NaNo Day 4 - November 4, 2015

Day 4
November 4, 2015
Today's Theme Song: Naughty H by FaderHead

So let's get down to what has happened in my day.

1:30 PM: Opened outline and discovered 3 scenes got mixed into two scenes. That's fine. I can deal with it. Just means I'm having to reorganize my current scenes plotted out. Maybe figure out what I'm going to do with it.

2 PM: Put on Naughty H and started my writing while doing my usual tweets with #wordcountprodding as my hashtag. Here's hoping I get a couple chapters done today.

6:20 PM: Ended up reading because of sudden wall. Listening to Naughty H, I got a spark of a muse for a long oneshot. Time to write it baby.

9:30 PM: Finally took a pain killer for my jaw. It hurts because I ended up clenching my jaw.

Today's word count is pretty much non-existent. Which isn't surprising actually. During this year, I have had many physical, emotional and mental earthquakes, so to speak. It has been a long year and I am not all that stable at the best of times.

Actually I'll eventually sit down and talk about what goes on in my mind. But that's a vlog and blog entry for a later time.

For now, I just want to say that I am writing but I am quite drugged from my doctor approved and given pain killer. Remember guys: Drugs aren't always the answer but with a lot of things, they come in handy with the proper care and doing of things. Such as Physical therapy if it's part of your body, and talking with a therapist for mental problems.

For now though, I'm going to go try and gather more questions for my vlog and to get a few more words written out. Hopefully I'll be in bed by midnight. Here's hoping yes?

Today's story bits aren't happening though. I'll have a story bits for you tomorrow, promise.

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Nano Day 3 - November 3, 2015

Nano Day 5 - November 5, 2015

Nano Day 3 - November 3, 2015

Day 3
November 3, 2015
Today's Theme Song: Cannon in D by Music That Will Make You Cry

So today was a rather late, late start. I didn't get to bed until nearly 3 in the morning so I wasn't really up and out of bed until about 2 in the afternoon. I then spent a few hours, until about 4 or so, trying to wake up due to the sudden shift in the weather. It got rather cool for lower Arizona, down into the 70's for most of the day. It's right now hovering around 61 Fahrenheit, about 16 degrees Celsius.

Or so my Google converter is telling me. I don't know.

Anyways, I gathered some questions for a video that I'm planning on doing or my Youtube channel. That'll be a lot of fun since it's about me getting to be better known by those who follow me and who want to get to know me.

I'll be recording that later on in the week, so if you have some time and want to know anything, feel free to ask. :D

But I did finally get words out and down with a stop for an adult beverage and some dinner (after 5, closer to 6 mind you). I have finally introduced the main plot line of the story and the rest of the main characters. Such as they are.

I don't have much to say beyond I am going slowly insane right now and hope that all of you are doing good!

Okay, so now, time for the peek.
Last time I shared a peek from chapter 1. Chapter 2 is today's.

Alexander had always known how to kiss, how to make him gasp and cling to him, press up against his body and moan softly in pleasured delight. Even when they had met so long ago, when their parents had joined together as husband and wife, he had known. Slow and deep, tongue tasting and stroking over his tongue, teeth and roof of his mouth. Teasing out sounds of bliss as they tasted and teased.

And once more I do have to tell you guys this:

A reminder: Any and all peeks into the story are unedited and are not rewritten at the time of this posting. The final product may be vastly different than what you see here. This is the first draft of this novel after all. Please be patient in regards to typos, grammar mistakes, and the over usage of some words.

Thank you.

National Novel Writing Month 2015 Novel: When Mine Eyes Close

Nano Day 2 - November 2, 2015

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Nano Day 4 - November 4, 2015

Nano Day 2 - November 2, 2015

Day 2
November 2, 2015
Today's theme song: Erquan Yingyue by Jia Peng Fang

So far today this is what I have done.

