#camp nano july 2022

[myheartalivewrites]

2023 Writing Round-up

Thanks for tagging me @kiwiana-writes @cha-melodius 🩷 I've saved doing this for a little while just because I wasn't sure I was quite done for the year.

JANUARY

Happy NY (E, ~11k) started in 2022, finished in 2023. Henry and Alex meet for the first time at a NYE party, have a super intense hook-up--and then Alex disappears. An NYE story in two parts.

Down by the Water, I Saw You (E, ~63k) another fic that started in 2022, finished in 2023! Exes to lovers, meeting on holidays/vacations, angsty-emotional-horny.

Tumbled Down and Tangled Up (E, ~4k) canon divergent, hooking up for the first time in THAT hospital cupboard.

FEBRUARY

Started writing Deep Blue, wrote Don't Wanna Be A Fool, no idea why I didn't publish it straight away. I've got a feeling I was a lot shyer back then.

MARCH

Don't Wanna Be A Fool For You (E, ~6k) roommates to lovers, mutual pining, Henry-based angst.

APRIL-JUNE

Gave myself a nice little patch of writer's block. Read a lot. ✌️

JULY

Love and War (E, ~11k) WWII training camp 1st meeting, no angst. Had a lot of fun writing this in one day.

Finished writing Deep Blue and started posting it.

AUGUST

In His Wildest Dreams (E, ~11k) went on a big family holiday, wrote this incredibly horny post canon somno fic. The way the brain works is truly baffling.

Awakened (E, ~2k) a little Alex POV follow-up to the fic above, again: super smutty. Uh, also written on (a different) holiday for some reason.

SEPTEMBER

Oxford Days (E, ~6k) my ode to slutty Henry, a roommates in Oxford fic.

Deep Blue (E, ~76k) started in July, finished in September, don't know which month to put this in. Seaside dreaminess, angsty writer!Henry, lawyer/waiter!Alex, pining while fucking.

Just like that. (E, ~10k) roommates + getting together + prostate orgasms + lots of feelings. Most surprising performer of the year for me.

OCTOBER

Twice the speed (of you and me) (E, ~17k) Alex/Henry/Pez threesome, some of my favourite smut I've ever written

NOVEMBER

NaNoWriMo! I managed to reach 50k on my NaNo project, but that means very little fic writing was done.

"Please, I need you to." (E, 0.1k lol) rimming drabble-ish for Smutsgiving 2023

DECEMBER

Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured (M, ~3k) bickering co-workers getting trapped in a cab together (and figuring shit out)

***

2023 has been SUCH A YEAR for writing RWRB fic, it feels really good to see it all lined up like this. Open tag for everyone who wants to do a little self round-up!

Here’s to more next year! x

[radiowrites]

2023 Writer Year-In-Review

Hi, I’m RaisedonRadio & FortressofmyPast on AO3 and FF.net. This is an on-going tradition since 2015. Check out my past year-end posts: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015.

Tagging a few, but if you come across this, consider it an open tag! You’re welcome to tag me back, I’d love to read it!

@writercorianarose @shesailsships @talesofsorrowandofruin @azdesertwillow @goneahead @littlemissfandomworld @dreams-of-kalopsia @halleyuhm

Big change for me compared to last year—in addition to NaNoWriMo, I actually posted fanfics! I tried to add some new questions to this year’s edition, I hope they might even move out of my tiny circle.

Total Word Counts: 51,920 for 2023 NaNoWriMo 15,570 on 2022 NaNoWriMo project 19,193 for July 2023 Camp NaNoWriMo (mostly fanfics) 28,310 in published fanfics (this number is overlapping with camp nano, I wasn’t paying attention, so I’m not going to add everything together)

Total Number Of Completed Works: 10 Total Number of WIPS worked on this year: 10 or so How Many WIPs do you still have: 23

Looking back, did you write more than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d expected? I wrote way more than expected! I seriously didn’t think I would do NaNoWriMo again. And I published ten fics! That’s ten more than last year!

Did you take any writing risks this year? The NaNoWriMo project was definitely a risk for me. I basically had an idea and no outline. It was quite a challenge to my perfectionism issues—I had to basically never reread anything and just keep going, fully aware that I can better foreshadow the ideas that came up halfway through in the next rewrite.

