What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk.  Head over to Jaime's page for links to find out what's up with everyone else. Here's what's up with me.
What I'm Reading

Nothing, at all. I have a good excuse though. I have been writing like crazy. See more details below.

What I'm Writing

I started my next novel. I've had a shiny new idea poking around in my brain for a couple of months now, but refused to let myself start it until I finished The Evolution of Emily. I sent EoE off to beta readers about a week and a half ago. So last week I decided to open up a new document and start drafting.

My SNI is now officially a WIP. In the past week, I've written 18k words. My novels are normally about 60k, so that's almost a third of the book, in a week. And I have so many more scenes in my head just waiting to be typed. I hadn't planned to do Camp NaNo. I never even do normal NaNo. But I fully expect to have a completed rough draft by the end of the month.

Sometimes I seriously love writing. This week is one of those times.

What Inspires Me Right Now

Myself. Seriously. Not only am I drafting like a crazy person. I also became a motivational speaker this week. I spoke to a group of students at Thomas Edison High School last Thursday. Edison is a local HS exclusively for students with learning differences. I talked at one of their assemblies about my experiences as a dyslexic author. The students were very engaged the whole time and even laughed at my most of my jokes. I feel like that's a big accomplishment in any high school, but especially inspiration worthy at a school full of teens with ADHD.

In case you're in need of some inspiration of your own, I'll share the most popular line from my presentation. I would love to be a great speller. I'd also love to learn how to fly. It's important to set realistic goals. There you have it, do you feel inspired yet?

What Else I've Been Up To

Writing 18k words in a week take up the majority of my free time. I did go to a Timbers game last Saturday though. The Timbers are Portland's professional soccer team. There are 1.5 million people in the Portland metro area and we have exactly two professional sports teams. Basketball and Soccer. Soccer might be a sport reserved for elementary school kids in most of the country, but around here the Timbers are insanely popular.

I make it to maybe two Timbers games a year. I don't have a green scarf (which all true Timbers fans wear and wave in unison during important cheers), but I still enjoy going to games. The game I went to on Saturday was especially fun, because I ended up sitting right next to Suzy Vitello (author of The Moment Before ).

I love being a part of the on-line writing community. But I have to be honest. It's even more fun to randomly run into an author friend at a professional soccer game. Sometimes, it's great living in Portland.

So what's up with you?