't like talking zombies or zombies that can climb up chain link fences (the haunted house had a few of those). I like my zombies moaning and shuffling. Zombies that yell at you just loses a little something. Here is a video from inside the haunted house of my friend screaming like crazy. You can't see much, but you sure can hear her: Here is another that my husband wanted me to post showing that they did wonder where I'd disappeared too. But still, no one came back for me--wondering and coming back are two different things. (Once again you can't see much--but this was the black balloon thingy I was talking about). What's the best haunted house you've ever been too? Do you find them scary or cheesy? I'd love to know.
 This year will be my fifth time participating in November's National Novel Writing Month, or better known as NaNoWriMo. For those who haven't heard of NaNoWriMo before it is basically spending the entire month of November, all 30 days, writing a 50,000 word novel. Sounds tough, huh? To be honest, most days it's quite the challenge, but to walk away at the end of the month having met the 50K goal is a remarkable feeling, and that's why I keep coming back to it year after year. I've participated four times and four times I've met the goal, pushing myself to do it. This year will be no different. But is it worth it? Is it worth neglecting family and friends and forgoing a clean and tidy house? For me, I say yes. This somewhat stressful undertaking is how I work best. Without goals and a bit of pressure, I tend to mess around and accomplish nothing. True. I'm horrible like that. I work best under deadlines. And November's end of the month deadline of 50K words is just the thing I need to get me writing and being creative again. I can't wait. But how can a novel written in one month be any good? It's gotta be nothing but pure crap. To be honest, sometimes that's exactly what it is--crapola--and that's okay. It's a first draft and first drafts tend to be crap. It's the rework that makes it better. Now, some will rework their "masterpiece" and improve on it. Others will not. Some will polish and refine and turn it into something awesome before publishing. Others will not. It is what it is. But even before NaNoWriMo came into existence, this idea of pushing first draft novels to publication before they were ready has always been around. It's nothing new. Me? Send a first draft to publication? OH HECK NO! Never! The rewriting and editing process, though a big ol' pain in the tuckus is necessary and some what magical at the same time. It's amazing to see a rough draft come together. So whatever came of the four NaNoWriMo novels I've written over the years? Well, the first one written back when my youngest was a baby (she's now nine) will never be seen by anyone. Ever. I wrote it. I felt incredibly accomplished, and that was plenty good enough for me. The book is horribly written and so it is locked away in a vault buried deep under the sea. Which sea? I will never tell. The second book is in a similar situation. The only difference is that someday I would love to come back to that story, rework it, and maybe publish it in the future. But as it stands--it sucks. I can admit that.  Now the other two novels have come a long way. The third time back in 2010 I participated in NaNoWriMo was with WANTED: Dead or Undead, Book #1 in The Zombie West Series. Since then, WANTED has been picked up by Evolved Publishing and has won a few awards--Winner of The Kindle Book Review 2012 Best Indie Books, YA and also The League of Utah Writers 2012 Golden Quill Award 2012.
Survivor Roundup, Book #2 in The Zombie West Series and the fourth book that I wrote using NaNoWriMo will be published the end of this November. And this year, I will use NaNoWriMo to write the first draft of Book #3, Dead Plains. That is my hope anyway--fingers crossed. So NaNoWriMo works for me. Actually, it's worked very well and so I couldn't imagine missing it this year despite being EXTREMELY busy trying to get Survivor Roundup ready for its release date (editing, editing, editing). It should be a fun and interesting month for sure :) What are your feelings about NaNoWriMo? Are you giving it a go this year? If so, leave your NaNoWriMo handle/name and lets be writing buddies and encourage each other along. I'm Calynnblue, by the way (a handle I picked years and years ago).  I am one person. Yep, just one. Though I play many roles--wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, PTA president, and author. My plate is full. It's actually so full I think I may have to upgrade to a platter.
I'm all over the place. I run here and run there. My schedule is so crammed pack that for right now, I'm simply trying to take it one day at a time. I live by the motto: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. That's all I can do. Because of that, I have been failing my writing/blogging/author buddies. I'm perfectly aware of it. I know it. I noticed when my name was deleted from my author friends sidebars--I saw and I understood. It sucks, but I get it. And as much as I want to fix it and be better, I'm finding that it's near impossible to do so. My schedule is insane. Pure craziness. I'm actually writing this post while my children skate at the local fun center (a PTA sponsored event for my children's elementary school that I'm in charge of). Multitasking. I know that I've made promises to author friends. I know I've been given copies of manuscripts or published novels to read, review, and edit. I'm also perfectly aware that I haven't done any of it. I can't. Unless I give up sleeping, I don't see how I possibly can. Not to give excuses, but I have one book coming out the end of November that is in the editing process and another coming out in January that my publisher wants to start editing in a couple of weeks. I will be editing two projects at once. AND to top that off, I really need to use November's NaNoWriMo month to work on developing a rough draft for my 3rd zombie book in The Zombie West Series that's supposed to come out in May (I haven't written one word on it yet). So yeah, I'm busy. I'm not trying to be a bad friend. I'm not trying to ignore my writer and author friends, it's just part of the fallout of my crazy life. So I apologize. I really do. And I do understand your dissing me and pulling away. I get it. I miss you and I wish I could promise that I will be better, but I can't promise anything anymore. All I can say is that I will try harder. It's all I can do. If I promised you something I couldn't deliver on, I'm so sorry. My deepest apology from the bottom of my heart. I'm so sorry. I love music! I love listening to it when I drive around, running errands. I listen to music when I clean (I crank it up and it motivates me in my house duties). I especially love it when I write. Certain songs can create a mood, and there are many times I will find myself listening to the same song over and over and over because it helps me to stay in the moment I'm writing, whether it be sad or high paced action. But there are a couple of songs that every time I hear them, remind me of one of my characters from the Zombie West Series. So I decided to share them with you :) This first song reminds me of Elisabeth "Red" in WANTED: Dead or Undead But in SURVIVOR ROUNDUP, I think of Elisabeth "Red" when I hear this song And this song: Trace (from both WANTED and SURVIVOR) is more like this: Now this one reminds me of them both. (I love, love, love this video--SO COOL!) And this one always gets me the mood to write about cowboys killin' zombies :) :) :) So now your turn :) Either put a link to the Youtube video in you comment below, or write up a blog post and include a link. I'll pop over and totally check it out. What songs remind you of your characters? It's a great way to know a character a little more :)
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