I am pleased to announce that my short story, Back Door, has been accepted by Dragon Soul Press and will be published in their anthology, Lost Love, in February of 2020.
If you would like to read more about this, please visit my official author website: www.andrewronzino.com
Or my Facebook page:
It’s been a long 30 days, but here I am at the end of it, and I have finished!
On November 1st, 2019, I started to write a novel in only 30 days. Now, on the last day, I stand victorious with nearly double the amount of the original challenge. Today, on November 30th, I wrote “The End”! Readers of The Paradigm, I have written a novel in 30 days!
This novel had its ups and downs. I would say that most of the last third of the ending I outlined wasn’t used and I ended up changing so much. There are parts of it that I think is a mess, but I can fix all of that later. Overall I believe that this was a good novel to write and I enjoyed almost every minute of it.
Even though this is a blog and not an award ceremony, I would like to take a moment to thank some people. I want to thank God for helping me through this year’s challenge, without God’s strength, I honestly don’t think I could ever do this. I want to thank my best friend, Volpe, for letting me vent crap and keeping me sane. I want to thank my family, friends, and last, but not least, my readers. Thank you for the helpful encouragement, advice, and sticking with me to the end. To those who have asked me how things have been going and even showed interest in the story I was writing, thank you!
Here is this year’s winner’s certificate:
Here are the final stats on my 2019 NaNoWriMo project:
Title: The Sixth Cleric
Genre: Fantasy
Words: 98,360
Chapters: 48
Pages: 403 (that’s in Microsoft Word, double-spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font)
What I learned this year: Every year for NaNoWriMo I like to learn something new, either about myself as a writer, or some new technique. This year I learned what it really means to be flexible in your writing. It’s good to plan and outline, but if the story strays from that and it’s working out better than you ever could have thought, go with it. Let the story flow.
Thank you again to everyone who stuck with me and encouraged me this month!
Until next time,
Andrew Ronzino, A Man Who Wrote a Novel in 30 Days
I was fairly busy today, so I didn’t get a lot of time to write. However, I did finish the scene I had started last night. I have one final scene to write.
*Sings in the style of Les Misérables* One scene more!
That’s right. The end of this book is in sight, and I will be finishing it after work tomorrow. I’m excited.
That’s all I have for you today.
Current word count for The Sixth Cleric: 95,534/50,000!
Until the final day,
Andrew Ronzino, Game Master
Happy Thanksgiving! Today was a fun day. I wrote in the morning then went to my best friend’s house for Thanksgiving dinner. While I was there I learned how to play two card games, Euchre and Hand and Foot. It was a good day. There’s a lot to be thankful for, so here’s a list of some of them:
Current word count for The Sixth Cleric: 93,777/50,000!
Until crazy shopping day,
Andrew Ronzino, Thankful
Good news, everyone! Today I hit 90,000 words!
I decided yesterday that I needed something to make the next (and final) book in this series more interesting, and I thought of something great that fits well with the story I had already woven without having to go back and change anything.
Two women in my story have gotten pregnant. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this when I was outlining the story! At this point, the outline and what I actually wrote for the last third of this story are not even close to each other, but I’m far happier with what I wrote and with the changes I’ve made along the way.
The women who are pregnant are my MC’s wife, and one of the other Mythic Clerics. They both got pregnant roughly around the same time. So when the next book rolls around, there will be two children added to the story. I’m excited to develop those characters now and see how it affects what I have planned for that book.
Time will tell.
Current word count for The Sixth Cleric: 91,415/50,000!
Until a day of thanks,
Andrew Ronzino, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Character From “Junior”
Things are going well, I have finished the climax of the story, so I just have the aftermath and resolution left to write, which is good because Thanksgiving is coming up, so my time is about to become a lot more limited.
Because the holidays are coming, I wanted to make sure I had time to post my final excerpt, and I fear that if I don’t do it today, I won’t get the opportunity to do so with how busy it’s going to be. If you would like to go back and read any of the previous excerpts, you can do so here:
Excerpt one and excerpt two.
Once again, like I do every time, I would like to remind you that this is a vomit draft, and may have some grammar mistakes. The only editing I did was just enough to make sure it’s readable for you. Please enjoy!
“What a party, Father,” Rachel said with a smirk “I think you found most of the world’s most boring people and brought them together for a wonderful night of dull entertainment.”
“Yes,” King Kaylon said. “I think I would almost rather be anywhere else. Symon, shall we slip away to the tavern?”
Symon wished it wasn’t a joke. “I’m right behind you, Your Majesty.”
“I’m serious,” Kaylon said. “I’ve talked with who I needed to talk to, I think I can slip away.”
“Kaylon,” the queen said. “You have to be present at dinner.”
He frowned. “Damnation. What’s the point of being king?”
“Your Majesty,” Symon said, “I do have some work related business that I must speak to you about, if you need a break.”
“Perfect! I have something to discuss with you as well.” Kaylon said. “Does Yarrow need to be present?”
“I don’t believe so,” Symon said.
The queen looked appalled. “Kaylon! You can’t leave for work, this is a party.”
“Panella,” Kaylon said, “My love, don’t take this away from me.”
