Holiday Wishes

A bit late, but Happy Thanksgiving! Banana bread anyone??

My baby cousin, Caitlin, loved her new blanket that I crocheted for her baby shower. “Grandma” says she sleeps with it in her crib, and regularly kicks it off, just like we all did at her age. “Mama” says she loves how soft it is. Aww, warm fuzzies!

Thanksgiving was relatively peaceful; we brought our baby, Charlie, and nearly gave my aunt a coronary. But the dog was good and she didn’t chase the cats, mostly she made laps around the kitchen and dining room and tried to eat the cat food. Elmo, the scaredy cat, came out after everyone else had left and bapped Charlie on the nose. I was upset until I remembered that Elmo has no toenails and could really only sass my dog, which she didn’t even seem to notice, poor dear.

I even got some writing done, but I have yet to upload anything from this long weekend. I will be done tonight, huzzah! I am less than 2k away from my NaNo goal of 50k! But the story won’t be done, not by quite a bit. I think I made some good habits about writing every day, so even if I write less, it will still be good. I hope to have the manuscript done by March for NaNoEdMo, hehe. I imagine, taking into account what I’ve already written, that the finished first draft will be around 85-95k :) Not bad for a first draft!

Neil Diamond Lyrics

Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show

Brothers and Sisters
Little bitty children
Black and white
Rich and poor
Gay and straight
Great and small
We are god’s children ALL!


I must have some live version of this song, I couldn't find these lyrics anywhere on-line, official or unofficial, but every time I hear it, I just get goosebumps.

Thought I'd share :)

Having my writing read

Ok, I've been in writing groups in the past, and shared my writing with my fellow poets/storytellers. I sometimes needed a bit of encouragement to read my stuff out loud, but I always knew when I was sharing my work, and with whom.

Since I'm blogging my NaNoWriMo novel, I know that people are able to read it at any given time. I've given out the address to my friends and family for encouragement and to show what I've been working on all month (while holed away in my little apartment).

It is still the most surreal thing to me that unbeknownst to me at the time, people are actually reading it, and hearing a friend tell me that she wanted to shake one of my characters and say "Look, lady, you need to back off!" is both encouraging and so strange to me. I like it a lot, I think it's such a great medium to share practically instantly with the community. Still, it's strange to get a call from my mother at 10:30 at night asking if the different entrys are just very short chapters or what... But really cool to hear people talking about my work.

I can't wait to get back into the writing group groove again and read my fellow author's stuff, this is so encouraging, so fascinating, oh, I'm so tired.

Ni ni.

Huzzah!!

Ok, I reached 30,000 words tonight. *YAY*

Must sleep now, no fill pen first then sleep. Blessed sleep.

Cold weekend

Ok, turns out it wasn't just cold. My pilot light had blown out and my furnace was blowing cold air all over me (the intake is from the outside). *brrr* So now it's fixed and I can take hot showers and be warm in the house and the kitty can take his naps on top of the covers again (the water heater and the furnace co-habitate apparently).

Good news is once I got the heat going, I wrote over 5000 words written on my novel. Very exciting!

SuperNovelist

My Nano t-shirt arrived!! Yay! I've been wearing it all day, and I got over 3k written, so its status of new favorite writing shirt is ensured!

Ok, I'm watching the rest of SNL and going to bed. It's COLD! And me without my fuzzy slippers.

Inappropriate response

Today has been less than stellar in my world. I find that when one feels the need to cry 3 times in less than 24 hours for any reason at work, that day is on the down side. When one actually does cry, a frustrated, overwhelmed, panicky sort of crying, then truly one’s reached the pinnacle of bad form. V. bad form.

Tear stains on one’s shirt in important month end meeting, not appropriate.
Snapping at one’s v. understanding, gentle boss, definitely not appropriate.
Having snide joke in said meeting backfire, pissing off person with authority to sign off on finished invoices, priceless.

Overly emotional, everywhere you don’t want it to be.

I think I’m broken.

