And so....we come to the end of Camp NaNoWriMo again.

This was the first time I have participated in April, and I must say, I'm rather glad I didn't participate last April. I can't imagine how stressed out I would be if I tried to do writing in the middle of college finals. That would not have been pretty.

I want to thank Jane Maree for allowing me to be part of the Fellowship of the Keyboards again ;). I met some new people in the cabin this year!! While it was all quiet on the orc front this month (sad face), we had a lovely time!! 

Best parts of Camp: 

- Meeting and interacting with new cabinmates (and stalking their blogs)

- Finding out to my surprise that my blogging buddy Lila Kims joined the Fellowship too!

- Finding more of my blogging friends on NaNoWriMo, and sending them Camp messages!

- The long hours world-building and writing (as well as research, surfing for new music...).

- Trying out my new writer word processor, Shaxpir. (A review will be coming soon!).

- Being on everybody's cheer squad :).


What I learned: 

- That I need a complex back-up system in order to make sure I can access everything I need (more on that in a minute).

- A hyper organized online notebook is my ideal kind of organization for story notes. The ironic thing, is that my notes are scattered between physical notebooks, notepad apps on phone and Kindle, Word documents....you know how loooong it takes to take all that together and put it into one thing...and then make a back-up of that!

- Even when I have no job commitments or volunteer things, LIFE still gets in the middle of my writing. More on that in a minute.

- I still have that bad habit of editing while I draft. That habit is a relic from my college days when I used to bang out papers and didn't have the luxury of editing time.



With all that said, how did writing go?? 

I have a mixed feelings about this Camp. In some ways it went well, better than last July's!

But, I didn't technically "win" Camp NaNo this year. I kept the original goal of 30k, even to the end when I knew there was no hope. No cheating wins for me, not this time!

I probably would have reached that goal fairly easily, but there were some monkey wrenches that LIFE threw in that really screwed things up.

One monkey wrench that happened towards the beginning of the month was that my computer had one of it's bouts of memory issues. My desktop is a rather cantankerous machine and the memory will get "stuck" from time to time. When that happens, my Spotify player won't sync right (it will say that it stopped on a song from a week or so ago), no updates can be put through correctly, and my computer will be slow, or it will freeze, or it will decide to shut down randomly. It will often last about a week, and then whatever update that needed to be pushed through manages to stick and everything will resolve itself.

Unfortunately for me, Shaxpir chose that particular week to try to do a software update. So I couldn't access anything on Shaxpir for over 3 days. (More on that disaster will be told during the review). Thankfully, nothing was lost because of the online cloud, but immediately afterwards, I set up a 3 way back-up system - all the "writing" is now copied into a Google Doc (for the alphas), and a Word Document (for myself) as well as on Shaxpir. All the contents of the Shaxpir workbook are also backed up on a Word Document. In this way, I can access everything without losing time or paitience...hopefully.

The second, and bigger, monkey wrench happened at the middle/end of the month. I wound up catching a nasty spring cold, which put me out for almost a week. And then right afterwards, I had a bad fall and bruised my head rather badly. This fall also caused a very minor concussion that gave me migraine-like symptoms for a solid week. (Remind me to never again make fun of concussion protocol in the NFL again...it was terrible). This also will explain my blogging and commenting irregularity 1-2 weeks ago.

In spite of these major LIFE hurdles, the actual writing part went much better than July's Camp NaNo.

For one thing, I had a better idea of where I was going with the story. Though, to be honest, I pulled a similar stunt to July's Camp. A lot of the scenes that I wrote were characterization scenes...most of the "big plot scenes" still need to be written out! I don't quite understand it - I'm a plot-driven reader, but I seem to be a character-driven writer. Will someone please explain that phenomenon to me? 

I also wrote a lot more words in April than in July. The Shaxpir draft (which only includes what I wrote in April) is up to 10,028 words.
Now, I wrote only 6000 words in July's Camp NaNo. That's 6000 words over 4 weeks of writing. This month, I wrote 10,000 words over 2-3 weeks of writing.

Now, that's what I call an improvement.

The Word edition (which does have the first draft snippets added in), is now sporting 15,048 words. 

Guys....

