NaNoWriMo: Past Projects

2014: The first year

      My first NaNoWriMo was back in 2014. The title for the novel was The Ancient Council. It was from the POV of Lucifer, the Devil himself, as he takes on the task the Maker has given him to unite Preternatural kind. It was meant to be the first book of the Born Angel Universe’s 2nd series, The Councils, though it is now the fifth series.

      The Ancient Council reached 51k words on November 21, and I finished the book with 52,520 words on November 22nd, when I thought it was done. Thought being the key word here. It’s not finished, for several reasons: the first, and most important, is that I decided to add a second POV to bulk it up. Second, there are some MAJOR, necessary changes as the Born Angel Universe Saga and books have given me a bit more insight into this time in the History. I also changed the title to the Council of Fire. I won’t be publishing it for a few years yet.

       I am glad that I wrote it. It was a much-needed piece of world building for the Born Angel Universe Saga, my Alternate Universe which all my books (to date) take place in. It offered a lot of background about Lucifer and the Council of Fire, which impacts both of my current series: The Kalista Chronicles and the Created Angel Chronicles.

the cover features Lucifer (L) and Lilith (R) shoulder to shoulder and was very much a pieced together "mock" cover.

2015: The Year I skipped...

       In 2015, I didn’t participate. It was a rough year, a lot was happening, and I was depressed for reasons I won’t go into on this blog. I didn’t write much, and I thought about participating in NaNo, I even have the participant banner that I wanted to post on my socials, but I didn’t. I was hardly on socials at all, so it was hard to figure out what happened. I eventually found it, amidst the countless screenshots of Star Wars the Old Republic, and I know why I repressed it, so let’s move on...

The NaNoWriMo participant banner from 2015... features pages and a book.

2016: The Lost Novel

      My second NaNo Novel was in 2016, when I started a Star Wars Fan Fiction called Choosing Sides. It was set in the Old Republic Era involving my Sith Warrior OC, Jen’Ari and her descendants. It was epic! It was amazing, and it reached 51k on the 21st of November.

     I sadly never got to finish the book, because, after writing more than 62,000 words it was deleted from my Dropbox, which was blamed on a server error, and was lost. I’m still beyond upset about it, but now I back up my Dropbox to a thumb drive AND my external hard drive every few months, just so that it doesn’t happen to anything else.

A Star Wars-y cover made by Anthony J Sims (my friend who recently got married), this featured several characters and the main one there in the middle is Ankyla, who was roughly based of Kalista. 

2017: The first draft of the Christmas Special

      In 2017, I wrote the first draft of this years “Christmas Special” which was temporarily titled “The Kalista Chronicles, book 3: A Christmas Engagement,” which is now book 4, because book 2 was 165,000 words that I decided to split into two books that became A Brave Sacrifice and A Broken Redeemer. Anyway, I again reached 51k words by the 21st, and finished the book with 56k words on the 26th.

    Where is it now? Sadly, when I started editing it this year, I realized that in Chapter Seven, the Love Interest acted completely out of character and did something he would NEVER have done. So, I had to rewrite the rest. In the beginning, I tried to bridge the gap between what I had written to what I have now, but that was a pipe dream and I scrapped 52,000 words.

        BUT I added 86,000 back into it. It is now 121,215 words with the Demoki Dictionary, Cast of Characters, and Places & Things of Note in the back. I even changed the name as it was too much of a spoiler. My Beta readers currently have chapters 11-20, and they’re eating it up. The book comes out on my birthday, December 17, 2023. The Cover Reveal with the new Title will be posted on November 2nd, and Preorders start November 14th. Here's the old cover!

The Temporary cover and title of the Christmas book: it features Kalista (R) and Beryx (L) cuddled together in a classic romance pose in Lucifer's Foyer. 

2018: Kalista book 5...

      In 2018, I started –what was then— book 5 of the Kalista Chronicles, which I titled: “An Angel’s Investigation,” and it didn’t have a temporary cover. It’s my first NaNo Novel to not have one… Again, it hit the 50k word mark on the 21st, but then I had family plans, and such which delayed the rest.

