Born in NaNoWri

 By Maureen Bonatch 

 

It’s almost November so you know what that means? 

Ok, maybe you don’t if you’re thinking about turkeys, and fall turning to winter and the upcoming holiday season and not immediately thinking about NaNoWri like me! 

 November is National Novel Writing Month 

Otherwise known as NaNoWri. I might write all year, but the enthusiasm of everyone participating in NaNoWri in November gives me an extra push to get those words on the page. 

I’ve talked about NaNoWri a lot over the years—whether anyone cared to listen or not 

 You might say I'm a little obsessed with it. Here are a few of my favorite posts: 

•  Making a DIY standing treadmill desk 
•  Secrets to Winning NaNoWri 
•  For Your Loved Ones Dealing with the NaNoWri Obsessed 
•  How NaNoWri is like Being An Alien 
• The Month After NaNoWri Poem 

 There are many more, I’m sure. 

How Do I Know NaNoWri Works?

                   My daughter and I winning NaNoWri Last Year

I haven’t “won” NaNoWri every year I participated, but I enjoyed it regardless. Although I have “won” (aka: finished a 50k first draft) more years than not. 

For me, NaNoWri inspires me to get those words on the page and prioritize my writing. Many of my books were born in NaNoWri. 

A few NaNoWri book babies have been polished and published—I’ve listed those below. 

•  Hexes, Highballs & Hockey (2017) 
•  Not a Chance (2014) 
•  Grandma Must Die (2013) 

 And now… Magic, Mimosa’s & Mistletoe (2020) 

I thought I wouldn’t win NaNoWri in 2020 I was feeling kind of down with 2020 and the holidays weren’t looking the same with lockdowns and restrictions on visiting with family and friends. 

I had started one story and was struggling with it until I decided to revive my holiday spirit by writing about it.

Magic, Mimosa’s & Mistletoe flowed out of me like water and was such fun to write! I had to do ‘research’ by playing Christmas music and was ‘forced’ to watch holiday movies. It really helped bring back my holiday spirit. Since I write paranormal I made the story a fun mash up of the Halloween and Christmas holidays.

I’ll be introducing Magic, Mimosa’s & Mistletoe to the world on October 31st. 

Here’s a taste! 

 I don’t see dead people, but my dog does. 

Hi, I’m Marissa Hale. When my friend, Grace invites me to visit the Inn she inherited, I’m high-tailing it back to my home state of Pennsylvania. Like most things in life, there are strings attached to her inheritance—and these ones have twinkly lights. The Inn, and the town, are Christmas themed. No witch worth her broom would choose Christmas over Halloween, unless that witch’s bloodline is the magic mainline for keeping the yuletide spirit alive. 

Her aunt’s death was already suspicious, but then we stumble upon a dead body amongst the poinsettias that resembles one of Santa’s fabled elves. It sure seems like someone is trying to force Grace to sell Kringle Inn. I’m going to need all the help I can get to solve these crimes, and save Christmas, but when the only witnesses are a pig, and a ghost, I’m not sure that’s going to be enough… 

Get Into the Holly Jolly Spirit Early by Grabbing Your Copy Right Here

I have several more ‘winners’ from past years (2015, 2016, 2018) that will be polished and released to the world in 2022. 

 What About You? Do You NaNo?       

Maureen’s first novella was a paranormal romance published when blogs were a new-fangled thing. She’s since changed her focus to writing paranormal cozy mysteries as M.L. Bonatch and urban fantasy as Maureen Bonatch. 

While she’s not busy writing or doing nurse-things, she’s a mom to her twin daughters, bicycling in the beautiful woods of PA with her hubby, doing the bidding of a feisty Shih Tzu, and dancing as much as possible. She believes music can be paired with every mood, laughter is contagious, and that caffeine and wine are essential for survival. 

 Visit Maureen's Website Here

What's in a Name, Part Two

 So I'm having issues with my author name. This is not entirely a new thing. Who knew that using just initials, rather than my whole name, would cause such problems? Well, actually... 

There was a numerologist I met at my first book signing who tried to warn me that it was a bad idea, for some reason--but, by then, I had multiple books published, contracts signed for half-a-dozen more, and had invested several years  in websites, email addys and author promotions. It seemed a bad idea to switch. 

But if I'd 'd known then what I know now...I think I would have done it. Apparently it makes a lot of difference if you use periods between the initials or not. And given that my first publisher decided to add an extra space between the P. and the G.? World. Of. Pain.

A lot of the time, online searches don't recognize that PG Forte and P.G. Forte are the same author--even though we're both showing the same books. Goodreads still doesn't recognize me without the dots. Amazon has finally learned not to care...although Author Central still insists on greeting me as simply P. rather than PG...which drives me low-key crazy. Facebook, OTOH, insists on styling it as Pg--which confuses everyone.

 How would you even pronounce that?

As someone whose given name is Patricia (and who's been through Patty, Pattie, Patti, Pat, Patricia, Patrice, Patsy, Tish and probably a few more that I can't recall). And as someone who can't even agree with all her own siblings on how our long-ass, Sicilian last name should be pronounced, let me just say that I. DON'T. GET. IT. 

It's not that hard! Really. It isn't. And yet...

It's been difficult to get traction--and that's not even counting any of my other issues, like writing in multiple subgenres, or changing taglines and website layouts to suit my mood. 

Which reminds me. Have you seen my latest tagline/website banner? I wrote a blog post about them HERE.

To make things worse, in the last few years--while I've been less productive than usual--some pharmaceutical company in India has started selling pain medication (or, I don't know...it could be a vitamin? It's not real clear) called PG FORTE. 

You can't make this shit up. 

I mean, I guess it's better to be associated with something that takes away pain and leaves you radiantly healthy rather than the opposite. But seriously???

Which leads me to this week's fixation. Google's Knowledge Panels. I lust after them. I google other authors' names simply so that I can drool over how pretty and full they are. I'm turning chartreuse with envy. But, google my name and no adorable little box pops up to greet you. Le sigh.

HOWEVER, if you google author P.G. Forte books you'll find a box with some of my currently-out-of-print books. AND if you google Forte PG (although why, for the love of all that's sane or rational, would you ever do that?) you'll find a box with some of my indie books. My traditionally published books are just missing altogether.

Which kind of makes you wonder what those PR departments are doing, doesn't it? No? Just me?

Anyway, I've been working with Google to try and "claim" my knowledge panels, with an eye toward updating and consolidation, but it's been hit or miss. They've verified me as P.G. Forte, but they can't find proof that I'm Forte PG. 

Well, duh.

To make matters worse, it seems Chrome had set all my profile links to private. And Safari was pleased to inform me that they've been actively preventing Google Analytics from "profiling" me across nine different websites--including all my own blogs. 

Look, as an introvert, I do like to hide from time to time. And, yes, privacy is very  important, and sadly lacking in the world today. But TOTAL INVISIBILITY just doesn't strike me as being a good promotional strategy for a business.

I  guess maybe I should have paid more attention to what that numerologist was saying all those years ago.