nanowrimo

Nanowrimo Begins!

Writing / By

I skipped NaNoWriMo last year after participating since 2011, but now I’m back! I started strong. Woke up early Sunday, November 1st, and started work on Knights of Stone: Bryce, part 3 in the Highland Gargoyles series. I had my second 5,000 word day — ever! Only reached that milestone once before, during a previous Nano. My entire focus that Sunday was my novella. Every now and then, I need one of those.

So if I’m quiet this month, it’s because I’m in Nano land!

Who else is participating? What are you working on?

 

 

Help Me Pick My NaNoWriMo Project

Writing / By

November is approaching. What that means is some last minute tying up of projects before I go in the writing cave for National Novel Writing Month. I’ve participated in 2011, 2012, and 2013. Last November, I took a break–partially so I could enjoy Thanksgiving without obsessing over my word count.

This year, I’m back! For the past few weeks, I’ve been debating which project to work on. Want to help me choose?

Shifter Romance – Highland Gargoyles #3 – I’m working through revisions of part 2, which is the untitled follow up to Knights of Stone. I could continue with part 3, or maybe even start part 4, if I’m ambitious (and don’t burn out!).

Knights of Stone

Military Romance – I could work on the SEAL series I’ve started, but put aside to finish the Chateau Seductions series. Or finish one of my Marine romances, maybe a follow up to Temptation Returns. 

Temptation Returns

Wolf Shifter Romance – I’ve been scrawling notes for a wolf shifter romance, which I’m itching to start. It could be an offshoot of the Chateau Seductions series or the Highland Gargoyles one–both which include wolf shifters.

Chateau

Collection of Short Stories – I have several short stories I’d like to write, with notes jotted down for some. So I could focus on writing a bunch of rough drafts in November and then polishing them off in the new year.

Better-than-cake

I’m also committed to write for a few boxed sets next year. I could make progress by writing for one of those. We will see.

Hmm, is that it? My list of upcoming writing projects is many pages long. Maybe it’s not so bad after all. Well, they may keep me busy for years to come.

Any votes? Suggestions?

Lisa Carlisle Presents Tips on Revising Your Nanowrimo Novel

Interviews / Guest Blogs, Writing / By

How many of you participated in National Novel Writing Month this past November, where you pledge to write a 50,000 novel in thirty days? Many authors love it; others hate it. I look forward to the challenge and the idea of committing myself to focusing on a novel for one month a year. So many other priorities get in the way if I let them, but in November my mantra is Nano, Nano, Nano.

This is my fourth year and I’ve come up with a post-nano revision process. At the end of November, I have a completed novel. Yeah! Yet, it is far from finished. It’s a messy first draft with a number of unnamed characters, question marks, and comments for me to address in the revisions. I wrote up some tips on the process I generally follow over at Savvy Authors.

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Ten Tips for Surviving Nanowrimo

Ten Tips for Surviving Nanowrimo

Writing / By

Ah, sweet November. Nanowrimo. Ah, unforgiving November.

This marks my fourth Nanowrimo. I already feel guilty starting this post when I should be working on my word count. So I’ll keep it brief.

I’m a working mom who has taken on the challenge like many of you to write a 50,000 word novel this month. It is exciting, daunting, terrifying, and at times you’re going to want to say screw this, I’m out! I know, I’ve been there. We all have. Here are a few tips to keep you going on your pursuit to 50k.

  • Make your novel your priority. We all have priorities and obligations, but in November, your novel should be one of the top.
  • Write anywhere at anytime.  I have my Netbook with me while I’m waiting for the kids during their classes. While one is swimming, I’m typing away. While I’m waiting to pick one up from karate, I’m in my car trying to knock off some dialog.
  • Work in chunks. When I think about writing 1,667 words a day, I cringe. Instead I promise myself smaller amounts. I also strive for more during the weekends in case life gets in the way during the week. So today I’m saying 250 words before breakfast. 500 before lunch. 250 during a tea break. And so on. It all adds up at the end of the day.
  • Keep the television off. I know you have your shows. If you have to watch them, record them and watch them only after you meet your daily word count.
  • Make Nano your Me time. Yes, you may want to unwind after a long day with work or the kids and want to read, watch a movie, or take a long bath. Rewire your thinking for this month. Your Me time is escaping into your novel. Once you meet your word count, then go ahead and reward yourself with something else.
  • Don’t forget your family. Okay, I feel guilty about this because I feel like I’m neglecting them when I’m writing my novel. Sometimes I get too absorbed in my novel, I forget about everything else. I try to find ways to do both this month. While they’re watching a movie, I sit in the living room with them and work on my novel. It’s not perfect quality time together, but at least we’re in the same room.
  • Forget house projects during November. Writing should be your priority this month. If the project can wait until December, let it sit.
  • Connect with others. Connect with writing buddies lcoally, at nanowrimo.org, or on social media.
  • Attend write ins if possible. Write ins are NaNoWriMo events at cafes, libraries, and other locations where you meet other Wrimos and focus on your novel for a stretch of time. It’s very inspiring to write as part of a group with a collective goal in mind — write a novel by November 30th.
  • Write, don’t rewrite. You can save the rewrites for December. Right now, focus on getting the first draft done.