I just checked the word count on my largest WIP, which is Fair Winds: Sassy Devil. It's sitting at only 10,568 words.

Which means that The White Rose is now my largest WIP ever. And it's not even a quarter of the way done.

15k words probably doesn't sound like a lot to a lot of you writers, but think of it this way: I just finished my first 5K in a race of marathoners. For someone just starting to run, it's a milestone.

So, what's the plan now? 

So, now that Camp is over, I'm going to concentrate on some life things (such as finally maybe getting some employment and maybe work on some projects now that the weather has improved). In the meantime, I'm going to start transferring over notes and story materials for From The Cave in prep for November.

July's Camp? Well, that will either be finishing up The White Rose, or if I need a break it will writing Shattered Chandelier or Rose of Culmore.

Is it bad that I'm already looking forward to July? LOL.

How did your Camp NaNo go (if you participated)? What was one of your "best moments" or "lessons learned"? Feel free to share! 

Scribbingly yours,

Catherine

P.S. Check back tomorrow - I have a post full of goodies to share with y'all :) :)

Click the image to go to the linkup!

Why is it that all good things must come to an end?

I've only been able to participate in this blog link-up for about a year, but I dearly love it. And now it is saying farewell!! (I mean, I should have expected it, since it's been missing for several months, but STILL...*sobs*)

Anyways....

Since this is a combined favorites/character post, I'll try to keep it as general as possible. I'll use my character Ealdread, King of Aistaraina from The White Rose/From the Cave for any specific character questions.

Let's dive in, shall we?


1. Favorite genre to write in?

I've written in historical fiction, contemporary fiction, and Christian fantasy. So far, Christian fantasy has been edging out to be my favorite genre to write in. The idea that I can play by my own... (ahem...*guilty look to the heavens*) GOD's rules, and not confined to any set parameters gives me a wonderful feeling.


2. What book (a real actual published book!) do you think your character would benefit from reading?

Contrary to practically everyone, I'm not going to say the Bible. He reads it occasionally, but he reads a mix of other spiritual and recreational reading as well.

If he could get his hands on it, I would say that Ealdread needs....

a work about Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. Or some other joyful saint that knew how to have fun in a good way. He can be rather grim if he's not careful. 


3. Favourite piece of dialogue you’ve written?

My personal favorite so far, from The White Rose:

“What ho, my young liveryman!” Karsten called out cheerfully. Arnor turned around and saluted with a smile on his face.

“Did you lose something, dear fellow?” Karsten called to the curly-haired lad.

“Indeed, good Prince Karsten! My spear. I thought to beat that braggard Henrik in a javelin throw.”

“And did you?”

Arnor nodded, a grin creasing his youthful face. “By a good 5 leagues.”

“Right into the pond, I presume.” Ealdread could not keep a smile from his face either.

Sheepishly, Arnor lowered his eyes as the three laughed heartily.

“Never you worry, Arnor. We’ll find it even if it takes the rest of the undern.” Karsten joined Arnor’s side and started searching further along the edge.



(I'm going to share the other favorite from the same scene :) )


Arnor saw a mischivous grin overtake Karsten’s face. Glancing at Alvilda, Karsten silently gathered some pond water in his hand, brought it up to the pier, and splashed it on his bride’s ankle.

“Ahhhh! What in the...” Alvilda covered her mouth when her eyes fell on her betrothed’s grinning face. “My lord....Karsten!” She choked out, laughing as her knight gallantly saluted her. “What in the world are you doing there?”

“Searching for a lost spear, my sunshine.” He settled his head on his arms on the pier, his brown eyes gazing adoringly in Alvilda’s blue ones.

“A lost spear?” Janina asked gaily.

“Aye, Your Highness.” A deep voice wafted from the other side of the pier. “It seems our dear young liveryman Arnor got into a contest...”

Janina put her hands on her waist with mock severity. “And lost the spear in a javelin throw again. Tsk tsk tsk.”  

“You would think that after losing the spear 3 times already, he would learn by now...” Alvilda quipped sassily.

“The follies of youth.” With her mock severity, Janina set the whole company into hearty laughter.

