Featured Authors

June 26, 2013

JuNoWriMo Featured Author: Linda Hamonou

Meet some of your fellow JuNo WriMos in our Featured Author series each Monday and Wednesday during June.

Background

I started to write as soon as I could hold a pen and pestered everyone around to have them read my stories. After high school I entered university and stopped writing as much as I used to, it seemed that I couldn’t find the inspiration anymore. It’s only when a friend told my about NaNoWriMo in 2009 at the end of my PhD that I decided to start writing again. I won NaNoWriMo that year in 20 days and started to accumulate the experience with that sort of contest until now. I wrote 6 finished novel drafts, two of them have been self-published and one vampire story still unfinished. I participated to script frenzy as well, I have a finished script but I’m not much of a script writer.

JuNoWriMo Plans

I haven’t decided yet on my JuNo novel. I’m still pondering between three possibilities: The first one is to start working again on “Vampire Heart” and to finish it. My recent blog post about it has been well received. The second possibility would be a sequel of my demon novels which would be called “Blue Angel” or “The rise of the angels”. This one doesn’t have a plan yet, only ideas flying around and waiting to be caught. The third one is called the “Bayard’s house”, I already have one or two parts for it but nothing consequent. I would use secondary wizard characters from the demon novels and from “Attic Mirror” as main characters. I seems to be lighter and more fun than the two others at least for the moment but it requires a lot of planning as well. All those are fantasy novels for young readers.

Backstory and Behind the Scenes

Map of Europe which should evolve with Viorel's progression — Map of Europe which should evolve with Viorel’s progression. Starting point: Sighişoara

I’m interested in Magick and supernatural characters who are not human or are humans with powers. I like to scientifically analyze the possibilities. I also like to travel and my characters tend to travel a lot. In “Vampire Heart”, Viorel is taking an odyssey from Transylvania to western Europe (he is in Praha so far) and he should arrive in Russia and China.

My demon novels started with a love story and is continuing with mysterious ancient gods being reborn in the Demon World and people trying to stop them by all dirty means possible. The “Bayard’s house” is inspired of course by Harry Potter I want to follow a long line of Wizards and see how they evolve in the magical world I created. As all my worlds are linked together through a special place, the magic involved is different for every kind of characters which makes it more complex and enjoyable to write and I hope to read.

If I work on Vampire Heart, I hope to at least finish one volume (currently at 53235 words), as I am hoping to make it a trilogy. If I work on any other not yet started novels, I hope to pass half way through the first draft.

Find Linda:

Twitter | Facebook | Blog | Goodreads

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June 24, 2013

JuNoWriMo Featured Author: Christen Krumm

Meet some of your fellow JuNo WriMos in our Featured Author series each Monday and Wednesday during June.

My name is Christen, and I’m a dreamer. I’ve always been a dreamer, and I could never decide what I wanted to be when I “grew-up”. For a while it was a doctor, then an actress (which is funny since I can’t act, or preform in front of crowds), and there was a short stint I wanted to be a tornado chaser. All the while I was writing. I remember at six years old writing my first book about a dollhouse and the dolls that lived in it. Eventually everything else faded away, but writing stayed—that and being a mommy and I figured I could do both.

My current project, working title The Black Knight, is a YA Fiction semi-dystopian? I’m not quite sure how to categorize it, but it’s set in the not too far future. The United States has been fracture between New America (the majority of the East coast) and Southern Republic (Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana). There are car chases, damsels in distress, and romance.

The Black Knight was originally going to be one book, adult fiction, and somehow it was based off of the movie Speed (but is nothing like Speed, so I’m not sure what Speed has to do with it — maybe I was just watching it while I came up with the story line), but I quickly realized I’m not cut out to write adult fiction and my story somehow morphed into a trilogy.

I’ve been working on this story in some way or another since I was about thirteen. Now, being twenty-seven and with a goal of having something, anything, finished by the time I’m thirty, I’m really feeling the fire under me. It’s currently about half written—I’ve been writing on it seriously since January/February of this year and I’m hoping to finish it up during JuNo.

I blog about writing and life at ChristenKrumm.com, Tweet at @ChristenKrumm, and Instagram under KrummCake. I love meeting new people and would be thrilled if you stopped by and said hello!

