Last year I worked as an administrator for the Challenge and believe me, it is work. This year I've backed off and resumed my role as minion the Alex J. Cavanaugh. I'm happy to be helping in some small way but without so much stress. I'm still thinking out my theme but I'll figure it out sooner rather than later. And Alex does have a really cool minion badge for his helpers to display.
Speaking of the storm, nearly three feet before it started drifting, it was a lot of shoveling but our very kind neighbors helped us. The three feet of snow remained on the township roads for more than a day and a half after the snowfall started. Not good.
Being stuck inside gave me plenty of time to write. I managed to finally type THE END on the second book on The Galactic Outlaw series. It's a very rough first draft. I hope to finish the second before A to Z starts in April. And now I have a lot of other little things that I've ignored while in my writing cave. Time to get back out into the social world.
A little industry news. Here's a link to Publisher's Weekly article about The Hot and Cold Book Categories of 2015. Apparently, The Martian really helped the sales in the science fiction category. It seems to happy when certain mega-sellers help a category like 50 Shades of Grey did for romance and The Hunger Games did for the YA category. Who knows what the next blockbuster will be? And if you happen to write in that category it may help your own book sales.
There were some funny posts on Facebook leading into the storm. One measured the storm not in expected inches but expected bottles of wine to be consumed. We fell into the 12 cases categories.
"In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is Freedom, and in water there is bacteria." Benjamin Franklin
I didn't drink 12 cases of wine.
Did you sign up for A to Z? Did the big storm hit your corner of the world? Are you writing in one of the hot or cold categories of books in 2015? Do you read in one of those genres?
30 comments:
Tree cheers for The A to Z Challenge, wonderful to know it's on the near horizion.
Yvonne.
I'm so glad you didn't drink that much wine .. mind you if all that wine was consumed ... this week is going to be very sparse in the drinks field.
Snowed in is a great opportunity, as long as one has electricity, to get on with a lot of writing ... well done on that score.
Signed up and theme ready ... some letters assigned .. sort of rarin' to go .. cheers Hilary
PS Love Franklin's quote!
That is a great quote about the wine. Let's hope that is the last major snowstorm of this year, does sound like a lot of snow. My sister in the DC area got 24 inches of it. Thank goodness for insomnia. I was up way too early so signed up for A to Z, in the top 50 this time.
Betty
Good, my science fiction titles could use a boost.
Glad you are one of my Minions! You already know the drill. And Jeremy did an awesome job with the badge.
That's a lot of snow. We got... nothing.
I read The Martian way back and throughly enjoyed it. The movie was good, too.
No snow here but cold for Florida. Stay warm!
Have fun being a Minion! :)
We keep hearing the news about the storm. You guys are really having it rough. I hope it subsides soon. That's too brutal for any climate.
Here's hoping you're by a good fire and good company.
Hey, thanks for that link to hot and not! It is interesting to see the ways the trends move. I wonder if dystopian falls into Sci Fi... I think it does. That is sort of where my heart currently sits, though I am still writing mysteries... which apparently fewer people are reading.
The storm dropped two feet of snow, keeping us snowed in until Sunday morning. The kids were driving me crazy that I was so happy the snow finally stopped. And told them to get dressed and get out to play in the snow. They fell in and got stuck a few times, and had to crawl and swim themselves out. Unfortunately with all the days off I've gotten because of the storm I didn't get much writing done, except for a short story.
All ready for the a to z. We never got that much snow. 3ft would just be blah.
I'm missing you already!
Congrats on The End! That's awesome.
We got just over a foot. Sucks that you got so much!
Heather
That would've been a lot of wine.
The storm went north of us, so we really didn't see much.
Yay for A to Z! I'm not signing up this year but I'm rooting for everyone who does. Maybe I'll be a Ninja Minion next year. ;)
I still need to think of a theme for A to Z. It will be a miracle if I can do it this year. Yes, I am hopeful Sci Fi stays strong for when I return to my space opera. :)
One thing about a snowy winter, the prose flows! I didn't sign on to help this year, but not without regret. I just couldn't do the job with all that's going on with me right now. I did sign up though, so I'll see you a lot in April.
We are totally both ready for A to Z, in that we're ready to spectate. I'm breaking a sweat just thinking about the possibility of posting once a day. Cheers to making the best of your snowed in time, though, and congrats on typing THE END!
And Ben Franklin's got it right - a good beer always tastes like freedom.
We had over 3.5 feet of accumulation here in our corner of Virginia. But we had fun staying inside. I caught up on a lot of reading and Netflix. So life is good. :D
P.S. Was MIA these past few weeks due to the flu, and missed reading everyone's posts. I am playing catch up now. Browsing through your older ones that I have missed too. :)
We had over 3.5 feet of accumulation here in our corner of Virginia. But we had fun staying inside. I caught up on a lot of reading and Netflix. So life is good. :D
P.S. Was MIA these past few weeks due to the flu, and missed reading everyone's posts. I am playing catch up now. Browsing through your older ones that I have missed too. :)
Congrats on finishing your book.
Yup, the A-Z is work, but fun at the same time.
No A-Z for me. I'm a cheerleader! Hope things have already begun to melt for you.
I signed up this morning :P. And I was still number 138.
I can't believe how much snow you guys got. I really think it was an avalanche, not a storm, although I don't know what mountain the snow fell off of.
All signed up :) And thankfully we got zip for snow which is fine by me. Last winter is still quite fresh in my mind.
3 feet is a lot! We've been lucky so far, we've probably only had 3 feet altogether!
Glad you didn't drink all the wine! :)
I myself don't do the challenge but I seriously give kudos to anyone who does. I wish you good luck with it and I'll be reading posts!
That's a lot! We're lucky the edge of the storm missed us. Though I've heard this winter isn't done with us yet. It seems my genres are growing cold.
It is rare we get snow. The Appalachian mountains usually block most of the snow and what little gets through falls in North Georgia. We get snow about every 15 years which I imagine sounds a little good to you folks in Pennsylvania.
I'm looking forward to the challenge. I don't blame you about rather being a minion. That was a lot to worry with last year.
Damn, I wish I had volunteered to be a minion for Alex. I do like that badge. We didn't get any of that storm in Canada, or not Ontario anyway. We let you keep it all to yourselves and didn't want to share.
I understand you going back to minion status. I'm not doing A to Z again this year. Just can't do it. I enjoy reading the posts, but once a day is just more than I can handle.
12 cases of wine snow. Even spreading that over a period of several days, if I drank that much wine I'm pretty sure I'd be dead... and unable to get to the hospital. You know, because of all the snow.
While it was storming in the east and burying folks in snow, it was a lovely warm day in Northern Colorado. We still have snow and ice on the ground, but nothing like the East Coast had.
I've decided to sit out the challenge again this year. I can still be a blog visitor, but not have the pressure of posting. That way I can focus on my manuscripts in process.
I used to be an OB nurse, and all of us would groan when one of these storms hit, because we knew in nine months we'd be working our tails off.
I'm glad the storm was (fairly) positive for your productivity and that you and yours were safe.
Congratulations on finishing the first draft!
Post a Comment