Camp NaNoWriMo is only a few short days away, and I’m excited!
For those not in the know, Camp NanoWrimo is the love child of NanoWriMo, a time away from the vigorous expectation of the elder namesake and it’s 50,000 words within a single month of craziness.
My story idea is a new one that I’ve been developing: a child not too school savvy who has fallen in love with only one book of his life, and it ends with a cliffhanger. The need to find the sequel to the book is strong, but it seems the author never got around to making it! What’s a kid to do? Give up?! Obviously, the answer is no!
One of my favorite features of the Camp experience is that
YOU, the amazing writer with a million other responsibilities, get to make your
own manageable goal. Forget the NaNoWriMo box; create your own!
This month I will try to write 30,000, which is about 30,000
more than I wrote for the month of February.
Ok I lied, I spent some time writing poetry.
But drafting stories is a mixture of feeling almost godlike to being reduced to a mere mortal within the same breath.
It’s not good for the blood pressure some days.
Which is why the second unique feature of CampNanoWrimo is so
valuable: bunkmates! In a forum-based discussion group, you are paired with various
people (or create your own cabin) to have a support group.
So far my bunkmates are ready for action!
Anyone else participating in CampNaNoWriMo this year?
Friday is almost
here, which means that Children of the Planes will be released into the world!
To celebrate, I
would like to spotlight those who supported me during the composing stages of
this piece:
My
husband who is my biggest creative cheerleader and proudly serves his country. Without
him making the choices that he has made, there wouldn’t have been any need to write
a book about coping with deployment.
My
kids deserve the biggest shout out. They pushed me to create this story,
brainstormed ideas with me, and were my beta readers. I may have been a bit
crazy at times trying to form ideas or asking a million questions, but they
took it like champs. Seriously, this book should have their names on it too.
My
mother for her motherly intuition to know that I’d be a published author
someday.
Aunt Mo for being the first Allaire family writing trailblazer. Check out her own published series at mjallaire.com.
The
Shenanigans Crew for always being there, reading my work when I needed a set of
grown up eyes, and for celebrating my successes like they were your own.
Joan
and Kelli, the other lady leaders of our little crew. You are my village. Their
kids are like my very own, hence why they appear within this book.
The Gabriele family for letting me burrow in the corner to write while the children took karate classes. Sometimes that was the only time in the day I was able to write.
Miss Julie for taking the time to help revise this story. I can be a hot mess of a writer. If you don’t see the hot mess, it’s because Julie caught it.
Last, but not least, there were many more who have supported my journey, friends and family who were excited when I shared news about my progress or have promised to purchase the book. I can’t thank you all enough for being part of my original fan base!
Legend tells of a heavenly chain of bookstores in the far off shores of Niantic where there are thousands of books available for a low fee. They have cats, they have playgrounds, they even offer snacks and coffee. It sounds too good to be true.
Seriously though, I knew the Book Barn in Niantic was not a legend; it exists. Part of self-control; however, is knowing that you shouldn’t go into these kinds of establishments, or you’ll walk out penniless. Staying away is a matter of fiscal responsibility.
On my birthday; however, the family and I decided to make an epic day of going to the Book Barn’s all four locations. FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER.
I’m pretty sure my family thinks it is hilarious
when I drop my very rigid purchasing stamina and splurge. What’s one more
dollar book, mom? Get all seventeen books in a science fiction series from the
1960’s!
All those books, and we barely broke over $100.
It’s been almost a year since the great book splurge
of 2018, and I’m still working through my selection.
Up on the list right now is Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina.
I noticed that there was a little insert. Robin
asked her dearest friends and family to take care of her book and to ensure it returned
to library.
I found it in a used book store, guys. Either Robin no longer has a library (Dang, did she watch Marie Kondo too?), or a loved one violated her request to return it to her personal library.
I’m pretty conflicted about this. I’m sorry Robin.
Not only do I have no ability to return it to you, but I wrote in it… a lot.
The note had me thinking:
I loan books out all the time. In fact, I’m a self-proclaimed book pusher. If there is a book that I think you’d like, I will hound you to read it, and if I have a copy of that book in my possession, it’s easier to push it onto you.
There have been a fair number of books that I have purchased,
and I won’t ask for them back. I figure there’s gotta be a good reason that someone
didn’t return it: the most likely being they never finished (or started?)
reading it, but plan to.
I loved the idea of showing the connection that these books have to my own personal library. Even if they never return, they had a spot within my illustrious Scriptorium, if but only for a small moment in time.
And maybe it’s the conditioning of my college days to
keep a mental log of commentary while reading so I can write a fifteen page
paper later on it, but even to this day I still love annotating the books that
I read. Even if it’s, “OMG what are you doing?!”
So, I made my own little inserts for the Scriptorium books. I put my web address in case anyone comes upon the book, in say a used book store, and wants to reunite it with the Scriptorium. I’m one step ahead of Robin!
I also made a blank one, in case anyone else on the internet would like to bedazzle their own personal library books. If you’d like the PSD copy to alter it to put your own ideas, email me at Faith.Allaire@yahoo.com and I will gladly email it you.
Maybe it is his video game withdrawal or the fact that he is not used to being outside for such lengthy periods of time, but Zane finds himself under constant surveillance of an alien named Jax. Jax never stops talking, trying to convince Zane that it is able to travel to an Inner Plane of the universe where an Aged is King is destroying civilization to find his lost jewel. Jax has plenty of stories to share about how the children of the Inner Plane are fighting back:
An orphan forced work in the textile factories within the Walled Cities who learns to read.
A warrior girl of the Arikara Tribes that reunites her people with the Great Herd.
An elemental boy who rescues a baby bear from wolves and learns they share a special connection.
The youngest sea captain who crashes on an island that reveals memories that had been purposely taken from him.
