NaNoWriMo 2016 Recap ||| I Wrote A Novella + Snippets

NaNoWriMo is almost over, but it's over for me.  Yet again, I did not write the big 50,000 words.  But, I did write a novella!  (For some reason, I write super short.)

Here is a little bit about my NaNoWriMo 2016 experience!

• I wrote 6k in one day.
• I took a couple of breaks for various activities.
• I randomly switched from past tense to present tense on the first page.

Snippet 1

(Please ignore all spelling/grammar errors.  It's the first draft.  Oh, and you can click the text to make the image larger.)

• My MC, Nora Mae, is not a brave person.  In a fight or flight situation, she will RUN.
• My characters travel to the set of Avengers: Infinity War, which I accidently put in Los Angeles instead of Atlanta.

Snippet 2

(For the record, I just made up stuff that might happen in Infinity War.)

• I had an awesome time with this story.
• I put a TON of references in it.  #sorrynotsorry

Snippet 3

• I used Google Earth to walk around Russia, England, and France.
• I used Google Translate a lot.

Snippet 4

• Originally, the book wasn't going to be overtly Christian...but it just sort of...happened anyway.

Snippet 5

How was your NaNoWriMo experience?  Did you finish?  Do you have tips on writing full-length novels?  I would love to hear your thoughts!

Black Friday Book Sale ||| so you can buy Christmas gifts for yourselves.

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving, everyone!  I hope you all enjoyed family time and delicious food!

I have one more thing this year that I'm thankful for: The Black Friday Book Sale from Indie Christian Authors.  A bunch of indie Christian authors are discounting their books from November 25 (today) to the 28.  You can get free shipping, $0.99 ebooks, package deals, and more!  (Plus, there is also some free stuff on there, so be sure to grab that.)

They also have a nifty quiz to help you find books that you (or a bookish friend) will probably like.

I thought I'd share all of this so a.) you can support these fabulous authors and b.) so you can save money on books.

A note on the Ebooks Only page. All books are listed as "Sold Out." This only refers to paperback copies of these titles. Please click onto the product pages to find descriptions and links to discounted or free ebooks. Also, some of the authors this year chose to not sell their paperbacks directly through the site. Those books are also marked "Sold Out" but if you click them open, you'll find a link to the site where they are on sale and a discount code for you to use at check out.

Acknowledgements: Thanks to Leah E. Good and Kendra E. Ardnek for their work organizing this sale, and Hannah Mills for her fantastic design work on the website graphics. Hannah can be contacted at hmills(at)omorecollege(dot)edu for more information about her design services.

*Disclaimer* I received free ebooks for posting this.  While obviously free books are great, I mainly posted this to help you find new books and save some money along the way!

What awesome reads of 2016 are you grateful for? What books are you looking forward to reading in 2017?  I would love to hear your thoughts!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to pop in and say HAPPY THANKSGIVING!  Remember to give thanks for your family and friends.  Send a message to a friend saying you are thankful for him or her!

I'm so thankful for all of you.  You encourage me all the time and are just generally awesome people!  Thank you so much for being my faithful readers. :)

3 Creative Ways to Get Some Words Written (+ a Vlog)

Here are some fun, creative ways to get words written for NaNoWriMo.  I think partly I'm writing this post for myself because I am incredibly behind.

1. Word Crawls.

Want to go on an epic adventure while you write?  Try a word crawl! (I'm pretty sure I just sounded like a commercial.)  These things are a blast.  They are reminiscent of a choose-your-own-adventure book, but the amount of words you write in a certain amount of time dictates what happens next.

Some cool Fandom-related word Crawls...

Avengers Word Crawl

Doctor Who Word Crawl

Star Wars Word Crawl

The Hunger Games Word Crawl

Harry Potter Year 1 Word Crawl

Link to allllll the word crawls

2. The Apples to Apples creative writing game.

This is a game Katie Grace, her sister, Laura, and my sister, Mickayla Jansen invented.  Basically, you play Apples to Apples normally, except the winning player keeps the red card, not the green card.  At the end of the game, everyone has to write a short story with all of the items on the red card in the story.

3. Act out a Scene.

When you're home alone (unless you want an audience), act out the next scene in your WIP, video it, and write what happens as you play it back.  This is similar to what Hope Pennington does when she writes.

Vlog

Savannah Grace from Scattered Scribblings tagged me to do the Q and A tag, so I decided I would try my hand at vlogging.  So get ready for awkwardness, and my strange adoption of some sort of accent that I don't actually have, and watch me answer Savannah's questions!

Music Credits:

Call to Adventure by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

What creative ways do you write?  I would love to hear your writing methods!

