Want Bacon With That?

I did it! I did it! I did it!

You've heard of The Shot Heard 'Round the World? Well, at 9:21pm on Tuesday, November 30, I let out The Scream Heard 'Round the World.  Yes, that odd piercing screech you may have heard at that time was me.  Screaming with joy.  Because I had just received a winning word count from NaNoWriMo.  I had just seen the winner screen come up.  I had finally finished my 50,000 words in thirty days, and I had won.  This makes my third winning year in a row out of four years of doing NaNoWriMo (I lost the first year).

Am I proud of myself?  You betcha!

I'm also toast.

Writing 50,000 words in a month, especially when they were so difficult in coming in the beginning, is quite taxing.  My writing brain has officially turned to mush.  So my first order of business has been taking a little writing vacation.  But that doesn't mean my plate is empty -- my To Do list is tremendous.

I should specify that I was taking a fiction writing vacation, because while the fiction writing is on hiatus, the copywriting continues.  I've been helping SoundGuy and his colleagues with copywriting and layouts for their business.  That's taken some time since these men I'm dealing with...  Let's just say it's been work.

Then there's Christmas.  Christmas will be tough this year since we've also become victims of the economy.  We're not as bad off as many, but we're in nowhere near as good shape as we were last year.  It's going to take some work on my part.

Some of that work involves handmade gifts.  Gifts like these crocheted dish sponges , these crocheted dish sponges , and the crocheted dish sponges from this site.  I'm also planning to make a bunch of these hangers, and a bunch of scarves and a prayer shawl on my Bond Ultimate Sweater Machine.  And if I have time, a few crocheted dishcloths, as well.  Now that NaNoWriMo is over, I can dedicate my time to hand knitting, machine knitting, and crocheting.  I've got to get crackin'!

And speaking of handmade stuff, check out this adorable tote bag!  And this one. Can you believe them?   Both are crocheted with "plarn" fashioned from recycled grocery bags.  I'm in the process of making my plarn, because I must try these patterns.

Ooh, and the fall portraits.  I took fall portraits of my kids.  Must get those processed.

Additionally, I've still got writing stuff on that To Do list.  I have to finish re-entering CHESTER & RUBE (my NaNoWriMo 2008 winner) into the computer so I can try and edit that one into a series of early reader books.  That's my goal with that one, anyway.

Then there my winner for last year's NaNoWriMo, SAVING WONDERLAND.  I need to finish writing it and edit it for submission.  Which means I should probably figure out where to submit it.  That one may end up as a trilogy.

We mustn't forget BLUR, this year's NaNoWriMo winner.  At just a hair over 50,000 words, it's actually almost finished, making it the shortest story I've every written (have I mentioned I'm wordy?).  I want to get that baby done.  At that point, I'll decide if it's worth the effort of trying to get it edited.  It may end up as one of those creatures under the bed, waiting to attack in the dark of night.

Always lurking in the back of my mind are my previous mss, BURN ME ONCE and IRRESISTIBLE HARMONY, both of which I'm still planning to submit (or re-submit, as the case may be).  I just need the time for updates and final edits.  And assembling the submission packages.

Oh yeah, and finding my courage.  ::sigh::

I need more hours in the day.  It looks like I'm going to be toast for a while.  Not quite so bad as long as I can get some bacon with it.

NaNoWriMo Has Me BLURred

There's still more to LittleDude's story, but updates may be even fewer and further between this month.  It's November, and that means NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is upon us again.  That's the time I completely lose my sanity and try to write a 50,000 word novel (or 50,000 words of a novel) in thirty days, from November 1-30.  Which of course means all my spare time (what little I have) will go to writing.

This will be my fourth year participating in NaNoWriMo, and once again, I'm doing something a little different.  Last year's NaNoWriMo project (a win!) was SAVING WONDERLAND, the story of Dinah, who was transported through a faerie portal into Wonderland, a land that's a mixture of Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz and all the fairy tales we grew up with jumbled together.  Dinah is thought to be the savior of Wonderland, the one chosen by the Wise Ones to wrench the land back from the House of Green and restore her to all her former glory.  The story's not done yet, but it's been great fun writing.

The year before that was another win with CHESTER AND RUBE, the tale of a small white duck and a giant purple dinosaur and their adventures in Feckerson Forest as they embark on a quest to save their beloved homeland from the evil Centipig and his pigapede minions.  I'm in the process of attempting to break this story down into a series of children's books.

My first year with NaNoWriMo was a monumental failure with SHIFTING RHYTHMS, a contemporary romance.  I still want to write that story, but I've yet to find myself in the correct frame of mind.

This year's project is going under the working title of BLUR, and here's the novel blurb from my NaNoWriMo profile:

BLUR (working title)

When daydreams merge with reality

Her husband left her for a younger woman.  Her teenaged daughter is heading off to college.  Her job pays the bills, but is mundane.  She has no romantic prospects.  Few friends.  In short, she's fallen face-first into a deep, unending rut.

Until Grace Walters learns the power of a daydream.

She dreams while working at the power company.  She dreams while cooking dinner.  She dreams while vacuuming her quiet, empty house.  And in those dreams, her life is interesting.  She has friends.  Lovers.  Adventures.

Summer comes, and her daughter's off on a pre-college adventure.  When her boss tells her she must either take all her saved vacation time or lose it, she takes the summer off work to immerse herself even further in her newfound love.  Her daydreams. 

And that's when her daydreams take over, blurring the lines between fantasy and reality.

So far, I'm having fun with this, although writing Grace's fantasies has become much more fun than writing her reality. I still don't know how this one will end, though. Will it turn out that she's not just daydreaming, but traveling inter-dimensionally and actually living these dreams? Or is it a much sadder ending, and the daydreams have taken her sanity, leaving her staring blankly from a window in a mental facility? I guess I'll find out soon!

In the meantime, I will resume LittleDude's story when I have time.