Courtesy of Northern Exposures

Hello there! If this is your first time visiting my blog welcome! Get a drink and pull up a chair, let the madness draw you in. I'm Ann Shannon, the Manic writer. I blog about PTSD, encouragement and I write book reviews and romantic fiction. My passion is the military, soldiers, and veterans, especially those with PTSD. I loved that you stopped by, leave me a comment or find me on social media. I'd love to meet you too and get to know you!

It's been a busy 2 weeks since my last journal update. I spent a lovely week in our capitol, Washington DC visiting as many places as we could. I've been to DC many times so some of what I saw was a repeat, but there is always more. I visited the Ford Theater for the first time and had a blast. I highly recommend it for your next trip. I also saw the Korean War memorial and the World War Two memorial for the first time, they are breathtaking.

So very true!

I walked a total of 57K steps in 3 days! Now if only I could manage that with my writing. 57K words in three days would put me in a coma I think. 50K is my total goal for the month of June, I can't imagine that in three days!

JunoWriMo begins on Monday! I will have a late start with it because I am chaperoning a writers conference that my daughter is attending this weekend and we return Monday morning. It'll be fine, I hope.

I'm a JunoWriMo newbie and not sure what to expect as the only WriMo I've participated in so far was April camp. I love the encouragement to get people writing and intend to participate whenever I can from now on. If you love writing why not join us too?

What have you been up to? Are you a writer, an artist? What do you do that makes you smile? Tell me about it, I'm always interested in what brings others joy.

It is my goal to end the stigma that comes with PTSD. I blog about PTSD once a week, searching the mountains of information out there and bringing you the best of what I find. I review a book on PTSD every other week and I publish a weekly encouraging reflection and tweet encouraging quotes for PTSD survivors daily, follow me to be encouraged. Together we can make a difference.

When I'm not blogging about PTSD or trying to encourage those of you living with it. I'm an author. I write romance. I just finished my first book and I am revising and editing it. With any luck, it will be published later this year, in the meantime you can get a sample of my work on the web. Original work can be found here, and fanfiction can be found here. Let me know what you think, and tell me how you found me!

JunoWriMo

So, CampNaNoWriMo is hardly over. The campfires are just cooling down and our sleeping bags need to be washed, but it's time for the next challenge because when you're a writer there is no such thing as downtime or vacation. My mind is always working on a story, or a character, or a PTSD blog post. I can't help it, it's how the madness manifests in me. As an author/writer/creator, I'm always working on something. So JuNoWriMo here I come!

CampNaNoWriMo was a huge success for me. I wrote 90K words! JuNoWriMo is a little different than camp though. The goal is preset, 50K words and I have a plan already!

I usually blog about PTSD and if you come here for that don't be discouraged by the different topic, this is what I do when I'm not talking about the subject that fills every corner of my life. I will be continuing to blog even while I write. It helps, a lot, to have something that I love to do and for me that's writing love stories! Even my husband gets in on the action, discussing books ideas, plots, and characters with me for hours. My work is available for free right now, just check out my links to the right. And make sure you make time for fun too!

One of the goals I have for JuNoWriMo is to write an anthology of short stories, four or five of them, and offer it up on Amazon for free. I think it's a great way for new readers to get a sample of my writing style and see if they like it. I have a series planned that I will begin sometime next year and I've decided that each of my short stories will be about one or two characters from the series.

Interested yet? The first story in the anthology is the most developed so far. It's called "The Table of Misfit Donors." I'll include the synopsis in a future update post.

Each story will cover a bit of their backstory or an unrelated story, so reading the short stories won't ruin anything for you in the series, it will just familiarize you with the characters a bit. I have three stories laid out, and characters for two of them outlined and I will be working on the rest of that this month in addition to editing and revising other works which can be found here on my blog.

I'm really looking forward to JuNoWriMo. It will give me a chance to work on a project I'd be too likely to put on the back burner. And, if I get myself in gear, it will free me up to re-read the novels I have in revision as I prepare for a second revision. You see, I am new to this fiction writing and it's going to be slow for me while I learn how to not bore you to death with my fumblings.