Bio: Christen is a book lover by default. She solemnly swears to always have a pile of books or two (or four) around her house for you to trip over. She graduated from the University of Arkansas Fort Smith with a BA in English in 2007. She’s a coffee drinking, stay-at-home mom and Nester at Litfuse Publicity Group by day and a writer by night. She currently resides in a semi-small Arkansas town, with her rock star, super-hero husband, daughter E and son D.

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June 19, 2013

JuNoWriMo Featured Author: Lisa Voisin

Meet some of your fellow JuNo WriMos in our Featured Author series each Monday and Wednesday during June.

My name is Lisa Voisin and I’m a young adult fiction author. Last year was my first JuNoWriMo, and I’m happy to say I completed it, by writing the first 50,000 words of a YA paranormal romance called The Warrior (a sequel to my debut novel, The Watcher, which was published by Inkspell Publishing in March). I finished the rest of the first draft of The Warrior back in December and I’ve been revising it ever since.

As far as writing goes, I’m a bit of a pantser. I tend to write a book from start to finish and see what I’ve got once I’m done the first draft. This process is fun and freewheeling, but it relies very heavily on edits and revisions to make the novel readable.

For JuNoWriMo this year, I’m going to try something completely different: planning my novel first. Yes! I’m hoping to be a recovering pantser and learn to plot first! The idea actually makes me really nervous and reminds me of things like taxes or housecleaning. I’m afraid if I know everything that’s going to happen, I’ll lose interest.

As far as this year’s JuNoWriMo goes, what I’ve got so far is some character ideas and a premise. I’m thinking it will be a YA fantasy. Other than that, I’m keeping pretty quiet about it, just in case I change my mind, fly by the seat of my pants, and write something completely different!

If you know of any great planning/plotting tips, or links to them, please let me know in the comments below! Or, if you’re a pantser (or recovering pantser) too, I’d love to hear from you. Which process works best for you?

About Lisa:

A Canadian-born author, Lisa Voisin spent her childhood daydreaming and making up stories, but it was her love of reading and writing in her teens that drew her to Young Adult fiction.

A self-proclaimed coffee lover, Lisa can usually be found writing in a local café. When she’s not writing, you’ll find her meditating or hiking in the mountains to counteract the side effects of drinking too much caffeine!

Though she’s lived in several cities across Canada, she currently lives in Vancouver, B.C. with her fiancé and their two cats.

Find her: Twitter | Facebook | Website | Blog

About the Watcher

Millennia ago, he fell from heaven for her.

Can he face her without falling again?

Fascinated with ancient civilizations, seventeen-year-old Mia Crawford dreams of becoming an archaeologist. She also dreams of wings—soft and silent like snow—and somebody trying to steal them.

When a horrible creature appears out of thin air and attacks her, she knows Michael Fontaine is involved, though he claims to know nothing about it. Secretive and aloof, Michael evokes feelings in Mia that she doesn’t understand. Images of another time and place haunt her. She recognizes them—but not from any textbook.

In search of the truth, Mia discovers a past life of forbidden love, jealousy and revenge that tore an angel from Heaven and sent her to an early grave. Now that her soul has returned, does she have a chance at loving that angel again? Or will an age-old nemesis destroy them both?

Ancient history is only the beginning.

Check out The Watcher Book Trailer: http://youtu.be/ukoCDlW05-Y

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June 17, 2013

JuNoWriMo Featured Author: Brooke Carpenter

Meet some of your fellow JuNo WriMos in our Featured Author series each Monday and Wednesday during June.

The first novel I attempted to write was a children’s’ fantasy called ‘Jenny & The Mystical Land’. I was about 10 years old, and I loved making up my own worlds and creating unusual and unique creatures. The story was about a young girl who discovered a portal behind a locked door in her house and she was transported into a mystical land full of dryads, shape shifters and a heap of other mythical creatures. She was then sent on a journey by the fairy queen to retrieve a stolen object. Throughout her journey she made new friends and discovered secrets about her life that had been kept from her. I never finished writing the story, but I’ve written about 5 different variations of the beginning of the novel.