I hope you find some of these tips helpful. Now I’ve got to go get back to my novel. And so should you!

Reaching the Winner’s Circle by November 30th gives you such a feeling of accomplishment, it’s such a thrill. And such a relief! Do something nice for yourself. You just wrote a novel, you earned it!

Lisa Carlisle’s 2012 novel Bloodlust and Metal was released by Ellora’s Cave this spring. She is writing the sixth book in her series Underground Encounters this November.

Lisa Carlisle’s Stop on the Bad Boys Hop

Books, Contests / By

Bad Boys… can’t resist them. Definitely my type when I was younger.

But yikes, they’re bad for a reason–they’re trouble!

Two of my main characters in recent books are bad boys. In Bloodlust and Metal, Devon is a shapeshifting bounty hunter out for numero uno.  In Rock Me Tonight, Nico is a software engineer by day, but a singer of a hard rock band by night.

Leave a comment and enter with Rafflecopter below for a digital copy of one of these two new releases! Let me know which bad boy appeals to you more–Nico or Devon–and why. One lucky winner will win a digital copy of either Rock Me Tonight or Bloodlust or Metal.

bloodlustandmetal_msr

Bloodlust and Metal

Book 4 in the Underground Encounters series

On the run from a master vampire, young vampire Layla Black flees London to reinvent herself as the singer of an Eighties cover band in Boston. Devon St. Clair is the bounty hunter hired to track her down. As a shapeshifter with extraordinary skills, his reputation is known throughout the supernatural world. Capturing Layla should be an easy gig that will net a nice profit.

The situation doesn’t go as Devon plans. He wants Layla in his bed, but shapeshifters and vampires don’t mix. They should hate each other, but instead they’re keeping the sheets steamy. When circumstances force them on the run together, their preconceived notions are challenged. If they can evade those hunting them and convince his fellow shapeshifters to help her even though she’s a vampire, they just might have a chance to explore where all that hot, sweaty sex can take them.

A Romantica® paranormal erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave

For more info or to buy now, visit Ellora’s Cave.

rockmetonight_msrRock Me Tonight

Third in the Underground Encounters series

Lily Everett wants a lover, but won’t consider a permanent relationship, because she harbors a secret she’s certain no one will understand. When she meets the singer of a rock band at an underground nightclub, she’s disarmed by his sensual voice and mischievous good looks. After an icy introduction, Lily warms up to Nico’s charms.

A computer geek by day, Nico dons a rock singer persona by night. He’s tired of women pursuing him just because he’s in a band—the sex may be handy, but he wants something more. He’s intrigued by Lily’s reticence.

Keeping her emotional distance proves difficult the more Lily uncovers the intelligent, considerate man hiding behind Nico’s bad-boy persona. Their encounters are hot-hot-hot, but Nico wants more from Lily than sex. When Lily lets down her guard and reveals her other side, Nico’s shock destroys their closeness and they both doubt they can overcome their differences.

A Romantica® paranormal/shapeshifter erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave

For more info or to buy now, visit Ellora’s Cave.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And don’t forget to enter to win the Grand Prize by clicking on this image:

herding cats & burning soup

New Release: Bloodlust and Metal – vampires, shapeshifters, and 80s rock

Books / By

I’m thrilled to announce the 4th book in my Underground Encounters series has been released by Ellora’s Cave. I wrote the first draft during National Novel Writing Month last November, moving from library to library for write ins. It was so much fun to write — a shapeshifter and vampire who clash, 80s rock and metal, and set around Boston and London.

It’s part of Ellora’s Cave’s On the Hunt theme, which features bounty hunters. And some super hot scenes, too!

bloodlustandmetal_msrBloodlust and Metal
By Lisa Carlisle

On the run from a master vampire, young vampire Layla Black flees London to reinvent herself as the singer of an Eighties cover band in Boston. Devon St. Clair is the bounty hunter hired to track her down. As a shapeshifter with extraordinary skills, his reputation is known throughout the supernatural world. Capturing Layla should be an easy gig that will net a nice profit.

The situation doesn’t go as Devon plans. He wants Layla in his bed, but shapeshifters and vampires don’t mix. They should hate each other, but instead they’re keeping the sheets steamy. When circumstances force them on the run together, their preconceived notions are challenged. If they can evade those hunting them and convince his fellow shapeshifters to help her even though she’s a vampire, they just might have a chance to explore where all that hot, sweaty sex can take them.

