DeAnna Cameron's Blog, page 25

A fresh start and a Nanowrimo reflection...

Now that Nanowrimo is finished and I'm getting serious about a new project, I thought it was time to give my writing desk a good cleaning. So here it is -- where I spend hours and hours (and hours and hours).

Looks relatively clean, doesn't it? Believe me, it won't last.

As I get involved in a new story, pictures will be printed out or cut out and posted on the cork board as the faces of characters I'm developing. I'll post notes about plot points I want to focus on, and details I don't want to...

Making it to the end of Nanowrimo...

Yup, I did it. I wrote 50,208 words during November, but I have to admit that I didn't follow the rules of the game precisely because all those words aren't part of the same story.

I know, you might be thinking that happens all the time in writing. A writer begins a story thinking it's going to go one way and then it ends up going another. That's called the creative process. But that's not what happened here.

What happened was I was happily writing a first draft of one novel until about midwa...

Just when you think you have a plan...

...everything changes.

Well, maybe not everything, but enough to make me step back, switch gears, and start again.

Up until Monday, I had been working on a novel that would've been a pretty major departure from THE BELLY DANCER. But after getting some great feedback from my editor and some soul-searching, I realize that's probably just not the best way to go just yet. So, I'm going back to a story I started working on several months ago and set aside. It's in a similar vein to THE BELLY DANCER...

NaNoWriMo Update

I'm still toiling away on NaNowriMo -- pretty much keeping up with the daily min. to get myself to 50K at the end of the month.

One thing that is frustrating me a bit is that my pages seem more like a freewrite exercise than novel pages. I'm finding myself writing off on tangents about character backstory and I know I'm not going to keep these in, but I feel like I have to write them to get them out of my system (and to better understand the characters) before I can write bona fide novel page...

Guest post: Terence Hawkins, author of THE RAGE OF ACHILLES

Terence Hawkins' debut novel, THE RAGE OF ACHILLES, a modern retelling of the THE ILIAD, debuted earlier this month. It "has the paradoxical, invigorating effect of making Homer's epic feel oddly familiar, and of highlighting its deep strangeness at the same time," says Tom Perrotta, author of LITTLE CHILDREN.

Hawkins, an author and trial lawyer, was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Yale. His work has appeared in Poor Mojo's Almanac(k), Keyhole, Pindeldyboz, Ape Culture...

4th day of NaNoWriMo

I have a whole new level of respect for people who accomplish the goal of writing 50,000 words in a month. Yesterday was the first day I even reached the daily minimum of 1,667 words (just a tad over, actually). The first two days? Not even close. So I'm already behind.


But I'm not giving up.


I'm in the middle of an interesting scene, so I think today will be a good writing day. We'll see.


I could make this post longer. Unfortunately the words won't count toward my NaNoWriMo goal, and -- well --...

I'm hanging out at Caroline Leavitt's place today...

Come by and say hi. We're talking about THE BELLY DANCER and the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and Little Egypt and some other fun stuff...

http://carolineleavittville.blogspot.com/2009/10/read-this-book-belly-dancer.html

Hurry before all the cookies and chocolates are gone :-)

Another great review...

This time from the lovely Bonita Oteri at Gilded Serpent.

Here's an excerpt:

"...author DeAnna Cameron deftly peels back the layers of Gay Nineties society and affords a richly descriptive and fascinating glimpse into the life, times and giddy excitement of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. ... The overall carnival excitement, curiosity and wonder of the Chicago Fair visitors is infectious. The pages teem with the unbridled enthusiasm and hope of our still young, shiny and new pioneer nation."

To r...

More photos from the Laguna Beach book signing...

The O.C. Register photographer who attended the book signing and belly dance showcase at Laguna Beach Books on Sept. 4 put 17 of her photos together in a slideshow on the newspaper's Web site.

You can check them out here:
http://www.ocregister.com/photos/belly-book-laguna-2565186-beach-books/pid2565203

Even if you have an agent...

...this is a great list of things to avoid in your writing, or at least what to do only after very careful consideration because as you know, I believe there are no hard and fast rules in writing :-)

http://bewarne.com/content/blog/what-agents-hate2009092/