Countdown

National Novel Writing Month begins in two days; November 1st! I have a project planned and its synopsis ready.
This year I'm going to win; I will finish a 50,000-word (at least) novel and have a draft to start out with for Branded, my NaNoWriMo project.
 Marlie Harris has agreed to be my writing buddy and we will be Skyping, posting on Sapphica Books' FB page and sapphicabooks.net. Keep an eye on our progress as we post our word count at least twice a week.
And while they have not signed up for NaNo this year, Kate and Valerie Genet will be hard at work at Book Two of the Millennium Trilogy. We'll all four of us be cheering each other on!
Wish us luck as we start counting on November 1st.

A brief excerpt from "Branded," this year's NaNoWriMo project, 2015

In her agony, she became aware of a psychic pain as devastating as her physical pain. Instinctively, she reached out, all inhibitions torn away by her own distress. She reached out to find the source; she reached out to comfort.

 An impression of family; small and happy. An accident; a drunk driver…a little boy, barely learning to walk. A name pushing through the growing haze; Mayson. A woman, lying lifeless in the driver’s seat.... Mayson's whole world gone.

She reached for Mayson’s pain; her guilt and sorrow; and took it on herself. She brought it in and shared the burden. She felt a spear going through her heart.

Is this what loss feels like?

Coupled with her own injuries and this unfamiliar outpouring of grief, she did the only thing left; she let her conscious mind go. As she went, she whispered.
You’re not alone

A synopsis of this year's National Novel Writing Month project.

Branded

Aidenn Connall has wakened in a hospital, unable to remember what happened, where she is and where she's been…or who she is. The first days are spent in a haze of pain and confusion. Voices and images begin to dominate her conscious and unconscious hours. They are explained away as brain trauma from an accident. But the visions are more real to her than the life-supporting machinery and doctors and nurses surrounding her.

Soon the caregivers around her begin to distance themselves from a patient they are convinced is unhinged. But she knows she is painfully sane. Something in Aidenn’s memory is trying to claw its way out, and it becomes more demanding every day.

Mayson Denning comes across a horrible accident in the small hours of the morning, finding the driver half-dead, trapped in a twisted coffin of steel. As a nurse, it’s her duty to stop and give aid. The moment she touches the victim, she hears a voice she is convinced belongs to the driver and sees visions of terrible events. They plague her as she continues her care of Aidenn who has been delivered to the trauma center where she works.

Mayson also questions Aidenn's sanity, but  becomes aware of shadows and plots that are coalescing around her and Aidenn.

It becomes plain there is a connection woven between Mayson and Aidenn from the moment they find each other by the side of the road. Together, they must piece together the shattered remnants of Aidenn’s memory and learn the meanings of the visions they are suffering, before a dark plan overtakes them.