Biggest Surprise: I wrote for NaNoWriMo again, which I was pretty sure wouldn't happen lol, and hit the word count, all through discovery writing, and having very little idea where I was going with it.

Biggest Disappointment: I dropped that above mentioned project the moment November ended! I can tell it has potential, hidden in there. I will definitely return to it.

Do you have any writing goals for the new year? I’d love to at least finish the first draft of the 2023 NaNoWriMo project, bringing it to a tentative end so I can actually reread it and go from there. And keep writing fanfic, and maybe even work on the 2022 nanowrimo project…

Fanfiction Questions Below! (if you don’t write fanfiction feel free to skip or rework the questions for your original works.)

Fandoms I’ve written in this year: I wrote fics for 7 different fandoms! For the following kdramas: Island, Tale of the Nine Tailed, Memorist, Royal Secret Agent, W: Two Worlds, May I Help You?, and a little Korean Web drama called Handmade Love.

Your most popular story of the year? That would be Besides You with 327 hits and 47 kudos. However Superhero got the most comment interaction with 4!

The story that was easiest/or most fun to write: I Think He Knows was fun to write! I do just love brooding with a heart of gold formerly immortal male leads.

Hardest story to write: Rescue Me, Superhero, Restore, and Prayers & Promises were four works that I had left for dead, and came back and found them to be basically finished and just needed proofreading. (So just in case anyone wondered how I turned out three of those in like two days: they were actually done and I was hellbent on getting them out of my WIPs list)

Your sweetest story: That would definitely be Superhero. I altered my normal narrative style to better fit the child’s character, and I was really pleased with how it turned out.

Your saddest scene: I feel like I hit a lot of angst this year, but nothing really sad?

The sexiest moment you’ve written this year? *coughs* I wrote five pieces of smut. (Half of my fanfics were smut this year?!) Umm, I’m torn between Beside You and Don’t Blame Me? But also Never Be the Same and Take On Me???

Your favorite tag: (whether you use it the most or just something witty/perfect for the story) My brother announced to me that he reads all my tags (he was trying to embarrass me about one of my smut pieces) so I did a shout out to him in the next fic. He saw it within the day, I was actually impressed.

Most unintentionally telling story: (have you accidentally or purposefully exposed a detail about yourself?) Religious guilt seems to be a reoccurring tag this year. In all seriousness, not quite sure why, but yet it kinda makes sense? (its complicated lmao) And for some reason not one, but two fics ended with marriage proposals?! (I’m so single.)

Are any of your fics named after/heavily inspired by music? I’m RaisedonRadio and it would be concerning if—checks list—less than 8 of the 10 fics weren’t named after songs, haha! (I’m actually just really bad at naming fics…)

Good To You and Besides You are both songs by the band Marianas Trench, and are heavily inspired by the songs. Rescue Me is by OneRepublic, one of those more vibes than lyrics inspired. I Think He Knows by Taylor Swift was definitely on repeat for that fic, as well as Don't Blame Me. (Poems), Prayers, and Promises was more a steal the name of the song by John Denver, for some reason I think Cold by Corbyn was on repeat when writing that one. Take On Me was named more for the similarities between the MV and the series! Never Be The Same was for the vibes of the song by Camila Cabello but not really the lyrics.

What’s your own favorite story of the year? Maybe it’s cheating but I’m not sure if I can really choose? I know it’s not a common writer sentiment but I really do like them all for different reasons.

Like I churned out Good To You and Besides You within ten days of each other in July, after not writing any fanfic basically for a year and a half.

And then I pulled Rescue Me out of the dead drafts pile and made myself work on more description.

I Think He Knows was my first foray into a brand new fandom.

Don’t Blame Me is one of my rare canon divergence fics.

Restore was another dead draft that I found to be mostly complete, and decide to release into the world even if I knew there was so much more I could have done with it.

Prayers and Promises was not only another new fandom, but for some reason, I decided to write for a side character. It’s still sitting on just 1 hit and that makes it all the better that I really wrote it for myself.

Superhero was out of my comfort zone of writing for a kid’s perspective and I was so happy with how it turned out.

Take On Me was a draft sitting at less than 1k words and I challenged myself to finish it before the new year, and got it done in two days.