8:20 AM: Woke up and turned on computer before shifting pile of clothes over to bed. I really need to go through those and I shall when I have a little more energy and I'm not about to fall over dead.

8:30 AM: Ate food (cinnamon raisin toast made with Sara Lee Cinnamon Raisin bread) while I loaded up my GDoc for When Mine Eyes Open. Started to reread over yesterday's writing.

8:40 AM: Sent message to friend to make sure she was up and ready for day. She was waiting for clothes to be delivered. Wrote a few words.

9 AM: Discovered ride was taking another friend home to teach her how to use her new-used washer machine.

9:30 AM: Ride decided to do some more clothes for friend. She desperately needs them and she's getting them done but she had nothing so I decided to nom on a pancake covered sausage cause I was actually hungry and had to take a minor pain killer with it.

9:45 AM: Contemplated my blog post for the day and made some notes on it.

10:20 AM: Ride finally comes, picks up friend and then me. We head to Aarons so ride could pay bill on way to Sam's club. Picked up a USB wall charger (neon/lime green) and pens at the dollar store right next to it. Left for Sam's.

10:30 AM: Arrived at Sam's. Spent the next 10 minutes getting various things. Butter, Sugar, Powdered sugar, ect for upcoming holidays. I go through a LOT of sugar, butter and flour. 25 lb's (about 11 kg) of sugar, 4 lb's (about 1 kg) of butter and powdered sugar each, and I still have to go back for MORE butter next month. Along with chocolate chips (72 ozs or 4 kg per bag), shortening, and maybe some specialty butters that they have.

11 AM: Leave Sam's and head to Albertson's with a quick pit stop to drop off cold stuff at friend's place. My butter and a few other things are with her. Will get them sometime next week.

11:30 AM: Arrive at Albertsons with ice cream cones from Burger King in hand. Enjoy for 10 minutes, waiting for a scooter to get back from whereever it is being used/left. Decide to say "screw it" around 11:45.

12:50 PM: Finally get out of the store and head home with meat, ice creams, crusts, easy to make dinners, eggnog (I need it to cut some adult eggnog. They put blended whiskey along with rum and brandy into it, and not enough dairy, cinnamon or nutmeg, so I need to cut it to drink it. Remember! Don't drink or drive, and when drinking, drink safe.), creamer (peppermint mocha and pumpkin spice), and a few other odds and ends.

12:55 PM: Yes, my apartments are right across from Albertson's. I can walk over there if I need to. Unloaded, put things away, sat down and died.

1:20 PM: Got food to take a pain killer (something that you should always do so that the pain killer doesn't hit quite so hard but still does its job properly), took the pain killer, and continued to read what I had written.

2 PM: With pain gone, mostly, I started to work on this blog post and my next chapter of my story.

4 PM: Cousin and uncle swing by for recycling and the such before leaving.

5:29 PM: Started to tweet my Word Count progress with the hashtag #wordcountprodding. My twitter can be found here.

5:30 PM to 10:30 PM: Worked on writing the chapter, talked to some people on Forward Motions chat room. Read a few tweets. Watched some Youtube. Cursed the youtube when it futzed out on me. Got it working after a few while helping friend with her own stuff. Talked with another friend. Wrote some more.

FINALLY got my chapter done while thinking of what the second chapter was going to have to say in the long run. That's going to be fun since I have to tweak my outline. This is why I don't outline past 10 chapters. I never quite stick to the original.

Whoops.

Anyways!

I have to say as I wrote Chapter 2 of When Mine Eyes Close, I found myself writing in an experimental way for when it comes to scenes with sex or anything sexual. I'm usually very detailed with my sex/sexual scenes, sometimes boarding on Explicit. But that's with the fanfiction that I use to practice my trade with.

But this is one of few times that I have written original characters in such a sexual scene that isn't a part of my Butterfly series. A Butterfly's Life series is just chock full of sex though, even though it originally started out as a YA series.

I'll talk about that in another post at another date.

