Progress Report: November 2022

And here we go! Happy November, folks! And to my writer friends out there who are participating, good luck at NaNoWriMo!

Wow, that’s a lot of exclamation points. What can I say, though? I’m kind of pumped. To the uninitiated, National Novel Writing Month is a month-long event where your challenge is to write the first draft of a 50,000-word novel within the month of November. The prize is, you’ll have the first draft of a 50,000-word novel, and hopefully a new set of habits to carry you forward as you write more. I think. I’ve never actually finished one. The best I ever did was getting down 27,000 words of a novel that has since been completed.

The road to 50,000 words begins here...

I started work on a thing called Empire Towers, which follows the staff of a luxury residential high rise in New York’s Battery Park City neighborhood in the week before the September 11th attacks. The attacks themselves have no bearing on the story, but it’s about race and class and politics of the time. As of now, I’m already a shade over 1500 words in (thank you, midnight start time), and I’m feeling pretty good about it so far.

Here's what else is going on here:

- I finished my alpha read of Urban Legend, and it was quite promising. Edits will resume after November, and maybe I’ll be able to share some sample chapters early next year! Fingers crossed on that one.

- I’m pausing my Underground Rhapsody project for November as well, and I’m hoping that I’ll finish the early draft on that in early 2023. It’s another thing I’m excited about, and I’m looking forward to sharing news of that as well.

- I’ve got a whole slew of reviews I’m going to get to you, starting this week. Keep your eyes peeled.

I’m planning on visiting the Kent Public Library several times this month, most notably on Fridays and Saturdays. If anyone is interested in a write-in, let me know! I’ll bring the coffee.

If you’re working on something for NaNoWriMo, feel free to talk about it, drop a comment!

Enjoy the month, y’all!