      I haven’t finished it. Mostly because, I needed to write the book before it, which STILL isn’t written. Right now, this book has 50,175 words. I hope to use some of it, or finish it up next year, or maybe in two years, considering that I may have to write at least another book after this NaNoWriMo before this one can be added, which brings us to what should have been that book:

2018 winner banner, featuring a desl with donut, coffee, pencil container, laptop, and a stack of books. On the banner reads 2018 NaNoWriMo WINNER! And the laptop screen says "50k"

2019: Kalista book 4, first draft

    In 2019, I started “An Angel Falls,” which was supposed to be book 5 of the Kalista Chronicles. I reached 53,324 by the 24th of November that year since I didn’t start until the 4th, but then I realized that I had too much that I wanted to fit in this book, not all of it would fit. When I reached 57,618 words, I knew it wouldn’t work, so I decided to split it into 2 books, again. Some other time, I’ll blog about how books 1-3 of the Kalista Chronicles started out as one book in my head, and ended up 3 once all was said and done.

     The 2nd of the 2 part book was going to be titled An Angel Falls, but everything I had written in this book no longer fits the series. I hate ditching so many words, and so many unfinished ideas, but I can’t keep any of it. Why? Because the Christmas Special changed everything, including what Kalista was doing now that everything in the city was taken care of. So, I shall bid adieu to this book, and maybe use some of the pieces or scenes I wrote for another person or book.

Temporary cover for AN Angel Falls features Kalista on her knees in a forest with a blood spattered outfit, blood spattered hair, bloody hands, blood on her converse, and blood on the ground as she covers her face with her hands. She is crying blood too. 

2020: The Stained Angel

      In 2020, the year the virus struck, I nearly forgot about NaNoWriMo after catching it. When I recovered, I decided to start NaNoWriMo on November 13th, and I’m glad I did, because I wrote the Stained Angel, Leighla’s book. I completed NaNoWriMo’s 50k word goal in a whopping 13 days on the 26th, and finished the book on the 17th with 51,022 words.

     Where is it now? Well, those of you who follow me know that I published it on the 9th of April 2022, after editing it extensively and bulking it up to a total of 86,884 words, which is 80 chapters, plus the Cast of Characters, a Demoki Dictionary, and Places & Things of Note. It became the first published book of the Created Angel Chronicles, the Second series of the Born Angel Universe Saga, –though not the first I wrote, but that’s a story for another time— and you can read the first 5 chapters of The Stained Angel for free here on my website.

The Stained Angel Cover, features Leighla carrying her Smith and Wesson 36 Chief Special which is a snub nose revolver. She is standing in an Alley with her refurbished 1966 Volkswagen Beetle in the background. 

2021: The Sequel... Leighla book 2

      In 2021, I wrote the conclusion to The Stained Angel and The Haunted Angel, it’s sequel that was published the 9th of April 2023. I temporarily titled this book “Heile, Heile, Segen” because the song of the same name by Mono Inc inspired me while writing it. I managed to write 52,063 words in just 14 days, finishing the goal for NaNoWriMo. I continued to write until I finished November with 80,354, but I didn’t finish the book until December 31st with a total of 111,860 words.

    What is the title and when will it come out? It is now titled “The Fated Angel” and will come out –after much editing due to story changes— on the 9th of April 2027. This features Leighla and her soulmate finally getting together. When I started writing, I intended there to be a slow burn, angsty romance, but it changed so much from the little outline I wrote… Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE how it turned out, but wow did it change. I can’t wait to have Betas read in 2026.

A temp cover featuring Forseti on the Left and Leighla on the right in her taller form, with a red and blue hue giving the effect of "police lights" over the picture. This was from a picture I titled "You're late", which was a premise for a scene/outline I tossed out while writing.