I'm here to talk about the here and now with When Mine Eyes Close. I'm trying to be a bit more...elegant I suppose would be the word. I suppose the music of Jia Peng Fang is to be blamed for this with the elegance of the music filling my head as I write. Just such a beautiful sound that even violin's have a hard time reaching.

I sit here though and wonder. What makes a sexual scene 'erotic'? Or 'beautiful'? Or even just 'arousing'? What does it really mean?

Then I remind myself that it's all up to the person who reads it to find the scene what they want it to be. For some my sexual scenes are arousing, hot. For others, they're sweet and loving. And for yet others, they're unwanted bits that they tend to skip over for whatever reason.

It is up to me though to write the story that is coming from my mind the best way that I can. And that as writers, we can not truly control what a reader takes away from our stories or scenes. All we can do is write it.

Put it out there.

And watch it take flight on wings of imagination before we move onto the next tale that spins in our heads.

Now for the part that you are probably waiting for. A peek into the story.

The first one was from the first paragraph of the Prologue (link to that peek down below).

This second one is from Chapter 1.

“Markus?”

Jerking out of his memories, one hand rubbing at the scar of his curse on his hip, Markus turned around and stared at his lover and mate. “Sorry, did you say something?” he asked, his voice sounding small, making Alexander frown.

Walking over, the slightly taller man ran a hand through soft black hair that spilled down Markus’ back, green eyes staring up at him, unfocused.

“Oh, love, were you thinking of that night?” Alexander asked softly, pulling his lover close, hand tugging his night shirt up to get at soft skin. Spreading his hand over the other’s back, he took in the scent of blackberries and toffee, smiling as Markus pressed against his body.

“Yes,” Markus admitted after a few minutes, resting his head on Alexander’s shoulder, sighing happily as he relaxed. “I thought I had left you nude in our bed,” he said, fingers stroking gently over his lover’s back.

This time, obviously, it's a little bit of a longer peek due to the very nature of the dialogue and the set up. 

They are old. The full story will come out in later chapters, but the story itself is kind of sad. And you'll get more peeks as I go along this month.

A reminder: Any and all peeks into the story are unedited and are not rewritten at the time of this posting. The final product may be vastly different than what you see here. This is the first draft of this novel after all. Please be patient in regards to typos, grammar mistakes, and the over usage of some words. 

Thank you.

S.L. Lewis

National Novel Writing Month 2015 Novel: When Mine Eyes Close

Nano Day 1 - November 1, 2015, 6:47 PM - Arizona Time
Nano Day 3 - November 3, 2015

Nano Day 1 - November 1, 2015, 6:47 PM - Arizona Time

Hello one and all! I'm so glad to see you here this lovely day. It is the first day of Nano and as you can see by my nice little ticking clock to the side there, I have 29 days to get to 50K.

I have written the prologue of "When Mine Eyes Close" and I'm working on chapter one. Hurrah!

Okay, so I'm just here to update you guys and post the widgets here now.

First the current percentage of my Nano done:

And the Word Count:

And finally my Calendar: 

Now that I have that all done, I have a bit of the story as I did promise to share just a bit of every chapter. :D Just a tiny bit though.

It started when they were canning goods for the winter, meat in the smoker along with some that was drying for later months. Markus was humming softly as he used the canning hook to draw out the jars that had just finished, putting them onto a towel to dry for the moment. Alexander was sealing, slowly and painstakingly, away the flour that they would use over the long months.

Please do remember that this is UNEDITED. It will change when I start the rewriting/editing/rewriting/editing process. But this is just a little something.

I hope that you all enjoy. :D

National Novel Writing Month 2015 Novel: When Mine Eyes Close 

Nano Day 2 - November 2, 2015

National Novel Writing Month 2015 Novel: When Mine Eyes Close

Working Title: When Mine Eyes Close
Genre: Supernatural Horror
By: S.L. Lewis
Started: November 1, 2015
Finished: Unknown at this time

Summary: When they had been cursed, the users of Magic were just learning to balance life next to those who followed Religion and Faith. When they had been cursed, the Salem Witch Trials had just barely happened, leaving innocent victims dead and families torn apart. When they had been cursed, they had just become step-brothers.