And then, to finish it all off with the intense desire to have ten fics under the belt for 2023, I wrote Never Be The Same in less than two days for the last drama I had watched, and the speed that the last two fics were actually finished was a huge change for me.

Fanfiction risks you took this year? I wrote fanfic for not one, but two fandoms that I had to create the first tags for on AO3! Also, as I started to slip into just writing for kdramas this year, I’ve basically become my own proofreader and editor at this point. Any mistakes are my own, lol.

My favorite part of fandom this year: That would be getting two kudos and a comment on I Think He Knows, one of the fics that is the first in its fandom tag. To actually connect with more fans of such a tiny project was so cool!

Thanks for reading and here’s to next year!

[dragon-swords-prophecies]

Hi, I've been meaning to do this for several months, executive dysfunction got the better of me, and it's 1 in the morning (or, it was, but then I fell asleep while writing this, but 95% of it was written at 1 in the morning), but, hi, hello, your friendly neighborhood [insert adequate descriptor here, I'm too tired to come up with anything right now]!

I have not posted anything original on this blog for. uh. months. my best guess running at actual long form not fulfilling a tag game thing is november. of 2022 (I can't check I'm on mobile). which is much time ago! (the last tag game fulfilling writing posting was in like may) hi, I'm not dead and I haven't stopped writing forever, I just had one fucking hell of a year for mental health and school and moving up schools

but! it's summer now, I'm some twenty ish days into break, and I suddenly have spoons again. wow. I forgot what that feels like. I've done So Many Things recently it's insane, anyway--

I have been writing things! I'm doing an impromptu (as in started it on July 13th) camp nano challenge of typing up 3000 words of the massive amount of Enna's prequel I handwrote in a notebook at varying distressingly late hours of the night. I am actually decently close to done with that, I got a shitload done the other day, that's to say:

this lovely little blog of mine has been unintentionally mostly dormant for a while now, but it has been woken up and there will be things here again! tomorrow, even! (or today. timezones.)

lots of things have changed, in the stories, I have finally figured out a MASSIVE AND HELLISH plot hole in Enna's prequel story, and it's all figured out now, and I'm so fucking happy it's awesome can my brain feel like this all the time please the serotonin is excellent, but fixing that plot hole means that I need to redo so much lore and and backstories now it's ridiculous

to everyone who's sent me asks and tagged me in games and etc in the last few months/year. I'm sorry. I'll do most (hopefully almost all) of them. (Sleepy especially, I'm sorry, I'm not really sure if that means anything to you I probably sound like a broken record but I do mean it genuinely, I'm sorry, I will answer all of the ones you've sent me)

[sovvannight]

My Year in Writing, 2023

And this is another situation where I wish I could pull up last year's post to use as a pattern, but I can't because my writing blog got deleted, so I'm feeling a little lost.

But I can at least see the graphs I made last year in my writing progress tracking spreadsheet, so that give me a bit of a hint as to what I would normally post here.

I wrote 183,465 words on 2023. It's my third year in a row of increases (thank you, Julie and the Phantoms!) and my first year over 150k, which was my goal for the year. I'm at 856,124 words since 2017.

I'm also super excited about winning NaNo for the first time since 2017. November was my most productive month, followed by February, when I spent most of the month working on Baby, This Rain Changes Everything, which I guess I was just excited about because I had a lot of 1k+ days.

Part of the 44k increase from 2022-2023 was due to NaNo, but I also increased my average daily word count for non-NaNo months from 291.8 to 387.5. And I do write every day--December 31 was day 2,395 of my write-ever-day streak.

What I Wrote

Other than 2% of my words for the year for Garfield, a Teen Wolf Movie fix-it fic, everything else was for Julie and the Phantoms: 81% on various scenes for Electric Boogaloo, 12% for Baby, This Rain Changes Everything, and 5% on two different AU fics that I may convert to original fiction instead.

Plans for 2024

So, the saying goes something like, "Write a million words, throw them away, now you're ready to be a writer." I didn't realize it until I was writing this up, but I'm going to hit a million words next year.

