Category: NaNoWriMo

Guisada, Kindle Fire, NaNoWriMo, Self Publishing

Friday’s Guisada of Tips

Mona Alvarado Frazier

Some days it’s all about bundling up, cooking and then vegging out. I vote for that day to be today. It’s cold, but not Minnesota cold, not even Oregon cold, but just cool and dreary enough for us spoiled Southern Cal people to whine. It’s 57 degrees out.

I tried making some leek and potato soup, vegan style, for my son. Since I’ve begun receiving “Farm to You,” organic produce I get stuff like fresh leeks, persimmons, and artichokes. This girl from the projects does not know how to cook those things. But I looked up a recipe on line. It was too salty and oniony for me, but the vegan son ate a couple of bowls.

And to think I could have made a good old fashioned Mexican guisada (see above). It has a little of this, a little of that and you can use pork, beef, hamburger, or groundless round soy product. My mom used to call it a ‘guisado,’ but maybe she just liked the male sound of it.

So now that dinner is over, I’m so excited to play some more with my Kindle Fire. I’ve already named her and bought her an ‘outfit.’ (Not really-this outfit is not out for the Fire yet).

 I bought her a conservative outfit. I know, I was one of those people who vowed to keep only books in the house, but technology lured me, like a male version of a siren.  I think it started when I bought a laptop last year. After that I traded in my old Blackberry for an iPhone 3 and I’m resisting any upgrades, I don’t care how nice Suri sounds. When she can wash the dishes, I’ll trade up.

For today’s ‘guisada,’ I found some great  tips for NaNoWriMo inspiration. I must catch up this weekend. I’m at 26,832 words and 4K behind as of today. The article on the Kindle Lending Library debate is a good one too. I must say I see both sides of view. I already downloaded a book from the ‘library.’ Don’t skip the article on the future of book covers. It dazzled me. I like to be dazzled sometimes.

Skip the Jerry Sandusky’s link to his memoir. Amazon pulled it after a deluge of outraged customer reviews. I particularly enjoyed Wicked and Tricksy’s article on Self Publishing. I’m starting to lean more and more in that direction. When I lean more than the Tower of Pisa, I’m jumping into the waters.

I hope you enjoy the guisada of resources and hope you get a chance to make some real guisada this weekend while you catch up on your reading. Media Bistro  provided this weeks host of links and Nathan Bransford provided “This week in Books.” Very clever people.

NaNoWriMo, Plot, Plot Whisperer

Progress in NaNoWriMo

Mona Alvarado Frazier

It’s day seven of the 30 day National Novel Writing Month. I pledged to complete the challenge: at least a 50,000 word novel by November 30, 2011. That breaks down to roughly 1,666 words per day. By end of today, that’s11,662 words and I’m at 9,043. Unfortunately, blog post words don’t count.

My story idea is about fifteen year old Jacqui Browne who debates whether she should go into drug dealing to finance her Catholic school education. She believes the school is the ticket to getting to an Ivy League college. A one time drug deal is supposed to get her caught up on her unpaid tuition until the local drug dealer blackmails her into more drops. That’s the gist of the story, right now. It may change before it’s done.

The 50,000 words is  a daunting task when there are three kids living at home, all working or in school. That means a lot of errands and rides to work. It gets done most of the time without too many problems. I lie, most days there’s drama going on about why someone can’t use the car anymore, because someone didn’t put in the gas they said they would into the borrowed car.

But that hasn’t been the problem with making my daily words. The problem has been my back. I tweaked it somehow, probably here typing all hunched over, and it’s been a pain in the &ss, literally. Aleve sucks, doesn’t work. Ice packs work, but only for an hour. I tried typing on my side, laptop next to me. Sucks worse.

I’ll stop complaining, since I can use this time to do more words before I have to go pick up my daughter from school. I wonder if I can wrap the ice pack in a towel and belt it around my waist during the thirty minute round trip?

But I digress. At 9,000 plus words, I’m about 2K behind. I’m ‘supposed’ to be at the End of the Beginning Scene, per the Plot Whisperer. She’s right you know and she wrote a terrific post today about that subject. I do have Jacqui and her sister walking by El Lobo’s bar and spotting the “Waitress wanted-must be 18” sign. I dunno, she’s fifteen and needs to be older to get the job. She or her sister will come up with something, I dunno, but I have to get going too.