They hadn't expected to cursed by their Priest.

So they had waited.

They had waited for so long to finally get them.

Centuries really.

Waiting for those who had cursed them to be reborn, for their souls to come back to the Living and to gather once more in their little town of Redbrom. But they didn't have to wait any more. The one's who had come together to curse them had been reborn and they were all there. All teenagers.

All ready to be show that Karma got those who deserved it. Ready to show that sometimes though, Karma needed some help.

And they were that help.

They couldn't wait for it.

This is just the start of my new story When Mine Eyes Close. The title above is a working title, so it might change as I write and rewrite this story. I'm rather looking forward to this whole thing, I really am.

This story shall take twists and turns that I'm hoping will be new and amazing.

The supposed "good guys" shall not be so good, and the supposed "bad guys" shall not be so bad themselves, but rather forced into such a place due to circumstances. I'll be exploring death, destruction, the mind, history, sexuality, and the dark depths of the human soul in this book.

I can't wait for it.

It's one of those books that have been sitting in the back of my mind, teasing me. Growing and planning without me noticing it doing so. It started out with an idea for a murderous couple who were trapped long ago because one of them dared to say "No" to someone with power.

From there, it grew and changed. It went from just a single night stretched out with deaths galore, to at minimum a week's worth of deaths in the book.

Thank you to Ester, who was kind enough to help me figure out a few of those creative deaths. You have helped quite a bit.

I hope and pray as I write this that it will let me actually finish it. I have a feeling that it shall.

So join me as I take a leap into the depths of despair and pain and death in this woven tale of horror.

Nano Day 1 - November 1, 2015, 6:47 PM - Arizona Time

Nano Prep 3 - Cleaning Up My Space 1

So as a part of my preparations for Nano, I take pictures of my space and then...I clean. I clean it all. Every single inch of the room. This takes me a few days since I am on some limited mobility, but not to bad.

Still, it's kind of hard to do a lot of what I need to do in just a single day.

So for now, this is the Before Cleaning.

My messy, messy bed and fan. The fan is on. 

The camera just makes it look as if it's not.

Yes, that's a pill bottle. That's prescription Ibu that I need to refill.

This is the view from my chair and includes my mouse and wire shelving there.

I need to reorganize my shelf once more.

Yes, that's my leather notebook that I love so very dearly. 

In this Picture, it's opened up to my new plot for Nano. 

The view from my door way. 

The bag that is hanging on the door is full of wires and such. 

I need to go through that.

This is what's next to my chair!

The box with the plate holds my snacks for Nano.

The Blue bag next to said box holds candy.

The basket with the nice headphones and next to the modem is just catch all.

Yes, that's nail polish remove in it. 

And yes, that's a ruler sitting on a book. 

Just so you can REALLY see it upclose and personal.

Yeah, I really need to clean up that clutter. *sighs*

And finally we have a full on pic of my baby. 

This laptop has gotten me through two Nano's so far! Let's see if it'll help me get through a third.

Attached to it on the left is the blue lap fan that I use with this laptop. 

Otherwise, cooked hands.

I am hardwired into my net. It costs way to much to have wifi okay?

On the right side, I have my keyboard, which you can see in the background, and my mouse.

I also have my blistex lip blam (berry), a green pen and a purple mechanical pencil.

I must buy more pens. I'm running low. 

Bad things happen when I run low. *nods*

The next set of pictures will be on October 31st and will have (hopefully) an organized room!

Until then, byes!

Preparing for NaNo 20-15 Part 2: Build Up

We are in the last count down up to National Novel Writing Month! Goodness, only 23 days until the end?

Wow. I'm shaking my head and bouncing in anticipation for the start of this.