I attempted my next novel when I was 13. It was a horror/adventure story called ‘Shadowfire”. It tells the story of a teenage girl, Allira, who discovers she’s one of the seven guardians of these extremely powerful stones. The guardian of the Shadow Stone, Sirus, becomes consumed by the dark magic in his stone and becomes power hungry for the other stones. So Allira, with the help of the guardians Azalea and Zane, hunt down the other guardians to protect them and rise up against Sirus’ power. I never finished this novel either, but it has become a personal favourite of mine and I hope to one day finish it.

I started the last novel I attempted to write with the help of my friend Grace. It was an adventure/fantasy called ‘Tangled Thorns’ and is the longest novel I’ve written so far. It tells the story of a young werewolf girl named Vanita who is tortured by her village when they discover what she is. Vanita is then saved by a nearby Alchemist, who takes her back to his hut, to help her recover. The alchemist’s daughter then has a vision of an oncoming war between the humans and the mythical creatures and it is up to them to stop the war before it comes to pass.

For my JuNoWriMo novel I am going to write a collection of short stories in a range of different genres, but mainly horror. I have currently written two short horror stories for school assignments, ‘Ice Shard’ and ‘Lurking Shadows’, which I’m going to re-write and add to the collection. I hope to have about 10 short stories when I’ve finished and the 50,000 word count, but I’ll be happy with 25,000. ‘Ice Shard’ starts off with young adult, Genevieve, walking home from work in the snow when a man comes out of the forest begging her to help him find his friend. Genevieve agrees to help and as a twist in the story, she and her sister are were-creatures that had attacked and killed his friend, with him next on the menu.

I would love to talk to other writers, so you can message me on facebook- http://www.facebook.com/?q=#/Brooke.Megan.Carpenter?ref=tn_tnmn

Or send me an email – Sparklybubbles7@live.com.au

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June 12, 2013

JuNoWriMo Featured Author: Vicki Trask

Meet some of your fellow JuNo WriMos in our Featured Author series each Monday and Wednesday during June.

Hi, I’m Vicki Trask *waves* this is my second time doing JuNoWriMo but my first time succeeding.

I was walking around campus one day last year, just people watching, when I stumbled across a dark corner behind a building that everyone walked passed and no one really noticed. Naturally my first thought was “you could murder someone back here quite easily.” It then turned into a game to find all the dark corners in the university campus. There were a lot. And it often required a bit of creativity. After that, I started seeing opportunities to write murder scenes – I emphasizewrite so no one thinks I’m a homicidal manic…yet. By the end of the summer I had a notebook and a wall of sticky notes full of plot notes and dialogue and murder scenarios that I’d “borrowed” from the business office I was working at at the time.

It was a story begging to be written.

So I gave in and planned out a vague storyline so that I could do it for NaNoWriMo in November. I wrote about 4,000 words before life got in the way and I gave up. Turns out November is just not my writing month. I’ve tried and failed at NaNoWriMo three years in a row and for last year’s JuNoWriMo I got further than ever but I still didn’t finish. This year, I have no excuse so if I start to fall off the wagon for one reason or another just slap me upside the head and we’ll get through it together.

Since November the plot has changed so many times that I can’t see straight but I still have that wall of sticky notes as inspiration. I find it a great organization tool actually. It’s disorganized but colourful and handy – plus you can’t misplace a wall so you never lose your notes.

With the help of the handy wall and a few days off, I began to try and make sense of these new ideas that kept popping into my head that were somewhat related to the original idea but in the same way not – it was all very confusing. All I knew was that it was about death and a woman in a pencil skirt.

Thus “Morbid Curiosity” was born; a New Adult Contemporary Fantasy about a woman forced to kill for all eternity who accidentally kills the wrong person and is forced back into the real world. I’ve always had a fascination with death – a safe obsession I assure you. I’ve been writing short stories about death for several years now (mostly on my blog: http://madamewriterofwrongs.blogspot.com) and I thought it was time to finish a full novel.

Right now, I’m in the middle of planning, trying to plot out as much of the story as possible before June. For me the biggest challenge is going to be the emotion. When it comes to fantasy I love the rules and the origin stories but no good story is just made of background – duh – so the challenge is going to be indulging in the background while still fleshing out an interesting story. Seems like it would be simple and obvious but really, it’s not. Every writer has their strengths and weaknesses.

