ML Guide to Going to Camp in the Triad

If you haven't figured it out yet camp nanowrimo isn't an actually camp. *cue violin music* Much to my dismay trust me on that one. I would love nothing more than to pack up my bag and head off to parts unknown with nothing but a desire to get my novel down on paper. However since I am a Municipal Liaison during NaNoWriMo I can't seem to turn off my piloting instinct. So here is a nifty little guide to surviving camp nano in the Triad

The Triad region of North Carolina is home to the furniture capital of the world. High Point. which just happens to be my current home, thank you very much. We are smack dab in the middle of Raleigh to the north and the east and Charlotte to the south, and while we may not be as glitzy and glamours as our state capital and the home to the Bobcats we have a few things going on here in the Triad.


The Triad region rundown:

Best Local Writer Fuel — During camp sometimes we forgo the traditional food pyramid for a more shall we say sugar centric diet, and thats ok. That 8 am run around the lake should work off the late night munching. You are in luck North Carolina is home to one of the world's best regional barbecue epicenters and it just happens that Lexington (the southern tip of the Triad) has one of the best places to get BBQ. The BBQ Center, which has been featured on the Travel Channel, Food Network and UNC TV, has the best banana split in the business. And who doesn't like sitting by a lazy river chomping down on a expertly made banana spilt.

The BBQ Center marquee, much like the Welcome to Las Vegas sign is the threshold for Lexington. Taking you from the hustle of city life, into the gentle embrace of a bygone time. The down home friendly atmosphere will leave you warm and fuzzy all over. It's almost like having tea at your grandmother's house. Everyone is happy to see you and over the moon about making you smile for no reason at all. And many of the regulars get a kick out of NaNoers descending on the place with our army of laptops and our need for pick their brains about the good ole days.

Best Way to Beat Writer’s Block — The best tavern in Greensboro is Natty Greens. The atmosphere is perfect for letting yourself sink into your novel like an old man into a hot bath. Big picture windows that allow you to people watch without throwing off that creepy, serial killer vibe, low lighting, exposed brick walls, frothy beers and lots of people to cheer you on as you cross the finish line. gorgeous art on the walls, mismatched tea cups that you to choose from, and old wooden tables. If you can brave the high temperatures and the air conditioning in your car is working, Natty Greens is the quick fix to the all stop on your brain and your novel.

Best Place to Camp Out — If you are looking for the best place to pitch your tent for the summer then the Bicentennial Gardens is your destination. The city of Greensboro has taken great strides to return the city back to its natural state before the industrial revolution rolled through town and razed the wooded backroads trail to make room the grand dames of the south. There are several gardens to choose from all offering a slightly different feel. Hiking, walking and biking trails snake their ways from one end of the gardens to the other offering panoramic views of budding tulips and wading ducks.

If gardens and nature aren't your thing and beating the heat is the only thing on your mind. Because let's face it when it gets up into the low 100 your novel waves bye bye and seeks relief from the heat like all sane novels should. Then the only cure is Wet n' Wild- Emerald Pointe. The best water park in the Carolinas. From the lazy river to the raging rapids Wet n' Wild will help your mind get out of that fetal position and get you on your way to crossing the finish line. And if nothing else it will be a great distraction and a fun time.

Regional Genre of Choice — Fantasy seems to be the drug of choice for the Triad region. From fairy tale remixes, to relationship break up inspired zombie rampages our Wrimoers take fantasy very seriously. We have a few literary fiction writers, but they always forget their sunblock so I doubt they will see the light of day during camp.


The Can’t Miss Triad Camp NaNo Event

We’re planning something new this year. Normally during camps its a more relaxed atmosphere without any planned events, but as the ML I want to get as many of my NaNoers inspired and involved as all NaNoWriMo activities So we are working on a Picnic in the Park write in that we are really excited about. Let's face it as writers we are solitary home bodies. Give as a quiet corner and a pot of anything with caffeine and we will write till our fingers bleed. As humans one of our basic needs is to have other people and that doesn't happen sitting in a corner. So getting out of the house and going to a gorgeous sitting befitting Scarlett (O'Hara that is) herself seems like a grand idea if I do say so myself.