Subscribe to my blog, follow me on twitter or like me on Facebook so you too can follow my progress as I stumble along.

I usually blog about PTSD and if you come here for that don't be discouraged by the different topic, this is what I do when I'm not talking about the subject that fills every corner of my life. I will be continuing to blog even while I write. It helps, a lot, to have something that I love to do and for me that's writing love stories! Even my husband gets in on the action, discussing books ideas, plots, and characters with me for hours. My work is available for free right now, just check out my links to the right. And make sure you make time for fun too!

Camp NaNoWriMo is done! I completed my goals with a final word count of 90,417 words. In actuality I wrote much more than that this month because I also worked on some PTSD blog posts and other projects. My primary work this month was Catch a Falling Star. I also worked on organizing my blog and building a plan for a regular PTSD column. Finally I continued working on my social media platform, reading, and I built a PTSD Pinterest board to add to my collection. I will be taking May off of writing challenges but I will be participating in JunoWriMo which has a preset goal of 50K words. My plan is to write an anthology of 4-5 short stories that I can publish and offer for free as a sample of my writing style.

I usually blog about PTSD and if you come here for that don't be discouraged by the different topic, this is what I do when I'm not talking about the subject that fills every corner of my life. It helps, a lot, to have something that I love to do and for me that's writing love stories! Even my husband gets in on the action, discussing books ideas, plots, and characters with me for hours. My work is available for free right now, just check out my links above. And make sure you make time for fun too!

Catcha Falling Star has been wrapped up with a bow and the first draft is sitting on my kindle waiting for me to read it through. I have a planned field trip to Washington DC this month with my daughters and I will read it while I am there, taking notes on what I need to change. Once I've done that I will begin the second revision, maybe in July.

The Compromise is done as well. It is a shorter book only hitting 40K words. I've had so much fun writing it. I've migrated the first two books into Scrivnener and I am revising and outlining them to prepare them for publication. Also, as I mentioned in my last update, these three books fall into the category of adult romance and I had to decide how to advertise them. I have made a page for my blog that has an adult warning when you enter it. It's called The Manic Writer:After Dark and will house any of my adult romance, and adult romance reviews.

That's my final update for CampNaNoWriMo! I've had a lot of fun challenging myself with Camp in April and I am looking forward to June! If you like what you see here then please subscribe to me or add me to your feed and watch me grow. I can also be found on Twitter and Facebook and I am trying to learn how to use Instagram!

We're almost done with CampNaNoWriMo with only a week left to hit our goals. I've been hard at work revising Catch a Falling Star and I'm still making good progress on The Compromise which I have yet to post a page for. I have been falling behind in my goal to blog weekly on PTSD though. My word count is just above 70K so I have a week to hit my goal of 90K and I think I'll do it despite the challenges that lay ahead of me in this final leg of my camp journey.

I usually blog about PTSD and if you come here for that don't be discouraged by the different topic, this is what I do when I'm not talking about the subject that fills every corner of my life. It helps, a lot, to have something that I love to do and for me that's writing love stories! Even my husband gets in on the action, discussing books ideas, plots, and characters with me for hours. My work is available for free right now, just check out my links above. And make sure you make time for fun too!

Catch a Falling Star is right on target. I have 36 of 41 chapters revised and I expect to finish it today. Once it's done I will compile it, put it on my Kindle and read it through for the first time, making notes about what I'll change in the second revision. I'm looking forward to the read-through, up to now I've only interacted with it a few chapters at a time. The total word count for Catch a Falling Star rests at just over 88K which is about 1K less than when I began the revision.

The Compromise is almost done and I'm sad about that. I've enjoyed visiting with Davis and Amanda on their journey. The next step for the series will be to migrate the first two books into Scrivener and begin their revision. Because it's a trilogy I need to watch for continuity and be sure each book stands on its own as well. I'm looking forward to the work but dreading it at the same time. The total word count for The Compromise is about 35K. Each book is a little longer than a novella but they will work well as a trilogy for that reason.

