Club High Castle Pre-Pandemic

Just look at that little word count! NaNo who? I’m going back to the original writing strategy I had for Sisters. There’s no way I can reach NaNo’s goal of 50K at this point. The initial plan was to write three chapters, pause and revise, visit the outline and note any changes in plot, and write three more chapters. Rinse and repeat! Anyone who has ever had to edit can tell you what a tedious, short-attention-span producing task it is. Imagine saving ALL of it for later and going back to several hundred pages of it. No thanks! This is something I've never done before. I’ll still have to go back after I finish writing and reread it all, but the goal is to make the dreaded revision task a little easier. Because nobody asked, here’s my two cents on current events... Has it made working on Sisters harder? Yes. Did I vote for him? No. Am I going to move on and keep living my life? Yes. I just want to say one thing, and then I’ll shut up because the last thing I wan...

Watch my NaNoWriMo count stall out! Last week was a wild one, wasn’t it? I’ll be frank: I didn’t even consider the possibility that our current president-elect would be the president-elect. It didn’t even cross my mind for a second that he even had a remote chance of winning. I was in the “I hate them both” crowd, but fully expected Clinton to win and to be irritated yet secretly relieved over it because putting a bland, run of the mill politician in the White House would have made everything go back to normal, and that’s all anyone wants, right? So what does this have anything to do with writing and NaNoWriMo? I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Sisters started out as a what if scenario. This year’s crazy election fueled my Sisters frenzy. What if someone similar to Trump really did win? Needless to say, I was shocked to the core when I woke up, checked my phone, and saw the words “Donald Trump won the presidential election.” I didn’t know what to think. I certai...

I feel like the timing of this is all too convenient! Sisters is officially a GO!  I’ve written the first three chapters to get the setting down and a feel for the characters. Once I did that, I paused to create an outline for the rest of the novel. It just so happens that we’re a few days shy of November (well, at the time I’m writing this, anyway). I couldn't ask for better timing! Hello, NaNoWriMo! It’s been a long time. I’ve got a novel brewing for you that I'm all too excited to start. It's going to be made of feels. Such feels. For those who aren’t familiar with NaNoWriMo, they challenge writers to write 50K words in one month (the month of November). If you love to write, take the NaNo challenge! See if you can hit 50K. You can sign up at nanowrimo.org/ I’ll be posting about my progress. Just look out for #Sisters422 . I know NaNoWriMo suggests that you just write, write, write, and ignore grammar, but I'm not going to do that this year. Goin...

A military story Back when I was in Okinawa, I had gotten my line number for Staff Sergeant, and off to Airmen Leadership School (ALS) I went. ALS = the special leadership training you have to go through before you become an NCO. One day we had a special guest instructor. Our desks consisted of three long tables set in a U shape so that the instructor could walk around and interact with us as he taught. If there was one thing to be said about ALS, it was that they were fair with breaks so that we could use the facilities or grab a bite from the vending machines. They did not care if you ate a snack during class so long as you weren’t disruptive. My story begins when we came back from a break. I had grabbed myself a small bag of M&Ms because I needed something to hold me over until lunch. I sat in my spot as everyone filed back into the room. The instructor proceeded to go over a serious topic (unfortunately, I’ve forgotten the actual topic, but let’s pretend he was talk...