NaNo Day 13 was yesterday... 21,670

"Gus shook his head, like a man waking up from a dream, and headed toward the light, full of joy at discovering that the world was such a wide place and he got to share in it."

 

NaNo day 10... **UPDATED**

*Updated at the end*

I'm posting this early... by this evening I will have reached 16,666+ words. I will! I only have 266 words left to write today to get there... and that's after having already written 2,374 words to get to this point. I'm impressed with myself at least, even if no one else really cares :)

Yay NaNo and Yay motivation!

image borrowed from

http://www.cheesebikini.com/2003/08/11/mermaid-wave/

**Update!**
I am up to 16,731 words :) And it feels good baby ;)

Nano Day 8... and... Hey, Blogger Friends!

I know I know, we're on day 9 now, but I tried to post this last night and the photos wouldn't load... so... I'm posting it now. And I'm not revising it. You'll just have to deal with it.

So it's day 8. Yep that's right... only 8 days in. :) 22 more to go! By this point in the process, if you are keeping a steady pace, you should have 13,333 words written for NaNoWriMo. And I DOOooo! I have 13,370 to be precise. I'm keeping pretty close to the daily amount of 1,667... not over taxing myself, making sure to rest. Well, except for yesterday. Yesterday I wrote 2,800+ words in a crazed effort to catch up from Sunday. "What happened Sunday?" you ask?

Well, I went to the City. What's that? Oh, what did I do there? I saw Quidditch practice taking place while walking through Central Park, for one thing.

No really.

See??? Brooms and hoops and everything!!!

 Then I went to the New York City Marathon with none other than the FABULOUS Julie Maughon, over at rosewood pencil box. She was in town because her husband is a super marathon runner and was competing in the race. We got a good spot by the route around mile 24 and waited for Josh to run by.

If all these runners look like they are in extreme pain, that's because they have already run 24 MILES and still have 2 left to finish. We never did see Josh, although apparently he passed right by us. At a few instances large packs of people walked/ran past us and we can only assume he was lost in the mix.

Yay Josh for finishing a marathon!

Here's Julie at Bethesda Fountain in Central Park

 After the marathon, we met BESS from It's the world, dear. Did you expect it to be small? (Ha ha... is that really the title of your blog Bess? Or is it just bessweatherby.com?) Either way, it was great meeting Bess. And kind of fortuitous, actually. Julie and I had both won a contest on her blog recently, so Bess brought us our prizes (copies of The Plot Whisperer by Martha Alderson).

Here are a few pictures of us from the end of the day. They're dark because darned if that time change doesn't just sneak up on you!

Julie is laughing like that because Bess and I had to crouch
to be the same height as her :) Yay short people!

It was a fun day! And now I'm back to work again. Headed to the City tonight to see my aunt and uncle play their music! So I have a lot of work to do before then!

taken from http://fisticuffsinthedark.tumblr.com/

Weekend writer blues and Lori is back, Yay!

It's really not so bad, I guess... but weekend writing can be the pits! Everyone is hanging around and waiting to do something fun... and I have to make my quota. Don't get me wrong, I did it... but boy I was unhappy about it today. I wanted to do ANYTHING else... I even contemplated cleaning the bathroom to get out of writing! Eh... but...

8,374 down and 41,626 to go! I am sure I can do this... I mean... I know I can :)

Here are some Halloween pictures to make you laugh :) The ones of me and Lori are from today. Since the power was out last week and Noah worked late that day, we dressed up today.

Tag was a Shark this year! Scary!!!!

For me, Halloween is just a reason to wear
face paint and a ridiculous turquoise ball
gown. Lori is actually wearing a cute costume :)

And one last picture from the internets...

NaNo day 3, whoopee!

I'm happy to say I'm 5000+ words down and going strong. I love "pantsing" this novel, because I'm getting so much more out of it than I thought I would... already! I KNOW! Characters are cropping up and plots that I hadn't counted on... now if I can manage to keep up this very steady pace I'll be pretty pleased. Who knows where we'll end up?

Also, I wrote a scene today that really stretched me. I won't go into detail, suffice it to say it was horror-esque... and I danced around it and didn't really commit. I'm not satisfied with it yet, but... that's what the editing process is for!

Ok... it's very late, and I've spent far too long playing Plants vs. Zombies again (my reward for making my count).

Go go NaNo buddies Go! You can do this!

"Slowly swimming out to sea, Sirenetta felt that there on

the beach she had left behind something she could never

bring herself to forget." 

The Little Mermaid - Hans Christian Andersen,

painting by Eduard DuLac

NaNoWriMo and a snow storm

Ok, so those cool pictures I posted in the snow? Yeah... We got slammed! There were 8 inches on the ground of wet, heavy snow... and in the trees... and on the wires... The power went out for the second time this year. It was NOT a piece of cake... I mean, we were better prepared for how to handle it than last time, but... (and this is for you California folks who don't know about snow) it's COLD when it snows! So we were without power/heat/water for a total of 36 hours... 3 nights... I was bundled in so many layers I couldn't bend my knees! And never took my hat off... even when I was sleeping.

So here I am once again singing the praises of electricity... running water and central heat never felt so good!

Now on to NaNo. It's day one! The excitement is a-crackle in the air... and I've made my quota of words for the day (hence the blog posting). I think this one has potential... at least in the way of me finishing it and being happy with it, not struggling with it and beating it to death like the last one. Yay!

A big shout out to all my writing buddies who are furiously scribbling away. May the writing fairies be with you.

He must have died if the little mermaid had not come to his rescue -
The Little Mermaid, by Hans Christian Andersen Painting by Edmund Dulac

It's still October, right?

That's the cable wire... we use it for internet... not disconnected, but
definitely down. We're supposed to get it fixed by 8 pm tonight. 