A Romantica® paranormal erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave

Read an excerpt

Buy at Ellora’s Cave

7 Days til Book Release: Lisa Carlisle’s Bounty Hunter Paranormal Romance

Books, Writing / By

Only one more week until my paranormal erotic romance called Bloodlust and Metal is released! This book was so much fun to write. A young vampire who goes undercover as an 80s heavy metal singer, a hot shapeshifting bounty hunter hired to capture her–you know the tension will be high–and the love scenes will be hot!

I wrote this book as part of National Novel Writing Month last November, which they dub a month of literary abandon. I took my netbook to write ins around the city and met with fellow wri-mos to get my word count in. 30 nights later with bloodshot eyes, I had my first draft. 🙂

Bloodlust and Metal is part of Ellora’s Cave’s On the Hunt theme, focused on bounty hunters. So many good books are being released as part of this theme and I’ll share more on the others as they are released.

bloodlustandmetal_msr

Bloodlust and Metal

By Lisa Carlisle

On the run from a master vampire, young vampire Layla Black flees London to reinvent herself as the singer of an Eighties cover band in Boston. Devon St. Clair is the bounty hunter hired to track her down. As a shapeshifter with extraordinary skills, his reputation is known throughout the supernatural world. Capturing Layla should be an easy gig that will net a nice profit.

The situation does not go as Devon plans. He wants Layla in his bed, but shapeshifters and vampires don’t mix. They should hate each other, but instead they’re keeping the sheets steamy. When circumstances force them on the run together, their preconceived notions are challenged. If they can evade those hunting them and convince his fellow shapeshifters to help her even though she’s a vampire, they just might have a chance to explore where all that hot, sweaty sex can take them.

Add Bloodlust and Metal to your wish list now to be one of the first to get it when it is released!

From Fact to Fiction

Writing / By

It’s been four years since I last published a book. Back then, I was on deadline update a book AND write the sequel by a December 31st deadline. By the end of December, I’d burned out and swore in Scarlett O’Hara Style, “I’m never writing another book again!” At the time, I knew I was full of crap because I’m a writer so I write, whether I want to or not. But I wanted to make some big declaration to give solace to my overwrought mind.

I work as a writer all day so I didn’t think I’d miss it too much. But I wrote little pieces here and there. Getting my toes wet again. And then finally I dove back in with NaNoWriMo a couple of years ago with some fiction. Nanowrimo is definitely my kind of challenge – short intense bursts of activities with a clear deadline. The more I brainstormed ideas, the more they came.

I’d tried writing fiction back when I lived in Paris in my early 20s. If you’re a writer and you’re living in Paris, you better sit in a cafe and write something! Since I was young, on my own, recently out of the Marines and had graduated college, and trying to figure out my place in the world, my mind veered away from whatever story I was trying to write to instead write in journals or letters back home. There was so much to see and experience! I was living in Paris, the city I’d dreamed about since I was a little girl! And not only was I visiting, I was LIVING there; I made it on my own! I had to chronicle my adventures and journey of self-discovery right then in the present, not create new ones.

Now many years later, I’ve moved back to fiction. Moving to fiction again is quite a change; it’s completely freeing. You don’t have to rely on memory or when things happened; you use your imagination. Instead of chronicling the past, you’re inventing an alternate world in the past, present, or future. You can create any character you want, put them in any situation you desire, and have them react however you choose to. Master of your domain, alright! I can completely become immersed in my character’s lives, wondering what if… With my first fictional story being published in a couple of weeks, I’m finishing up the sequel and have started the third book in the series; so now my mind keeps wondering what will they do next…

So I suppose moving from fact to fiction might reflect moving from one part of life to another. I still feel the pull to write nonfiction, which I’m doing at the moment, but in a much smaller scale than an entire book. I could go on for paragraphs analyzing these ideas, but I’d rather hear what YOU think.

Cross-posted at www.lisacordeiro.com.

Started Book 3 in Series

Writing / By

While I was in Maine this past week, I started the third book in the series, which was introduced with Smoldering Nights. Book 2 is in with my editor now.

All three begin in the underground club Vamps, which is in a fictional town in Boston’s North Shore. I love the characters and setting; the more I write the more I want to write. I can’t say this for all my projects–my study has a stack of abandoned drafts that I say I will one day return to!

Starting this story is like starting a love affair with someone new, but with a sense of familiarity with the setting. While I get to know the characters and see what they’ll do and how they react to things, I love how they view the club from their own point of view. It’s one place but with many different stories.

I don’t know where I’m going with this story just yet. My writing goal the past few months is 500 words a day, which seems achievable for me. I’ve tried several other techniques in the past–three pages a day, holding off until Nanowrimo for 1,600 word a day spurts–so we’ll see how it goes.

If you have any techniques that work for you, please share them.