Camp NaNoWriMo Survival Kit

Camp NaNoWriMo is a month long online writing challenge that takes its participants on the fantastic voyage to NaNoland. This year the Offices of Letters and Light have scheduled camp for April and July. Perfect beach weather in July by the way. Well Camp NaNo is inching closer and closer and I've got my bag packs and I'm ready to go. Well you don't just jump into the car and race off to camp without packing some essentials.

Like any epic challenge its brave participants needs the basics to survive. So these are the things that I bring along for my month of literary abandon. And this is my kit….


Writing Essentials 
my laptop, Appa :)
my plotting notebook
fancy and funky pens
my iTunes NaNo Playlist and Spotify
Doctor Who, Avatar The Last Airbender, Dexter, and Big Bang Theory DVDs
WI-FI
Storyist


Writer Fuel
peanut butter M&Ms
Sour Cream and Onion Multi- Grain Pringles
Lucky Charms and Vanilla Silk
Wal-mart soft chocolate chip cookies
Nutella and texas toast
Ben and Jerry Greek Frozen Yogurt Banana and Peanut Butter flavored
Strawberry Fanta
Cherry Poptarts
hot chocolate


Camp Essentials 
Bug Spray
Mosquito Nets
Good walking shoes
Walking Stick
backpack

Book Babblings

A Deeper Love Inside: The Porche Santiaga Story by Sister Souljah

The Nitty Gritty: This is being herald as the sequel to the Coldest Winter Ever. Which is is, but the way they are marketing it its almost as if its going to be starring Winter with her little sister Porche along for the ride. However this is is Porches story of her trials and tribulations after her father Ricky Santiaga is locked up and Porche is shuttled off into the system despite her best efforts to allude the authorities. 

In theory this is the story of what really happens after Winter's tale, but I look at it as a parallel story. While Porche is locked up Winter is out galavanting as if she didn't have a care in the world. 


What's The 411: If I had wanted to sit through a sermon I would have gone to church and I am sure I would have enjoyed the experience better. Sister Souljah has fallen for the trap that many celebrities and the like fall victim too. She had begun to believe her own hype. 

She is under the delusion that is is the savior if black people and this book seems to be her attempt at living up to that ideal. But I am here to let Sister Souljah know that organic foods and vaccines aren't going to help the African American community and neither is this book. 

When I read Coldest Winter Ever for the first time I fell under her spell. I was transported into the gritty life of Winter and I loved it. Then I happened to listen to a lecture by Bell Hooks. She explained that as black people and as black women we must look at everything the media produces and look at it critically. We can't just sit back and allow a world that we aren;t apart of spoon feed us our own identity without saying something. 

So I went back and read the Coldest Winter Ever and I was startled with what I found about that book and more importantly Sister Souljah. Now I won't get into the CWE because this is about A Deeper Love Inside. Which I felt wasn't as bad as CWE but it was certainly trying. 

The book starts off with Porche's love affair with her family who are gods in her eyes that can do no wrong. S.S tried extremely hard to work Winter into this book to draw in her readers without actually having her in the beginning of the book. Its a personally pet peeve of mine when authors do that. Its not really a bait and switch its more like "I need Winter in this book to get you to read it," and I don't like that. I'm not a idiot that needs to be drawn in my the lure of more vulgarity from Winter Santiaga to read the book. I was more intrigued by hearing Porche's story than I was about learning more about Winter. I had enough of her in her own book. 

Porche wasn't as lucky as her sister and she was shuffled into the system. S.S critical view of the prison system and its workers come across clear as a sledge hammer to the head. While I do agree that the DOC is slanted against minorities I don't think its face to categorize everyone who works in the system as vile, nameless thugs who take the job to torture little girls. Her characterization of the warden and the guards pissed me off. Now I don't believe that everyone is an angle, but I also do not believe that prison guards are horrible human beings.  

Now this is where we have to suspend disbelief a little bit. Porche at the beginning of this book is a ten year old girl that pees on herself at the drop of a hat, but yet we are supposed to believe that she is a young hustler just looking for her come up. Within a few months of being locked up she managed to pull together a crew, work an angle and get the respect of her fellow prisoners. Well that one's that are trying to kill her because she is just so beautiful and they are oh so jealous of her. 