And I have to admit, in the last few months, I've started to think about writing and publishing original fiction. And that's partly because the JatP fandom is dying--I'd think the drop in kudos was because I suck, but I've seen declining kudos for new fic by big name fans, too, so it's not just me. No judgement on the fandom, it's just the nature of things. I've left a couple of fandoms myself because of a new hyperfixation. But at the same time, I had this AU idea in the spring, and thought to myself, are you really going to write a whole novel-length fic for 20 kudos?

I think I'd rather earn a couple hundred bucks instead, which seems like about what I would net if I self-pub. And I'm poor, so any little bit helps. Plus, I don't know, I just feel ready. It's partly because I read some pretty bad books this year, and it's like, OK, this got published, and in one case it got optioned and made into a TV show, and I feel like I can do better.

So, my plan for 2024 is:

Write the last ~9 scenes for Electric Boogaloo.

Write season 3, AKA the Electric Boogaloo sequel. Boogaloo is probably going to reach somewhere around 300k total, but I'm aiming for something more like 150k-200k for the sequel.

Finish the two Arrow fics I still can't give up on, even though I haven't worked on them in years. One just needs another 2k, and the other maybe 15k.

Transition to original fiction, taking the idea I had for a JatP boy band AU and "filing off the serial numbers" as I go. (Or something else--who knows what I'll be most interested next fall!)

In terms of word count goals:

I want to hit 50,000 for NaNo in November. For April and July Camp NaNos, I want to write 1,000 a day, so 30k and 31k.

I want to take it somewhat easy in the three months after NaNo events, so May, August, and December - 600/day, or 18,600 words/month.

For the other six months out of the year, I'm going to try doing "NaNoWriWeek" or 1,667 words/day for the first week of the month and then 600/day for the rest of the month, which will get me around 25k per month.

All of this totals up to about 300,000 words.

[dreamstormdragon]

Camp Nanowrimo 2023!

I’ve declared this awhile back, but I forgot to do so on tumblr so uh... we’re fixing that right now. It’s fine don’t worry about it.

So, little confession...

I’ve been working on HyperForce: ReIgnition since November of last year so I’m going into this April with 50k already under my belt from this project. There’s a LOT, I haven’t posted yet, but that’s the rough draft that will still be edited and posted as usual.

I’m using Camp Nanowrimo as a motivator to work extra hard and run towards at least the middle point, if not further in, because I really wanna see this project and everything I’ve imagined so far through.

So, I’ll be posting updates here mainly, while ReIgnition will continue it’s posting schedule. (Can find the rest of where it’s being posted over at @hyperforcereignition   ) 

What is Camp Nanowrimo y’all might be asking?

​

It’s basically National Novel Writing Month but the April and July versions, where you usually have more time in the year, versus November, where you have to manage thanksgiving and all that stuff.

Also, the word count is more... forgiving?

Like, 50k is the GOAL but not the permanent one and you can set your own goal. For me, I’m aiming for another 50k cause I’m hoping at least, I can get to the middle point of this story, if not finish the first draft so all I have to do is edit and post.

I’ve done Camp Nanowrimo a few times, but I took a break in 2022 for mental health, but I’m back and with a vengeance. I’m doing this as pure self indulgence for myself. I’ll be posting word count updates and a copious amount of memes.

Honestly Nano’s evolved a lot over the years. I don’t even remember there being a fanfiction section but now there is which is awesome.

If you wanna join me on this crazy adventure, with working on a project during April, go for it!

[writeouswriter]

Setting a Camp Nano word count goal of 7

[cvptainbucky]

do you ever. spend weeks prepping for nanowrimo and then just one day before your brain just goes "nah what if we hyperfocused on this other project instead"

[lionofchaeronea]

Well, I set out to write 50,000 words of a novel this July, and as of today I've passed 60,000. Let no one say I lack discipline, at least where writing is concerned.

[hideyseek]

LMAO @ ME THINKING A YEAR AND A HALF AGO THAT SETTING A 20K GOAL FOR CAMP NANO MIGHT MEAN I HAD A FULL DRAFT OF NARRATIVE!FIC BY THE END OF 2022 WHAT A FUNNY JOKE AHAHAHA ... ahahahaha ... haha... ah. ...

anyway the current "first draft" (this is the fourth fucking time ive done this �� there were "first drafts" in april 2022, july 2022, september 2023, and my current doc which i started in october) is like 10k already 😭😭😭

ok it’s happening hello i am writing post-hakone kakehai fic for camp nano this year ! will i achieve a full down draft? only time will tell

[lizhly-writes]

So I should mention that I’ve been doing Camp NaNoWriMo this month.  Decided to go with my transmigration cnovel, and I set my goal at 31k, for a nice, achievable 1k per day.  Unfortunately, I’ve also been busy!  So that’s affected a lot of my free time and posting and stuff.  