When I'm done with CampNaNoWriMo I will work on making pages for the Trust and Obey trilogy. I have to decide how much to reveal since they fall under the erotica category and I want my blog to remain family friendly. Not sure if I will post links or not. 

That's the update for Camp this week, late again.There is another camp in July, I think, that I will participate in and of course the parent event NaNoWriMo in November. Can you believe I am already stressing about having a story idea for it? I'm sure it will be fine. Anyway, subscribe to me, or add me to your feed and watch me grow!

So it's time for another Camp NaNoWriMo update. It's day 15 of camp and I am chugging along. I've made up for my low word count last week despite not working over the weekend.  I've been working hard at editing Catch a Falling Star and even found a major flaw that I fixed immediately. I've also been working on my new story The Compromise. I have not been working as hard I'd like on the blog but I am making new habits and changing old ones. My current word count rest just short of 44K which I'm sure I'll blow by as I have more authoring to do today.

I usually blog about PTSD and if you come here for that don't be discouraged by the change in topic, this is the rest of my life. I find it helps to have something that I love to do and for me, writing is it! My hubby and I sit and discuss my book ideas, developing plots and characters for hours sometimes. It makes for great fun and we bond while we do it. Make sure you make time for fun too!

Catch a Falling Star is right on track to be revised by the end of April. I finished chapter 21/41 this morning and re-posted it for reading at FictionPress. One thing I've realized is that I will never be completely content with what I've written, I will always think it could be better. I guess I will have to learn to live with that.

The Compromise is coming along well and in creating the villain in it I've realized that I have a very dark side in my mind. He is truly awful. Perhaps that is fodder for a later blog post?

I've completed 24K words in it so far, so only a little over 4K in that this week but I lost Monday to a homeschool class and part of Tuesday to a sick dog. I am determined to finish the first draft this month. I've also realized that the first two parts of the trilogy, currently titled The Romance, and The Contract, will need major rewriting to be worth publishing but I am looking forward to that.

So that's the update for this week. We are halfway through Camp and I am excited to be reaching my first ever Camp goals. Are you participating in Camp? Are you a writer who wishes you could just get that novel down? Tell me your thoughts.

Camp NanoWriMo Update- Week 2

It's day 10 of Camp NanoWriMo and I missed my first update but I have lots to tell! My original intention was to spend all of camp editing and revising Catch a Falling Star and I have been working towards those goals diligently. I've also been authoring a new story that's been keeping me up nights and demanding to be written and working on developing my blog here. It's exhausting to have so much I want to write and actually try to make time to get it all done. My sister says there is no such thing as no time, you make time for the things you want to do but in reality sometimes the words flow faster than I can type and I do need to sleep, eat and move away from my desk occasionally. (#campnanowrimo) 

My first goal was to revise chapter 1 of Catch a Falling Star and make it more interesting. I'd love it if you'd go and read just that chapter leaving me a comment either here or on FictionPress to let me know if you like it.

So here's the tally. I've edited up to chapter 12 in Catch a Falling Star and I've been updating it on FictionPress as I go. That puts me ahead on my goals sheet that I created here. I've written almost 20K words in the new story subtitled The Compromise, and I've written one, as yet unpublished, blog post. My word count is sitting at 31980, and I upped my goal to 90K since the new book is flowing so fast. The blog is moving slowly for me which is odd since my specialty is research writing and that is pretty much what I am doing on it but we are moving forward with it and that's what counts, right?

For those who want to know about the new story, I have a fanfiction that's been very popular and I've decided to rewrite it and publish it. (Yes I know it's been done before but it's a very good story.) It falls outside of the genre I usually write being a bit more explicit than my usual romance work and I expect I will publish it under a pseudonym for that reason. So far it's two parts and The Compromise would be the third part making it a trilogy. So far it's the best yet of the three and I am very excited about it. Of course the other two will experience revision before they're published so that they are fully cohesive.