I have no doubt that things will be stressful and exciting and lovely.

And will leave me a gibbering mess at the end of it. I have no doubt of it.

But what am I doing to prepare it?

Well, let's get things set up and plotted out right. I shall break down things for what I'm doing. On the Nano Prep forum boards, there are a few that ask "What's in your NaNo survival kit?" and asks about what you are doing to prepare for Nano.

I think I'll go over my survival kit first.

• My trusty (somewhat) laptop, Lil' Bastard. Why do I call it that? Because this Probook 4430s is a heavy pain in the ass okay? It's a heavy pain in the ass but it has gotten me through 2 Nano's so far and is going to get me through a 3ed.
• Mini IPod: It's a little 2 GB one that has a 15 hour battery. I have most of my music collection on it along with it on my ITunes. Must make sure that it's ready. 
• Pandora music lists: I have several actually. KPop/JPop, KRock/JRock, heavy metal, 70's Music, ect. Good mix of music to enjoy while writing. Especially the hard rock stations for when I'm cackling like an insane killer and killing off the characters. 
• Youtube lists: Preferably with a mix of J/KPop, J /KRock, some BabyMetal (preferably Doki Doki Morning just to really screw with the idiots outside of my window's head), and good horror movies.
• Netflix: My friend is happily sharing it with me for the moment so I'm marathoning shows as I work hard to get ready for this and building My List up for my viewing pleasure. 
• Hulu: I have animes (simlicast in some cases) and shows running around that I'm currently watching. I'm really loving the fact that I just have to wait 24 to 48 hours after the show is on TV and can see them on my computer. 
• FMWriters chat room:  I find this actually really helpful! I can chat with my friends, exchange word counts and talk plot as I write. :D Even with friends who are states away from me. If not countries. I'm loving it.
• Lip balm: My lips chap so I kind of need this something fierce. I have several sticks though so I'm good. :D
• Snacks: I have granola bars, poptarts, and nutrigrain bars. I'm going to be getting more though. 
• Drinks: I have flavored sparkling waters (which I have gotten about 6 bottles of them), Crystal Ice drinks (it's flavored water with juice okay?), some iced tea and Gatorade. I also have Gatorade powder and Nestle Iced Tea Lemon flavor powdered to make. I also have several packets of Koolaid and I'm happy with it.
• Candy: I want to hit the post Halloween sales and I shall do so on the Second. For now though I'm nibbling on Candy Corn. 
• Notebooks: I have so many of the damn things running around that it's not funny. I'm quite happy with the happy with them. I also has several sets of filler for my leather journal. *pets it*
• Pens: I actually have to go and stock up on new pens here soon. *sighs* That's going to be oh so much fun. Really. 
• Games to play while thinking of plot points or ways to kill off characters: This is actually kind of needed for my mental state. I can just relax with the game and let my mind run rampant.
• Tissues: I need these because I do have allergic reactions to the crop pollen and flowering bushes outside of my apartments. I tend to sit there and go through four or five tissues a day. 
• Instant Messagers: Yahoo, Hangouts, Skype, I have them. I use them. I need them to keep in touch with my friends. 
• Google Doc: I have this all set up. Black background with neon green text in Handlee or Alice. :D I am a happy girl. All of it is set to make it easier on my eyes while I write. I like this feature. 

Now, what am I going to do to get ready for Nano now that it's getting closer?

• Get More Pens: I need to run to Walmart and do that. I need to get that done and out of the way.
• Get the rest of my snacks: Yep, going for more.
• Finish outlining the first 10 chapters: I know what I need to do and the first 10 chapters is my first part of my scenic, if not bloody, hike. 
• Do the rest of my laundry
• Unfuck my space: This one is going to be interesting since I can't do it until two days before Nano starts. The laundry will be a month long thing though. Fun times. 

I think that I'm done with everything and ready to start getting things ready! *goes to do so*