On the other hand, the people around me, including boss, care about me and send me funny pictures. And know I’m having a v. bad day and still treat me like I’m not stomping around, tossing my pens around, grumbling under my breath, and generally being beastly. Even when I say that yes, it’s good that it’s Friday because I’m buying silverware which doesn't make much sense, now does it.

Ah when to the heart of man
Was it ever less than a treason
To go with the drift of things,
To yield with grace to a reason,
And bow and accept the end,
of a love or a season.

-Robert Frost

NaNoWriMo Day Fourteen

Whee, I'm coasting on chocolate pudding and a caffiene drip.

Some people don't get it, ok most of my friends are writers, or are supportive of the writing endeavor that I've undertaken, which is making me a bit crazy (no, really?) and extremely protective of my time. I want to go see movies, I want to leave the house, but I have this invisible word counter in my head (and two on line) telling me that I need to write to get this novel out of me, to finish the 50k and see where it takes me from there. So I stay home, or I go to writing groups and write.

I was told today that the design of NaNoWriMo was forcing me to sacrifice content for word count, that essentially what I was writing wouldn't be any good because it was rushed. I tried to explain that the point of NaNoWriMo was to give a deadline and a goal to get the novel written. Because I'm one of the people who's plotted a book in my head and in notebooks and on paper and talking to friends about it for years and years and never sat down to write it down, to get it OUT. NaNo is getting me to write, character, plot, setting, getting everyone together and setting out on the greatest adventure ever told. {Ok, now I'm just swinging from the rafters.} Nonetheless, I've been writing, instead of detailing down to the eyelash my characters and the setting and how magic works and outlining decades and centuries of history before the moment I want to start. These things are vitally important to my writing, but I've already done all this, I've got a basic skeleton of my novel in my head, getting the flesh of my story is what November and NaNo is all about to me.

Ok, so I'm a wee bit crazy, and being a recluse and a bit of a crappy friend this month. I have to do this for me. And of all the things in the last year I've done for selfish reasons, this one is probably the least damaging.

Please understand. I'm not apologizing, this is who I've wanted to be since I was a tiny little girl. So I'm doing it.

For those who've supported me and written with me, and encouraged me, and shared their pudding with me, thank you from the bottom of my little novelist heart.


Joy

‘I write for the same reason I breathe - because if I didn’t, I would die.’ - Isaac Asimov

Surfing for names...

Ok, I've got a bunch of people my characters are coming into contact with and I'm sick of naming them Bob or Joe (last post about writing to the contrary) So I decided to look up some name generators and came across this one. So now I now have a new title:

Princess of Quantum Mechanics
(You're probably one of those fucking people who pluralize everything with apostrophes.)

I'm a bit loopy from (not) writing all day and right now this is the most hilarious thing ever. Mostly because the apostrophe is my friend...and I've always wanted to be a princess...

And my secondary title is: Princess Junior Grade of Procrastination for not writing on my book. I really want to go and see Bridget Jones tonight but if I don't get some hefty word count out, I'm staying in with a wet noodle to beat myself with.

Had to share...

Must...go...WRITE!!!

Evening out

Last night I took my mother to Barry Manilow's 2004 One More Night Tour. He was fabulous. He made us laugh, he made me cry, it was truly a night to remember.

I intend to put a bit more up about this, but right now I'm pretty tired and needing to write and sleep. Mostly sleep. Ah, but Barry puts on such a good show...

I broke 10K *whew*

Ok, that feels really really good. Week two of NaNoWriMo is wicked hard, but I've reached a point where I'm happy with the work and I've broken the 10k mark...barely, but now I can sleep the sleep of the righteous and just... or somethign like that.

*happytiredwordcountdance*

The month of November

I'm terrifically guilty of looking back on a week, a month, a season, or a year and saying "where did the time go? why just yesterday it was (Summer / June / the beginning of school /my birthday)!" I suppose that makes it seem like I go thru my life in some sort of daze.