Case in point: I should have ended today with 20k. I’m at 11k.  To reach my goal, I now have to do 1.8k per day, which is a bit less achievable.  Like, I can do it.  I did it in 2 hours yesterday. But all coherency and chronology will be lost and tossed under the table for scraps. I only have 1.5 chapter's worth of words that can be read ihave no goddamn clue what I'm doing.

Oh well.  Here’s something I wrote.

“What were you thinking,” Jiang Mingxi said lowly.  She was doing a very good job at playing the intense CEO novel character archetype.  Chen Lihua supposed that was only to be expected.  If anyone had asked her to describe Jiang Mingxi’s personality, ‘intense CEO novel character archetype’ wouldn’t be far off.  

“In general?” Chen Lihua said mildly.  “Well, I was wondering about lunch, and then maybe if I should buy anything for dinner, because I can make dinner with what I have at home, but it might be better if I went out and –”

“You know that’s not what I mean.”

“I’m sorry that my thoughts don’t satisfy your standards, but personally, I think dinner is a very important topic.  The general standard for living is three meals a day, so–”

“Shut up, I’ll buy you dinner,” Jiang Mingxi snapped.

Inwardly, Chen Lihua perked up.  Jiang Mingxi had expensive tastes but also the kind of pride that would make her pay for anyone she invited out, so dinner today was going to be delicious and – more importantly – free.

Outwardly, Chen Lihua said, “Oh, I don’t know.  Are you talking about eating out?  I really can’t afford–”  

“I’ll pay for you.”

“I really don’t want to impose.  I wouldn’t be able to pay you back, first of all–”

“I’ll do it it’s not that hard would you just shut up about dinner?”

Score, Chen Lihua didn’t say.  

[gonnauseanomdeplume]

Guys, I’m thinking about working on my golem novel for camp nano this month but I need motivation. I want to bring my total to 5,000 words which should be manageable but I could really use some encouragement to help. Does anyone have any prayers or tehillim that they feel help with motivation?

[encrucijada]

a camp nano attempt (despite my sanity) !

title: the walk of eurydice

genre & category: low fantasy, dark academia, adult

cw: obsessive behaviour, ritualistic sacrifices, mild gore, mental illness

themes & tone: hubris, love conquers all (at a price), reincarnation, melancholic, atmospheric, tender, yearning

about: classics major and ballerina thea bautista meets the ghost of dylan joyero at a party. in this modern retelling of the myth, orpheus has been dead for twenty years and eurydice must find a way to bring him back to life… if that’s truly even possible.

characters: thea bautista, main character in a tragedy levels of hubris but it’s fine cause she’s pretty | dylan joyero, the ghost of a bisexual hopeless romantic starving musician from the 80s | bailey cabrera, the pylades to thea’s orestes. equal parts no nonsense best friend and primary enabler | leon medrano, the pianist of the ballet group who dresses like he has a formal dinner to attend everyday | samantha vásquez, thea’s closest friend in the classics degree and is the one girl who brings a store’s worth of stationery to class

misc: it says here that as a classics major i have to write dark academia, all i know about ballet comes from the internet, what is this but an elaborate soulmate au, how the university operates is based on my country, the aromantic writes a romance book stayed tuned, book one of a duology, written in vignette/short chapters, dedicated to @rxinbowbright​

[thethistlegirlwrites]

Masterpost and Camp Nano July 2022 Announcement!

After a false start in April (because no one told me their names) I'm going to be working on Scrapbook of the Unexplained for July's Camp Nanowrimo, so I'm putting together a short masterpost with links to character bios and other pertinent information!

Summary

Character Bios

Matti Brinkerhoff

Lina Shaw

Jim McBride

Will Bauer

Other

Roggenwolves

Matti's wolf form (art)

[beedesigns]

Camp NaNo Tracker Update

Hi folks!