Catch the snowball Tag!

Still wondering what happened to the snowball...

This year's jack-o-lantern

It's still snowing, and supposed to keep snowing all day/night. Eep!

"Comfort"

I have been listening to this song a lot in the past couple of weeks... it seems to me to be an audible expression of the feelings that have been swirling around in my heart since I found out that my cousin has a brain tumor.

It's one of those moments in my life when I wish that I had been raised differently, to have a closer relationship with my extended family instead of feeling alienated from all of them. I have been, in my own way, reaching out to them more recently... and to this "little one" especially...

It's not that I feel sorry for myself, but I do feel sad for sweet Katie... it's a lot of scary information to have to process, to learn to live with... not to mention the emotions... I just keep singing this line from the song to myself... hoping it will reach her from here: "And if you can't remember a better time, you can have mine, little one/In days to come when your heart feels undone, may you always find an open hand/Take comfort wherever you can..."

Technologically challenged much?

Wow... I just figured out how to put new tabs on my blog... It took me THAT LONG!* Not that I have that much to say elsewhere... but it is nice to be able to point people to my smugmug account... especially since I would like to start drumming up some artsy photography business on the side (on the side of what? hmmm... enigmatic...). Anyhow... look look look look at the top of the page there and tell me if you see it, can access it, get redirected to my page when you click the link...

And now enough of THAT distraction. It's a good thing I figured out how to do that before next week. I could have lost valuable word count. Time to disable Plants vs. Zombies for the month now, too...

*I swear I'm usually really good at figuring out web gadgets and such... this one just eluded me for a while.

NaNoWriMo cometh!

Next week, I and others like me will begin scribbling furiously to meet the 30 day deadline of 50,000 words that is NaNoWriMo. For me, this will be one of the most productive months out of the year. I work o, so well with a deadline... something to aspire to...

In preparation for that literary frenzy, what am I doing now? Outlining? Pre-planning? Plot-mapping? Oh no! I'm stockpiling books to read... which is somewhat helpful... because they will give me inspiration by either being lovely and enjoyable or hideous and horrible (something to aspire to... or to aspire to be better than...) (for a complete reading list, just ask me). I'm also trying to a)start and complete creative projects that may distract me next month otherwise... and b) refrain from starting and NOT completing creative projects that will MOST DEFINITELY distract me next month. I'm convincing myself to hold off on beginning the quilt I just bought fabric and a pattern for... but I AM working on a new painting inspired by Hawaii and my love for dolphins (oh, did you not know that about me yet?). It's definitely a work in progress:

I'm also planning to go to the NaNoWriMo kick-off party for my region. This is somewhat intimidating on a number of levels... 1. I'm decidedly introverted now... and worried that they won't like me or I won't be able to connect to them at all (they being those writers that are also attending this party). 2. The "You're not a REAL writer" monster has been roaring rather loudly every time I consider mentioning that I'm a writer... and he scares me! 3. (suspect this is a byproduct of the aforementioned monster) What if I meet them and we're all geared up to write 50,000 words and then I completely fail and don't meet the goal? Or worse... what if I DO meet the goal and the whole thing sucks??

Ugh.

If anybody has a muzzle for my monster, would you please send it to me ASAP? Thanks.

Inklings

I'm getting ready for NaNoWriMo. The month of November has been reserved for the writing of 50,000 words of a story that I'm not even sure is that long. I'd like to think it is... I just re-read the tiny bit that I wrote when I had the idea... and it could be good. The characters are distinct, strong... and the basic story line is healthy...

Photo credit: Noah Kauffman

It's the implementation that I'm worried about. Last year I did 30,000 words to finish out a novel idea I have had since high school... and now that it's done, I'm not sure what it is... but at least it's done. I read somewhere in the comments of the "blogiverse" that "the writing is in the editing"... so maybe when I start editing that one it will find its shape better.

For this one... I dunno, this one is special, and I'd like to see it turn into something I can show people... that I can be proud of.

I worry too much... as evidenced by the fact that it's after 2 a.m. and I'm still awake.

So as the month of October draws to a close, as my blood tries to thicken against the cold New England winter that approaches... my characters will be seeking shelter from the harsh North Sea... and all the dread power that she wields.

Leaving paradise

I think we're going to move here. No really. It's amazing. And we've found that property values are reasonable. And look at it!!!

Sexy surfing husband!

Red footed Booby

Poipu: Spouting Horn

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

Water nymph, Kauai style

Giving the wedding dress a good workout in a beautiful location.
Photo credit: Noah Kauffman

A beautiful tropical island... and some chickens!

We are vacationing in Kauai right now and absolutely loving it!

Coconut!

North Shore: Ke'e Beach

There are wild chickens all over the island.
We think they are awesome!

More Yellowstone!

Here are some more shots from my trip to Yellowstone. I wish I had a more inspiring post for you today, but my thoughts are a little muddled. One of my dear ones is hospitalized right now, and I'm worrying for her, even though I know worrying won't help... but it's all I can do... and on top of that we're going to Kauai on Sunday for 10 days... and all the details that go into making that trip a success (and making sure all my creatures are happy and well-fed) are driving me a little to distraction. Sheesh! I need to go read a book... maybe a zombie book... to try to calm down. ;)

Enjoy the photos!

Yellowstone Public Transportation: some of these
babies still have crank engines!

Bison!

Hee hee hee!

Columnar basalt! Created by lava flows... ya know,
 from the SUPER VOLCANO!

A great book about the Sheepeater Indians:
"Mountain Spirit" by Lawrence Loendorf and Nancy Stone

Friend! At Osprey Falls

ELK! Blocking the bathrooms, no less...

Least Chipmunk.

Natural Bridge

Bison jam...

Raven!