Month: December 2010

A Round of Words in 80 Days Challenge

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Starting 1/3/11, I am going to be a participant in “A Round of Words in 80 Days“.  According to its blog site, the gist of the challenge is this:

    • A challenge that happens 4 times a year with a break between sessions.
    • Round 1 starts January 3, 2011 (because I like starting things on Monday and this way everyone can recover from New Year’s excesses) and runs through March 24th.  (Round 2 would start April 4, Round 3 July 4–okay maybe rethink that–, Round 4 Oct 3–you get the idea).
    • You have 80 days for your Round of Words
    • Your goal can be anything you like as long as it is MEASURABLE. If you’re already in the middle of a WIP, that’s fine.  Tailor your goal to suit that.  You may even want to set mini goals (I want to finish the last 40k of this novel.  Then I want to spend the last 20 days revising it at x pages a day.).  There are a lot of elements to writing a book other than the writing itself.  Plotting.  Outlining.  Character Interviews.  Whatever.  Set your goal to match wherever you are right now on your WIP.  If you want to use your Round for editing a novel, that’s fine too.  Just know that this is, at heart, a writing challenge, so all the weekly inspirational posts will be geared in that direction.
    • There’s no mandatory daily word count. Every writer is different, everyone has different schedules.  You set a goal that works for you.  Find a way to make writing a priority in your life in a way that FITS.  But set SOME kind of schedule and be CONSISTENT.
    • Once Sign-Ups are open, you’ll make a blog post stating your measurable goal and swing by here to link to it in the Linky Tools list. If your goal changes because you’ve met it before the 80 days is up, just write a new one and link to it on a check in day.
    • There will be twice a week check-ins on Sunday and Wednesday where you’ll update us via the same method. The idea here is that folks can travel around to everybody’s blogs and drop a supportive comment.  We’re contemplating dividing into teams under each of the sponsors so that everyone has a manageable list of folks to visit once a week.
    • On Twitter we’ll use a hashtag of #ROW80 so everyone can follow discussions (though if you’re not on Twitter, that’s totally fine too).

My goals for the first round are as follows:

  1. Finish Sins of Our Mothers first draft (approx 40-50k words to go)
  2. Complete first edit of My Fair Vampire
  3. Participate in AW’s Flash Fiction Challenge at least 3x / month
  4. Blog at least 4x / week (1-FFC, 2 & 3-80 days status, 4-Other)
  5. Enter 1 writing contest / month

Brimstone and Sucker Punches, pt. 1

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El Maestro boxing ring 1

Image by Serge De Gracia via Flickr

Demond shifted in his chair and shuffled through his note cards once more.  He sought to cram the key words and phrases into the most readily accessible nooks of his brain.  The extra preparation soothed but did not allay his fears.

“Mr. Galindo, Mr. Dark will see you now.”  The raven-haired female swept her hand toward the towering door covered in reliefs of human faces sporting various degrees of anguish.  The doorknob lay in the mouth of the lone face that mocked with a malevolent grin.

Demond rose and brushed off his trousers.  He slipped the cards in his pocket to keep both hands free in case the sentries roused.  After tiptoeing to the door and cracking his knuckles, he shot his right hand out.  The face’s eyes blinked a few times before its jaws snapped shut, but it was too late.  Demond had already turned the knob and withdrawn his hand.

The door’s latch scraped as he pushed with his toe against one of the tamer faces near the bottom.  The second from the left, to be precise, was a sympathetic friend from another time.  It whispered, “Fare thee well, my friend,” as Demond pushed the door open just enough to slip inside. Continue reading →