Last November I took part in the on-line challenge to write 50,000 words during the month of November. This was for the National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. I was amazed that I succeeded in doing so, and thrilled with what I had written which became my latest novel, Radwinter. I don’t know why the challenge worked, it was a discipline to be sure, but it was never onerous, and working in that concentrated way was really good.
Now a new challenge awaits… Camp NaNo; it is the first time I have done it, and I haven’t quite grasped it completely, but as far as I can tell it is like a writing retreat. participants can choose to be in virtual ‘cabins’ with eleven others and the idea is to support, encourage and help each other… as well as having some fun and banter along the way. The cabin assignments are random so I am in with others who are interested in writing different things from me, and come from different states in the USA – I think I’m the only European.
CampNano has different expectations… it is a time to try different things, experiment, and not necessarily write a novel, campers are free to write what they want and are encouraged to try new things, maybe a different genre of fiction, maybe not fiction at all.
The different thing I am trying is a sequel; I have never attempted – never even thought about a sequel before… well not seriously. Several people who have read my other books have asked me to continue the story of the characters… but nothing has quite lent itself to that. I am attempting to write a sequel to Radwinter… I was going to call it ‘Cooking the Books’, but I think it is going to be called Magick. It is not a fantasy novel, it is another genealogical mystery, this time about the Magick family, the maternal line of the Radwinters.
Radwinter is available as an e-book from Amazon:
Lois Elsden 