The Finish Line, Baby!!

Chill-axing Song of the Day: "The End" by Kings of Leon

So, Quita and I have done the unthinkable. As you may recall, a few weeks ago we announced we were going to participate in NaNoWriMo. You see, we attempted and failed miserably last year. But after some coaxing from our writing sis, Racquel Henry, we decided to take a stab at it again.

And we didn't just stab that sucker--we filleted it!

Okay, that was a rather lame analogy, but not only did we meet the 50,000 requirement LAST Monday, but we also surpassed it! We both finished our first drafts last Wednesday and felt like doing this:

And this weekend, as promised, we will indulging ourselves with this:

Yeah boy!

So, I know that NaNo has been getting some flack by a few people. You know, if you were a real writer, you wouldn't need NaNo to get your butt in the chair and yadda yadda yadda.

Well, I'm sorry, as much as I heart writing, sometimes life gets in the way. Sometimes I put everything and everyone first so much that my writing ends up taking backseat. It felt good making writing a priority--no matter how much I wanted to cry and pull out my hair this past month. Plus, after spending the past year writing and revising Wants, I had a great time just writing something for fun. Maybe I'll polish it up and let a few other eyes read it, but just finishing it is also reward enough.

Oh, and did I mention that both Quita and I know that writing everyday isn't necessarily impossible? As much as we whined about it, we always ended up writing more than our daily quotas. This is a habit that I know I can continue EVERY month (though maybe not as strenuously).

So, our lovely followers, how do you celebrate when you finish a first draft? How long do you wait until you start revising it?

Psst--by the way, we FINALLY came up with titles. My Lost Boys meets changelings manuscript is called The Switching Kind, and Quita's coming-of-age genie project is called The Yearning. For now at least. :)

If You're Thankful and You Know It...

Writing Song of the Day: "Thank You" by Alanis Morissette

Okay, we're pretty sure you're all doing the same thing we're doing right now--stuffing your face with turkey and listening to the same story of that one cute thing you did when you were a kid (if you're like me, you've heard this story about a ZILLION times). However, I don't want us to lose sight of the purpose of Thanksgiving. That's right, break the word down and it basically means "to give thanks."

So, without further ado, we would like to share our lists of things that we've been very thankful for over the years:


Pam's List:


1. Family: Well duh. They're the only ones that will tolerate my epic mood swings.

2. Leo DiCaprio: From Romeo to Jack Dawson to Dom Cobb, my heart will always go on for this man. Yes, I had to go there.


3. Crumbs Cupcakes: Umm, because they're CRUMBS CUPCAKES!!

4. Risk-Taking Authors: Ellen Hopkins, Elizabeth Scott, Courtney Summers--you are why I write. And you make reading worthwhile again.

5. The Writing Community: I have met so many wonderful writers through blogs, Twitter, forums, and beyond. No matter if we're published or still struggling toward that goal, we're all amazing cheerleaders for each other. Nothing makes me happier than reading that someone has gotten an agent or a terrific book deal--well, besides those things happening to me, but that's besides the point... :)

Quita's List:

1.) The Health of my Family: Both my sister and cuz (yes, Pam) got in car accidents this month. I'm thankful that they both came out pretty much unscathed. WHEW! Also, after losing one parent two years ago, I'm glad that the rest of my immediate family is still here for me.

2.) Good Music: I don't know what I would do without it. Any chance I get, I'm rocking to my music- while writing, while grading papers, and while eating lunch at my desk all by my lonesome :(

3.) Food: Because me loves to eat- hence the fluctuating waistline. And I truly don't discriminate- cupcakes? YES! Pizza? YES! General Tso Chicken? YESSS!

4.) YA Books: I'm soooo thankful my cuz turned me on to YA books. They are some of the best I have read in my entire life.

5.) Colored Pens and Post-Its: Because I would be LOST without them.

6.) The parents of the following men for creating such GORGEOUS offspring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ashton Kutcher, Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Robert Pattinson

7.) Ditto to Pam's # 5: we heart the writing community :)))

Obviously, we have TONS more that we're grateful for, but we figure you're all in turkey-induced comas by now. Tell us, what are some things you're grateful for??

RTW: November's Best Book!

Reading Song of the Day: "Secret Crowds" by Angels and Airwaves

Our girls over at YA Highway want to know about the best book that we've read this month.

With us toiling away with NaNoWriMo this month (and it's our goal to actually be DONE by today), we didn't have time to get in much reading. Poor Quita didn't get to finish anything, and I only managed to read one book.

