Heir To Magic

I’ve been watching the Lord Of The Rings trilogy whenever I need some pure escapism… can I call that research? lol  Heir to Magic and The Lord of the Rings have very very very little in common, but they are both fantasy stories and there are going to be a battle or two in Heir to Magic.  Most in common they have, really, is displaced royalty and a long journey to get where they’re going.  I’m talking about the characters making a long journey, not the comparable time I have been writing Heir compared to how long the Lord of the Rings books have been out.

I’ve been working on Heir to Magic for the past few days.  A commitment to finish my novel for my mom.  She believed in my writing ability, not just my ability, but that I would be a published author.  So, I am determined to prove her belief in me was right.  I got around 500 to 1,000 words added to Heir to Magic and am working on adding more this weekend.

At the moment I am still a considerable distance from getting to the end of the novel, but I am at least making good headway and know where I am going with it.   I’m determined that I will be adding more words all through this month and finishing the whole novel by the end of this month so that I can start the second novel in the trilogy as my NaNoWriMo project this year.

Which means I have a LOT of writing to get done.

I am trying to get back to working on my novel in the wake of a personal loss.  On September 14, 2008 my mom died of heart failure.

My mom always believed in my writing, in my skill as a writer and that one day I would be a published author.  She felt that I was already successful as a writer because I had managed to find ways to earn money through my skills as a writer.  I feel that I made it as a writer because she believed in me, because my mom felt that I had made it as a writer and because the money I made made a serious difference in the ability of me and my parents to meet the monthly bills and get by day to day and month to month.

In my opinion, I succeeded because my mom felt that I had succeeded, and as long as I never let myself fall below the threshold that she felt was proof of my success, then I will never fail as a writer.  I can only become more successful and I am going to be.  I will get my novels in print, dedicated to my mom, and I will continue to find ways to earn enough money to keep me and my dad going day to day and month to month.

I love you, mom, and I promise you that I will continue to be a successful writer and will go on to be even more successful.  I will prove that you were right in your belief in my ability to make a living as a writer.

I’ve been working my way through Holly Lisle’s online course, How To Think Sideways, and I am now very glad that I have placed Heir To Magic on hold while I focus on this course.  I have learned a lot about what it is about my plotting that had been wrong, and about what I had done right too.  For the course I have started a new story from scratch, just so I can get a good idea on how to start with nothing and end up with a story I enjoy working on, but I can not wait to finish the course and get back to Heir To Magic so I can put what I have been learning to the test with Heir.

Right now my writing has all been focusing on my work more than on getting more writen for Heit To Magic, which is a good thing since I am  not so sure that my desktop computer is going to last much longer.  It has a weird problem making it restart itself repeatedly when I turn it on over the last couple of days.  I’m trying to cure that, and suspect it might have somehow caught a virus or something, but will be making preparations for the possible need to replace it if it is a serious issue it is having

For a limited time you can join me in Holly Lisle’s How to Think Sideways course.  This is a self-paced course, so you don’t have to worry about not having the time, and trust m when I say I understand money being an issue (I’m a family caregiver, that is the highest stress unpaid job in the world), so it was simply amazing to me that Holly can offer her course for a price even I can afford – just $47 a month.  And it is billed monthly, so if I decide that I can’t afford it or want to stop for some reason, I only have to pay for the months I have been a student, not for the entire course.

As I said, you have a chance to enroll in the course.  From now until 9:00 a.m. on September 8th, enrollment is open for new students.  You need to check the course out soon though, because trust me when I tell you that this is one that you don’t want to miss the deadline on.

In just the first week I leaned what it was that was keeping me from finsihing Heir to Magic after all these years, and how to overcome those barriers.  In the weeks that have followed I have learned how to take an idea and reshape it from an idea I want to write, to being an idea that I simply must write.  How to craft ideas into something I will be excited about not just as I am writing it, but during the long process of fine tuning through revision and on to publication.

I know now how to form ideas for short stories and novels that are right for me, and am currently learning how to target those to the right markets.

I encourage you not to miss out, even if you don’t decide to enroll now, you should at least visit the How to Think Sideways website and find out more about what it has to offer so you will be ready to pounce the next time enrollment opens (I have no idea when that might be, so my advice is not to miss out this time).