25 November 2011

5 Days To Go {NaNo}

For those of you participating in NaNo:

How is it going!?

I am just over 42,000 words right now. According to my stats page, I need just over 1300 words a day to win this year!

I'm feeling good about it!

8000 words left. It's nothing. After 5 years as a "participant" I'm finally going to become a "winner"!

14 November 2011

I Ask You These Questions

Because my poor little mind can't focus on one thing at a time, I'm already thinking of beyond the book I'm going to finish next month {it still doesn't have a definitive title}.

I'm wondering what my readers would like to, well... read.

What subjects do you like to read about?
What do you tend to stay away from?

I write Young Adult fiction {at least that I care about publishing at the moment}, and I tend toward "realistic" fiction. While I like to read fantasy, I used to love vampires until Twilight ruined the whole thing. {Okay and probably some stuff before that.} But, I also like to write about "tougher" subjects.

This first book deals with drug use, identity, and death, but they don't all have to be that heavy. This is definitely one of the deepest, most emotional stories I've ever worked on.

Right now, I'm reading a book called Willow by Julia Hoban. It deals with cutting. Being a cutter myself {been "clean" almost three years!}, I find it deeply unsatisfying. I'm not saying I could write it better, but I could make Willow, the main character, more "real".

Anyway, getting back on track {see, this is how my mind dysfunctions...}, I ask you these questions again:


What subjects do you like to read about?
What do you tend to stay away from?

10 November 2011

Welcome Friends and Fans

Welcome to the official blog of the soon-to-be published young adult author, Brandi Montenegro! I am excited to have you all join me on this journey from a stay at home mom to {almost} four kids, a student of Psychology, and a wife in a small Northern Nevada town, to added role of published author.

For much of my life, I've been writing. I remember in the fourth grade, I started to work on my first "novel" {though back then, I had no idea what a novel was}. It was definitely a fourth grade attempt, but it never stopped.

Since High School, one of my goals in life, one of my major dreams has been to have a book published. To see it in print, to be able to hold it in my hand, to see my name on the cover!

How exciting would that be!?
.
Well, life intervened, and I slacked. I had children, I got married, and I got sucked into the role of mother and wife, maid, cook and all that stuff. I still wrote when I had the time, I pushed the dream of author aside.

While I love my job as a mother and wife and my family and home are always my first priority {school being the second}, I don't feel as fulfilled as I know I could be.

There's one more step I need to take, and it's for the better good of everyone involved.

Over the last five years, I've participated in a little thing called the National Novel Writing Month {NaNoWriMo}. Each year, I start out eager to reach those 50,000 words and beyond, but every year, I come up short.

This year, I'm giving it my best, but, whether I get to that finish line or not, the real fun starts in December.

December 1st, 2011 I will begin work on finishing the novel I've been working hard {and not so hard} on since November of 2008. By the first of the year, a novel will emerge, a competed novel. From Point A to Point B and beyond. I will spend the next 2-3 months editing and rewriting, while starting on, or finishing up, a second novel. The first one will be ready to start submitting to agents/publishers no later than April 12, 2012. {No significance in this date, really.}

So, you are along for the ride! It's going to be fun, it's going to be tough, it's going to be emotional, but we'll all come out on top in the end!

Thank you!