Words, words, words, words, words...

I may have mentioned that I was attempting CampNaNoWriMo this month. I might not have though, as I've been a bit distracted with the whole new human making business and all of that. I have, however, actually made the attempt and, while I got off to a very slow start, I am much closer to actually succeeding at CampNaNoWriMo than I have ever been. For some reason April writing and I have never really gotten along. In fact out of the three or four CampNaNos I've ever tried is the first one that looks like it will work.

Anyway, what that means is: so far this month I've added 19,273 words to the first draft of the sequel to Blade's Edge. About 15,000 of which have come from the past three days. (I mentioned the slow start right?) Well, I'm pretty thrilled with that, because if I keep up the 5k a day from now until the end of April I will have written 40k in April and that will make for 100k words for that first draft and probably the entirety of the plot down on paper. That's very exciting because it means I am on track to get the book out before Speck arrives in September. If I finish the first draft in April, then I can spend May doing major revisions and then I can have beta readers reading during June and July and then I can finish up formatting etc. in August.

So... I can't be 100% sure that I'll finish in time, but I'm highly motivated and I've knocked out 5k a day for the past three days, so the outlook is fairly positive. After all, I managed to finish NaNoWriMo in the last three days of the month with 10k a day so I know it's possible, and this is a lot less stressful than that.

And can I just say that I'm so excited to finally have the plot for this story figured out?! I mean, it's been kind of touch and go this whole time, and there is still a lot that will need to be fixed in revision, but... I went from thinking I would just put words down until I was done and basically have to start from scratch for the revision, to thinking that I've actually tied things together in a halfway decent series of twists that should make for an interesting story all the way up to the last page. There will still be lots that needs fixing in revision (the quality of the prose for this first draft is pretty abysmal) but I actually think I've sorted out most of the major plot kinks here.

The prospect of NOT having to completely rewrite the entire book for the second draft is extremely pleasing.

Yay!

In other news, the whole second trimester of pregnancy being better than the first seems to be holding true pretty well. I have had way more energy for writing, running, hiking, and generally doing things that aren't sleeping, eating, or feeling sick to my stomach. So, all and all we'll call that a win.

Which reminds me, I'm getting my formatting freelancing back in gear, so if you need any book formatting done, be sure to hit me up.

And finally, I mentioned that my energy was back, yes? Well, the husband, the dog, and I went for a nice long hike on Sunday to celebrate the arrival of spring. Here are a couple photos from the adventure, courtesy of hubby's phone camera.

Early on in the hike we came across this cave set in a cliff and I couldn't resist the temptation to climb up to it. Pay no mind to the fact that I look like Golem. 

Most of the lake was still frozen but that didn't make it any less scenic.

Just at the end of the hike we came to point where the ice was finally giving up the ghost. Here you can see the line that the wind pushing back.

And here you can see Artemis and I enjoying the sun (but mostly the wind) at our turnaround point on the hike. It was a nice view of the thawed portion of the lake, but we only ate half of our lunch there before deciding to turn back and find a less windy place to eat.

That's it for today, I think. Hope everyone is having a lovely spring so far! I'll be sure to update once I've finished the first draft (oh there will be much celebrating... boozeless celebrating, but still, celebrating!)