Stories for a winter's night

So it's October and NaNo is almost upon us. This year I'm going for a Gothic/Lovecraftian horror set in a haunted house and a cursed town where the success of the town is directly related to an ancient deal made by the village founder and the disappearance of children. I've been listening to Shirley Jackson and Richard Matheson for inspiration.

This does mean that my fanfics are going to be on the back burner for a while, though I may be almost done the next chapter of Polyhex Canadidate. I just need to clear up one last combat scene between Smokey and Jazz at the Smelting Pools and then that should be that. We'll see.

Week four of NaNo and it's going well. Surprisingly. I even have plot going and and going really well, though a minor character has just introduced himself and is now apparently a major character. He should help out with the plot, so I won't fight his introduction, and maybe I can get this investigation under way good and proper.

I'm honestly rather surprised that I've gotten as far as I have, given that I've apparently been fighting an abscess since I got back from Las Vegas. That certainly explains why I've been so friggen tired the whole month. And unfortunately since I'm allergic to penicillin I have to take a much harsher antibiotic. Hopefully now that I'm on a medicine and getting healthy, the creative juices will be flowing better and I can really knock this story out.

All I need to do now is avoid the Transformers bunny that's been biting at me. Basically I now have a rough idea of where the follow-up/further chapters of The Nightingale Effect will go and what happens when Smokey realizes that he's been reprogrammed by Swindle. It should be good.

It's been almost a full month since I last posted. Sadly, nothing really came of it because I slipped further into depression and started cutting people off and stopped writing entirely due to a massive creative blockage. That seems to have finally been pushed aside. A short vacation to the head and lights of Las Vegas helped, and now I'm trying to focus on NaNoWriMo, and that's also helping out a little (though I need to get out and see people - go to write ins, stop being a shut-in, actually get out and see friends!)

Now, as I said, I'm better. I'm finding myself to be profoundly tired (like a deep bone weariness) but I'm feeling less like a crazy cat lady and more like a person rather than an over-used trope.

So, my plans are to work on NaNo this month. I have taken part in NaNo for eight consecutive years now and have won twice (once with a fanfiction that desperately needs a re-edit and once with an original novel that is still not complete). This year will be different though. Not only am I planning on finishing my novel, I am planning on posting it too. I'm not sure how many people will read it (the last time I posted original fiction it was pretty much ignored - which is fine; Gothic Horror isn't everyone's cup of tea), but I'm going to post it anyways, just to get it out there. And no, I am not planning on officially publishing my work. A) it's too close to fanfiction (drawing influence from the Lovecraft Circle and the Call of Cthulu game) and B) there is no way that I am good enough a writer to publish. Maybe in a few years, but not now.

This does all mean that I will be delayed at least another month with the next few chapters of Polyhex Candidate. Honestly, this delay is probably a good thing because I was becoming highly disenchanted with both the work and the fandom and I needed a good long while to work my head out of my aft. Polyhex will be completed and then I have plans to continue The Nightingale Effect and Return to Darkness will be completely rewritten and reposted as will Devil You Know. Beyond that, we'll see. I think between my original novel and all that potential fanfic, I have more than enough to deal with before I further speculate on more.

Well, one week in and things are going apace so far I hit the 10K mark early this morning when the muse decided that sleep was for the weak. Sturgeon's Law is still in full effect, but the core is solid so far. And I have discovered something -- Apparently even though I can write Mech-on-Mech action no problem, I blush like a school girl when I try to take on an organic sex scene. We'll see if that keeps up when I get to the "when in doubt, write porn" section of the frantic word-grab.

11423 / 50000 words. 23% done!