Her scathing review of the behavior and attitude of black women comes through loud and clear. 

Porche is also adult enough to stab a case worker in the neck with a pencil for as she claims "running her mouth about her family." As if the Santiaga family is above reproach. 

We are also introduced to Suri. Who is Porche's best friend and her anchor to reality. Only later do we find out that this character is just a figment of Porche's imagination. Nothing out of the realm of reality from a child. We expect children who have been through a trama to react that way. What we don't expect is for the people around the child to see what is going on and do nothing about it. 

Sister Souljah gives Porche a parade of mental illnesses and never addresses any of them. None of the other characters mention them either. Its almost like she uses mental illness as a plot device, but then never mentions them. She makes a point to cram the organic lifestyle down our throats at every turn of the page, but we never hear her thoughts on the mental health system. 

Sister Souljah is aware of how powerful words can be. She started out life as a hip hop artist before she moved into the realm of fiction. So she should be taken to task for simply overlooking something just to move her story along. Its sloppy writing. Especially for someone who is claiming she is trying to uplift her people. 


The Good: There is very little that I can find good about this book to be frank. I only read the entire thing because it was a book of the month for a book club I was in and there were some heated debates going on and I never miss a chance for a good debate.

Though I will say that Porche seemed to thrive in all the areas that her sister failed in. Where Winter auctioned off her vagina to the highest paid bidder Porche protected her with a daily ritual of smelling herself to see if someone had touched her. A gross past time for any child I am sure. When Winter walks away from her mother Porche fights everything and everyone to pull her mother out of her addiction. While Winter fails to find a lasting source of money Porche falls in love with a boy destined to be a moneymaker from jump street. While Winter wheels and deals people like disposable tampons Proche manages to make lasting friendships and even learns a thing or two about a thing or two from people. 

The Bad: This book fails to deliver on all fronts. We don't get a coming of age story. We got a grown woman in a little girl's body. We don't get a proper catch up with the characters from Coldest Winter (if that was what you were looking for). The get honorable mentions to whet out appetites  We don't get a realistic slice of life story either because Porche just isn't a realistic character and nothing that happened in her life is at all realistic. Don't get me wrong I love fantasy books and Harry Potter is one of my favorite stories, but J.K never claimed that she was trying to portray real life.  

The book is extremely wordy and long winded. Almost as if Souljah had a word count she had to hit before they would publish it. I figure 200 pages of writing could have been cut out of this book and it still would have been an ok story.

Souljah seemed to have an internal battle with Proche in this book. On one hand she tried to keep the hard, street edge that we loved Winter for, but on the flip side she wanted to make Porche her own, unique character. What we are left with is a little girl with spilt personalities that would have left Sybil confused. 

My Final Say: Don't think I will be buying this book at all. I am so over the Santiaga family and I doubt I would even go see the Coldest Winter Ever even if they managed to get the movie made. One trek through the ghetto was enough for me. 

Plot Bunnies...how many of us have them?

There was a time....that is the start to one of my favorite movies, Lucky Number Slevin. If you haven't seen it I recommend you spend your Saturday night with a loved one and a pint of ice cream and Slevin.

Hopefully this post won't end the same as the movie.

Anyhoo back to my post, there was a time when I couldn't get a single idea to smack me across the face and tap dance across my plot book. I mean I could sit for hours trying to get anything to come anything to happen and it never did. I took all the advice I could stomach from everyone that I know that was a creative person.

None of it worked. I mean I felt like a balloon with no air. I know I wanted to be a writer. I know I had the skill set to be a writer, but I didn't have any plot ideas and I felt unused and unloved basically. What was wrong with me? My family was no help. They are still convinced I hang out with white people too much. Like only white people make good fantasy writers. I will be sure to lose their invites to my book launch.

How could I hope to be a writer if I couldn't come up with anything to write? It was that thought that plagued me as the 2012 NaNoWriMo loomed overhead, and to make matters worse I was a first year municipal liaison  So I was in charge of the success of my entire region's NaNo experience and chief among them was completing my own 50,000 novel!

