I’ve been quite good lately. I have actually been working on Lionheart rewrites and not been too distracted by the newest of the Shiny New Ideas.

While I mostly wrote Lionheart on my computer I’ve found it easier to do rewrites on paper: I have the first draft in a PDF on the screen and the notebook either on my lap or on another part of the table. It’s quite nice to write things by hand, and I suspect it’s good to get back into the habit for when I head back to uni and have to take notes there. XD

It will be interesting when it comes time to start typing stuff up, let me tell you…

• Had my birthday.
• Went to a funeral.
• Finished an assignment re-do.
• Learned that I passed all three courses I was doing, so am half-way through the diploma.
• Had big life-altering realisation/talk with my aunt which resulted in me…
• … applying for the teaching graduate diploma course.
• And being subsequently accepted into that course.

What I have not been doing though is much writing. This makes sense: I was halfway through NaNo when Nana got sick and then everything else took over. It has only been in the past week or so that I’ve begun to get my focus back.

And just with everything else, the new focus/realisation has been applied: I am focusing on Lionheart rewrites and trying not to succumb to shiny new idea syndrome.

Anyone know where a girl can get some discipline?

Anyway, it’s the 17th of January, and today I have reached the 10% mark of that goal – I finished East by Edith Pattou.

1. The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
2. Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins
3. Hidden Voices: The Orphan Musicians of Venice – Pat Lowery Collins (Review)
4. Hero – Perry Moore
5. Fade Out – Rachel Caine
6. The Luxe – Anna Godbersen (Review)
7. Along For The Ride – Sarah Dessen
8. The Changeover – Margaret Mahy (Review)
9. Enchanted Glass – Diana Wynne Jones (Review)
10. East – Edith Pattou (Review)

Now that I have reached that marker already, I’m going to slow down the reading a little bit for the rest of the month (I do have a few more books to read for review, with the one I am going to crack open tonight before bed being The Magician Of Hoad by Margaret Mahy) and focus much more on my writing for at least the next week – do a couple of word wars and things like that. I’m a little bit behind already on my Lionheart writing, but not too far that I cannot catch up on. Two days of writing and I’ll be right as rain.

Anyway, I’ll share with you the snippet of Lionheart that I posted over on Open Mic over at the blog of Michelle Zink, author of the wonderful Prophecy of the Sisters.

The lights flashed more and more frequently with each passing second, dancing about the blackness like countless stars moving rapidly across an otherwise empty night sky. There were no recognisable constellations, but as the shining particles moved about a shape began to form: small, delicate.

Human.

It was not until the glowing apparition spoke that Leander was able to recognise it.

“Help me, Leander,” begged the Eithne made of stars. “I don’t know where I am.” Her voice sounded tinny and from far away. “Please. I need your help.”

Voices of shadow strangers could not compel him to speak, nor being torn to shreds by some semi-invisible monster. But the mere sight of his little sister, especially when she was lost and in obvious distress, easily drew a single word from his mouth.

“Eithne?”

“Leander.”

She looked so utterly lost, forlorn and young that Leander instinctively reached out. He wanted to enfold her in his arms and comfort and protect her like he felt a big brother should, but each time he tried to touch her his hands passed straight through. Each time he tried the motion disturbed the shimmering dust particles, forcing them apart. It took a few seconds for them to reorganise themselves, taking longer each time.

Apart from her being a shimmery, off-white colour, and made of an infinite number of visibly separate particles, it was a very good likeness. It was unnerving, really.

“What are you doing here?”

The Eithne made of stars fluttered her eyelids frantically and chewed on her lips; the real Eithne did the same thing whenever she was anxious and scared.

“I don’t know,” she whispered. “Something’s happened. Something terrible.”

• Finish Lionheart draft by end of March.
• Finish The Circled Green draft by end of September.
• Write 20 000 more words for the Bones draft
• (In order to complete the previous goals) write a minimum of 10 000 words a month.

So yeah, those are the goals. The first 50 000 words of Lionheart are already with the beta, so she can get a good going on it while I write the last 20 to 30 000 words. The big elusive goal is “get Lionheart into shape so I can query it”, and given the encouragement I have received, I hope that will a) happen and b) lead to something more.

I’d cross my fingers, but I can’t type like that.

I don’t think I’ll be able to get the full 50k (although if I do that’ll be bloody fantastic), but I do hope that this will motivate me into getting much more than my usual monthly amount written. 30k? I would love that, really.