But this book? Oh yeah, it was a good one.

This came to me in the mailbox completely by surprise--it has Lauren Strasnik's autograph and everything! I'm sure I entered a contest for it because I've been hearing RAVES about it through the Interwebs, but it still caught me completely off guard.

My goal was to read Catcher in the Rye this month for school, but as soon as I opened this book, I couldn't put it down. I'm sure if I had enough time, I could have read it in one sitting. But with two jobs, NaNo, and MFA classes, I was on a tight schedule. I did manage to squeeze in a few pages each morning before work--and I almost made myself late a few times because I didn't want to put it down (sorry students!).

The plot? A young girl has to move to a new town after her parents' separation. At her new school, she meets a rather peculiar set of twins. She starts to develop feelings for the guy twin, and the girl twin? Well, let's just say she's not too thrilled about that. And I don't want to give away anything else so do yourself a favor and read it!

Why did I heart it? The writing was just so sparse and direct, yet I still got a vivid image of everything that was occurring. Also, the pages just dripped with voice and the author does a FANTASTIC job with "teen speak."

Okay, I think I've drooled enough. Did you have a favorite book you've read this month?

We Can't Help But Wait!!!

Reading Song of the Day: "Can't Help But Wait" by Trey Songz (check it out on the Rock With Us tab)

Don't you love that Christmas morning feeling? You know the one where you're all excited about what's in the stocking or under your tree? Maybe you're too old for that now (like we are) but hearing about new YA books coming to stores near us gives us that Christmas morning feeling all over again. Since it's Monday and we kinda want to feel excited about something, we decided to share the upcoming YA books that we are most looking forward to.

What's that you say? This blog isn't big enough to put ALL of the books we can't wait to read? You're right...so we'll narrow it down to just a few.

Books we BOTH want to read!!

Matched by Ally Condie (will be published November 30th, 2010) Goodreads summary: Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Click here for more info!

Delirium by Lauren Oliver (will be published February 2nd, 2011)

Goodreads summary: Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love -the deliria- blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the governments demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Click here for more info!

Divirgent by Veronica Roth (will be published May 3rd, 2011)

Goodreads Summary:
One choice
One choice decides your friends, defines your beliefs, and determines your loyalties . . . forever. Or, one choice can transform you. Click here for more info!

Like Mandarin by Kirsten Hubbard (will be published May 5th, 2011)

Goodreads Summary: "I want to be beautiful like you, I thought, as if Mandarin were listening. I want apricot skin and Pocahontas hair and eyes the color of tea. I want to be confident and detached and effortlessly sensual, and if promiscuity is part of the package, I will gladly follow your lead. All I know is I'm so tired of being inside my body. Click here for more info!

There is one more book Pam is looking forward to (will be published December 21st, 2010) and that is...

Fall forAnything by Courtney Summers

Goodreads Summary: When Eddie Reeves’s father commits suicide her life is consumed by the nagging question of why? Why when he was a legendary photographer and a brilliant teacher? Why when he had a daughter who loved him more than anyone else in the world? Click here to read more about this book.


There is one book Quita is looking forward to (will be published February 15th, 2010) and that is...

Desires of the Dead (The Bodyfinder # 2) by Kimberly Derting

Goodreads Summary: The missing dead call to Violet. They want to be found. When Violet Ambrose's morbid ability to sense the echoes of those who've been murdered leads her to the body of a young boy, she draws the attention of the FBI. Click here for more info!

Don't even try & lie...you know these books look good!!!

Please, do share...what books (not yet published) are you looking forward to reading?

Contest...Fail!

Reading Song of the Day: "Shake" by Jesse McCartney" (check it out on our Rock With Us tab)



Once upon a time two girls tried to run a contest for their NaNoWriMo novels. Now, these girls are writers...but they suck royally at picking out titles. They sent out a notice for their writing buddies to lend a hand. While some of them tried and came up with some really GREAT titles (thanks ladies!) none of them seemed to be the right fit for the two girls and their nameless WIPs.

Which makes them feel like this:

Okay, cutting to the chase. Even though we extended the contest in hopes of more entries...we received four submissions to our contest. Four really unique, interesting, and talented novel titles that are just not right for us. However, we didn't want Alex Mullarky, KO, Abby Stevens, and Holly Dodson to go away empty handed (you RAWK so much ladies!!!). Therefore, we are offering a $5.00 Borders gift card to each of you.