A quick shout-out: I've updated my Camp NaNoWriMo word count tracker for the July Camp in a couple of weeks. Here's wishing you the very best of luck if you're doing camp next month and I hope you find it useful! You can check out my ko-fi post here for full details.

I completely flopped doing the April camp, but as always I'm tempted to take another crack at it in July. What can I say? I'm a sucker for a NaNo!

[fakesurprise]

Skipping Hope: first scene

I’d never met a Monday I didn’t like, which might be why the world fell apart Tuesday morning. I came downstairs, not sure how to tell mom and dad I didn’t actually need a job for college

Dad was already up and in a suit and tie: he sleeps less than anyone I know. I could hear mom upstairs in her office fighting with the computer, but she hadn’t yelled for me so it was probably just the normal issues.

“Sannu,” I said, giving Dad a handshake to buy time before figuring out how I’d explain last night to them. He was going to ask what jobs I’m applying for before they left, and I tried not to lie to to my parents.

Dad gave me a puzzled look, his grip loose. “Good morning?”

I let go. “Dad? Is everything okay?” “Everything is fine,” he said, not looking any less puzzled.

I walked over and did a sniff-test, but mom hadn’t replaced his coffee with decaf.

As if my worry has summoned her, Mom came down the stairs in a rush of shoes, a bag slung over her shoulder. “Amari: can you clean up? We have to go: the flight was moved for the conference and the computer crashed when I tried to rebook anything!”

Dad ran upstairs and was down with his briefcase in under four minutes while mom argued with the cab company while handing me a small stack of bills for the week. Dad came down, gave me a normal hug and mom a peck on my cheek before they were out the door, leaving the kitchen looking like aliens had invaded it.

I was halfway through doing dishes when mom came back in, up the stairs and back down as I stared in shock.

“Forgot my phone,” is all she said before the door is slammed and the taxi skidded back onto the road.

I dropped a cup, which hit the ground and rolled against the fridge without breaking.

“What?” I squeaked out, but it’s far too late.

Everyone has weird talents. I have a friend who can tie her shoes without looking, doing it perfectly every time. Dad could guess the time to the nearest five minutes without even needing to look at the sun. And mom never, ever misplaced her keys or phone, to the point that we teased her gently about it and threatened to try and hide them on her. Not that dad or I ever would.

I finished cleaning the kitchen out of reflex, slathering a bagel in butter and headed upstairs as I ate it. Cleaning helped ground me, and mom and dad didn’t exactly object to it.

Their bedroom was neat as always, like they insisted mine should be. Mom’s office was a bit of a mess, but it often is because she wore too many hats at the university and Dad often had his office crammed into a corner of hers when he had to work from home. Nothing weird to it, nothing off in their bedroom.

No smell of drugs.

I knew my parents had met because my mom snuck off to smoke marijuana during a missionary trip. Dad kept her and her friend safe, got them back to their hotel. They’d met properly two days later after she was left stranded in Nigeria and kicked out of the mission after they’d found out her real reasons for joining. They smoked some pot on their anniversary as a remembrance, but that was two months ago. No smell that screamed drugs or anything weird.

I checked the envelope behind my computer desk. Nothing has changed. I had the hundred thousand I’d won last night from Campfire Casino, enough for university and a bit left over. I put it back, as if somehow moving it would do something. Nothing happened. I stood. Breathed. Dad had been off. Mom was busy. I knew my upcoming fees were stressing both of them, but I’d taken care of that. Not smartly, but the slot machines had worked.

Luck had always been my talent: by ten I’d had to stop entering any school raffle because I won them all. It was silly and weird, but no sillier or weirder than how Gorman in grade three had been able to fart entire songs from his butt.

“Okay. Okay.” I shook my head, put my keys in the left pocket of my jeans and went downstairs to water our gardens. Given the weirdness of today, mom hadn’t even left me a list of things to do, but that was always on it. I started making a mental list to check groceries and make sure their flights back would be on time so I’d know when to properly clean the house even as I headed out into the garden, working out a mental map of which plants needed watering first. Most of our back yard was garden, and that I couldn’t just leave for several days or mom would have had my hide. It was the work of a good hour to water all of it but I seldom did it at once.

A noise I hadn’t known was possible came out of me as I opened the back door.

