Carol Moncado

Yep. I officially “won” NaNoWriMo today. I’ve had the words since Saturday but just entered them in the validator so the little line on  the my counter turned purple and says WINNER! now.

So yay!

I also reread a manuscript today. I <3 that story. So much. I so hope it gets published someday because something about the whole thing is just… different. Special. I think I mentioned it last night – but after reading all 70K words of it, I love it even more [and need to figure out where to add 15K more words to it].

Day 26: 414 words
Total: 55623 words

Tomorrow, I get to see local writer friends Margie and Cindy where they’re critiquing part of that same manuscript as I get it ready for a contest :).

And since NCIS is over… time to get some work done.

I love my kids. I really do. But with a weather change overnight, today was… not our best day. Too cold to really go outside and let them run off the insane amounts of energy they seemed to have absorbed.

But tomorrow I go back to work [okay – I only work on Tuesdays and Thursdays anyway – and tomorrow is my last lecture of the semester :D] and the kids go back to school. I’ve gotten a bit of writing/research done – along with some other stuff. Including working on an entry for a contest. Had a hard enough time coming up with a 200 word blurb for the last contest I entered it in. A 300 word synopsis for this one won’t be much fun :p.

Day 25: 971 words on book 2
Total: 54382 words

Despite her protests, Princess Gisela, headstrong daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne, must enter into a diplomatic marriage. Yet en route to her wedding, her ship is attacked and she’s gravely injured. Rescued by a renowned healer, King John of Lydia, Gisela recuperates at his Mediterranean castle. The handsome, widowed ruler soon has her reevaluating her beliefs on love and marriage…but only if King John could be her groom. Their love is forbidden, and duty requires him to deliver her to her betrothed. Unless they can find a way to join their hearts—and kingdoms—with love, faith and honor.

This is my fifth book by Rachelle. I read her “Reclaiming the Crown” series set in the fictional country of Lydia on the Mediterranean. A Royal Marriage takes place in the same country well over a thousand years earlier.

Gisela is the daughter of Charlemagne – she did exist but next to nothing is known about her but her name. Rachelle uses her – and what we do know of Charlemagne and the world at that time – to weave a love story into ancient Lydia.

It was great fun seeing the places from the first series [Love Inspired Suspense] as they were centuries earlier or as they were being created. But it isn’t necessary to have read those books to enjoy this one.

Though the conclusion [Gisela and John together] is foregone given the genre and line [Love Inspired Historical], Rachelle kept me guessing to the end as to how they were going to manage it. And she pulled it off wonderfully.

The interactions between Gisela and John were fabulous and the other characters were brought to life – real, flawed, and I fell in love with the country of Lydia all over again. I’m so glad to hear that there is a sequel [one of John’s brothers – he has two and a sister] plus Rachelle’s next series for LIS involves Lydia as well.

This one had a bit more suspense than I seem to remember from other LIH books, but that didn’t take away from the romance.

Overall Rating: 8.5 out of 10 stars

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ecopy in exchange for my review.

Yep. That’s right! I finished the rough draft of book one last night :D. WOOHOO!!!!!

Day 24: 11297 words
Total: 54238 words

So today I’m working on book 2 for a bit. Am nearly a thousand words into it already and LOVING my heroine! Didn’t know a thing about her till now and loving her spunk!

Did a bit of reading today, too. That’s always nice :).

But now time to write a bit while watching MegaMind [again] with the kids ;).

I ended up at Panera again today and had a productive day overall. My 11yo was with me for a while and she wrote close to a thousand words. I wrote just over 8K so far, putting me over 50K total [the numbers below reflect the end of the day yesterday]. I’m hoping for a 10K day today still, but not sure yet. I’m almost done with the manuscript too – at least this draft of it so we’ll see… 🙂

Plus Panera has a new “Big Kid Grilled Cheese”.

Yum.

So as of yesterday…

Day 23: 1392 words
Total: 42941 words

More to come tomorrow.