Please e-mail me at: marquitahockaday@gmail.com with your name, home address and your e-mail address. I will try and send the gift cards electronicaly and if that doesn' t work I will use your mailing addresses to send the gift card to your home.

Thanks again for entering ladies and we hope the gift card helps you buy a book you've been looking forward to reading!

***BTW- this means we still have TWO novels to give away at some point in the future...stay tuned!***

Dine and Dash!

Writing Song of the Day: "Confessions, Part II" by Usher

Don't forget about our NaNo Titling Contest! It ends tonight at midnight, EST, and we need your creative muscles! :)

It's time to get on the road again with our ladies at YA Highway for their weekly Road Trip Wednesday question. To celebrate Kirsten Hubbard's debut novel, Like Mandarin (which Quita and I can't WAIT for!), they want us to: Explain a time you did something crazy.

Okay, time to step in our confessional booths.

When we were much, much younger (we were young and dumb, okay?), we were convinced by Quita's older sister--the master manipulator that she is (though we do heart her)--to do the unthinkable. It was summer vacation. She was hungry; we were hungry. And we were broke with a capital "I ain't got two quarters to rub together." So Quita's sister asked that we go to Pizza Hut, get a "To Go" box...

And run out without paying.

Yes, our lovely readers--Quita and I were forced at gunpoint (okay, maybe that's a little dramatic) to dine and dash.

We were scared out of our minds. We paced the Pizza Hut for a good hour before going in--but we were more scared to go back home and face her sister empty-handed. She was the oldest--a full-fledged high schooler. And as Courtney Summers shared with us so eloquently, a teenaged girl can be the creepiest thing aside from a zombie attack.

So we caved in, ate our pizza, asked for a box to bring to Her Highness (seriously, she was like royalty to us), and then darted out of the restaurant at top speed.

Unfortunately, a worker decided to get his cardio that day and chased us. Everything was a blur, but I do remember Quita shouting: "Don't look back, Pam! Run like the wind!"

Well, my "wind" was more like a gentle summer breeze because we were caught in no time. Just as the worker was about to call our parents (even though we begged him to just call the cops instead), our own personal guardian angel stepped in and paid for the pizza for us.

We don't know your name, sir--but we love you.

It's been over 15 years, and we just shared this story with our moms earlier this year. Even though they laughed it off (which I'm sure they wouldn't have done if they were actually called), Quita and I still can't go into a Pizza Hut without feeling a little queasy.

There you have it. We're so ashamed!! We're both extraordinary tippers now because of this incident. So spill it--what's the craziest thing you've all done?

Squeezing in Time!

Writing Song of the Day: "Remember the Time" by Michael Jackson (check it out on the Rock With Us tab)


In the spirit of NaNoWriMo (which Pam and I are KILLING right now--both of our word count stands at a little over 31K) we wanted to share some tips from the most recent Writer magazine. You know how you always have so much stuff to do? Like, I don't know... live a life and work a 9-5.

So when do you make time to write?

It's one of the age old questions that you see on a lot of writing blogs, we hope to offer something that you will make you go, "Aha! That's the advice I've been looking for!" From the article written by Cheryl Bolen (author of 9 historical novels) here are few tips on how to make time to write:

Write every day: Easier said than done...I know. But since we started doing NaNo we realized that it's not that hard to write a few words each day. If you can't get to a laptop, then carry around a journal or a small pad and jot down your thoughts.

Set daily and weekly goals: Write down a word count goal or even a page count goal for each day or each week. This way you give yourself something to work toward.

Decide how badly you want it, and lose the time wasters: If you WANT to write or if your goal is to be a writer then you NEED to set aside the time to successfuly do so.

Declutter your life: Eliminate things that compete with your writing (this inclues watching TV- CURSES!!)

Use writing time wisely: Don't use writing time as editing or revision time. If you are the type of writer that needs/uses outlines-- try to finish the entire outline before writing the novel. Even if it changes as you go, at least you have a blueprint.

And finally, if you are writing any kind of research heavy project- don't waste writing time on the research: Just go with the flow and research when it's time for revisions.

Now you have our two cents on the topic. Besides what's mentioned here-- what else do you do to make time for writing?

**BTW- don't forget about our NaNo titling contest. You have until Wednesday at midnight to enter!**

Once, Twice, Three Times the Story

No, we have not gone senile... we didn't forget to announce our winners, we just wanted to give more people a chance to enter our contest. You will now have until next Wednesday at midnight(11-17-2010) to enter for a chance to win an Amazon gift card and an awesome YA book!

