Sarah Davis's Blog

I’m writing. Kind of. Well I’m putting pen to paper or rather fingers to keyboard. Currently I’m working on a NaNo from some odd years ago. I haven’t got much in. I’m starting over. I decided to set it during WWI England instead of modern day US. It’s causing a lot of research on my end. I would consider myself a history buff when it comes to WWII. While I know the basics of WWI, I don’t know nearly as much. Last week I was looking through a timeline of the events of WWI. Damn that escalated quickly.

Anyway, I’m trying to write 250 at the very least every day. I haven’t been able to of course. But I’m writing something and that the important part. I turn 30 this November. My goal is to have a novel finished by then. Even just a first draft. I need to finish something so I can feel accomplished before hitting the dreaded 3-0.

At the rate this is going I don’t think him going to make it. The 8th of this month will be 8 months until my birthday.

So wrapped up in a blanket on this chilly Spring morning trying to figure out how the hell I’m going to do this. It’s not like NaNo where I just have to get 50,000 words. I can’t map it out that way.

I imagine this is where outlining comes in handy.

I have hobby ADD…obviously. I’m constantly moving from one this to another. Recently working on Pokémon perler art and my team’s banner for work (which turned out amazing, by the way), which pushed out other things like writing, drawing, or even crocheting that blanket for my niece. Oops.

Eevee and Espeon perlers

At least it’s Camp NaNoWriMo this morning. I have my goal set at 10,000 words. I imagine if I can do at least 10k a month, I may come close by the time November comes around.

Here’s to hoping!

For once, I can finally say that I did not have a crappy year. 2015 was good to me.

I got a new job! This past July I quit my job of 3 1/2 years and started working at Amazon. When I first started, I imagined I would do my six month seasonal stint and then be out of a job after Christmas. Earlier last month, I received word that while my season stint at Amazon was ending, it was being replaced with a more permanent role. That’s right, I’m a permanent employee at Amazon. I’ve met some amazing people in the five short months I’ve been there. What started out at just a new job so I can pay the bills has turned into something I don’t mind doing. I have days where I just want to go home or I want to tell people they are stupid, but isn’t that anywhere? The down side to working at least forty hours a week is the lack of time to do anything but work. I wake up in the morning just in time to leave and when I come home I’m ready to go to bed.
Stories from the Stacks. This year we (Wicked Wordsmiths of the West) published our second anthology. We had grown wiser from our experience with Wicked Words, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any hiccups. We spent a majority of 2015 fine crafting this anthology. It got a little crazy towards the end. Some of us really like tiptoeing deadlines. Needless to say we are taking a break from all new anthology talk in 2016. We need a break. We need to get back to the basics. Back to the fun. It’s the principle Wicked Wordsmiths was founded on. I look forward to our adventures this year.
I’m going to be an auntie! I found out this fall that I was going to be an auntie. My little sister is spawning a little demon of her own. May The Force be with us. Come the end of February I’ll be Auntie Sarah. I’m excited for many reasons. Number one being that now my mother is off me and my husband’s backs about procreating. I’ll give it a year or so and she’ll be inquiring about grandchildren from me again. The next reason is I know I will be an awesome auntie. I will teach this kid about all the nerdy things in the world and hopefully she will be a little nerd like her auntie and uncle.

I do have some things planned for this year.

Vacation. With my job I get vacation time. This summer I’m hoping to be able to take some time I go visit family back in Pennsylvania. I would love to see Philadelphia again and show my husband all the cool things in my hometown. It’s only right since we live in his hometown.
Writing. I’m going to try to bunker down and get something done.
Art. The current plan is to convert the second bedroom in our apartment to an art studio/craft room for me. I’m hoping to get better at drawing and start into painting.

Here’s to 2016!

I lost NaNoWriMo…again. I’m just disappointed that I gave up again. Towards the midway point I was struggling so much I forced myself to get what little words I was getting down.

That moment when you realize that your “novel” doesn’t really have a plot, just random succession of scenes. It was stressing me out and my husband could tell. He suggested I stop forcing it. He told me to treat my story as a story and not just a way to get 50,000 words in a month. Then I realized, I had already won NaNo this year. I made words and that’s the whole point. I thought back to a Facebook post I made at the beginning on November. It read: “Feeling discouraged this NaNoWriMo? Just remember, if you only write one word for the whole month, you have succeeded.”

I’m terrible at taking my own advice. I get so caught up in the whole “I must write 50,000 words in November!” that I lose sight of what I’m doing. That as long as I write something, I’m still doing better than writing zero words. It’s much like the quote regarding running: “No matter how slow you go, you’re still lapping everyone on the couch.”

I am slow, but I am lapping.

I have surpassed 10k. Something I have not been able to do so quickly probably since I last won NaNo back in 2010. I have high hopes for this year. Those two days off on the first two days of the month really helped. I probably won’t be writing as much Tuesday through Saturday due to work, but if I can stick with it I think I got it this year.

I’m starting off strong. Like a lot stronger than I thought I was going to be. When midnight hit, I cracked open a beer and just let the word vomit flow.

Right now I’m at 3,239 words. Not good words, but words nonetheless.

Let’s do the thing!

Tis the season for some spooky stories from some wicked wordsmiths…

After a very long day at work, I came home to find my copies of Stories from the Stacks had arrived. It was exciting to once again hold a book that has my name on the inside.

Stories from the Stacks (2015)

Wicked Words and Stories from the Stacks, together at last.

Sarah:

Here it is, folks. Wicked Wordsmith Anthology 2.0

Originally posted on Marble's Words:

Coming in September 2015

A Library Anthology

View original

Sit tight, dear reader. I do have plans.

A new Wordsmiths anthology will be released soon and I’m finally getting comfortable with me new work schedule.

Updates will be posted soon.