NaNoWriMo 2009 Begins!

An epic journey began for writers everywhere today as November 1st kicked off National Novel Writing Month 2009 (commonly known as NaNoWriMo)! 30 days to write 50,000 words. It's a tough, but fun challenge for all of us; one I am extremely excited to begin! For more information visit http://www.nanowrimo.org/!

Where oh where did the time go!?

Time seems to have flown out the window and bounced down the street ;) I returned from the conference in September (which was AMAZING) and hit the ground running! School, work, and play have taken over and I have been writing every second I can spare. Also, life plans are taking different routes quicker than planned, but in a good way! So, a quick update is in order!

As far as writing goes, I am working on pieces that were inspired by the conference itself! I learned a lot this year and met some awesome people. I will make a post specifically about the conference a bit later when I can put pictures with it. Confessions of a Frog-a-Holic is the center of my attention at the moment. I am having fun with it and coming up with some creative twists for the plot-line. I would like to have a loose script by this summer.

In other news, I'm moving out of my apartment. Which is sad, because I just recently finished re-decorating it. However, it's worth it because I will be moving out of my single apartment and WE will be moving into a house. . This will be happening in May of 2010, so there is some time left. However, I suspect that time will fly too as a lot will be happening in the next few months as well.

One of those things is Florida. I leave on November 20th and won't return until the 30th. I'm extremely excited to get away and see my best friend! She and I have a lot of planning to do so it will be nice to have an entire 10 days this year.

Then there is work, and it has been busy as well! We will be having a Haunted Halloween Open House in the library and so I have been working with my co-workers on the Publicity and Outreach Committee to plan for that. It should be spook-tacular ;)

So, life is going fast but grand! I will hop back on here and talk about the SCBWI Conference in a few days once I am able to locate my camera cord!

Creatively yours,
Kat

Conference Coming Soon, and Other Updates!

School has started up, and the September conference is a mere 17 days away! I have been busily working on the final manuscripts to tote with me and getting excited to meet up with old writing friends. It's been very easy to do this as I has a very good friend, Justin, come over to help me make my writing area more user friendly. He has more of an eye for design and decor and well, lets just face it... it's safer for all of humanity if I avoid power tools!

Last week we got a lot done and it looks amazing! My walls are covered with cork boards for story layouts, and I have areas to file stuff, and so much more. It's amazing how much of a difference having a functional writing area makes. Add this in with finally having a computer that works and I am back in business!

In other news, I have been working away at getting stuff ready. Working on new business cards, debating a website renovation (though remembering how much work it took the first time and thinking I might be ahead to stick with what I have)! My main focus is going back and forth between 'Confessions of a Frog-a-Holic" and "Willows." As I get more wrapped up in these stories I am losing sleep because I have had some pretty intense yet helpful dreams. The hard part is wrapping it all together to make a story that others understand ;)

So there you go, a brief overview of life. Everything is going well and I am smiling... so life is good!

Creatively yours,

Kat

End of Summer Update :)

Summer is quickly coming to an end and it has been a mad dash to get things done! My work schedule has been weird due to the switch from summer hours, to interim, and soon the fall hours; so things have been a bit jumbled. Regardless, when I am not at work I have been focusing as much as possible on writing. As September creeps closer I am getting excited (yet slightly stressed) about the deadlines! I cannot believe how quickly time has flown and that September is mere weeks away. For instance, this weekend I will be registering for conferences and booking the hotels. Has it really been an entire year?! All my calendars confirm that almost 365 days have gone by, and what a busy year it has been! Glancing back I realize just how much has happened during that time and it makes me smile. Life has really turned around since last August/September and I can honestly say that while things may be hectic, I’ve been more inspired and flat out happy since then. I’ve got multiple projects going on, the most exciting one being the manuscript for “Confessions of a Frog-a-holic” (yes, that’s right, the secret is ‘toad-ally’ out)! Working with numerous girls to collaborate their frog stories with the main characters has been a lot of fun and certainly humorous! Currently I am working on a blog to go along with this and hope to release it to the public soon, but I am tweaking things at the moment. Look back here for updates in the following weeks.

In other news, I have also taken on the project of re-decorating my apartment. When I moved into my new place, I simply moved in what I had and although I was able to do a little bit, I didn’t have the time or money to go as crazy as I wanted. Things have settled down now though and I have picked things back up. As much as I want to focus on the writing studio, I am going with the bedroom and living room first. They are rather bland at the moment and there is way too much white going on! This is an annoying problem, but the solution is as simple as taking some of my excess creativity and re-directing it!

I have been spending a lot of time in random places writing lately. Recently it was Barnes and Noble; a rather humorous site I imagine. I picked an area in a corner and sprawled my work space out on the floor. This included my giant red notebook and piles of dating and relationship advice books. I am in the middle of researching stuff for “Confessions of a Frog-a-holic” (which if you hadn’t already guessed it, is a compilation of stories that are interwoven with the story of the main character that has spent most of her life kissing frogs and decided to do something about it. It’s a romantic comedy that I am going out of the way to make sure it defies the cliche’s and puts humor back into and takes fear out of the process of looking for that wart free relationship). I am attempting to set this novel up a bit differently than the average book and it is proving to be a challenge. I have approached this project a bit differently than those I have started in the past. It’s really helped to get me out of my writing comfort zone and learn a few new techniques and that is always good.

There is life beyond writing, though I doubt it sounds like this in the above blog! Things have been going well, and lately it’s been kind of hard to stop smiling, as cheesy as that sounds. The end of summer has turned out to be wonderful, and I even find myself thinking that I might actually be ready for school to start. Having said this, let me counteract myself by saying “ask me again in a few weeks when I am up to my eyeballs in Spanish homework.” I may have changed my mind!

Editing Manuscripts

This week I have been editing manuscripts and getting them ready to send; a process that is far from my favorite thing to do! I have found that separating it into manageable parts helps the process go a little smoother. Sitting down to a pile of over 200-pages with a pen doesn't always pump me up! Yet this needs to be done, and it will be!

In the mean-time, things are going really well with the newest project! It's not quite ready to reveal, but look for that in the coming weeks! I have had an amazing response from girls of all ages and from all over all over sending their stories for this special compilation. It's been fun seeing how everything is falling together!

As far as life outside of writing, things are going very well ;) I have been spending a lot of time with friends the last several weeks and enjoying summer. It's hard to believe that we are well into July! Though taking a walk outside into the boiling heat is always a good reminder! I use this as a good reason to stay in and write! Not that you need a reason!

Creatively yours,

Kat