First up, from Episode 33 of Twenty-Somewhere:

When Sophie finishes her drink, she turns to set it on the counter. The man turns also, and their eyes meet. His are a greenish-brown, and penetrating.

“I’m Mathieu,” he says.

“Sophie.” She offers her hand and he accepts. He shakes it firmly, American style. For no reason at all, she finds this comforting. “I’m sorry if I’ve been standoffish. You caught me on a weird night.”

“That’s twice you apologize. And yet you say you are fine.” He shakes his head. “You are not fine. But maybe a dance will help.”

“Excuse me?”

“A dance.” He gestures to the crowd. “Do you want to dance?”

Yes, that’s right, another one already! In spite of NaNoWriMo — or maybe because of it? — I have been pushing forward with 20SW. My goal is still to finish through Episode 40 (my temporary stopping point) by the end of 2009, which means one episode a week, plus one week with two. o_O It’ll be a doozy of an effort.

Anyway, be sure to read Episode 33 in full and let me know what you think in the comments!

I also got the previous 4 episodes up in their Amazon bundle, for anyone who wants to read 20SW via their Kindle/iPhone/iPod Touch:

20SWepisodes2932kindle

And finally, a couple writerly links/snippets for the week:

Awesome YA authors (and husband/wife duo!) Justine Larbalestier and Scott Westerfield have blogs! News to me, but probably not to them. Full of good stuff, Justine’s especially, including NaNo tips all this month.

Writer T.J. McIntyre talks about 5 things he’s learned so far on his journey to becoming an author. My favorite part:

5) Don’t Get Bitter, Get Better — Not everyone finds success at the same time. Some authors take more time to get to the point where they are publishable than others. Some authors have connections, others don’t. Some live in New York, others (like me) live in the middle of nowhere. Some have a platform (like all those celebrity-authors on the bookstore shelf), while others are destined to struggle with obscurity.  This is okay. It is the way it has always been and will always be. Accept it.

Here’s what matters: Enjoy your work. I wrote long before I started trying to get published, and I will keep writing whether it gets published or not. It is just a part of who I am. It is part of how I process the world around me. Besides, it’s FUN!

And Steven Pressfield, author of The Legend of Bagger Vance (later a Will Smith movie), has an inspiring series called Writing Wednesdays. Thanks to Aurora for pointing me to that one!


11 responses to “New Twenty-Somewhere episode + links!”

  1. Eric Avatar

    That’s quite a pace! Keep it up.
    .-= • Recent post by Eric: On Writers =-.

  2. Sonja Avatar

    Seems like you do have a lot on your plate. No status updates on the NaNoWriMo progress?
    .-= • Recent post by Sonja: Thoughts from sesshin =-.

  3. Kimberly Franklin Avatar

    20 Somewhere looks good… I’m going to check it out.

    Also, the sites you listed are great – Thanks!
    .-= • Recent post by Kimberly Franklin: Strike =-.

  4. Jon Avatar

    I love author-blogs. Finally, I don’t have to wait between books for their writerly wisdom. Thanks for the tips, will be sure to check these out. For some reason, I do remember reading Scott Westerfield, not sure what, though.
    .-= • Recent post by Jon: The Bird Watching Movie =-.

  5. Kristan Avatar

    Eric-
    Thanks for the encouragement!

    Sonja-
    I’m just under 10k words. I update my NaNo page and a spreadsheet every day, lol, so I didn’t think about putting it on the blog too.

    Kim-
    Enjoy!

    Jon-
    I’ll be honest, I haven’t read either of their books in full, just excerpts, but I really want to read Liar by Justine and the Uglies series by Scott.

  6. Les Avatar

    Woohoo new Ep! – goes to read –

    Yeah I’m kinda glad I didn’t try for Nano… I couldn’t have done it, but I’m still hoping I can hit 15k for this month. Wrote 3k yesterday so that oughta but me just over 10,500… 5k more in 13 days!
    .-= • Recent post by Les: This and that =-.

  7. Kristan Avatar

    You can totally do 5k in 13 days! :D

  8. Zara Avatar

    A Ray Bradbury quote that made me think of you:

    “I have learned that if I let a day go by without writing, I grow uneasy. Two days and I am in tremor. Three and I suspect lunacy. Four and I might as well be a hog, suffering the flux in a wallow. An hour’s writing is tonic. I’m on my feet, running in circles and yelling for a clean pair of spats.”

  9. Kristan Avatar

    Um, are you trying to say that I’m a borderline lunatic? :P J/k, I really admire Ray Bradbury, so I will take that as a compliment!

  10. Zara Avatar

    Of course it’s a compliment! I think you’re swell.

  11. Kristan Avatar

    Hehe, well I think you’re swell! Precisely because you’re the kind of person who would use the term “swell.”