The Mist of Stuart Mountain

(a Halloween story just for the fun of it. Took me 1.5 hours to write, and it hasn't been edited; they'll be lots of mistakes but enjoy anyway).

The dog howled, not barked, howled. Then stopped. The noise was preferable to the sudden silence.

Inside the vacation cabin, Thomas held an open book on his lap. It made him look like he was reading. Sue stopped in mid-knit.

“The dog?” she finally questioned her husband.

“I better check on him,” Thomas said, closing the book and putting it on the new end table made to look rustic. “Probably got his foot stuck somewhere.”

Sue rose when her husband did. “Wait. The dog would still be howling if it was only his foot.”

NaNoWriMo

National Novel Writing Month is just less than six days away! The suspense is building, like it does when someone says, "On your mark. Get set..." AND GO!

NaNoWriMo is in November and during that time, writing enthusiasts try to write a novel with a minimum of 50,000 words from scratch. The website allows you to track your progress and become friends with other writers. If you're a young writer (17 and under), you get to choose your target word count through the Young Writers Program. It's a chaotic, intense,

Book Away!

My MG Fantasy novel, White Fire, is completed for Round 1 of editing. Phew! 

It's being critiqued by my writer's group, an editor friend, and family members who have an eye for good storytelling. Then comes Round 2 of editing. I already know I left off a couple of chapters...not the whole chapters, just I forgot to put "Chapter 4" and "Chapter 5."

My poor editor friend got my pre-edited version without me realizing it. But...okay...is this good or bad? She liked it before she knew that it was not my edited version. So either she is being a little too gentle or maybe she really liked the story. I'm going with "liked the story" because I sent her the story on Thursday, she finished it

Typing up the Edits

Besides Christmas and molasses, I don't think there's anything slower than typing up the edits made on my printed out manuscript. The process is thusly:
Look down at the manuscript for scratch outs and additions.
Look up at the computer screen and scroll to that page in the manuscript.
Look down at the paper to verify where you are.
Look up at the manuscript to find the exact spot.
Look down for the changes and memorize what those are.
Look up and highlight the letter, word, sentence or passage.