Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

I actually did have a delicious chicken dinner yesterday in deference to the fact that a turkey did not find its way into my freezer this year. That's not why I am bragging, though.
I am just proud to announce that I made it. It's rough, it's a whole heck of a lot of dialogue scenes, but I've got a pretty little manuscript of 51K and I did it before the end of November with almost two weeks of not writing at all, for some reason...Whoa...
Anyway, I am happy I am done for now and can move on to the next stage.
Thanks to all my cheerleaders and good luck to everyone participating in NaNoWriMo! You're all winners!

Works in Progress

I noticed that my blog suddenly had over 6000 views. Normally, I don't pay much attention to my blog views. I am not one to believe in a lot of exposure, paparazzi, fame, whatever. People are people, and over exposure is dangerous.

That said, since I *am* getting some views, be it search engine crawls or real people, I decided I better post something. I prefer to believe that I am being read by real people. Search engines are creepy crawlies. 

Unfortunately, I am plumb out of anything exciting to post about. I am working on my NaNoWriMo project... and overall, I feel like everything in my life is a Work in Progress (WIP). For story WIPs, you can visit my photo hoard over on Pinterest.

Just like I do with my writing, my family and I are constantly revising our lifestyles and habits, fine tuning and trying to discover balance and routine, so our children are well developed humans, ready to take on the world for future generations. 

Quite frankly, the future scares the crap out of me. Regardless of politics, natural disasters, media disasters or anything else, my own personal future tends to have a harrowing effect on me if I think about it too much.

So, moral of the story? Stay a WIP, live one day at a time, and live and let live. Tolerance, Kindness, Peace, Education through Experience (not spoon-fed by the media), and Love are the only elements that are going to get any of us launched into the future. Ever.

NaNoWriMo Food Groups

I am slowly gaining momentum with my writing project for this year's National Novel Writing Month, affectionately known as NaNo. Participants tend to be known as Wrimos, which borders on sounding like winos to me, but that might not be too far from the mark if there are authors out there following the "Write drunk, edit sober" mantra of Ernest Hemingway. Not such a bad mantra, especially if you read the article I linked with the quote.

Seems a lot of writers have things they do while they are writing that they never or rarely do any other time. For me, my diet changes definitely for the worst, but gosh darn it, my Muse is a demanding wench, and she wants junk food.

Here are my main food groups for my creative process. I will be planning detox sessions in the near future to follow my writing sessions.

Dark Chocolate Kit Kats

Peanut M&Ms

Coca Cola

Coffee 

Not necessarily in that order. Chocolate combinations may vary.

Approach me at your own risk during and after my writing sessions. Not only does the sugar-caffeine combo make me creative, it makes me ornery when I come down from the high.  I only hope that the satisfaction of achieving my word count goal keeps me happy enough to counteract my terrible writing diet. Most of the time that works, but...

Warning: tantrums likely.

Bonus: My good friend Patrick Rothfuss' NaNoWriMo Pep Talk 

Go Forth and Write Good Fellows! Good luck!