Hello lovelies!

As you might know, I spent three days without wifi (an entire weekend) recently. It was awful.
But now that I have internet access around the clock again, I feel like I can't get enough of being able to talk to all of you all the time.

Anyway, I'm generally really bad at being spontaneous (or trying new things, or doing things I'm bad at), so I thought I'd venture out of my comfort zone and do a sort of random, chatty blog post about Camp NaNo, because...why not? I'm practising being spontaneous and unleashing my weirdness, letting it attack you lovely people. Win-win.

Camp NaNoWriMo

(working) title:
the Dreamweaver

synopsis:
Nenna starts seeing the past in her dreams. She lives in a world where it is forbidden and dangerous to even mention the possibility of magic, but there is one exception to this rule. Working for the king means your magic is 'forgiven' - as long as you use it in his service. This is how Nenna and a few other unfortunate souls end up being sent to a mythical lost city in the mountains. Their mission is to find out what magic was used in its destruction, and most importantly to the king: how could that magic be harnessed now? The information they find will be used against the king's opponents, which could well include their own group. How important are their lives at the hands of the king as opposed to the lives of thousands in other lands that will surely be in danger if the king gets what he wants?

opening line:
She was twelve when she met the dead boy.

snippet: (this is from the prologue and I haven't edited it at all, so sorry if it's really messy!)

Later when she would think of it, she would be careful to note that she must have blacked out. But in that moment, she saw a boy. Reddish hair, grown out and messy, and green eyes that seemed empty and hollow, like they were missing something – like a spark should’ve been visible in them. There was a glow, however, around him. It was slight, but she could see it. She reached out again, her hand reaching for his shoulder. “Who are you?”

He frowned. “Ruderick. I’m Ruderick. Nenna, I tried to escape, and I hid – but he found me.” The words flowed out, no stopping them. “They always find us, Nenna. You should run. You must. You can’t trust them, you can’t trust anyone.” The boy was shaking his head, his red hair falling into his eyes. “I can’t stay, and neither can you. Go. Go! Don’t let them get you too.”

“I don’t understand, I don’t know what you’re saying – ”

He leaned closer, too close, his face almost against hers. “You need to go.” His hand groped for her wrist, and frightened, Nenna wrenched herself away, falling onto her back, her head suddenly swimming, her limbs heavy and weak, her vision blurred and dark at the edges. Dazed, she blinked, shook her head, gasped in a breath, then slowly another, and another, until her head could hold more thoughts than ‘I think I’m dying.’ She turned her head towards the side, where she knew the boy would be waiting her out – but saw nothing. The glow was gone, the boy was gone, but the bundle of cloth remained. Everything seemed dark all of a sudden.

Wanna know how ridiculous I am when writing?

• I found this in my draft: "NOPE > don't get rid of characters yet. Kill them later."
• I drunk typed a thousand words the other night. I remember there was a failed attempt at seduction but I honestly don't want to know how bad it is. I'll reread it next month. And then edit heavily.
• I added a character called Theod in for a chapter because I needed his help to get Nenna from place A to place B... She went and fell in love with him, and now I CAN'T GET RID OF HIM. I don't know how this happened.
• It took me two days to realise I had named a mythical, long-lost city after my cat. Oops.

Progress so far

A few things coming up on the blog

Geraldine @ Corralling Books and Joan @ Fiddler Blue's new Conversations meme goes live this Saturday! Check out the details over at Corralling Books and join by writing your own post!