It's that time of year again!  National Novel Writing Month.  I'm so excited this year and for good reason.

1. I have a stellar local writing group.  Last November, a local writer contacted me wanting to put together a group.  We are in a strange situation here because our "region" on the NaNoWriMo site is Germany.  All well and good except those meeting and forum threads are in, you guessed it, German.  I asked the NaNo admins to give us "Military Writers Abroad" our own region, but they declined.
So, in January, we created our own little writing group and there are four of us that meet once a month and talk about writing, publishing, editing, proofreading, blogging and much much more.  I've never known other writers or met with people to talk about writing at all.  In fact, before last year, I've never owned up to being a writer at all, so this is really so, so great to meet with writers and chat the way we do.  They are so good for my soul.  Words can't describe.  In fact, one of them is actually a published novelist, and ridiculously talented.  Check her out!


2. This will be my SECOND novel.  Yes, it's true, my first novel, Hereafter is complete.  Sort of.  It's complete, but as far as first novels go, I don't know if I'll ever feel it's really complete.  I'm 25% through my "final" round of revisions.  Know one really knows before writing that first novel how incredibly hard it is, or how complex it will be, or how frightening it is to let it go into the world.  My friend, the published one, has assured me that the first one takes the most time, years in her case.  And years in mine too really.  If you had told me in November of last year that I would still be revising Hereafter a year later, I would have frowned, aggressively.  I had dreams of having that thing revised and queried by April.  But writers learn the lessons the hard way.  I rushed it and was too excited.  Now, I'm taking my time.  I'm running it through revisions relentlessly before even sending it back out to Beta readers.  Patience, my friends.  When it does make it into your hands, I want it to be perfect.

3. I have a degree in this shiz.  I did it!  In April, I officially became a college graduate with a fancy diploma saying I have been trained in the ways of writing creatively.  In short, this doesn't mean much. Few other degrees mean less than a creative writing degree.  But I don't care.  I did it and I have the piece of paper to prove it.  I got a degree in the craft that means the very, very most to me.

So, that is why I'm excited about this November.  And I'm so ready.  More ready than I have ever been.   I have been Pinteresting, outlining, character sketching and getting so ready.

Now, the question you've all been waiting for.  What is the novel I'm going to write?

Well, there's a little Steampunk.  In a futuristic Prague.  With street performers.  Some magic, some love, some cute boys playing fiddles and hot ones doing magic.  Pretty girls dressed like angels and gypsies.  Creepy clock-makers and wicked, people-chasing gargoyles.

The working title is The Fiddler and the Angel, and it's the first book in the series: The Bohemia Chronicles.

I'm very excited about this project.  To read the official blurb, check out my NaNoWriMo profile here.

Are you doing NaNoWriMo?  Tell me about your project and your username so we can be writing buddies!