Don’t think I’ve forgotten to update you as to my status on my 20k word goal! I have simply been too busy to get anything up the past couple of days.

Now, in case you’re wondering, of my final goal, I reached… drumroll please…

Eighty-six thousand out of ninety thousand!!! And we’re not going to talk about the other 1000+ words that irritated me enough to delete them in a caffeine-fueled rage. (Or the extra 2500 words I wrote into my first book.)

While it may not have been my total goal, I feel justified in saying that I don’t feel like I failed. I have been super busy with my job, my internship, handling my other book, and attending no less than three family get-togethers in the last month.

(Trust me, that’s more social interaction than I usually get.)

I also recently got the sequel to a book that I am absolutely in love with, which means that I spent a large amount of time just reading.  For those who don’t know about John Dies at the End, or it’s sequel, This Book is Full of Spiders; Seriously, Dude, Don’t Touch It by David Wong, you’re missing out on two amazing books which I would be totally more than happy to shove in your face and rub all around and hope that you could absorb words through osmosis. If you can’t, you should feel lucky that you got intimately assaulted by a crazy fan-girl with a fantastic book.

It’s a win-win either way, really.

Given that November is the month for NaNoWriMo, I know that many of you are getting out your pens and word processors and getting ready to fire up the ole’ noggin for a 50,000 word count. That’s impressive, and I don’t envy you the task of pulling that one out of your arse. I will not be doing NaNoWriMo this year, although my writing goal for the month will be to finish my second book, so it will most likely be another 10k more words and some additions to back story.

After cleaning up the final copy of my first book, The Moon God’s Curse to send out to readers and agents, I have had a couple of epiphanies in situations to correct in the second book, and so I’m going to take the opportunity to do that while they’re still fresh. See? Not feeling the failure when I have so many ideas swirlin’ around.

I know that some of you are aware that this little gem came recently:

 

Which I’m totally digging so far. There is a section in there that lists a HUGE amount of agents and publishers, and I spent HOURS digging through there and compiling a list of twenty-four agencies to contact for representation.

Today happens to be the day that I’m going to gather my materials for round one of my queries, so hopefully lady luck will be on my side, and perhaps my Maneki Neko will be able to catch something in that little good luck paw of his.

Happy writing!