I’m going to be tweeting about it a lot so follow me (http://www.twitter.com/vatrask) and I post writing articles (not my own) every weekday on my Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/179919772129906/

Happy Writing WriMos, Wishing you all the best of luck!

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Three Tips for Reaching Your JuNoWriMo Writing Goals

June 10, 2013

JuNoWriMo Featured Author: Bonnie Louwerens

Meet some of your fellow JuNo WriMos in our Featured Author series each Monday and Wednesday during June.

Bonnie Rae spent her early childhood in the sunny state of California. At the time, she was an only child with a very large imagination. Thanks to her Grandmother, the love of reading books started at a very young age. Every walk to the grocery store meant an ice cream cone and a new Little Golden Book. Through books, Bonnie learned you could be transported into other worlds. The addiction was instant. She started her first set of novels at the age of sixteen and has been writing ever since.

Bonnie Rae self-published her first two books that is part of a YA paranormal trilogy on Amazon with the third scheduled for release June 2013.

JuNoWriMo Book Title (current working title): Deviant

Genre: Sci/Fi Dystopian

Synopsis:

Eighteen year old Sephra Vandeci has lived a life of absolute privilege. She’s just graduated from the top military academy and is being groomed to follow in her father’s footsteps as Commander of their great dome city, Syrica. All her life she and her best friend Ronin have been told that life beyond the protection of Syrica’s massive glass barriers is nothing more than a toxic and deadly wasteland. Inside they are safe from disease, famine, and radiation. No one has ever desired to go beyond the walls. No one except, Sephra. She can’t help but wonder about what really lies on the other side. When a mysterious plague suddenly sweeps through her beloved city and a virus causes all of the new Robotic Engineered Soldiers to break the cardinal law of robotics, Sephra’s life of privilege begins to crumble. Time is running out and soon she learns that everything she’s ever loved about her protected world is nothing more than an immaculate and vicious lie.

Backstory:

I can’t get enough science fiction or dystopian novels so I just had to combine my love of both into my own book. All my life I have been fascinated with the future of technology, cyborgs especially. I was watching a program one day about the advances with robots and how strikingly human they looked. Thus, an idea started to form in my head and the plot for this novel was born. I have about forty thousand words down on draft one already and plan to use JuNoWriMo to flush out the second draft and hopefully bring that word count up to around seventy thousand.

Website: http://bonnieraebooks.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bonnie-Rae/169237309818769

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BRLouwerens

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5816624.Bonnie_Rae

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June 5, 2013

JuNoWriMo Featured Author: Sharon Bayliss

Meet some of your fellow JuNo WriMos in our Featured Author series each Monday and Wednesday during June.

I’ve been a writer for 15 years, but I’ve never “Wri-mo”ed, either Na or Ju. (Yes, I just wanted to write that crazy sentence. But I know you guys know what I mean!) However, I tend to binge write anyway, so I think JuNoWriMo is a great fit for me. Also, it’s coming at the perfect time, I need some aggressive inspiration to get writing!

I am proud to have recently released my debut novel, The Charge, an NA alternate history about a Texas that never joined the United States. I have always intended to write it as a trilogy, and I need to get moving on book two. It’s so easy to get distracted with marketing tasks, but I need to WRITE.

So during JuNo, I’ll be writing The Charge sequel (untitled). I have a name in mind, but I’m not ready to announce it yet. 🙂 In the sequel, Warren finds himself unwittingly an important part of the Texas monarchy, and is tasked with re-building a nation at nineteen years old with no training and not much help. It seems like everyone wants to take him down, including a revolutionary group known as the Knights of Chinati, the dangerous young Lord of California, and even perhaps his own brother.

I have an idea of what I’d like to happen in the book, but do not have a single word on paper yet. I’ll be officially starting on June 1st. My goal is to at least get to the 50,000 word mark by the end of June, and hopefully finish the first draft completely by mid-July.

I need all the encouragement I can get, so I invite you to connect with me here!