I was in full panic mode under my calm, cool exterior. I mean my mother always told me never let the children see you sweat and I've taken that tidbit of advice to heart.

Once the initial plot came and I started writing I got inspiration from everywhere in everything. So much so that I had to start carrying around a little notebook and a pen in my purse so that I could capture my ideas down before they snuck out in the middle of the night without so much as a Dear John note. I tried keeping track of them on the little notebook app on my phone, but it just wasn't large enough and sometimes I can't type that fast on that little keyboard to get out everything that I want to get out before the idea dries up. My ideas can be that fleeting sometimes. Other times they linger for a day or two to make sure I write down everything.

Now I've got more plot bunnies than I know what to do with. The little buggers are everywhere. They keep multiplying and spreading, and I can never predict when they are going to give birth. In the shower, on the phone, at work, at church, at the gym (doesn't happen as often because I don't go that much), while I'm elbow deep in cutting up chicken breasts for dinner and can't possible dash to my computer to bang out the idea. They even invade my dreams, which is freaky beyond measure. Its like seeing a movie of my book in my head before its written.

Wonder if screenwriters have that problem....

I've managed to fill up six composition books with possible plots and story outlines. Not to mention I have a old school notebook that I have repurposed as a plot binder that is now filled with story notes and folders crammed with slips of paper and stray receipts scribbled with all manner of random plot notes.

You would think that would be enough plots to keep my fingers moving till the Second Coming and that is true, but a lot of the plots are just single lines from something that inspired more. Or a rehash of an earlier idea with a different spin. Like a vampire plot with a steampunk setting. Or a werewolf hunter plot with a hint of Cinderella thrown in for good measure. Most of them are full blown plots with characters and experimental plot outlines done.

Does anyone else have this plot bunny problems?

Fireflies, S'mores and Rope Swings oh my!

So we are 3 weeks out from the start of the first Camp NaNoWriMo session! I am a tad excited if you can't tell! I never went to camp as a kid because I grew up in Germany and surprisingly they don't do the camp thing during the summer. We traveled and went to amusement parks over the summer. Which was fun but I would have loved to have gone to a creative arts or science camp during the summer. Something about being in a nerdary with other geeks just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside

This year the sessions are in April and July. There was a furious debate about the feasibility of having the camp sessions during April and July.

I personally love the new months. Last year it was June and August. For most kids they are still in school in June and during August families are trying to cram in their vacations before they have to rush back for school to start back. I think april works well for everyone all around, and it gives an opportunity for the Script Frenzy people to have something official to do since OLL canceled Script Frenzy.

I was sad to see it go, but I just never participated because scripts just aren't my thing.

There have been some upgrades to the Camp NaNo site and I have to say I love them. First and foremost you have the ability to set your own goal. Which I think will really work for the people that want to participate but know going in that they are going to be too busy for 50,000 words. It allows them to get that accomplishment in the midst of  the chaos of real life. It also helps those overachievers who know they can blaze through 50,000 easy. Last November my NaNo novel went better than I could have ever imagined. I crossed the 50k mark on Nov. 16. Once that happened the energy just drained out of me. I was able to limp along and win with 62,313 but I felt like I cheated myself in the end. So I'm happy that I can set my own goal because it will keep me pushing and I might just be able to finish an entire novel during the camp. Which has me as giddy as if I had eaten an entire box of red velvet cupcakes.

The next upgrade I think that I am going to like is the expanded option package for the cabin selection. Now we have the ability to set the cabin activity level. Last June I lucked out and got most of the people I requested in my cabin and we worked great together. We created a facebook group simply because we weren't that active in our cabins and in the August session only two of us were active. I like a lot of activity and talking. Especially when I'm stuck and I need help on something. I like having someone as a sounding board or just someone to shoot the breeze with when I need to decompress for a bit.

So I am looking forward to using the site once camp starts.

I was teetering back and forth between two different plots. One was a steampunk, fairy tale inspired throwback noir book. I had all the research done and I thought that was what I was going to do, but then my Castle inspired book kept calling my name. When the sight went live everything just clicked for me and I decided to go with my Castle muse.