2022: The Last Angeles

      Last year, 2022, I thought I’d write the fourth of the Deadly Sirens series titled “The Deadly Sirens”, which is book 6 of the Created Angel Chronicles, and set to come out on the 9th of April 2026. Then I thought about writing a different book in that series with Aeronwen, who features in The Haunted Angel and Discord’s Nightmare, as the Main Character, but that didn’t happen either. It also didn’t have a temp cover… but I just made one (-_^)

    On the first of November, another character stepped forward, Inaliel: Angel of Darkness, Love, and Peace. She was someone I hadn’t known existed and would have never known about because she came to Earth before the Council of Fire was established and before Vretil (Antagonist of the Kalista Chronicles) corrupted, aka became demonic. She is the lynchpin in a much larger story, and I WILL finish her story… hopefully next year.

     Her book “The Last Angeles” finished NaNoWriMo at 92,225 words and is currently at 94,479 words. It’s not done. I know where it was going, but I stopped writing because I didn’t want it to end that way. I was fighting the characters, because I don’t ever WANT a book to end the way hers eventually will end, so I just refused to write it, and kept trying to find ways around it, plus I had to edit like mad this year to get the four books out, so I didn’t have time to finish it. I will finish it next year… and I will cry for days or weeks after.

The temp/mock cover of "the Last Angeles" Inaliel stands with her bow, ready to draw and shoot anyone who might come up the stone steps she is guarding.  This was the first picture I made of her. 

2023: This year!

     This year, I’m set to write book 5 of the Kalista Chronicles: An Angel Ensnared. Yes, I am telling you the title a bit early, as it’s on NaNoWriMo.org and I’ll be talking about it on my socials, though not by name until the end, so you all get to keep that secret until then. I hope to actually finish the book in the month of November, possibly even beat my record of 50k before the 14th. We’ll see how that goes as my favourite Uncle is coming into town from out of state on the 4th, and I haven’t seen him in years! Though, sadly, he’s only in town for a few days, so we’re having Thanksgiving a bit early this year. If you’d like to see how I do each day, and see me test my outlined process (that I talked about in the last 3 blogs), follow me on the socials!

The not so temporary cover (-_^) This will be up in full come July 17, 2024 as it comes out Halloween 2024

     Well, that’s all the projects I’ve done specifically for National Novel Writing Month, but you don’t have to use NaNoWriMo just during November, or April & June when they do Camp NaNoWriMo. I’ve used the site a couple times to track independent projects with deadlines, and using their word counter helps to keep me on track.

Beyond NaNoWriMo!

     Both books I did this with were in my 3^rd –yet to be published series— The Kali-ling Novels, which is part of the Born Angel Novels, and each book features one of Kalista’s kids, the Kali-lings.

      In August of 2022, I wrote The Lies of Her Father featuring Ashalynn, who was first seen in Discord’s Nightmare back in July. I wanted to try to get the book done by August17th when I needed to be working on editing Kalista Chronicles book 2: A Brave Sacrifice. I wrote Ashalynn’s book in 24 days and ended it up being 106,725 words. I still don’t know when I will publish it as there are MANY spoilers for her mother’s series in her book, but there are also hints of it in The Created Angel Chronicles, so that may be null and void.

Featuring Ashalynn standing in the large hands of her father's Angelic form. She has flaming orange curls, amber eyes, and darkness swirls around her hands.

      In September of 2022, I started the second book, which was temporarily -possibly actually- titled Cookies and Rage. The main character is Astrid who was also introduced in Discord’s Nightmare and is Ashalynn’s older, sassier, shorter sister. Sadly, I haven’t finished this book yet as I had to revise a couple other books that lead to it, and I finished the deadline at 78,885 words, which completed my goal of 75,000 words, but didn’t finish the book. It currently has 81,323 words, and it’s nowhere near done yet… Oops. I’ll get back to this too, but I need to work on Deadly Sirens Mini Serial first, which this book ties into. So it may come out in 2026... possibly.

Astrid stands outside a ski lodge with a looming ginger giant behind her who is holding a great hammer. Who could this mysterious and menacing stranger be? You'll have to wait to find out. (-_^)

That's all Folks!

I’ve droned on long enough, over 2,100 words. (^_^;) whoops.

Thank you for reading!

I hope it was informative and not too boring.

Have a great day!

~ Jenn @BornAngelAuthor.

Countdown to release: 6 Days!

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