National Novel Writing Month Begins

This month marks my fifth (and hopefully successful) attempt at winning National Novel Writing Month. How do you win? Simply write 50,000 words in one month on one project. Of course, Nano has all kinds of unnecessary rules, such as it has to be a new project, and you can't have anything written before the month begins, but what are rules for if not to be broken?

I start ahead of time, think about plot, think about characters, and usually write around 5,000 words. I don't however, include those words in my NanoWriMo count - that would be cheating.

The two things I like the most about NanoWriMo are: 

1. Watching my stats go up.

2. Watching my "words per day to finish" go down.

In the spirit of NanoWriMo, I am going to offer some suggestions for pushing through all the way until Day 30 (some of which were stolen from this Facebook post). If you're doing NanoWriMo, or have done it in the past, please comment below with your advice for succeeding!

1. Write every day, even if you only manage to write 50 words.
2. Don't listen to the nonsense they tell you about "it's only about word count!" and "to get those words, feel free to have your main character contemplate the cultural implications of introducing bananas into a society" if it doesn't have anything to do with your work. You're just going to delete it later. Try to balance word count and quality.
   Things you can write about that might not technically advance your novel: 
   1. World-building descriptions
   2. Character sketches
   3. Back story
   4. Side stories 
   5. Flashbacks
3. Don't beat yourself up for skipping a day. You'll be okay, even if you finish on December 1, or 2, or 25, 2018. Every word you write is another word towards having a complete novel. Don't knock it.
4. If you're stuck, go back and read some of what you wrote on previous days. This can often spark an idea, or remind you of something you planned to do but forgot about.
5. Get your friends and family to help - dishes, laundry, cleaning, and other responsibilities can be shared, at least for a month.
6. Skip. If you know where you want to be, but not how to get there, just skip the getting there part. It'll come to you, eventually. If you have something to say, write it. Don't wait. You can always rearrange your book later.
7. Don't spend too much time on forums. Contrary to popular belief, forums, Facebook, Twitter, and cats can be a nice distraction, and can pull you enough out of your book for you to realize something important, but they can also make you feel awful about your own progress, process, and hope for success. Use your time online wisely.
8. Write more early in the month, when you're fresh. Don't aim for just 1,667 words. Aim for 1,700 or 1,701 or more. If you slowly accrue slightly more words than you need, then later in the month you can skip a day and be fine, or have extra words to make it when you can't quite get to 1,667.
9. Week 2 is the hardest. Don't give up - it's just like going to the gym: it sucks, but it's worth it.
10. Don't stop at the end of the month. If writing is truly what you love doing, don't let the end of November mean the end of writing. Set a schedule and write daily or weekly, or even monthly. Find other writing exercises or contests. Find writer friends. Most of all, find time.

If you're doing NanoWriMo this year, let's be Nano friends! Click to see my Nano profile, and add me. Or, follow me on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter to watch my daily progress. See you at the end of November!

The Wounded World Book Release

Well, ladies and gentlemen, it's official! The Wounded World has launched! To celebrate we had a week of awesome memes, two giveaways, and a party! It was all a blast, plus we were able to support the library that hosted - Wiggin Memorial Library in Stratham, NH. I just want to start out this blog by saying a huge THANK YOU to everyone that participated and supported me in the whole endeavor. It was a wonderful week, and now The Wounded World is available for you to read, either in paperback or as an ebook.

Just in case you're interested (and/or loved them so much you want to go back and take a look) here are the memes we posted leading up to the book launch party. The official countdown!

The party was also a success. With over 35 friends, family, and new friends attending, I got to share my work with everyone and celebrate the birthday of my newest book, The Wounded World. You may not realize this, but I have actually been working on this book for 5 years. It's very exciting to finally have it out in the world.

Soooooo, click to get your copy!!!

Here is a compilation of all of the pictures of the event itself.

Finally, we held the giveaway the end of the night, with two winners: Catherine Plourde for a full set of books, and Bill Asher for a copy of one book of his choice. Congratulations to you both!

It was an exciting and fun evening!

Drawing the names for the raffle.

