Writing Life Update
It's November, and I'm still about a month behind schedule. I had hoped to have my Halloween book (for my pen name, Alora James) out last month, but, if I'm lucky, it'll be out next week. At least it's longer than I intended, and that's more story for readers to love. I need to get going on my Christmas book which I wanted to release next month, but we'll see how that goes.
To give myself an extra boost, I'm doing the November 50k word challenge. I participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) for over two decades, but their stance on AI and then their scandal, I left with many other writers. It's sad that something which meant so much to many people could be ruined by bad policy and a few corrupt individuals. Yet I still want to challenge myself, and I'm putting daily updates on Bluesky.
As of November 9th, just after my lunch, I'm sitting at a little over 12k. Not where I wanted to be with the challenge, but it's not bad. I'll have to push to get halfway by the 15th, but even if I don't make it, it's still more words than I typically do.
I'm also behind this month on getting short stories submitted, but it was the same last month, and when I submitted one micro piece, it was accepted by Paragraph Planet and posted on October 22nd. It helped motivate me to write more, and I'll get to submitting at least two out later this week.
October had been a very busy month, but November has been quieter. With the chilly weather, I'm settling in for the winter and hesitantly making a writing schedule for next year. I already have two novels for my pen name on the list, but we'll see how the new series is doing before I write more in it.
If you're doing the 50k challenge this month, good luck! I'm cheering you on. Stay warm and safe. Keep on reading!
Just keep writing - you never know where you'll land.