When peace reigned again, Janina clasped her sister’s hand. “Come Alvie, let us help the men. I’m sure we can spot the spear from the end of the pier.”

With a cheerful quip about her sister being “ever poetical”, Alvilda agreed and the girls stepped lightly towards the end of the pier. Ealdread also moved towards the pier, still scanning the bottom for the missing spear.




4. What did your character want to be when they grew up, and what did they actually become?

Ealdread always knew that he would grow up to be the King of Aistaraina at some point, seeing as how he was the oldest son of his father. He didn't succeed to the throne until he was 28. What has surprised everyone is that he never married or even had a romantic attachment to anyone before then or for several years after.

Though I dare say, if he had a choice in his profession, he would be a hunter or farmer. He does love the outdoors and working hard when he can.




5. Favourite character name(s)?

Good heavens. You know how much I LOVE names?? How am I going to pick favorites???

But since you insisted, I'm putting in my top ten names, in alphabetical order. Cause a favorites order doesn't work.

Alvilda
               Aderyn
                              Caoimhe
                                                Conlaoch
                                                                  Eirwen
Gareth
              Janina
                            Jessamine
                                                 Karsten
                                                                  Kestrel




6. What makes your character feel loved, and who was the last person to make them feel that way?

Ealdread's main love language is Quality Time. He tends to be a lone wolf, who is starving for a good pack to run with. He is a good leader, but doesn't have many friends that see the man behind the crown.

Believe it or not, his new buddies Karsten and Arnor were the last ones to spend Quality Time with him. Since they got introduced, Karsten sort of adopted Ealdread as a long lost brother, in spite of the ten year age difference. Janina hasn't spent much time with him yet, LOL.


7. Favorite character you’ve ever written?

GOOD GRIEF.

I'm a proud character mommy, as you all know. So asking that question is like picking my favorite child. It's impossible!




8. If your character were permanently leaving town, what would they easily throw out? What would they refuse to part with? (Why?)

Now, let me see...

Ealdread would easily throw out a lot of his kingly articles of clothing, and a lot of of the worldly possessions that he has. "If it doesn't have a purpose on the road, it doesn't belong in the pack" is his motto for traveling. He is, after all, a rather practical person. 

He would not part with his paderau or any other religious article. Most are small and can fit in his pocket or around his neck, so they would not burden him much. Though he would hate to leave his books behind....

The reasons being that his religion is his way of life, as it is with a lot of people in the Verden universe. His prayer life is strong, and he wishes it to remain so.


9. Favorite tropes to write!

Believe it or not...true, strong, feminine women. Woman warriors is also a favorite of mine. Strong and silent manly male characters....that grabs my fancy a lot too.


10. Which story has your heart and won’t let go?

My now duology (mock covers shown):



From The Cave has been like a ghost in the background as I tried to get my mind onto other stories. Now that I've been working on the prequel to it for months, I'm settling some important details (especially in the world-building category!). Between the two Camps, I hope to have all the details settled so that it can be written in it's entirety this November.

The White Rose also was a sort of a background story that forced it's way to the front of the line when I realized that the Verden universe was where I wanted to be. As much as my pantser self wanted to explore Aistaraina like Gail did, my plotter spine wouldn't bend. #spoilsport. LOL.


11. Favorite relationship between characters you’ve written?

This may surprise you....

but it's the three way friendship between Arnor, Karsten and Ealdread from The White Rose.

I love these three a little too much, I think.


12. Toni Morrison once said, “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” What are the books that you want to see more of, and what “holes” do you think need filling in the literary world?

Well, as much as I agree with Faith @ A Writer's Song, and Christine @ Musings of An Elf's answers to this question wholeheartidly, I think there is a bigger hole to be filled.

What I really would like to see is more books centered around Catholic characters. And I mean true honest portrayals of Catholic characters. I want to destroy the tropes of the demon school kids, the lust-filled knights of the Crusades, and destroy some of the myths that surround Catholic beliefs. I find a lot of books with a Catholic cast only marketed by Catholics for other Catholics and I don't agree with that marketing strategy (in spite of the advantages it has). I'm heartily sick of the Catholic Church being demonized by the secular society and really feel passionately about giving a positive example of it to the wide world around me.


