Holly Walrath's Blog, page 30

NaNoWriMo Day 18

Day 18 of NaNoWriMo. I'm working on Story #6, which is a historical fiction about Virginia Woolf. Only 733 words so far today. I'm not sure if I'll be able to come back and add more, but I did some good research too so that's fine. 

Here's a snippet for you: 
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We are seeking a barrel grinder. Not the ornate, decorated kind. That would not do. For our love we require a squinty-eyed man with a skinny girl doing the work of drawing in a crowd, the man’s long fingers wrapping around the handle and cranking away, the girl with a too-bright smile and her hands flung open to the sky. We require the music of London—street criers and a man selling vegetables and another hawking sandwiches. 

NaNoWriMo Day 17

I took a brief break from updating for a week or so to clear my head, but I'm going to try to get my posts updated, if only for my own sake :)  Today I managed 2,476 words. 

Here's an excerpt: 
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I don’t say that Zara suffered from migraines and hyper-stimulation syndrome. She gained forty pounds in mere weeks. She lost hair, chunks of her glorious hair clogging up the drain and I’d clean it out, on my hands and knees next to the shower, convincing myself this is what I wanted in life. She was constantly thirsty, I’d bring her tap water with no ice, because anything made her feel full, and she’d vomit it up, just pure water and stomach acid. Zara’s skin went hard and dry, and once she cracked a joke about how now she was turning to rock. That’s when I knew it was time to give up trying. 

NaNoWriMo Day 9 + 10

Oh November, you cursed month. It's day 10 of NaNoWriMo and here's my update! I wrote 1984 words today and 1631 yesterday. Look at me, all keeping on track. Yesterday I got home from working in Houston with a sore throat and sent myself to bed early. This morning I managed to pull myself back out of bed and knock out my words before doing an interview for a podcast. Tomorrow I will be working at the Writer's Family Reunion at Writespace and I have to drive in with my husband in the early early morn, so we'll see how long this lasts, ha. 

Here's some pretty words for you to enjoy from my WIP story #4: 

At the head of the group is one man who doesn’t look like he belongs. He’s got gold hands. About one in a hundred people on the train wear some kind of burn-wear. It’s not that uncommon, just feared, especially when it’s like this man’s wear. The gold hands are luscious, liquid gold seeping up his fingers and ending in seeping rivulets at the top of his forearms. It doesn’t hurt that he’s good looking himself, with sharp blue eyes and dark hair that’s shaved beneath its long locks. 
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New Interview: Spider Road Press

I was interviewed by Patty Flaherty Pagan of Spider Road Press about my writing process and flash fiction. Patty is the founder of Spider Road Press, a Houston-based small press publishing writing by and about strong women, and I was delighted to get a chance to chat with her.

Read it here! 

NaNoWriMo Day 7 + 8

It's day 8 of NaNoWriMo and I'm still (mostly) on track. My story is definitely trickier than the previous two (sex, drugs, and mood rings, anyone?), but I think I'll figure it out. Yesterday I hit 1327 words and today 1642 words. A bit short of my goal, but I hope to catch up over the weekend. 

Here's an excerpt of Story #3: 

“You can create nightmares?” I ask, starting to get the point. I step back to the case. The nightmare ring is a slim black band. The ring Jonas pointed out as death is pale white and set with a single pearl. “What are the space and time rings for?” 

NaNoWriMo Day 6

​I had a good word count day today, thanks to some words I had pre-written that I worked into my current story (We're on Story #3 now!) so my count for today is 2284. 

Here's a teaser: 

I kneel over his unconscious form and bring my hand to his face. I place my fingers over his thin skull, the finger with the mood ring on his temple, cradling him like a lover, I slip into the deep basement of his subconscious. 

NaNoWriMo Day 4 + 5

I'm late on updating today as my phone decided to die this weekend and I had to go get it fixed. However I am back up and running!

Yesterday I wrote 1143 words and today 1958. 

I've found that in some cases, it has helped to break my NaNo sessions into two parts when I have the time. My new story is somewhat research-heavy, so this has given me time for reading. 

A short excerpt! 

Amelia set her head against the wood of the car’s open window frame and began to dream. Her body swooped beside the car, her arms held out, her hair a ribbon behind her. Skin tingling, she shot towards the sun. The atmosphere was like the barrier of water in a swimming pool, glass meant to be broken. Amelia’s body shot through it, headed toward the stars, which lived behind the sun. Like great floating marbles, the stars called to her body. If she drew close enough to one, it took her into its molten gold core and like the pit at the center of a peach she curled up and became hard, brittle. 

NaNoWriMo Day 3

For Day 3 of NaNo, I caught most of my words at random parts of the day, which is interesting. I've finished draft of Story #1! (Woohoo!) and have moved on to Story #2. This one's got a lot more historical context, but I will likely be able to return to that later. For right now, I'll just be fleshing out the story. 

A tweeny bit from today's writing: 

Jenny though about how when she was in high school her brother crashed his car on her birthday. She thought about how he once told her, “You’re so lucky.” She tried to think of something good, some memory that was pleasant or at least not so bad. She couldn’t place anything, her mind was a sieve for bones. 

NaNoWriMo Day 2

It's NaNoWriMo Day 2 and I'm already feeling the burn. This morning the hotel we're staying at for World Fantasy Con had a fire alarm test at 6am, so we blearily stumbled out of bed at 8 to find coffee. Thankfully, we found a little french cafe and I was able to get in 1,213 words. Not as much as yesterday, but that's all I'm going to have time for I think. 

Here's a bit of today's writing: 

“It’s all damp now,” Chao said, running his wet fingers over the little house. It was a coffee shop. Once it was down in the lake, all the little ghosts would swarm into it and fill its windows with filtered light, smeary and hot, and they’d stand on the stoop and drink coffee and talk to each other. 

NaNoWriMo Day 1

Welcome to NaNoWriMo! I hope that you've kicked off your first day right. I'll be updating my blog with my word count each day to keep myself motivated and so you can follow along if you want. I'm writing 10 short stories in 30 days. 

Day 1 is a story about a city of ghosts sunk in a lake. 

Here's an excerpt from today's writing:     In the water, a city began to wake. Lights blinked on, murky in the silt. Little people went out onto balconies to smoke. Cars began to move on the sunken roads, their headlights pinpricks wavering through the city. A Ferris wheel came alive and began to turn, reeds clinging to its carts. Bubbles rose from bakeries and cafes getting ready to roll up their shutters for the day ahead. 

     I wish I were down there, Jenny thought.