Anyway, in the meantime I will be working on Lionheart (I did not know I was at the 63% mark until I checked just a little while ago) and dabbling in Bones. And, of course, I’ll be doing prep work for The Circled Green.

I also need to come up with an actual blurb thing for The Circled Green, but not right now as it’s nearly midnight.

LIONHEART: After he is killed and his sister kidnapped by the same magical force, Leander finds himself the champion of the force that resurrected him – the long-dead High Mage blamed for the destruction of their glorious empire – and in a battle three centuries in the making.

BONES: When Dinah Gillespie discovers that the dying can see the dead – and that there is a ghost in her attic – she makes it her mission to do one last good thing before she dies, and set him free by solving a murder that occurred over sixty years ago.

BLOOD BOUND: The only thing that sucks more than vampire boyfriends and brothers is murder.

THE CIRCLED GREEN: A woman with a mysterious past is eight years dead, the man she loved and left behind is convinced by his domineering mother to stop grieving and remarry, and their beautiful daughter is being pursued by a dark faerie determined to have her at any cost – this is what happens after a supernatural being gives up immortality in exchange for human love.

I think so!

Anyway, now that I have more than definitely reached the half-way point for Lionheart, and am about a sixth of the way through Bones I just need to be like the kitty below and reference Star Wars stay on target.

But in the meantime: Yippee!

I’ve just ended the chapter at that point with our heroes jumping from the airship being chased by possessed security guards.

Now I am off for the weekend to stay with family in Blenheim. Although I will be doing some writing on the boat rides there and back (three hours each way), I am going to come back refreshed and ready to finish the last part of my goal – JK has promised me a present from New York if I reach the 35 000 word mark by the end of the month.

At about a week and a bit into this month I was fluffing about in a panic because I was so far behind schedule to make that goal. I thought there was no way I could reach 35k now that I had started off so poorly. But I knuckled down and started churning out 1000 words a day for several days. That’s the most I have ever written at once, and it feels good.

So anyway, goodbye, I’ll see you on Monday, and by then I’ll be back and writing! W00t!

Anyway here’s a fragment from Lionheart where the main character, Leander, tries to scry for the first time, under the guidances of a hedgewitch. Leander agrees to let Angelika help him as he is feeling really lost and confused on how to find his sister and rescue her.

The nothing of the mirror, and the everything that was not visible, became mist. And then out of the mist loomed shapes which stayed firm, not brief flashes like before. They were tall columns and towering buildings. Palatial homes and proud temples, both made from the same marble.

It was an entire city, and the original that Kingscove was an extremely poor copy of.

The kingdom grew taller, prouder. People scurried by, living out their day to day existence. What Angelika had said was true – he really could see everything if he wished, and was willing to work and go looking for it. He could, and did, watch the rise of the old kingdom, starting off as merely a small group and becoming something great.

And then he watched it all come tumbling down.

The enemy broke through the barriers, both magical and physical, with ease. The mages tried to fight back, but their magic simply rolled over and off them like water off a duck’s back. And when the enemy was finally close enough to attack, there was no mercy for those whose only defense was magical. Or non-existent.

There was no mercy at all. Not for the men. Not for the women. Not even for the children.

And then the city burned.

As Seanne said, “At least they didn’t throw any of the children off the city walls.”

My reply: “I decided not to show that part.”

A couple of days ago, my beta, JK issued me a challenge. That challenge? Reach the 20 000 word mark by the end of the month. And do you know what? Even with a few bumps in the road¹ I have managed to do that with just over four hours to spare.

What makes this even more exciting is that I only reached the 10k mark on the 15th of this month – that means I wrote 10k – doubled my total – in half a month. If I keep this speed up² that means I can write 20 000 words of a draft a month. And that can result in one 80 000 word novel in four months.

And that means my goal is completing the first draft of Lionheart before NaNo – where I plan to write as much of The Circled Green³ as possible – is a very distinct possibility indeed. Let’s hope that is the case after all, so JK can have plenty of stuff to beta.

In the meantime: 20 000 words! Yippee!

1. Like the day that my computer was busted, and I had to spend the day writing by hand… and then typing it up, or the fact I’d forgotten quiz night
2. And it does not seem like it is impossible, as I have discovered that I can write more than 1000 words a day if I focus
3. My Victorian Era faerie story