13. Favorite Pinterest board / aesthetic for a book?


To be honest, I don't have a clear favorite. I love all my boards (most are private, especially ones for my actual stories).

Though, I do love this little board section I created for Alvilda:



14. Favourite time periods & settings to work with?

Well, I haven't worked with that many, and each has either ended in disaster (Seeds of an Orchard Invisible) or it never got off the ground (It's A Matter of Faith).

So, I think I'll stick with my fantasy (for now, anyway). Maybe I'll attempt more historical time periods later on when I feel more comfortable with it (maybe an early 1900s story?). 


15. When people are done reading your book, what feeling do you want them to come away with?

I want people to come away from my books with a feeling that they can conquer their own daily struggles.

Not that they can conquer the whole world. Not to feel jealousy that they can't portal themselves into the book. Not to lose themselves in mindless head-canoning and theorizing that will get them nowhere in the daily grind of life. My books are not supposed to be drugs. They should act more like OTC painkillers - relieve some of the barriers that stop others from being the best person they can be.

I want to be a help to people carrying their daily crosses, like Simon of Cyrene. Help them attain their salvation, in an indirect way. Be an inspiration, like the old classics, to better the others around me.

Now that my brain cells are not as scrambled and my body is back up to speed (a cold and concussion knocked me off my feet for a couple of weeks, no fun!)....hopefully, maybe, I'll have a real post sometime soon. While tags are great fun, this all-play-and-no-work thing has been getting on my nerves a little. I'm cooking up ideas for a series about writer heroines from classic literature and what lessons we can learn from them (and the authors who made them!). Oh and a wrap up post after Camp is over.

I missed you guys! What tropes are your favorite to write or read about? Your favorite character names? 

Scribblingly yours,

Catherine

Soooooooo.....

I was intending to write a real post today. Or maybe get some writing done for The White Rose.

Obviously that didn't happen.

Because I was searching through my 15 drafts - which happen to be dominated by tags and spotted a tag squishing. That included the World-Building Tag and Bibliophile Sweater Tag.

Now, it is almost time to bid sweater weather goodbye (actually, it should have been adieu long ago, it's overstayed it's welcome). So, I shall finally send this tag packing with all the other winter tags (and sweaters).

Back in February (ack! Was it that long??), Sarah @ Plain and Average tagged me for Bibliophile Sweater Tag. She is one of the dearest ladies I've run across on the blogosphere. I look forward to each of her posts, especially her book reviews and her weekly name posts. Seriously, if you don't follow her yet, you should!! You can view her post HERE.

So without further ado, let us begin!

Goodreads

Goodreads

Goodreads

Goodreads

And now that my book fix is out of the way, I shall move on to a more writerly tag....



Okay, let me be honest - I was surprised when I saw my world-building post for the Five-Part Writing Special actually go to my top ten posts. Then I thought it over and realized that people were probably reading it multiple times because of the...hem...rather heavy detail I put into it.

My dear friend Megan Chappie tagged me.   You can view her post HERE.

So, the idea of this tag is to relate up to 7 things related to your story world. No structured questions, it's more of a free-write conversation than anything.

So, I'm going to cover about seven different areas of the world of From the Cave/The White Rose that I didn't cover in the 5-Part Writing Special.

Here we go!


Fashion is fairly simple for both men and women. Practicality is stressed more than fashion, though subtle differences in rank may be denoted by dress.

The queen often sets the example for women's fashion, but the women are not duty-bound to follow it by any means. Women will wear a simple high scoop-necked gown/kirtle, a couple of petticoats and a surcoat to add a different pop of color. There is subtle shaping of the clothing, the bodice is often custom-fitted. The support garment is like a half-corset/half brassiere of sorts - the garmet sits from the base of the shoulder to the upper sternum, leaving the stomach free of confinement. Gowns are tightened by lacing and belts if needed. The only real variation in fashion for the past few centuries has been the style of the sleeves, and the patterns of the fabric. The women also wear boots and stockings up to their short drawers.

There are woman that push the envelope - like Magda, who cuts pieces out of her neckline to make it lower. Most of the time, these woman are chastised for doing such a thing.