Title: Inventing the Grimm

Genre: fantasy

Protagonist: August Grimm. She is a twenty something NY best selling author. She is funny and sarcastic. A real child at heart. Though she doesn't believe in the fairy tales she is writing about. They are just stories to her. She is still in the honeymoon phase of her stardom. Not really believing that its all true, but loving the fact that people love her books.

Other Characters: Ezra is going to be another voice of the book. She is the Fablehaven police chief. Or I may just make her an inspector and make someone else the chief. Not sure if that will change just now or never. Balthazar, the Big Bad Wolf is going to be the love interest in the novel. Not sure if I want it to be a Bridget Jones love interest sort of thing because I am so bad at writing romance or if I'm just going to wing it. There is going to a steady cast of re-imagined fairy tale characters so this is going to be a fun ride for me. :)

Antagonists: The Queen of Hearts and the Sheriff of Nottingham. both of them I am thinking of them as Bonnie and Clyde. They thrive of the psychotic vibe from the other, but the Queen is going to be in charge and the Sheriff is just her knife man. the Queen is going to be a disgraced and penniless monarch living on the outskirts of the city. Sort of like the crazy cat lady with a murderous streak.

Plot: August Grimm is living the high life. She is a celebrated best selling author of the popular Apple White series. A fairy tale detective series based on Snow White. Does August think fairy tales are real? Of course not. Unfortunately for her in Fablehaven fairy tales are real and someone is killing its citizens. Just like in her books. And if these murders are going to get solved Fablehaven is going to need her help...if she can get passed the flying monkeys.

Setting: The initial setting is going to be Neptune, NC, but the majority of the story is going to take place in Fablehaven. The fairy tale capital city. There are going to be some border countries like Oz and the land of the Trolls, but I haven't come up with the name just yet.

Point of View: Third person limited for August and sometimes Ezra and other characters as need be

Story Notes: I am planning on this being a novel series and I've got 4 books plotted out already and I am thinking its going to be seven books so I have to take in account how the books are going to bed from the very beginning. So I can drop little hints and tidbits along the way throughout the books. I want each book to be a stand alone book but I want a natural progression from one to the other. If that makes any sense.

Series Bible

So my newest novel adventure is The August Grimm Files. This is sort of like the fairy tale version of Castle. Which just happens to be my favorite show on television. So August Grimm is an up and coming author or urban fairy tales. Yes her last name if Grimn, but so far I haven't come up with a plausible excuse for an American black girl to be related to white Germans so as it stands the name is just something I wanted to give her.

But anyways August is a writer of fairy tales, but she doesn't believe in them. That is for children, but the hero in her her stories is Apple White, the daughter of Snow White who is a detective. The stories. follow her adventures in Ferry Landing. She is a best seller and living the good life, till she comes face to face with the Fablehaven Police Chief who needs her help solving a murder that is based of murders in her books. August is dragged into the fairy tale world that she just wrote off as children's stories to help solve the case.

After the case she returns to the human world, but from time to time she gets called on to help on the cases in Fablehaven.

Yes the entire novel idea is based on the Castle episode of Flowers on Her Grave, but really that plot has been done over and over again and I don't think that I'm stepping on any toes.

So TV shows have what is called a series bible. They can include:

• The overall concept 
• Ongoing characters - main, supporting, villains 
• The setting 
• The rules of the world you're creating 
• Gadgets and gizmos [if any] and how they work 
• What CAN'T happen in future story lines 
• Format 
• Series tone 
• Series theme 
• An opening story 
• Story suggestions 
• Nuisances of all the characters (ex. eye color, best friend from 3rd grade, favorite type of bubblegum)

These series bibles are extremely handy in keeping everything canon. Like if August in Book 1 has a female Egyptian Mau named Bentley then in book three it doesn't turn into a male Tabby named Miles. Its easy for something like that to slip someone's mind if you only mention the cat once or twice but readers pay attention to things like that. I know I do, and it irks the hell out of me when things change like that in books. Unless there is an explanation to the change.

So I want to start a series bible for the August Files, but I just have no idea how and all I can find on the the google machine is how to do a TV series bible. Well maybe I should do mine in the same manner it seems a simple format, but a lot of things are tailored for television.