Crannig Castle BLOG TOUR | REVIEW + GIVEAWAY

God, please look after Adriel. Keep him safe and keep him from acting foolish. And please help him to be able to find me.

Rae knew she could trust God to look after both of them. It was all she had now.

The Time Captives have been reunited. The rightful king has been freed. Now all that remains is to defeat the strytes who still hold a tyrannical rule over the people of Calhortz. But with their lack of soldiers, it’s a task that is easier said than done. They need allies, but are they worth it when it requires facing ghosts from their pasts?

Returning to his home country only brings the loss of Adriel’s family to the forefront of his mind. His determination to find Rae has never ceased, but now that determination could potentially destroy all that he and the Time Captives have been working towards. And his new-found faith may not be able to withstand the challenge.

Will they be able to set aside their personal struggles for the sake of the freedom of all or will they allow their pasts to consume them? Will they manage to win back Crannig Castle from the rule of the strytes? The fate of Calhortz hangs in the balance.

Crannig Castle is the final book of the Time Captives trilogy, a tale of faith, family, fantasy, and a fight for truth and freedom.

I really enjoyed the first two books in the Time Captives trilogy.  They were imaginative, Narnia-esque, and overall a joy to read.  Crannig Castle, however, wasn't my favorite in the trilogy.

What I Liked.  I enjoyed returning to the epic battle against the strytes.  Morgan created such a fascinating world with such intricate characters.  I loved getting so see how everything turned out.

What I Didn't Like as Much. I really tried to get into this book, but I just couldn't for some reason.  I think maybe the pacing was too fast.  Also, I didn't really like the ending.  The entire conflict with the strytes seemed to wrap up too easily.  *shrugs* I just liked the other books a lot better.

Overall, I highly recommend the entire series, even though the third isn't my favorite.  If you haven't read any of the Time Captives books, please do!

Buy Now

Kindle ~ Paperback ~ Signed Copy

Blog Tour Introduction Post

Giveaway

Join in the excitement of Crannig Castle and enter to win a special prize! The first prize winner will receive signed copies of the entire Time Captives trilogy. The second prize winner will receive a signed copy of Crannig Castle. The third prize winner will receive an eCopy of Crannig Castle in the eBook format of his/her choice. Giveaway open to U.S. residents only.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/63d9bc8b7/

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Morgan Elizabeth Huneke is a homeschool graduate who lives in Georgia. She has enjoyed creating characters and writing stories since early childhood. Books have always been a big part of her life, never more so than when working at the local library. Her other interests include reading, playing the piano and violin, and politics.

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Why I'm Not Going to Edit My NaNo Novel

I'm not planning on editing my NaNoWriMo novel.  So why am I writing it if no one else will look at it?

1. I want to have fun writing it.

I always feel pressured when I write something I know someone else is going to someday read it.  I just want to have pure fun writing something with no pressure, just hands flowing across a keyboard.

2. I'm honing my storytelling skills.

I think of this novel as my experimental writing ground.  I've never written a full length novel.  The Clockshifter doesn't really count because it was once 2 separate books rolled into 1 (before I edited that version to oblivion).  I'm attempting to make this a full length novel.  I'm also experimenting with other storytelling stuff.

3. I can put as many references as I want in it.

Yes, this means I can keep the scene where my characters "accidentally" end up on The Avengers: Infinity War set.  *mischievous grin*

4. The story is for me.

It's not really a personal story, but I guess it is?

5. It's a bunch of craziness.

Yes, I do actually have a semi-detailed plan of where this novel is going, but it's pretty out there.  I'm just a really weird person who tells weird stories.  (Honestly, I think I'm the only one who will actually like this story.)

Even though you all will probably never read this novel, here's a little bit about it.........

Title: What No One Remembers

Main Character: Nora Rae

What makes her unique? 

She was born with a weird tattoo on her arm.

Where does this novel take place?

A town somewhere in the southwest that I have yet to name.  It's based off of a super small town called Chloride.  Look it up, it's a real place.

That's the main setting of this book, but the characters travel to LA and other cool parts of the world.

Why on earth is it called What No One Remembers?

Well...in this small town, everyone forgets everything every morning...except for Nora Rae.  (Yes, this is inspired by a prompt on Pinterest.)  So there's this cool circular plot thing at the end because Nora Rae is the only one who remembers the adventure.

What else is this book about?

Aliens.  Lots of aliens.  Just accept it.

Anything else you'd like to share?

I broke the NaNo rules and started this novel before NaNo actually started.  No, I'm not counting the words I wrote before November for NaNoWriMo.

I want to stalk your progress on this weird-looking novel.

My username for nanowrimo.org is AleaHarper

Am I the only one writing a book no one will read?  I would love to hear your thoughts!