Every flower was dead. The garden was all dead earth and dying flowers like a scene from a horror film. The back wall was devoid of ivy, each planter and pot looking as if locusts had feasted on even the local weeds and mosses. The hedge dad and I had planted six years ago looking like it was the ass-end of winter and not mid-summer.

The sound of the water can hitting cement was moment I realize I dropped it, and somehow water on my sandals made it real. I bolted inside, slamming and locking the street door and yanking the blinds closed after me.

I ran from window to window, checking and locking them. A glance out the living room windows showed that the Mr. Robertson and the Ao family shouting at each other across the road. Every lawn? The whole street? I didn’t know. I was too scared to know. I closed everything I could as if that would be better than my own eyes and was triple-checking the front door even as the landline in mom’s office began to ring so loudly I half-thought it was emergency services.

A giggle escaped me as I pictured baffled police officers calling in old lady gardeners, but the ringing didn’t stop.

I took the stairs two at a time. “Amari. Who is –.”

“Have you been outside?” Ms. Anchor all but screamed in my ear. She’s three doors down, and mom politely called her a study that many papers would love to report on.

I winced. “I saw our garden. Mom and dad are out of town –.”

“My Raymond was right: the government is finally acting! Don’t drink the water! Turn off your TV. They’re controlling us with our phone –.” There is a moment of silence, and then the phone slams down as her body caught up with her thoughts.

I moved to my parents room, opening the door onto their balcony. The six small pots were all dead plants. Beyond that: withered trees, scorched brown lawns. Everyone outside was moving slowly, questions and threats about the HOA giving way to the same confused fear vibrating throgh me. I stepped back, closing the patio and locked it. Yanked the blinds closed.

I sat down on my parents bed, staring at my shaking hands.

No one had called. Mom and dad would have noticed this when leaving, no matter their hurry. Conference or not, mom would have cancelled fights and hunted down the head of the HOA to demand answers about fertilizers in a tone no one would have ignored.

I wiped away tears. The garden had been mom’s pride and our collective joy. I stood, half-hoping to wake up from sleep and pinched my arm to no effect.

“Phone.” I bolted to my bedroom, turning my phone on. The local HOA message board was on fire with messages; three block radius that people knew of, and less terrible on our block. I had no idea what other places must have looked like, and less idea what to send.

A few local twitter hashtags had begun. #gardengate was being used by Eliza, one of mom’s friends.

I began to send her a private message when a stranger stepped into my bedroom.

Tall. I was tall, but this person was tall. Not thin so much as narrow, skin so dark it felt like their shadow was lighter. Long, dark clothing matched that. They didn’t move. I didn’t move. I couldn’t move. My bones felt cold.

A sweaty hand pressed against my face, and let go a moment later.

I stumbled, staggered two steps and found myself somehow on my feet. Sand. Heat. The sun overhead, dunes around me. The air rich and clear, but I turned as quickly as I could to find a stranger staring at me.

This stranger was a good foot shorter than me, skin librarian-white with pale blond hair and wide grey eyes in a round face. He had on sweats, shoes and a large t-shirt soaking through with sweat as he tried to wipe sweat from his forehead.

“Stupid. Stupid,” he said softly, voice cracking a little. “We need to get away from me.” I stepped back as he moved toward me. “Don’t come closer.”

He stopped. “Please. The desert won’t be safe.” He held out his right hand. “I can get you somewhere safe.”

“I don’t know what is going on. I don’t know what you are. But I can damn well break your nose if you move closer.”

He vanished.

One moment in front of me, the next no one was there. No shift of light. No sound. No weird glow. Just gone.

I fumbled out my phone, turned on the map.

Sudan. I was in the Libyan Desert. Miles from any marker on the map.

I had no idea what roaming fees would be. Less how I’d explain anything to anyone.

I just stood as still as I could and gripped my phone carefully like a talisman I didn’t quite trust.

[catwingsthespatula]

I just achieved my goal for Camp NaNoWriMo! Furthermore, I was so productive in the second half of this month that I adjusted my goal from 20,000 to 30,000 words, and surpassed even that! I wrote fiction every day this month, although two days it was in the form of imagines rather than part of a complete story, and only counted words of fiction towards my goal. Hopefully I keep up the writing habit in August!