~
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June 3, 2013

JuNoWriMo Featured Author: Margaret McNellis

Meet some of your fellow JuNo WriMos in our Featured Author series each Monday and Wednesday during June.

I was so excited to find JuNoWriMo last year, even though NaNoWriMo was right around the corner. Unfortunately I won’t be able to participate in NaNo as I usually do because I will be training for my 2nd degree black belt test which will demand much of my free time…so June is really going to be my “write with wild abandon” month!

As for myself, I fell in love with writing fiction during my last semester of college. I started playing around with writing fanfiction but then got frustrated with not having complete creative ownership of the characters I was writing–along with all of the other story elements. I started writing my own stories, which mostly featured zombies as a main element. I didn’t particularly like writing the gory parts, but used the presence of the zombies as a catalyst by which to take a deeper look at the human condition.

In August of 2008, I started taking classes with the Long Ridge Writers Group. 2008 was also my first year participating in NaNoWriMo. I’ve won all years since then except 2009, when I was traveling in Turkey for half of November (though I did make an attempt, and got to about 25K). In 2010 I became an municipal liaison for the CT shoreline region, and remained in that role for three years. I really liked growing the region (we saw 150% growth in those years!) and adding pre-event writing workshops to the schedule.

In 2011 I began taking a course on novel writing with the Long Ridge Writers Group, which gave me the ability to dive into historical fiction, which I’ve fallen in love with (as it fits so nicely with my Art History degree). Since then, I’ve been working mostly in historical fiction, but have been mixing other genres into the mix since historical fiction lends so well to that.

The name of my JuNoWriMo novel is “The Price of Freedom” and it is also historical fiction. The basic synopsis is that it begins with the emigration of James Badcocke circa 1640 from England to Rhode Island, and follows through to his son and the founding of one of Rhode Island’s prominent colonies.

The back story for my book, I think, is pretty interesting. I was doing some genealogical research on my family and learned that, against the belief amongst most in my family, my ancestors did not arrive in the late 19th century–at least not for the first time. I traced my lineage back to the Badcocke/Babcock family, one of the more prominent New England families. I learned that James Badcocke Senior traveled from England to Rhode Island around 1640–and while there are records of him in England and records of him in New England, his name doesn’t exist on any ship manifest.

I decided to write a story based on his passage, on the presumption that he traveled under a pseudonym. From that, I created a fictional account wherein his brother, Sir Richard, forces him to take his family out of England and to the New World, because of a difference in religious beliefs. He learns later that his brother has actually murdered someone and used his disappearance to distract from the scandal of the murder (among other subplots).

I have started work on this novel. I worked on it for NaNo 2012 and while I reached the 50K mark, I estimate it needs at least another 50-100K to be finished, and would like to accomplish at least the 50K during the month of June.

Find Margaret online:

Twitter: @mmcnelliswrites

Facebook page: MMcNellisWrites

Blog: http://mmcnellisblog.com

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November 23, 2012

NaNoWriMo Featured Author of the Week: Amanda Fanger

Hi there! My name is Amanda Fanger and 2012 is my first NaNoWriMo. A year ago was the first time I had ever heard of National Novel Writing Month. It was just before Thanksgiving that my tongue formed the syllables NaNoWriMo for the first time. I thought it was crazy and I wanted to be a part of it.

The novel I have decided to write is (for now) called Spell Bound, although that title will eventually be changed because, since the story idea was first conceived, I’ve come across other books by the same title.

This story came to me as a series of scenes that kept playing out in my head, over and over. It took me something like five days to write approximately 26,000 words for a very rough, but very complete, first draft when I was in high school. I was so proud of the words I’d labored over to fill my little notebook, but I knew it wasn’t long enough to be a real book. Of course I’d have to write a second draft and flesh it out a bit.

But when I attempted to write that second draft and fix some of the plot holes, the story fell flat. The all-fire passion for the story that had inspired me during that week of insane writing was suddenly gone. It seemed that as I tried to think of ways to overhaul the story, to add more complexity, it only seemed to create more problems. It got to the point where I simply had to put the story away because I was frustrating myself and losing my interest in the story altogether.

While the original manuscript was collecting dust in my desk drawer, the story was far from dormant. It was at the back of my mind, intensifying and building, growing into something of a monster.