Reading Song of the Day: "3" by Britney Spears (check it out on the Rock With Us tab)


Raise your hand if you have read The Hunger Games trilogy? The Twilight series? Okay, so we can't really see your hands...but you get the point. These two series are where our expertise ends. We've started others (Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater, The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan, Fallen by Lauren Kate) but we know there are so many others out there that we haven't been able to read/find yet.

This is a problem.

For our next writing adventures we are taking the plunge into this territory hard core. We are not only composing (ideas for) trilogies for our NaNoWriMo projects--Pam's is based on fairies, mine on djinns or genies--but we are also co-writing one (more of a dystopian) and we needs our peeps to help us out! We get the basics, all novels need a beginning, a middle, and an end. And we get that each book in a trilogy (should) stand alone. But what about paranormal novels? How much do you expose in the beginning to get the reader hooked? Are prologues neccessary?



I think it's pretty clear that we can use your guidance. What other paranormal, dystopian, supernatural YA trilogies/series can you all think of that we need to read in order to get some good research done? OR if you are creating your own trilogy please share a tip or two about your process.

RTW: Team Threesomes!

Contest Reminder: You have a few more hours left to title our NaNo projects...and get some money and a book out of it. Click here for the deets.

Reading Song of the Day: 'Threesome" by Fenix TX (check it out on our Rock With Us Tab)

It's Wednesday, and the girls at YA Highway found a way to make "hump day" less annoying. It took us a second to come up with an answer to this week's question. When we saw literary cliches + favorite we automatically thought-- that's impossible! But we did manage to come up with one. So, our fave literary cliche is, drum roll please...

The always hated, always frustrating, but absolutely neccessary love triangle.

Yes, we went there. We both have our "teams" and we actually get in heated debates about why our guy is better than the other. It may be a cliche to have the girl who has to choose between two boys who are in love with her but come on, what girl DOESN'T want two people to be in love with her???

Here are some of our fave love triangles:

Edward + Bella + Jacob

Peeta + Katniss + Gale

Bill + Sookie +Eric (Sookie Stackhouse Novels)

Daniel + Luce + Cam (Fallen Trilogy by Lauren Kate)

Travis + Mary + Harry...+ Cass (The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan)

Sarah + Ryan + Brianna (The Unwritten Rule by Elizabeth Scott)

Stefan + Elena + Damon (The Vampire Diaries by L.J. Smith)

Just in case you were wondering ( I know you're dying to know) where we stand when it comes to the most popular love triange out there... I'm Team Edward--more like Team RPatz, and Pam is team Jacob.

Now that we've bared our souls tell us, what's your fave love triangle and what's your fave literary cliche?

Not to Toot My Own Horn, but...

BEEP!

My guest post is up NOW over at one of my fave YA author's blog, Elizabeth Scott! I am so honored to be featured on her site, as she is definitely one of my heroes (or is it heroines?). I talk about the landscape of LBGTQ (Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Transgendered, and Questioning) YA; this is a topic very near and dear to my heart and I will dedicate a post on it on this blog as well. If you don't mind, please swing by and check it out. :)

Also, don't forget about our NaNoWriMo Titling Contest! Quita and I still need your ideas and we're willing to "pay" you for it. Contest ends this Wednesday at midnight, EST.

We Answer Your NaNo Questions!

Writing Song of the Day: "21 Questions" by 50 Cent ftg. Nate Dogg

Contest Reminder: Don't forget to enter our NaNoWriMo Titling contest! Give us title ideas, and we'll give you gift cards and books. Contest ends this Wednesday at midnight, EST.

So, Quita and I (as well as thousands and thousands of our writer friends) have signed up for NaNoWriMo this month. And we're doing surprisingly well, actually. As I type this, we're both around 17,000 words or so--which is little higher than where we should be. The end is actually looking possible now!

But we've come across a few roadblocks. And if you're participating, we sure some of you have as well. So we're here to answer all of your deepest, darkest NaNo questions and hopefully provide you with some inspiration.

How do you meet your daily writing quotas?

One word--liquor. Okay, and maybe chocolate. Oh, and a little bit of whining. But ultimately...liquor.

How do you shut off your internal editor?

See first response to question above. Seriously, get one or two grape wine coolers in me and I'm not going to care if I switched from present to past tense.

What do you when you start hating your story?