It might take a little bit of effort on my part to do a series bible for my new novel, but I think in the end it will keep me on track and keep my honest. 

FanFiction: Author's Bane?

Now before I even thought about being a writer I wrote fanfiction. Been doing it since 2007 I believe. I started with a Blade FF. I exclusively use fanfiction.net as my medium. I don't like posting it on other places because it might be taken as my own writing and I don't want there to be any confusion as to ownership. On fanfiction.net it sets the tone to the writing.

Now as we move properly into 2013 I've got 13 stories on the site. From Harry Potter to Hunger Games to Artemis Fowl to Castle to the Millennium Trilogy (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for you troglodytes just now discovering fire) to the House of Night to Ranger's Apprentice to Percy Jackson and the Olympians (my most popular story so far), Southern Vampire Mysteries (Sookie Stackhouse) and finally The Brotherband Chronicles.

As a fan I've enjoyed writing the stories and I still do and I try to stay on top of getting them updated pretty regularly. For me its not that I am trying to imitate the authors writing style. Hell no that would be impossible. I like the way that I write, thank you very much, but I've enjoyed the stories so much that I want to continue them in my own unique way.

Now as a budding writer I have to think about fan fiction in a new light. Or do I? There are writers that are staunchly against fan fiction.  One of my favorite authors is George R.R. Martin. I am so in love with Westros I want to have my wedding reception in King's Landing, but he hates fan fiction. According to his website Mr. Martin has this to say about fan fiction,"And write. Write every day, even if it is only a page or two. The more you write, the better you'll get. But don't write in my universe, or Tolkien's, or the Marvel universe, or the Star Trek universe, or any other borrowed background. Every writer needs to learn to create his own characters, worlds, and settings. Using someone else's world is the lazy way out. If you don't exercise those "literary muscles," you'll never develop them." Can you say ouch? I know I can. I think Martin just called me lazy and that hurts.

But I think of that literacy snobbery. Sort of like Bill Gates telling a homeless person, "I dropped out of Harvad and now I'm a multiply billionaire and you can do it too." Um that's well and good for you and the stars lined up just right for you to do what you have done. You had access to the tools to help aid you in your endeavors Now that is not a cop out to say that said homeless person couldn't do what Gates has done. We all have that potential in us and I believe that with some hard work everyone's dreams can come true. However we all have to start somewhere. I can't just jump up on stage and belt out some Whitney Houston when I've never sung before.

I believe that fan fiction is that starting place. No I don't believe its the only one nor the only way for a writer to start, but its something. Especially for a person that has never flexed their creative muscle. And to expect a novice to jump into the pool and be able to swim like Michael Phelps is ludicrous. I mean I've been writing seriously for a while now and there is no way in hell I can sit down and create a world has as vivid and luscious as Westros.

Do I think fan fiction is copyright infringement? Hell no. I'm not writing these stories to make money. Hell I only post them on fan fiction because I don't want anyone to confuse the matter and think that I'm trying to publish these stories as my own.

I mean we have crappy novels like 50 Shades of Grey and The Mortal Instruments that were based on fan fiction and now have gone on to the New York Times bestseller lists and now are being made into movies for mass consumption. So while the books and their authors make the enamel from my teeth run away screaming I do believe that the exercise of writing fan fiction helped them flex their muscles to in turn create their own worlds and story lines. I personally hate the books and I think anyone who is fan is a total moron and should have their library card revoked. I would happily donate those books to a Nazi book burning and that is no joke. So maybe those women could have done well to take a creative writing course on character development.

They were a poor example of my point but I think the point is made for authors to not be such boneheads about fan fiction. Its a starting point at least.

Now on the other side how should I feel about fan fiction? I'm not sure. I know that its not possible to stop it because I can't control what someone does in their own home, but should I make it my personal mission to tell fan fiction writers that they are lazy and the scum of the earth if they use my work as a platform? As a fan fiction writer I don't think I can go that far because I love what I'm doing with my stories, but am I ready to give the world cart blanch with my hard work, blood sweat and tears that I've poured into my novels? I don't think I'm there yet either.


So I think I'm between Wonderland and the Yellow Brick Road on this one...