Maidenfine's Muse

I have finished NaNoWriMo early this year (before Thanksgiving, my earliest win yet). Unfortunately, my uncle died the week before NaNo started and suddenly, the novel I had planned was one I was unable to write. I still plan to reorganize the Mansion series, but I think it may end up as three books instead of one. The novel that I ended up writing for this years NaNo was not one that could support a 100k word count goal, so I scaled back to just the normal 50k. I didn't like doing it, but when your entire family is tossed upside down by a death, you do what you can manage.

This week, I should be putting up a new page with the links for 30 Days of Prewriting. I highly recommend reading them on my blog, but if all you want is the links, having them up here may be easiest. During December, I will hold myself to my promise to completely redo my site. It desperately needs it. And I think that if I give myself a deadline of the New Year, I'll get it done. Deadlines make things happen.

Other than that, I am looking through my edit-ready projects and choosing one to submit to the ABNA this year (assuming that it will occur again). Since I know about the contest ahead of time (rather than a week before the deadline), I should be able to submit a far superior pitch and product and fare much better in the competition.

For information on National Novel Writing Month, visit www.nanowrimo.org.
    

I'm Afraid I Have To Kill You Now (2006)

Elemental (2007) Winner!

Hunting Lark (2008) Winner!

Becoming Flair (2009) Winner!

30 Days of Prewriting has started on my blog.

On the 10th of October, I had emergency gall bladder surgery, so the blog entries are about all I'm accomplishing in a day right now. But I have set my goals for NaNoWriMo (100k this year) and I'm currently working out the kinks in my Mansion novel before November. I'm attempting a massive reorganization and rethinking f the entire Mansion series and seeing if I can turn it into one book. Which will easily be 100k. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that maybe this will purge me of the Mansion demon that seems to keep me from working on other books. And if, somehow, I finish it and there's still month left, I'll find something else to start on.

Coming in October: 30 Days of PreWriting

I'll be posting links and information for the first 30 days of October. My focus will be on prewriting for NaNoWriMo, but prewriting can be used to any project. After posting in my blog, I will be putting links up to each day here.

The most up-to-date information on anything can be found at my blog. I try to update there at least once a week. You can also find me on Twitter, Facebook, or Myspace.

I'm planning a major major overhaul of my site. I'm also considering putting out the money to get my own domain so that I can take the blog that I have and move everything into one place. That's mostly up in the air, since my day job has been the definition of crazy lately.

Querying is evil. I wish someone else could write my query letter for me, since all my brilliance seems to have been taken by the novel-writing process.

The3-Day Novel Contest is coming up. I'm debating doing it. Not sure what I'd write in that 3 days, but it sounds amazing.

I've been working with a fellow writer on an online serial project. We haven't decided when our first posting will be, but be on the lookout for that.

Hunting Lark was my 2008 NaNovel, written in connection with Sotalia's 2008 NaNovel, Cast Aside (working title).

In 1998, Drake Carter was witness to Lark Thayer's rape at the hands of his football buddies. After helping her to send her rapist to jail, Drake was all too happy to leave the entire mess behind, moving to California for law school. Ten years later, he hasn't forgotten the brown-eyed girl he cared so much for, and when his job sends him back to St. George, he knows he'll come face to face with the girl that haunts him. Ironically, he'll also come face to face with the ghost that haunts him. With the help of Lark and her wacky radio friends, Drake attempts to find a murderer. And maybe he's closer than they think.

Read the prologue.

Status: First Draft completed. Edits later this year.

The Mansion is my first completed novel. It follows three sets of teenaged twins who are sent to live in a creepy mansion. Their parents participated in an experiment before they were born and now they have to undergo observation. But the longer they're in the house, the more secrets they uncover. Like the fact that they all seem to have supernatural abilities.

I have taken down the original Sims 2 series, but I still have plenty of preview stuff here.

Review of the Online Version

The Mansion Movies: The online series won the Make My Movie Contest hosted by GospelSims.com, so there is a series of machinima adapted from the original rough draft. They are wonderfully done and I recommend all of Blessed3126's videos. She's a wonderful director.

Prologue

Status: Submitting Queries to Agents

The Mansion 2: Demons is the sequel to The Mansion: The Experiment. Episode 2.1 was uploaded in the usual fashion, however, all remaining episodes (for the time being) will be uploaded as text only here at the Muse.
Episode 2.1: Rewind (find it without pictures here.)
Episode 2.2: Pause
Episode 2.3 Record
Episode 2.4: Insert

Status: On hiatus.

Ebony, a 19-year with nothing to look forward to, is recruited to topple the world's ruler. In order to accomplish her goals, she must venture into the Four Corners, areas of elemental chaos, to retrieve a set of rings that will allow her to steal the Magnificent's magical abilities.
Links:
    Sample Chapter
Status: First Edit in progress

When Gizi Hofman celebrates her 20th birthday, it's not with anticipation or excitement. Due to her family's curse, she has exactly one year to get married or die a horrible death. The only problem is, she doesn't have the least bit of interest in getting married. Deciding to run away, she ends up in Monterrey, CA. In a new place, where no one knows about her family's history, she tries to find love, or at least a suitable facsimile. What she finds instead is magic, torture, shady business deals, and a few friends that will change her life.

Gizi is only the first of the Hofmans to go looking for love, and the others are all a part of the Hofman Chronicles.

Status: The first two books are currently in first edits. The third is being edited by a co-author. The fourth is unwritten. The fifth is partially written.

Editors and Agents: If you are interested in one of my projects, I can be contacted at Maidenfine at gmail dot com.

Last Updated on: 3/18/2009