I don’t finish things. I just don’t. I still say it’s the whole reason I don’t have a published book. I’ve had lots of great ideas in my life, I just…don’t finish things.

So, naturally, I decided to try NaNoWriMo this year. I’ve decided that even if what I end up with is completely and utterly stupid, at least I tried, eh?

I’m at 6098 words on day three, which is made more impressive by the fact that I wrote 4000 of those words today.

Here’s my stats page. The novel is tentatively named “It’s not what you think!” because it started out sounding very romance-novel-ish. The synopsis is SUPER SHORT and the excerpt on my novel page is, too, but I figure those will develop with time. AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE ACTUAL STORY IS!!!

I know. I’ve got these freakin’ runaway characters who just keep dancing around the reason I’m writing about them. But I’m enjoying the story, so far, and I figure if I can just hit 50,000 words in November, I can tie it all together in December.

Anyway, how’s an excerpt from one of the twenty different scenes I’ve begun to build so far sound? I thought so, too.

“Frosty wasn’t exactly forthcoming with everything he knew. I can’t read his thoughts, but I can read his emotions. He was definitely nervous about something, and it was worse when he told me none of the leaf people would harm us inside his inn. I believe that part. They don’t believe in settling things with violence. But they’re not above hiring others to do violence for them. We are not safe here. It is the safest place for us, though. All of the people working and staying here are on our side.”

“How can you be sure?”

“They wouldn’t be here if they weren’t. Frosty’s a pretty good judge of character. The only way to infiltrate his group would be to turn someone already in it. And Frosty’s one hell of a guy. There’s not a person close to him that he hasn’t saved in some way.” Adelita looked at Jasper. “Anyone like Giants Cap would be hard-pressed to get in here.”

“Giants cap?” Delores looked at Jasper. “You didn’t say anything about a Giants cap.”

“There was a guy in a Giants cap in the bar where I found Adelita. Why?”

“White?”

“Yes.”

“Could he make the air thick?”

“Yeah, but Adelita can, too.”

“You can?” Delores sounded surprised.

“Yeah. I figured out how to manipulate the air when I was little. Saved my life a time or two. What’s the big deal?”

“It takes a special kind of invisible mage to play with the air. Giants Cap wasn’t an invisible mage. He has to use magic to be invisible. You have to use magic to stop being invisible unless someone knows you or has seen you kill.”

“I’m not an invisible mage, either.”

Hi you guys!

I know. I suck. I’ve been virtually silent for…a long time, and what I have posted has been…meh, at best. I’m trying. I really am. But right now, my focus is elsewhere.

Namely, my fiction. And not (necessarily) the erotic type.

I used to write snippets all the time. I have the beginnings of a million stories stored away on this here laptop. But the other day, an author I follow tweeted about America’s Next Author, and it was like a light bulb went off. And so I put to paper a story that has been playing in my head since the weekend we spent away.

It’s science fiction, and it’s called Jake and Vera Go Up the Hill. It’s about a couple who are staying in a cabin in the woods, and the wife disappears.

And this is where I ask for your help. I can’t win this thing without your votes and reviews. So do me a solid. Read my story and vote on it. I’ll be forever in your debt.

Excerpt: 

“Vera, where’d you go?” he yelled, as he snapped a few close-ups of the stuff scattered on the ground. When she didn’t respond he stood up. “Vera! Vera, where are you?”

He waited a moment expecting her to come running back down the path laughing at his fear. “Oh, I’m sorry, were you looking for me?” she’d say, and he’d try to be mad but she’d wrap her arms around him and laugh that infectious laugh that always did him in.

There was a dark feeling in the pit of his stomach. It was as if the bottom dropped out, and someone had replaced the organ with red hot coals.