1k-a day- Day 1

And we're off! Don't forget to post your starting word count in today's comment section. I look forward to writing with you and giving books away for the next 30 days! Good luck!

Below are my stats so far. I've basically added 30k words (1k a day for 30 days) to my word count to give me an end goal of 54,692.

Tami's work in progress: Lost and Found
Starting word count for 1k-a-day: 24 692

Words written today: 1,030 (Okay, not great but at least it was 1,000!)

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Tracy's contribution for Day 1

All righty, Tami - I'm ready to rumble with ya.

Since I'm spreading my writing for this challenge over two current WIPs, and an edit for Under My Skin, my goal is just to write at least 1k period - for whichever book takes my fancy - 1k for all three would be groovy - but I don't think it will happen often....if at all. :)

So my starting word count is easy.

It's a big fat zero.

Words written today: loggin in at 1267 for today! Whohoo!

Witches and Word Counts

Thanks to my husband for the great Halloween pic! Visit his site
to see more of his work.

Happy Halloween! For those of you who are going out tonight trick-or-treating or to a party, please have a safe and fun time!

On to the super exciting news! We will be holding a challenge and contest starting tomorrow, November 1^st here on YAedge!

Contest, you ask? Challenge? Do tell!

Here’s the deal. We’ve decided to hold a writing challenge for the month of November for all of the people who A) want to do NaNoWrimo but don’t think they can write 1,667 words a day, B) want to have a fun writing experience that doesn't take over their lives for a month or C) want to do NaNoWrimo, but are working on stories they’ve already started. According to NaNoWrimo rules, participants cannot work on stories started before November 1^st 12:00am.

So, we decided to hold our own! We’re calling it 1k-a-day. That’s right! 1,000 words a day, no more or less (well, unless you’re on a roll and would like to bump up the word count…more on that later). We'll be posting our word counts each day by 11:59pm PST and we’d like you to do the same. Just post your word count in the comments section of each day’s post.

Now, down to the super cool part…free books. That’s right…FREE BOOKS! We'll be giving away YA books from our own collections at the end of each week.

What do I do to win FREE books? Just post your starting word count in tomorrow’s blog post. It can be 0…it can be 40,000. We don't care. Whatever your word count is to start, we just need you to document it. From there, you can either post your word count daily, or by Friday evening. What is most important to us is your end word count each week.

For those of you who are unable to start November 1st, no problem! That is the beauty of 1k-a-day. We don't care about hitting an end of the month word count. It's all about your daily goal of 1,000 words!

This is where the overachievers come in. We will announce the winner who write the most words the previous week each Monday! We have a selection of books to choose from and will slowly “leak” the books up for grabs. How easy is that? Work on a book…win a book!

Make sure to check the blog each day for inspiration and read our ups and downs of the challenge. Plus, you never know when we will decide to give a book out on a whim!

So, get your thinking caps on, your writing notes out and dust off your keyboards. Oh yeah, don't forget the coffee! It’s time to get down to business and write 1K-a-day! All of us here at YAedge are in the heat of the moment with our current work-in-progress and don’t want to put them down! The excitement is brewing. Make sure you don't miss it!

Don’t forget to post your word counts everyone. Make sure to tell all your writer friends and family. The more the merrier. See you all tomorrow!

Quick note: For those of you participating in NaNoWrimo, you can also participate in 1k-a-day. Just use 0 as you starting word count and post your daily or weekly counts here.

Excuse My French

Location: Quebec City

Mood: Tres French

Last night's highlight: Drinking ale in a brick and mortar pub that was used for artillery storage in the 1700s.

This morning, the third day of a short visit to Quebec City, I wandered the streets around our hotel with a steaming vanilla latte in hand and my camera slung over my shoulder – feeling very French, very hip, very I Belong. I’m no longer the sole pedestrian staring expectantly at the lights, waiting in vain for the walking-dude to illuminate while others brush past me and forge into the streets, despite red lights and flashing hands, with no regard for their own safety.

Nope, I’m not that “newbie” tourist anymore. Like the Christmas lights on my parent’s house that stay up all year long - I now know streetlights are meaningless here. This is the way you cross a busy street in Quebec City…if the way looks clear, or you think you can outrun the oncoming vehicles and cross before being struck down like a dog – you’re good to go.

Anyway, a few close calls and a detour due to a film crew working on a Quebec movie (who may have been cursing me for wrecking their shot as I stopped to photograph them - can't you see the frustration on their faces?) – I’d found a neat bookstore to explore.

Librarie Pantoute has a rather large young adult fiction section, and while they didn’t have any English titles, they had a slew of French translations for some very familiar books. How cool to see the French covers with their slight variations in artwork and word choice for titles. The store staff were more than agreeable to me taking a few photos as long as I mentioned their website (I had told them, in my bastardized blend of French and English that I was an author and the photos were for my blog) – so here it is: http://www.librairiepantoute.com/.

An anthology (which a staff member at Pantoute informed me is titled “Prom Dates from Hell” in English), caught my eye. Twilight’s Stephanie Meyer, Meg Cabot – some big authors contribute to this dark collection of short stories. I spent a good half hour trying to read it, but my French just ain’t good enough. Also, the book (paperback format) cost $26.00.

Holy shit! Excuse my French, but I’ll wait and order the English version when I get back home. I’m thrilled these books are translated into different languages, but I pity the kids who have to pay those kinds of prices.

That they do says a lot about their love of reading.