And now it wants out.

Some of the simplest elements of the original story are still mostly intact, and a few scenes from the first version are still there, but the overall feeling and scope of the story has changed.

I’ve yet to do an outline of this new version of the story, but I know I’m going to have my hands full with this one. It will be unlike anything I’ve ever written before. The biggest challenge is going to be the world-building and creating a society stepped with conspiracy and corruption.

During NaNo, I hope to complete the new first draft.

Synopsis: Within our world are points that transport magic-bearing individuals to realms where magic governs all. Within each realm is a magician-king who sends trained magician guards into the world to recruit undiscovered magicians into their ranks before the rulers of the other realms do the same.

Most of those brought back never realized they were magicians and have just a trace amount of magic in them. But sometimes a magician is brought back who is more powerful than most. Sometimes that power goes to their head when they are trained to use their magic. And sometimes they decide to overthrow the magical government in a bloody display just because they can.

When one man sends the otherwise peaceful realm of Lisbond into chaos, Seaira is forced to overcome her insecurities about her magic in order to survive. While her only concern is in protecting her son, this timid young woman may be the lone magician capable of stopping the crazed raise to power of the man she loves.

To learn more about Amanda, visit her blog (http://www.amandafanger.blogspot.com/), follow her on Twitter (@amanda_fanger) or Facebook (www.facebook.com/amandafangerwriter).

November 16, 2012

NaNoWriMo Featured Author of the Week: Veronique Kootstra

As you can probably tell from my name, it hasn’t got an English ring to it. I was born in The Netherlands where I did most of my growing up. At the age of twenty-one, after studying journalism for a year, I could no longer ignore the urge to move to another country for a change of scenery. Skip forward ten years and I’m still living in the same place; Edinburgh, Scotland, which I now call home. It took me few years to get back into writing but quickly came to the conclusion that it is what I love to do most.

Looking for new writing challenges helps me to stay focused and, most importantly, to keep writing, even when it‘s sometimes challenging to combine it with a full-time job. I mainly write quite dark flash fiction with psychological undertones. NaNoWriMo is a great opportunity to start the one thing I have, up to now, found too daunting to even seriously think about. Knowing that other writers all over the world are doing same thing will hopefully spur me on until the end.

The NaNo novel I have planned is based on a flash fiction story titled ‘Lost’ which I wrote a few years ago. It’s a seven hundred word story that is somewhat personal and I’ve always wanted to do something more with it. The dedication it will require still worries me, going from writing very short stories to a novel is quite a big leap but one I’m now ready to take.

I’ve not got a polished synopsis yet or a title I’ve settled on, but I’ll try and tell you about it as best as I can. The main characters in my story are Diane, a fifty-five year old woman who has bipolar disorder, and her twenty-six year old daughter, Alison. The struggle for both of them to accept the disease becomes apparent throughout the story. Both find it difficult to let go of the past and move on. Diane’s psychotic episodes are written in such a way that hopefully the reader comes to understand that the things she experiences are very real to her. Nobody can completely understand what goes on in her head, however it does deserve an equal amount of attention in the story as Alison’s struggle to come to terms with her mother’s illness. Alison gets comfort out of reading the short stories her mother used to write on coloured cards and read to her when she was little. Undoubtedly, the subject matter carries baggage but my aim is show different sides of the disorder and not focus on just the negative. At the heart of the story is a complicated but loving mother-daughter relationship.

Some say write about what you know; others are for embracing the unknown. As this is my first attempt at writing a novel, I’ve decided to go for the ‘know’ option, but as it’s a subject that is very personal to me (my mother suffers from bipolar disorder) this is by no means the easier one. It did cross my mind to leave out the fact it’s partly autobiographical, but this could imply that I’m embarrassed about it and that’s certainly not the case. I feel very strongly about wanting to contribute to reducing the stigma of mental illness. As I’m very aware that I can’t just rely on my own experience, I’ve done as much research as possible beforehand. My aim is create a story that is engaging and real.

I would love to connect with other NaNoWriMo writers, you can find me on twitter @vkootstra or if you want to have a peek at my blog: www.veroniquekootstra.wordpress.com.