A First Post and the Beginning of this Mad Journey

I had been kicking around the possibility of a blog like this for quite some time, and I am hoping that this is exactly the kick in the pants that I need in order to get the novel rolling along smoothly and hopefully have it ready in manuscript form no later than December of 2011. That's right. I have thrown down the gauntlet for myself in a challenge; get this damned thing written. I don't want to call it a New Year's Resolution because too many people fail at those, and I just can't set myself up to fail at this.

What can you, as the reader expect to gain out of all of this? Keeping with the status quo, the best answer I can give you is: I have no idea. Some days it may just be a simple word count of what I have been getting accomplished, other days it may be frustration, or elation. I may need to get an idea out there in the world just to see what it looks like somewhere other than in the novel. Here's what you can expect not to see: any of the novel here, in print, on the net.

As I have been delving into the world of novel writing, I have been trying to arm myself with the most possible knowledge I can gain, and one thing that I have learned is about "first rights". If you go around posting your work willy-nilly, you lose the copyright on that first printing and screw yourself out of money, and possibly printing at all. I suppose that brings me to the next thing you might expect: I'll probably write out what I find as a first time novelist not only to help out others who, like me, have no clue what they are doing but figure they have a good idea for a book, but to keep all the info I find in one place that I can access myself.

This blog is going to be for me, mainly, but if you stick around you may or may not learn something about writing yourself. I may bring up topics that have something to do with grammar, with the chapter I am working on in a general way, or with how my own journey goes in this crazy world of novel writing.

My first and most important lesson for you all, before you get too excited about what your own novel is: KNOW YOUR GENRE. Too many people let the broad world of genre allow them to become far too comfortable with being far too general. You have to know your genre in order to sell your work, so take some time to look into what genres are out there, and which fits your own novel best. My novel falls into the category of Fiction> Sci-Fi/Fantasy> with a smidgen of creative historical fiction (Thank you, Ariana Hauser). I now have a better idea of which publishing companies to consider contacting when all of this is through.

As it stands now I am working on chapter ten of my book, in manuscript form. I am about 350 words into this chapter so far. At some point, I will probably go through, chapter by chapter, and write a little something about each but for now, consider this first post my introduction...

My name is Naomi Houser. I have always been interested in books, as far back as I can remember. I have always been influenced by Fantasy and Science Fiction, reading books voraciously from the time I was able to understand what I was reading. I love anything from Robert Heinlein to Neil Gaiman. I can appreciate Young Adult authors like Scott Westerfeld, Christopher Lincoln, and J.K. Rowling. I have read almost everything by (and criticized most of) Anne Rice, but I am willing to give just about any book a try, as long as it captures me within the first five chapters.

I am a mother of two wonderful girls, and have been attending a technical college for a Technical Communications degree. While this degree isn't exactly an English degree, in its way it is because it allows me to have experience with writing in many different mediums. I suppose it could be used best for Technical Journalism, which I have done in the past. I was Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper at my college for one year, and it was one of the best experiences with writing I have had. It was a journalism convention that sparked the novel I am working on now, and it was my constant practice with writing articles that helped me with getting the written word out on paper in a concise and readable way. I have to give props to the place I started, even if it was a bit later in life than some.


I hope that you enjoy reading this blog, as it will be far more structured than my other, more "freewriting" based blog. Honestly, I will be glad of the dichotomy when I either need to go onto that blog and be completely unrestrained, or to come here and write more seriously. You can feel free to follow along with either, neither, or both but be warned that the other can seem like utter word vomit sometimes. It really is just whatever thought pops into my head at the time, when it pops into my head.


I am going to try and be a bit rigorous about writing on this blog no less than three times a week, with the other being a fallback for when I need to get totally creative. The only aside that I am going to force myself to add; if I am too busy writing in the middle of a chapter, I am not going to stop in the middle of my writing to update either of them. If there's something new to report, you'll be able to read it when it is worth reporting, believe me.


Welcome readers and friends. If you are a new novelist and you have questions that you think I may be able to answer, please feel free to comment here or send me a personal message on Facebook.