Duventolians eat a diet that is heavier in protein and vegetables. They eat a lot of freshwater fish as well. They do like some grain based food, such as oat cakes, maize meal, and wheat bread. Fruit desserts are also very popular. Tea is the hot drink of choice. On Sacrificial Days, they will abstain from just flesh meats.

Well, fancy that. A ready made picture of a Duventolian meal.

In Aistaraina, it's a much more starch-based and green-food diet. Meat is also eaten on a daily basis, but only really at one or two meals a day. Due to excellent trading relations with Jaquru, they have a steady chocolate supply - and chocolate desserts are very common. On Sacrificial Days, they abstain from meat entirely and even some animal products like dairy.



Each household produces at least some of their own food. Because of the somewhat warm climate, Duventolilians tend to grow what we would consider summer crops here in the Eastern US: squashes, peppers, tomatoes, oats, spring wheat, yams, and purslane. They also grow trees for oil, palm and olive being the closest equivalants.

At the time of The White Rose, they are attempting to cultivate their own fish stocks - even though the ancient system of subsistence fishing and stock-watching is still employed widely. They are blessed with a fair amount of rivers that they can fish from. Sea-water fish is harder to get because not many Duventolians or Aistarainians are fishermen.

On the turf, both beef and dairy cattle are also raised. Dairy products are intermixed in. Poultry of all varieties are kept - the favorites being ducks and geese.



Aistaraina has a slightly cooler climate, so they will grow potatos, barley, winter wheat, rye, root crops, and leafy vegetables. Animal proteins come from a mix of cattle and sheep products. Nuts from Gwydion are also more plentiful than in Duventoliel because of the distance between the kingdoms. Fish is only in a salted form. Dairy products, especially cheese, are plentiful in Aistaraina. Chicken, quail and pigeon are the standard poultry animals kept.

Pigs are only kept by scattered barbarian tribes, especially of Ravndal descent. Sometimes people will sell or trade food scraps in order to obtain some other good from them. They are actually treated as wild animals for the most part.



So the Verden calendar is based on a three month season calendar. The first month of the season is called "Rising" (ex. Rising Spring.) The middle is called "High" (ex. High Summer). The last month is called "Waning" (ex. Waning Autumn).

So December, January and February in Duventolian time would be Rising Winter, High Winter, and Waning Winter.

And then time is based on a three hour division as well. The sections of the day are dawn, morning, noon, undern, evening, twilight and night. With the exception of night (which has 6 hours), each section of the day has 3 hours. They are referenced as such: 1st hour of the dawn, 3rd hour of the undern, 5th hour of the night, etc.

So dawn is equivalent to 5-8am, morning is equivalent to 8-11am, and so forth until the night hours which last from 11pm - 5am.

A random example would be 2nd hour of the undern, which is 3-4 pm in Earth time.

Oh by the way, "undern" is a very archaic term for afternoon, because afternoon just didn't make sense to me. I still have to work out what an age is, and how years are documented.....



There are 3 main musical instruments in Duventoliel:

Eija - a flute-like instrument. These can be various sizes, and usually made of wood.

Jalo - a stringed instrument. Very similar to the Renaissance instrument viola de gamba, which you can listen to in the video below.



Drums - self-explanatory.

There is a lot of singing as well - the voice is the main instrument, actually. LOL.

The style of the music...well, let's see.

Simple folk songs and Celtic rhythms come to mind. Subjects often revolve around history, legends, daily life, with some religious overtones as well.

Sacred music is also intermixed into social settings, which can range from being simple to very elaborate. The Duventolians are very pious, and keep religion to the forefront as much as they can.



Nobles and royalty have courier liveryman who pass written messages back and forth. There are written newspaper/leaflet like papers that give public announcements, as well as heralds. And word of mouth is still probably the fastest way news gets spread.


Now of course, I can't just let this little tag just sit around....heehee.

So, I shall pass it along to:

Lila Kims @ The Red-Hooded Writer
Anna C.S. @ A World Through Her Heart
Mary Katherine @ Sarcastic Scribblings

Feel free to steal if you need to work on world-building for your novel/Camp NaNo piece!

And now, I believe I shall curl up with a book or something.....

Scribblingly yours,

Catherine