Do something really crappy to your characters. Not only will that provide much needed conflict, but it'll also teach them for making your dialogue sound corny and unrealistic.

Dancing with the Stars comes on tonight. How am I supposed to get my writing done?

Are you kidding me? The Situation got kicked off weeks ago. Now we're stuck with Bristol Palin and some Kurt-guy that may or may not have played professional football. Pull out your laptop--you'll thank me later.

I've outlined my first few chapters and now I'm stuck. Now what?

See first response to the first question.

I've pretty much covered two of the major conflicts: man vs. self and man vs. man. How am I supposed to tackle man vs. nature when my story involves two men's quest for self-fulfillment?

*Blinks*

NaNo's been getting a lot of flack this year. How do I fend off the haters?

You don't. You write 50,000 words of a novel while the "haters" write anti-NaNo blog posts. Maybe they'll have fun revising those in the future.

So, did I leave anything out? Do you have any burning NaNo questions? Also, how are you all doing with your NaNo projects? And if you're not doing NaNo this year, how are you tackling your daily writing goals. We'd love to know! :)

Contest: We Need Titles!

Writing Song of the Day: "What's My Name" by Rihanna ftg. Drake (check it out on our Rock With Us tab!)

Sooo, we kinda crept past 75 followers (woo hoo!). And I kinda mentioned on Twitter that we may have a contest once we reached this milestone. Well, since we're having a contest, we figured we'd be a little selfish, too. :)

Quita and I have story ideas for days, but the one thing that we really suck at?

Titles.

So we stole an idea from the lovely Lauren Oliver and are asking our wonderful followers for your help! We'll give you our NaNoWriMo pitches below and you can leave title ideas in the comments. If we choose your title, you'll win a $15 dollar Amazon Gift Card plus a novel! Which novel? Either...

Or...

That's right...we'll have TWO WINNERS! One winner for naming Pam's story, and one winner for naming Quita's story. Both will win a gift card and one of these lovely novels (whoever contacts us first will get first choice).

The rules? Please don't list more than TWO titles for EACH pitch. Oh, and make sure you follow our blog. And that's it. Of course, you can spread the word about our great contest, but that's entirely up to you--we won't love you any less. ;) Winners will be announced next Thursday, November 11th (Leo's b-day, by the way!). Without further ado, here are the pitches (plus click here for more in depth info):

Pam's NanNoWriMo Story:

Since Tara can remember, her older sister has always been sickly. But now she's wandering off, screaming right before people die, and squeamish around iron. She has to be a changeling, right? It's Lost Boys with fairies!

Quita's NaNoWriMo Story:

Avery always wished for a life better than being dragged from foster home to foster home. When a seemingly nice couple from North Carolina and the school's hottest girl take an interest in Avery, he feels his wishes have been granted. Not if Lincoln has anything to do with it.

Now have at it! :)

RTW: First You Get the Readers, Then You Get the Power

Writing Song of the Day: "If I Ruled the World" by Nas ftg. Lauren Hill

It's time to go on another Road Trip with the lovely ladies of YA Highway. This week they ask: If you were made supreme ruler of of the publishing world, what would be your first ruling?

Hmm...

Quita and I had to do a lot of soul-searching for this question. In fact, the only power I'm used to is having control over the remote (yes, I do make Quita watch E! News Daily and other forms of celebrity gossip).

After a much heated debate that may or may not have included thumb wrestling, we finally decided our first ruling would be:

Thou shalt not give negative reviews due to foul language.

Apparently our reign requires Biblical jargon, but that's besides the point. I've heard a few people buzz throughout the Internet that they've seen YA reviews on Goodreads, Amazon, and other websites where people bash the book because the teen characters *gasp* swore.

Teenagers curse?

Next you're going to tell us that they skip school, or smoke cigarettes, or *double gasp* have sex.

Let's face reality. Not every adolescent is going to engage in the above activities, but it's safe to say that many of them do. I work with middle schoolers, and I hear words from their mouths that would make our crazy, ex-con uncle even blush.

Adult readers need to realize that YA authors are simply reflecting the world around us through our characters. Not all of these characters will have potty mouths. In fact, I sounded like a dork whenever I tried to swear around my much cooler high school friends.

So sorry readers. Our characters will use profane language as long as it fits with the story. If you don't like it, you don't have to allow your kids to read it.

They'll just hear it when they go to school the next day.

Annnnd...Go! (NaNoWriMo Kick-off)

Writing Song of the Day: "Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na...)" by My Chemical Romance- check it out under our "Rock With Us" tab.

