FAVORITE BOOK

I met a former co-worker at the grocery store the other night and wanted to pass along what he shared with me while we listened to the thunder and rain in the produce section.

He bought a copy of my children's book Bud the Bunny for his daughters. The youngest latched on to it in a mighty way. Recently, having been named 'star of the week', she has shared with her class at school some of her favorite things ... including Bud the Bunny.

As a self-published adventure through Lulu.com, Bud the Bunny sales are not spectacular. And because I have been focusing on ACDT, I have not had a dealer's table at a con, nor do I intend to for at least this coming year. Therefore, Bud is not hopping around much offline these days either.

But the fact that Bud is someone's favorite book, and he got to visit a room full of kids at a school, warms my heart in a way massive sales wouldn't. Massive sales would help pay my gas bill, but that's a different kind of warmth.

Thank you to everyone who has bought a Bud, online and off. We appreciate your support.

WRITEiTnOW

When I began ACDT, it was as a Microsoft Word document. After the first 20,000 words, it became unwieldy and I grew to dread opening the file, as I knew I would spend more time scrolling through it than I wanted to, looking for the appropriate places to add the words I wanted to write.

I investigated several different 'novel writing' software websites, and decided to try out WriteItNow. It is simple, easy to use, and make my first draft of ACDT possible.

I thoroughly enjoy and appreciate the easy of use of the left pane, which lets me organize my thoughts, written bits, chapters, characters, locations, events and more. It exports to text and RTF, and you can choose what pieces of your creation you want to exports. Once I found out how to change the spell check to reflect the colonial tongue instead of the imperial one, it was truly a wonderful experience to work with this piece of software.

WHAT IT TAKES TO WRITE A NOVEL

Now that I have actually written a novel, I have the appropriate qualifications to write this post. My novel is not published. My novel has not even been submitted to a publisher. My novel is written, which is an accomplishment in and of itself, especially since it is 99,338 focused words which tell a single story.

So, what does it take to write a novel?

Butt in seat, fingers on keyboard (or pen on paper if you are old school).

Simple, yet not easy.

With a full time job, I had evenings and weekends free to write. This meant I would come home from work, eat dinner, sort through my mail, and then sit my butt on the futon, put my fingers on my laptop's keyboard and write for 3-4 hours. Then I would go to bed, get up in the morning, go to work, come home and start the cycle over again. One night early in the week I would see my boyfriend for dinner, then go home and sit my butt on the futon, put my fingers on my laptop's keyboard and write for 1-2 hours. I would see him again on Saturday, late afternoon through late evening. On Sundays, I would sit my butt on the futon, put my fingers on my laptop's keyboard and write for 6-7 hours.

Sense a theme?

During those hours when my butt was on the futon and my fingers were on my laptop's keyboard writing for hours, many things did not happen. My house did not clean itself. My garden did not weed itself. My scrapbooks did not create their own pages. My artist trading cards did not craft themselves. My websites did not update themselves. Many aspects of my world ground to a halt and have remained motionless, gathering dust.

However, during those hours when my butt was on the futon and my fingers were on my laptop's keyboard writing for hours, many things did happen. A world was created. Characters were born. Plot was crafted. The daily word count grew. A novel was written. Many aspects of my thoughts that previous lay scattered on scrap pieces of paper and scribbled in a notebook coalesced into a single manuscript.

Fourteen months later, I have completed my first novel.

I've heard several people say they would like to write a novel. I have heard people say that they have started one and not finished yet. From what I've experienced, you have to want to finish writing a novel more than you want to do other things. Simple, yet not easy.

Everyone has 24 hours. It's up to you how you want to spent it. I like using mine to write novels, which means my butt on the futon and my fingers on my laptop's keyboard, writing for hours.

I have never had so much fun.

ACDT - BETA

After incorporating 75% of the alpha comments, I made the executive decision to let it go and start printing. This was also influenced by the fact that one of my beta readers was coming by to pick up his copy at 6 pm.

Beta word count is 99,338 words, which in standard manuscript format, means 402 double-side pieces of paper, printed over 1.5 hours.

That seven times means I will be able to watch the sunrise tomorrow morning.

Oh, joy.

ACDT - ALPHA

98,076 words and my first novel, ACDT, is complete. There was a sparkling grape juice and cake celebration, a dance of joy in the living room, and an amazing sense of accomplishment. From its humble beginnings as a 2006 NaNoWriMo attempt that stalled out half-way through the month, to a revised first 30 pages submitted to the 2007 Project A-Kon writer's workshop, to a completed manuscript of over 98,000 words, ACDT is my finest written accomplishment to date.

Now the real work begins.

ps. Happy New Year!