If I finish Amethyst in the Rough this year and the trilogy I will have written 5 (FIVE!) books this year! Not too shabby! Now to wade into the waters of indie publishing. Anyway, there's my update, a few days late. Thanks for visiting!

Camp NanoWriMo Update- Week 1

It's day one of camp and I am off and running. I didn't feel well yesterday and I'm tired today as a result but I'm pushing through regardless. I am going to finish my first edit of Catch a Falling Star this month! My schedule can be found here.

My first goal in camp is to edit chapter 1 and make it more interesting. I've noticed today that there's a lot of extra activity in it and I am working to get it out of the way. I think I made good headway on that this morning. Tomorrow I will finish it and re-post the new chapter to FictionPress.

I also worked on the synopsis today and I feel like I did a good job with it. What do you think? Would you read this book?

Naomi knew when she filed for divorce that Gannon Sharp wouldn’t let her go quietly. Five years later he’s still stalking her and now he’s threatening to kill her.  She’s ready to move on. She thought she’d be able to when she bought a condo in a gated community until her real estate agent lets it slip that the unit next to hers has been purchased by a man who has silver hair and owns his own business. If it isn’t Gannon then who is it? Will she ever be safe from Gannon? Her family and friends are urging her to move on and start over but how can she consider romance when her ex-husband is everywhere she goes?

I am 2400 words into my 75,000 goal. Do you think I'll make it? I do! Check back and watch my progress. This one will be a best-seller when I'm done writing it and you will be the first to know about it!

Camp NanoWriMo

April 1 will host many events for me. Most obviously it's April Fools day. In my house this can be serious business as we try to outdo each other in pranks.

It will also be the day our new health insurance kicks in. A collective sigh of relief may be heard coming from my house as we've been a month without due to a job change. My daughter still thinks it's a joke and we'll have to wait longer for it. I hope not!

The best event that will occur on April 1 is the start of CampNanoWriMo.  I am really looking forward to this camp experience. CampNanoWriMo is a spin-off of NanoWriMo which happens in November. It is an online event meant to encourage us as writers.  We group up into "cabins" and set ourselves a word goal for the month and then write away, encouraging each other as we do.

My goal for camp is to edit my novel Catch a Falling Star and prepare it for final editing and publication. I've set a 75,000 word goal for the month but the book itself is 90,000 words as it stands and while I see some of it falling off the chopping block I don't truly believe I'll lose 15,000 words so I may hit higher.

I won't be working on anything else, other than the blog during Camp so many of my projects will be put on hold. I hope the voices in my head realize they need to wait as I have a character currently telling me his story and asking me to write it down. He needs to be patient. (And he needs to tell me his name!)

I will update here, weekly, on Wednesdays with my word count and progress. The novel is currently up at FictionPress and can be read there in it's entirety. The chapters will be updated as I finish them. When it's ready for publication I will most likely take it down from FP.

My first goal with CaFS will be to rewrite the first chapter. On FP I've had good reviews and views for this story. The one weakness I've noticed is that, as of this writing, 662 people have clicked on chapter 1 and only 118 have moved on to chapter 2. After that the numbers are fairly steady so once they commit they love it but obviously that first chapter sends many running. I want to fix that. A spreadsheet with my goals set for each day can be seen here. I will highlight each goal as it is met and relink to my progress reports weekly.

After that it will be wording that I work on. Apparently, according to my reviews, I use the term "tears pricked at her eyes" excessively. I will also work on content, tightening up the story and being sure it makes sense.

I'd love it if you, my reader, would read along with me and tell me how I'm doing. Subscribe to me and get the updates when I fix a chapter! Post a comment here, or a review on FP and let me know how I'm doing!

And, if you're a writer, come join CampNanoWriMo! Either way I'd love your support as I work through editing and publishing my first book. This has been a dream of mine since I was young and only recently have I found the road to making it happen. Send me words of encouragement, like my page, or me, on Facebook or follow me on Twitter. If you want, you can make a donation to CampNanoWriMo in my name and support me that way. And read my work, tell me, truly, if you loved it or where you think I missed the boat. The only way I'll improve is by being challenged.

Toodles!