“Can I come with you?” Rachel said. “I noticed Crayah coming this way, and I don’t want her to ask me to introduce her to anyone.”
Kaylon took his daughters hand and pulled her along. “Come, Commander,” he said in a loud voice. “This is an urgent matter. It can’t wait.”
“Of course, Your Majesty!” Symon said, playing along. “If I must leave, I must, the good of the world may rest on this.”
“Goodbye mother,” Rachel said with a wide smile. “You didn’t think of a good excuse fast enough. Good luck and don’t get swallowed up by the powerful!”
The three of them walked swiftly out of the ballroom and ended up in the kitchens sitting at the simple little wooden table where they would be out of the way of the cooks and the servants who were rushing the trays of tiny foods in and out and others were preparing the dining room for the meal.
The head chef put a basket of bread down and some slated butter, which Rachel started to spread on the rolls.
“A clean getaway,” she said. “Just like when I was little.” She looked at Symon. “I used to pretend to bully my father into letting me do all kinds of things, but they were always ploys to get him out of the room.”
The king was smiling like a child as he chewed on his bread. “We had all kinds of preplanned bamboozles ready at a moment’s notice. It worked most of the time. It was fun to use the ‘Craven King’ aspect to our benefit. Honestly, I would rather eat at this small wooden table with you two then with all the important people of the world. You’re more fun, and this bread is fantastic.”
Symon was always amazed at how down to earth his father-in-law could be, for a king. He was often more comfortable just relaxing with the servants and the staff, eating and cheering along with whatever they were cheering. Most of the staff loved the king, Symon had to agree, and he liked him too.
“Remember the time I faked being sick, Father?” Rachel said.
He laughed and took his crown off and hooked it on the peg of the back of the chair. “Yes! You were what? Twelve?”
“I think I was eleven,” Rachel said.
Kaylon chuckled. “We had a state dinner, similar to this one. I was growing bored myself, and I noticed Rachel, who even then hated wearing formal gowns, was shifting and growing tired of talking to the other royal children. She made eye contact with me, and I knew what she wanted to do. She feigned being sick.”
“I pretended to vomit in a potted plant, I poured gravy in there just to make it look more real.”
“She ran up to me telling me she wasn’t feeling good. I could have called her mother, or one of the servant to take her to her chambers and put her to bed, but I’m not that kind of father, and I wanted a rescue too. So despite the fact that we hadn’t eaten that night, I took Rachel’s hand and walked her up to her chambers.”
“I got into my night clothes and Father called for some food and drink. We spent the night by the fire, eating sandwiches and cookies and drinking milk, I listened to my father read me stories from an old book.” She looked at her father. “It’s actually one of my fondest memories.” She reached over and took his hand.
“Mine too. As she grew up, our tricks had to get better, and the older we got, the harder they were to pull off. I don’t think we’ve done something like that in the last four or five years.”
Rachel nodded. “The last time we did it, we used Symon as an excuse, actually, remember?”
The king nodded.
She looked at her husband. “I pretended to have an urgent message from you. Father followed me, making up that he needed to know what it was all about, and we went to my chambers and just talked for hours, which was something we hadn’t done in a long time.”
“You used me?” Symon said pretending to be appalled.
“She thought you were cute,” Kaylon said. “She found ways to slip you into conversations. She secretly wanted to talk about you all the time.”
“That long ago?” Symon said.
Rachel blushed. It wasn’t common to see her do so, as she was always so confident and blunt. But it was always so adorable when she did blush that Symon felt like he fell in love with her all over again every time she did. “I was the last person who thought I would like the knight in shining armor type, I never had in the past, but I had to admit you were cute. You were just too dumb to notice I started flirting with you.”
Symon laughed. “You flirting doesn’t look like flirting.”
-Excerpt from The Sixth Cleric; Chapter 36, by Andrew Ronzino
This is actually one of my favorite scenes in this year’s story. I love it so much. You get to see a side of both King Kaylon and Princess Rachel that I had never shown before.
Current word count for The Sixth Cleric: 88,234 /50,000!
Until Earth rotates one time on its axis,
Andrew Ronzino, The Keeper of the Dice
I have mentioned a few times that after I started to write this story I made a decision to change to the antagonist’s motivations, and thus a pretty big change to his character. I felt like that change fit better with the story I wanted to tell rather than the one I outlined.
I won’t go into details about his full plan, but now he thinks of himself as a martyr, and thus, he’s not afraid to be killed. He wanted people to know the reason why he did what he did. Now that he killed the Fantasy Pope and his plan is set in motion and effectively unstoppable, he is fine with monologuing and explaining how he pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes, much to their surprise. He figures if he dies, he dies a martyr for the Cult of Manuule. Regardless of if he lives or dies, people will always remember what he did and why he did it.
One way or the other his actions will start a religious civil war.
I like this more than the self-defense, wrong place at the wrong time type of villain he was going to be in my outline. This version of my antagonist is a lot better.
Current word count for The Sixth Cleric: 85,650 /50,000!
Until the morning sun rises,
Andrew Ronzino, The Italian/German Writer
Andrew Ronzino