/sigh/

I forgot to blog yesterday. I knew I should have set a reminder on my phone :p. Ah well. I had a good day. And I did have time to blog but such is life.

We had cinnamon rolls [that I didn’t have to make ;)] for breakfast. Turkey dinner with all the fixin’s for lunch [though we just make turkey breast since none of us eat dark meat really]. Took “real Thanksgiving food” to a friend whose hubby ended up in the ER/admitted to the hospital yesterday [he’s doing better but still there today]. Hung out with fam. Sent hubby and sis “Black Friday” shopping at 7 or so for sales that started at 8. 11yo went on her first Black Friday experience. She did great according to my sis. Then I went to bed but wasn’t asleep when sis/hubs/11yo got home so talked through the experience with them [about midnight].

I did hit Walmart today to return a couple things that were the wrong size for the kids. And found a bunch of movies etc for presents for about $2 each. One was $8 [for a fairly new release] and the rest were $4 or less.

Also discovered BluRay Player ONLY has an HDMI output so can’t hook it up downstairs as those are old TVs. Hooked it up in my room this afternoon and the 11yo was in hog heaven watching Titanic special features on the BluRay she got for her birthday [she can’t watch the unedited movie just yet… but she’s all about the documentaries and behind-the-scenes etc. And one of these days it’ll be on NBC again… :p]

So now, time to get my word count on. 😀

Day 21: 481 words
Day 22: 0 words
Total: 41236 words

My sister has been over for a good portion of the day baking. Some kind of apple/cranberry pie. Candied fruit in chocolate. Biscoti of some sort. Reese’s peanut butter mini cup peanut butter cookies.

Me? Most of my stuff will come tomorrow. I’m responsible for dinner itself. Mostly.

I’m also exhausted. Again. Not sure what the deal with that is.

Day 20: 1068 words
Total: 41046

Looking like I won’t get too many more in today but should this weekend :).

Well, not the actual day but the day it was announced.

So very happy for her!

But it seems like just yesterday she was this little girl:

Well, the bigger of those two little girls.

She was one of our flower girls and now she’s going to get married. How time flies…

By the way, as I write this, I’m completely ignoring how fast my own children are growing and pretending they’ll stay kids forever.

In the meantime, I’ve gotten some writing done today. Not as much as I’d hoped [but I rarely do], but some.

Day 19: 2785 words
Total: 40,000 words

One of my dear friends and critique partners – Joanna – was cheering me to 40K last night and made me promise to text her whatever the 40,000th word was since she’s an hour ahead of me and went to bed.

The funny thing?

It wasn’t even a word. It was a # at a scene break ;).

Gotta love it!

Because I’m watching Castle and he says that. I love Castle. And I love Castle and Beckett.

Today’s seen major progress in several areas though not as much in the word count area. Not a bad day so far but hoping for a bit more progress before bedtime.

And remembering I need to update the counters. Oops.

Day 18: 2069 words
Total: 37215 words

Back to work.

I did it!!!!!!!!!!!

I hit 10,000 words yesterday!!!!!!!!

Barely, but that’s all that matters ;). I also quit about eleven so I probably could have gone on a bit longer but my brain was fried.

And it still is. It’s not uncommon for me the day after a big day like that to have a “small” day. Today hasn’t been nearly as small as some days [like that whoppin’ 34 earlier this week], but I should get past the NaNo minimum of 1667 a day. I’m almost there now.

Today, I am thankful for my newly formed critique group, though we haven’t done MUCH actual critiquing for each other yet. Stacey, Kristy, and Joanna are amazing women and I am so glad God has brought them alongside me, and me alongside them, for this journey.

Plus, Stacey helped me out of a sticky plot point earlier, and Joanna lets me whine to her about my characters in IM almost daily. I’d whine to Kristy more, but she’s gonna have a baby here in the next couple weeks and I figure I shouldn’t ;).

Day 17: 10019 words
Total: 35146

I’d like to hit at least two thousand today and I’m getting to the good stuff. So back to work!