Yes, Pam and I are delving into the scary world of NaNoWriMo this year- and we are most definitely going to finish this time. We've been reading blogs, looking into our local NaNo events, and we even set a reward for ourselves when we make it to 50,000 words by November 30th.

Feast your eyes on this...

Looks good, right? We know :)

Anyway, we wanted to do a kick-off blog post about NaNoWriMo for all other participants (and others who just enjoy stalking our lives) interested in our method for completion, and what we are working on.

First, let's discuss our novel ideas. After visiting Nathan Bransford's blog and reading up on all of his advice for NaNo, Pam and I did a lot of soul searching about what exactly we wanted to write. We both kind of pride ourselves on realistic fiction, so we decided to do the exact opposite of this and go head first into the world of-dun, dun, dun... SUPERNATURAL/PARANORMAL YA!!!

Pam's WIP:

Tara has to say goodbye to her life in California when her family decides to move to the Pork Capitol of America, Newfield, Virginia. Her older sister, Michaela, has been terribly sick since she was a baby, and her parents have found a specialist who can treat her. But Michaela also feels as if she’s been to Newfield before…and many of the locals sure seem to recognize her. Tara’s used to her sister being a little “off,” but now she’s wandering off in the middle of the night, screaming before people die, and developing a strong fear of iron.

Tara shares these discoveries with her new friends, “twins” Malik and Justine, and they lead Tara to believe that Michaela could only be one thing…a changeling. Or the child of a fairy that was swapped with Tara’s real sister.

Which means Michaela isn’t human. Which means Tara’s “real” sister could still be out there. Which means Tara and the Twins have to get to the bottom of everything before some not-so-friendly locals put an end to Michaela, whatever the hell she is. This is me paying homage to Lost Boys…only with fairies.

Become her writing buddy at: pharris81

Quita's WIP:

Avery Grey's always wished that he could have a life other than the one he was granted. At 16 years old, awkwardly clever Avery is still constantly moving from foster home to foster home. Every family that’s taken him in just tends to give up. As soon as Avery has resigned to living the rest of his teen life in his urban group home for boys (including creepy follower Gustav) , an elderly couple from a small suburban North Carolina town set their sights on Avery.

Just like that, Avery’s wish comes true and when the seemingly normal couple takes Avery home, he embarks on his last chance. He wants to be on his best behavior…after all, he doesn't have that much longer until he’s free to be on his own. At first, things almost seem too easy. Avery makes new friends that are much better behaved than his group home co-habitants. Amongst them is Tierra, the school’s most exotic beauty that every boy has tried to woo and Avery, out of everyone, has caught her attention. This makes Avery a few enemies, especially mean spirited Lincoln who loves playing with fire and has severe allergies to iron and salt. Lincoln and his followers will go to great lengths to get rid of Avery before he gets too close to Tierra and finds out more than he should know.

Avery soon finds that some wishes are better left un-granted.

Become my writing buddy at: mhockaday

So, now that we have the ideas- when the hizell are we gonna find time to write? Not only are we full time educators, but Pam is starting to teach part-time classes online and I am taking graduate history courses online (did we mention that we are also working on our MFA?). It seems like we want to torture ourselves, but really we just want to finish another manuscript- and this is the perfect opportunity. Okay, enough blabbering- you want to know how we plan on being superwomen, don'tcha?

Here's the plan:

• Write 7-8 pages a day- at lunch time, while students take tests, while students complain about life, while teachers attempt to whine about students, while we are supposed to be listening to our moms on the phone...you get the point


• Double up on the weekends if we missed our page count during the week

• Complete blog posts for the week on Sunday


• Get work for MFA done during the weekdays (sometimes at work, sorry children- after November you will have our undivided attention again)


• Finish all MFA assignments on Friday


• Cook meals that will last at least two nights


• Take minimal bathroom breaks

• Limit stalking time of Hollywood actors and random musicians (We luv you Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert Pattinson but...Must. Finish. Novel!)


• Limit TV time (not sure if this will ACTUALLY happen- but we shall see)


• Finally, attempt to not check Twitter and e-mail every five minutes

***BTW- We LOVE our students and we love our jobs. We plan to be fully attentive to our day jobs and the kids. Just jokes!***

Got any other tips for us? What about you all--how are you going to complete your novel? And don't forget to "buddy" us at NaNoWriMo-we luvs the buddies.