Now that I have published The Wounded World, I am thrilled to be launching myself into writing my next book, tentatively titled The Fall of the Flighters. I also am planning a blog tour on a variety of blogs, so stay tuned for snippets of conversations from my characters, memes, and other fun stuff.

It's been a fun year so far, and I have a feeling it's only going to get better. :)

Honey Bees and Dirty Feet

Last week I went home. And by home, I mean that place where I grew up with my brothers, parents, and quite a few animals of various species. The animal population has decreased significantly since I was home for a visit last. They are down to two cats, one dog, and five ducks.

As long as we are talking about ducks, let me mention that ducks are stupid. I mean, really, really dumb. Let me give you an example. I threw a green bean at them. They were so terrified of that bloody bean that they plastered themselves to the back wall of their little house for hours. Later, my mom put out a tray of lettuce, and one duck was so terrified, it got trapped between the lettuce and their swimming pool, unable to get to the safety of its duck house. 

Dumb. And hilarious.

But what I was really home for were bees. Bees. Beekeeping. Honey. The Honey Harvest Open House, to be precise. Each year, my parents and I host an event where the community can come over to our house, watch us extract honey from the hives, and learn about beekeeping, honey, wasps, and more. We have had a very positive response, and it's a lot of fun to do.

In preparation, we spent two days cleaning and prepping the bees. My dad and I had a lot of fun wandering around with bees on sticks.

This was part of a dry swarm that had been sitting in a tree for a few days.

This is my dad pulling some frames out to look for queens. On this frame, the bees have built some very interesting-looking comb.

Of course, extracting honey is never as simple as you expect it to be. So while we were preparing, we ran across three separate swarms, all of which were dry, meaning they'd been out of the hive for a couple of days and had started to build comb. One was 20 feet up in a tree, and we decided it was too difficult to get to. The others were low to the ground, so we captured them, just to give them a chance over the winter. 

This is us putting the swarm in a hive.

Once we took care of the swarms, though, we were able to grab a few supers of honey and cart them down to the honey room. Then, we let the event commence!

I, being a volunteer, was allowed to sell my books at this event. So that was fun, too. Plus I get to see people I knew a long time ago, which is also fun, and family.

Basically, my dad did live bee presentations and my mom sold stuff while I extracted the honey from the hives. I wish there were two of me. That would have made the whole day a million times easier. But we had friends helping out this time, and it was a whopping success.

And there you have it: one particular day in the life of Ariele Sieling the 1st, author.

Here is a wonderful gallery of pictures from the day:

Honey Buckets

These are the buckets we use to store honey. The ones in the picture are all empty and have been cleaned and stored.

Honey on Honey Stand

We sell honey on our honey stand year round. It's always so pretty!

The Field

I love our field in the fall. It's gorgeous, with all sorts of wild flowers. Of course, most people are pretty allergic to ragweed, so not everyone appreciates it quite as much as me. :)

The House

This is the house. We hosted most of the event on the right-hand side of the road, in the driveway near the barn.

A Swarm of Honey Bees

This is a dry swarm that dad and I caught the day before the event. It is unlikely that it will survive the winter, but we gave it a chance!

Ariele with a Swarm

This is me sitting next to one of the dry swarms. There were actually three around the bee yard, but one of them was way too difficult to catch, so we only snatched up 2.

In A Hive

This is dad working in a hive. We were taking the top boxes (supers) to remove the honey from, but left the lower ones so they would have food for the winter.

Bees Are Cool

This is just a cool picture of the little ladies.

The Apiary

This is a picture of the bees, with the apiary in the background.

Ariele with A Smoker

This is me. Look, I'm a smoker now! Just kidding. We use the smoke from the bees to calm the bees down when we start digging through their homes. Humans = the biggest predator.

A Frame

This is a frame where bees use comb to lay eggs and store honey.

Jerusalem Artichokes

These are Jerusalem Artichokes which grow to be 9 feet tall or taller. They're gorgeous.

Open House Sign

This is the sign we pounded into the ground in front of the barn.

Observation Hive

Dad put some bees in an observation hive so people could get up close and friendly with the bees.

