Half Way to Christmas

It’s a little early to talk about the C word, but I am very aware that next week, the day after Thanksgiving to be exact, I will be decorating my Christmas tree!!! I can hardly stop myself from doing it earlier than that but I refrain because I love Thanksgiving too much to skip over it. Also, I’ve been really busy writing a book. My first Christmas novel set in Blue Lake.

Sister Issues was my first published novel, also my first effort to write a holiday into a book. I wrote that book during NaNoWriMo and I’m writing my second novel to feature Christmas in an even bigger way during NaNo too. A Blue Lake Christmas kind of announces its intentions, right? I’m up to 32K words today. More than half way through that first draft and I’ve done it by writing 2K every day for 15 days straight.

My publisher contracted this book way back when I started the Blue Lake series with Blue Heaven. Before we signed the contracts, they asked me to write up a little synopsis of each book I envisioned for the series and of course I thought of a Christmas book, even though all the other Blue Lake novels are set in the summer, since Blue Lake is a beach town. I love Christmas and I love reading Christmas novels, so I knew I would eventually write one for the series.

I start reading Christmas stories by my favorite authors who do one annually every October and continue reading them right up through Christmas Day. I like new authors this time of year, too, so if you have a favorite, or maybe you’ve written a Christmas story yourself, let me know. Reading about Christmas gets me salivating for the season. In that spirit, I’d like my Christmas novel to be out in October or November 2016. For that to happen, I have to finish it by March 2016. February is even better, just to be safe, as I usually have at least a few edits.

I love sweet Regency novellas

NaNo has given me the push, like an early Christmas gift, I so desperately needed this year. I have a few tricks, things that have proven to work for me with first drafts like writing first thing in the morning and not stopping to think of the perfect word or if a scene lacks punch or if my plot is full of holes or if I need to add more details. I can do all that in revision. For NaNo, you just keep going.

I also have one new habit that has been incredibly freeing this year: I write three pages in longhand first; maybe I brainstorm about my story, maybe I don’t. (Usually I do.) Then straight onto my laptop in my cozy chair where I pick up where I left off the day before. I snuggle under my Christmas quilt and lose myself in a snowy world of wonder.