Well, however much this might be true, I know for a fact that I will know where each precious hour and every ticking minute went toward for every bloody day of November 2004. I am both enjoying and dreading the passing of days this month. Being part of NaNoWriMo has completely changed the way I view my time. During most months, I try to make time to pick up the house, to run my errands, to spend time with friends, but this month, my overwhelming goal is to complete the 50,000 word requirement of my novel. And every moment, even this one, when I'm not writing or sleeping, or actually making a living, I seem to begrudge to every living thing and even some inanimate ones (like laundry, which I have to take out now).

But also bred in my bones is the magical happy fun gene of procrastination as well as the huge, bulbous black gene of guilt. I sit at my computer and post to my blog, or read someone else's novel in progress, or search for that perfect character name, when Bob or Joe would do just as well. Or that I have tickets to something with someone for a holiday gift, or a friend who I am obligated to for various reasons wanting to do lunch and a movie in the middle of my only day to write in solid blocks all week...*sigh* But I LIKE talking to my friends, I ENJOY surfing the net for no particular reason.

Ok, no more bitching, I'm going to do this because I WANT to do this, I have a deep desire, one that is stronger than guilt and louder than procrastination. I want to be a novelist, I am a writer, now I want to prove it to the world!!!!

Tired and hungry and going crosseyed looking at the computer. Must finish laundry and order pizza, perhaps come back in an hour...yes, that is good...

Must fly!!

Joy

NaNoWriMo day three

Ooh boy, I'm tired and it's not even past my bedtime...Too much excitement this week, and as usual, nothing's slowing down. I've got a full weekend, not exactly planned that way, but *shrug* all things I want to do.

I've been writing every day, and thinking about writing when I'm not actually doing it. If I started writing at work, I'd never get anything done there, and we're gearing up for fiscal year end (I AM in accounting, after all).

But I'm glad I'm not putting it off, I'm determined to get this novel written. Editing can start in December, but I'm getting down the spine and the muscles and ligiments together and worry about the flesh later. It'll be a creepy looking thing, now that I imagine my analogy, but I'll get over it *grin*

I'm currently having a lovely conversation with my mother regarding the recent election. Money for schools, who was elected, who's a bigot and why (ok that was mostly me), why some things got passed and shouldn't have...Ah well, at least I can talk to her about it (sometimes a bit loudly on both our parts).

Ok, time for that time honoured, best beloved, and most needed time of the day, the time where I put my head on a pile of fabric and buckwheat hulls and drift off into the land of dreams.

Sweet dreams.

Did you?

Political musings

Ok, so I got out of bed early and went and voted in this my fourth national election. On the big one, I'm two for three and hoping not to make it a tie.

We've got some pretty hot amendments here in Colorado, including the one to change how we allow the Electoral College to vote. Personally, I am not one to change the Constitution lightly, either for the U.S. or for the state I reside in. And from my understanding, it doesn't take an amendment to change the College, just a state law, which is what we elect state legislators for, right?

Besides my headstrong balking at changing the fabric of our state and national government, the “retroactivity” of the amendment sets my teeth on edge. The last thing I want is to have the election delayed or dragged to a screeching halt because of something that my state did. My fondest wish for this election is not to get my guy in the White House, but to get a president-elect in place before Thanksgiving. Now, I admit I do dearly want my candidate to win, and to have all the elected officials be the ones I voted for, but for peace of mind and family harmony, I passionately desire a quick and honest finish for the election.

And maybe this year, I won’t have to leave Thanksgiving dinner because of a political misunderstanding blown way out of proportion. Maybe I can eat my mashed potatoes in harmony with the rest of the family.

Peace.

Don't forget to VOTE

Now I know that many people, at least in Colorado, have taken advantage of the absentee ballot, or the early voting option this year. For those who have voted, I salute you.

Now, for the rest of you registered voters, (me included) go out and VOTE! I don't really care who you vote for, just go and have your voice heard. Because no matter what anyone tells you, your vote does count! For a lot!

Besides, you get a nifty sticker. I'll show you mine tomorrow :)

Peace.

This is my first year in NaNoWriMo and I'm so excited!!!

If you'd like to take a look at the work I'm doing, please go to www.tempest-heirs.blogspot.com or see my profile :)