The Tent

We set up a tent to provide shade for Mom and our friends who were selling products and providing free samples of cool recipes you can make with honey.

Decapping

This is me, decapping. I took the cappings off of the comb so we could get the honey out from inside.

Cappings

This is where we put the cappings after taking them off the frames. Then we let the honey drain out into a bucket and strain it. Later we use the wax for candles.

Live Bee Demonstration

Dad gave two live bee demonstrations, where he pulled frames out of a hive and answered questions about beekeeping.

Beeswax Candles

Mom makes candles out of the beeswax, in the shape of things like light bulbs, pumpkins, skeps, and Daleks (Doctor Who reference, everyone!).

The Honey Room

This is the room where we extract the honey. We have two big extractors and a bunch of other helpful equipment. It gets very sticky in here.

Sunrise

This is the sunrise in NY on my way home the next morning. I will say, NY has beautiful skies.

And as you saw in the first video, I do tend to wander around barefoot or in flipflops. So in case you have ever wondered what feet look like covered with honey and dirt, I will leave you with this:

Long story short: it's not pretty. :)

But, if you happen to be anywhere near Bath, NY next year, come to the Honey Harvest Open House, where you will find bees, honey, and local authors. :)

Wounded World Book Trailer: Behind the Scenes

Last month, I worked with some absolutely amazing human beings to create a book trailer for my upcoming novel, The Wounded World. Not only do I adore the art that was created, but I loved working with such a driven, cheerful, and professional team. Hats off to Julie Lawlor and Evan Sieling.

The book trailer was hatched as part of a larger scheme to promote the release of The Wounded World, and thus far we have received an overwhelmingly positive response.  Check it out!

Some of my favourite bits are the first shot, of Evan's foot coming down with a boom; the heartbeat sound effects; the ticking clock sound effects; the running fast shot from the side; and the very end when it ends with THE WOUNDED WORLD in big text. 

The process went something like this: 

1. Ariele had an idea.
2. Ariele talked to Julie. Julie was on board.
3. Ariele talked to Evan. Evan was on board.
4. Evan flew to NH.
5. The crew did 2 hours of filming.
6. Evan went home.
7. Julie pieced together the trailer.
8. Evan built the soundtrack.
9. Julie put the pieces together.
10. Ariele loved it and suggested some minor changes.
11. Evan and Julie made said minor changes.
12. It was published. Wooooooo!

During filming, Ariele's other friend, Josh, took some additional video footage, just for kicks. 

All in all, we had perfect weather (despite the downpour that happened 20 min before filming) and the whole project was seamless. Here are a few pictures.

Julie is Filming

Ariele watches Julie take some shots of Evan's running feet.

Strategizing

Evan and Julie strategize what shots to do next.

Getting it Done

Evan heads to a new spot, to go for another run.

Two Feet, Four Feet

Ariele provides the second set of feet for the shot with male and female feet.

Evan Runs.

Evan runs. Does it need more explanation than that?

Julie Films

Julie looks like a rocking professional, getting the best angle on Evan's feet. Also, she is wearing a cool hat.

Stay tuned for the release of The Wounded World on October 9th!!!

The Wounded World Cover Reveal

Guess what! The day is finally here! This book, The Wounded World, is the culmination of 5 years of work. Blood, guts, and tears were all spilled for the birth of my precious novel (just kidding about the guts part. Maybe.).

Today I am proud to reveal it's cover. Ladies and gentlemen, The Wounded World: 

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The Cover of The Wounded World, by Ariele Sieling

The Wounded World tells the story of Quin and his father. Upon returning to Pomegranate City, Quin discovers that his father has disappeared, taking with him knowledge that is very precious to his government and leaving behind a very dangerous new Door. As he sets out on his journey to find his father, Quin hopes that he hasn't stumbled onto a problem so big he cannot even begin to solve it. 

Followed closely by his good friend John, Quin travels from world to world seeking answers... but will he find them in time?

Written as a prequel the other two books in the series, this science fiction tale takes the reader from humor to heartbreak in one simply journey.