NaNo Update, and a few book recs

It's a cold, snowy day outside, which means I'm spending way too much time staring out the window and dreaming of winter adventures...

My husband Robert skiing powder in Snowbird's Mineral Basin

Me preparing to jump a cornice at Arapahoe Basin

Me and Robert after hiking up to Highlands Bowl, at Aspen Highlands.  Skiing down, you get to enjoy some of the steepest in-bounds terrain in the state.  Great stuff.

But I'm not spending all my time fantasizing about skiing deep powder.  I'm up to 36,446 words written for the month, well on my way to 50K, with only about 9 more scenes to go to finish my first draft of The Labyrinth of Flame.  Woo hoo!

And hey, f you're looking for something to read while you wait for me to finish Labyrinth, I've got a few suggestions:

• Miserere: An Autumn Tale, by Teresa Frohock.  If you're wondering why you should check it out, Justin Landon did a feature on the book for his "Under the Radar" column on Tor.com.  I couldn't agree more that Miserere is both criminally under-read and a great story.  

• Master of Whitestorm, by Janny Wurts.  This one's a backlist title that's newly available on Kindle and other ebook formats.  I haven't read it yet myself, but I'm about to: I hear it has ice climbing!  Plus I know from reading some of Janny's many other excellent novels that a story of hers won't disappoint.  

Also, if you're in the UK, today's the release date for Mazarkis Williams's Tower Broken, third in the Tower and Knife trilogy.  I am so jealous of you UK folks; word is Tower Broken won't release here until fall 2014.  Having enjoyed the first two novels in the series, I shall be anxiously awaiting!

The German edition of The Tainted City (Stadt der Magier) has a cover & release date!

Halfway through NaNoWriMo, and I'm right around 25K words written for the month so far.  24,553, to be exact, though that number will increase further after tonight's writing session.  I'm quite pleased, especially considering I've managed it even while taking my son to visit family in Alabama, followed by coming down with a horrendous virus that knocked me flat for three straight days.  Fortunately, I've been striving for 2K per day, so when I had two days of 0 wordcount during my illness, it didn't set me back too badly!  Right now I'm at the point where I can actually count scenes until the end of my Labyrinth of Flame draft, which is pretty exciting.  Really looking forward to finishing this rough draft so I can start serious revision, the part I love most.

In other good news, the German edition of The Tainted City is officially up on Amazon.de, ready for pre-order.  Complete with new cover art and title, of course!  Die Chroniken von Ninavel: Stadt der Magier, a.k.a The Chronicles of Ninavel: City of Mages (or perhaps, City of the Mages).  Release date is May 16, 2014.  Check out the new cover!

Very atmospheric, even if the desert looks more Sahara-like than Mojave-like. For those who haven't been to the Owens Valley in California, which was my inspiration for Ninavel's environs, here's a picture:

The Mojave desert in the Owens Valley.  Lots of sagebrush and prickly pear cactus, not so many sand dunes.

But the thing about covers is, they're not meant to be exact depictions of the world within the book.  They're meant to SELL the book.  So I'm quite happy with the German cover - I think it looks intriguing and evocative, and goes quite nicely with their cover for the first book.  I hope German readers agree!

And now, back to the word mines. The end of Labyrinth is in sight...

Good luck to my fellow NaNoWriMo-ers!

Six years ago today (six?! holy crap...) I sat down to write the very first words of The Whitefire Crossing as an eager but nervous first-time NaNoWriMo participant. (That first line actually remains exactly the same as I first wrote it Nov 1 2007, oddly enough. Practically all the other words got rewritten before publication, but not the opening sentence.)  Now, six years later, I'm embarking on NaNoWriMo once more - this time hoping to close in on the end of the first draft of The Labyrinth of Flame, the final chapter in Dev and Kiran's story.

I've even signed up for NaNo officially.  (I didn't in 2007; my friends and I just aimed for 50K on our own).  This time I figure the camaraderie of the full NaNo experience could be fun - so if you're one of the dedicated souls trying to pump out 50K this month, you can find me there as ColoradoGirl.

As a published author, the first day of NaNo this time just feels like any other writing day.  I'd already upped my pace to 2,000 words a day over this last week of October, so if I can keep that pace up, I'll be in fine shape.  And 50K is likely to be less than a third of the novel, since I write long-ish books!  (The Tainted City was 176K as published.)  But that said, I can't help but be carried along on the excitement of everyone participating, both newbies and long-time veterans.  The real point of NaNo is to make your book a priority; to put aside distractions and all the criticism of your inner editor and let the story flow.  It's a wonderful experience, whatever your goals.  So good luck to everyone participating this year - may we all reach 50K and beyond!