Happy Black Friday, everyone!

    I hope you all got to go shopping today, and I hope you got me some gourmet food items. I did not buy anything today except for a coffee.  I forgot it was Black Friday.  That is a nice luxury for someone who used to work retail and felt some exhaustion during the holidays.  But I also had that built in participation with each holiday so I am thankful for that.         

    Today I went to the YMCA and finished the last half of a 5K that I signed up for as a virtual race.  It is a Cookie Monster themed race, and I will get a medal with Cookie Monster eating a cookie. That is so exciting to me. Some people probably think that when it says “Cookie Monster Race,” it is referring to a race of Cookie Monsters, like a category of muppets that will populate heaven. I do not think that is what it means, and I think there will probably only be one Cookie Monster. I do not know if it will be me or not.

    Anyway, that was good religion, wasn’t it?  

    Another thing that is happening right this second as I write this blog post is that I am completing the National Novel Writing Month challenge.  This post contains my last few hundred words to get to 50,000 words during the month of November. It was an awesome experience and I finished a new novel. But the novel was only 33,333 words because it was for kids or grownups who want to read a short novel about imaginary mice.  So I used journal entries and blog posts to get to 50,000 words, which is allowed but to me not totally the same as when someone finishes a novel of exactly that length.

     Some people wrote that much within the first week.  Can you believe that?  I can’t but I kind of can.  There are also people who got to over a hundred thousand words. I think that is so cool.

    I believe in NaNo and I believe it produces good books. I think the people who participate are true creatives who can do any kind of good work in that time span.  It is true that some people might do better with a different process.  But so much can happen once people just sit down and start writing.

    I published my novel already on Smashwords and am waiting to assign the ISBN once it gets accepted for “premium distribution” at other e-book retailers.  I love that process and feel happy about it, but have worried about whether I can succeed enough without being on Amazon yet. I am proud to not depend on Amazon, but feel that it is a real risk when people can so easily download e-books with just a click instead of having to do a whole online transaction. But I think it will be okay. 

     Now I am at 500 words and have completed NaNo. Thanks, everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

   Well hi everyone, today is Thanksgiving. I am thankful for a lot of things, including current safety and a warm place to sleep and having enough food.

    Today I was by myself but was mostly okay and had some unexpected yummy coffee and made a gravy for rotisserie chicken that was even better than I expected.  Then I ate it with some bread. It was yummy and a surprise for it to be so good.

    People are still torturing me and the conspiracy still tries to hurt me every day but mostly I feel hopeful and productive, and I have a sense of meaning and purpose.

    I published a book today and feel happy about it. It is a children’s novel and I think it might turn out to be the second book in a trilogy. But I also wonder if I could end up writing a whole series with ten or twenty books.  That would be crazy.

    The books so far always have a people plot and an imaginary mice plot.  I have been shocked and happy to find that my true character and story ideas come out in the mice plots. I really thought I might have a disability in the area of fiction generation and appreciation, to the point of not being able to tell a normal story about anything that ever happens in a day or in my life.  But I have been thinking of cute little stories with very innocent mice, who have characteristics and conversations that reflect true human behavior, which I thought I did not understand.  

    This starts to sound like bragging but I think the main point is that I might have somehow gained access to a real world of cartoon mice, and that is currently where my social self is most realized. But I do not know. I talk to people and have a lot of friends who I do care about.  And I eat food and listen to music.  That is real living, too.

    Anyway, I think I am going to soon finish this National Novel Writing Month with the 50,000 words required to be a NaNo “winner.”  That makes me happy and is another surprise.

    It is times like these that it is good to look around and make sure other chores are done and to think about whether other people might need some prayer or support.
   I erased something here because it was kind of stupid.

National Novel Writing Month Blog Post

            Well everyone, today is Nov 22.  It has been an exciting month.  I got a late start but decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month this year with a novel, and I finished it today with 33,333 words including the introduction. It is the second novel in what will hopefully be a trilogy of children’s books. The first book was Donut Novel, and this novel features some of the same imaginary mice characters.  It is called Football Novel.  It turned out great and I am so excited. The odd thing is that I wrote it quickly and am not doing much revision. It is almost verbatim.  That is exciting to me but a little scary to think that I might not be capable of changing stuff I write now.  It is kind of cool to be happy with it and get it right the first time, though. 

            I worked hard but found that the word count that keeps pace with NaNo is very reasonable and often I could do twice as much.  But then I did need days off.  It also helped to be part of a couple of online Nano support groups. Now I am writing blog posts and working on a personal statement for an application. So I will add that word count to start a new project and try to get to the 50,000 words to win NaNo.

            Something fun that I got to do last weekend at interestingly the perfect time was the Madeleine L’Engle Writers Conference and Retreat.  It was the first one of its kind, and the speakers and panelists were amazing.  I got to meet Katherine Paterson, who wrote Bridge to Teribithia and Jacob Have I Loved.  That is just ultimate, and I still can’t believe it.  It was so fun to think about the literature from her and Madeleine L’Engle, and all the writers from my childhood and middle school years. I have an interesting “reading biography,” and most of my best reading happened in middle school, before I started having attention span problems and depression and anxiety.  I read books for school, like A Wrinkle in Time, and some other great ones like Dollhouse Murders, Castle in the Attic, and more serious ones like Homecoming and Where the Lilies Bloom.  I am also remembering Where the Red Fern Grows, and many before that like books by Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary. Some of my favorites were from Lois Duncan, who wrote teen crime novels, and William Sleator, who wrote science fiction, including Into the Dream and House of Stairs.  Wow, those were awesome books!!  I think many wonderful people still have those kinds of reading experiences now, but I don’t. I lost some reading ability so it is all mostly work now.

            That is what Katherine Paterson said about writing. She said it was all gift and all work. I agree wholeheartedly about that and other things in life. 

            Now I am having a nice night in my apartment and collecting my thoughts after a few tough days of feeling trauma feelings from some of my life problems. But I went to therapy yesterday, sadly missing a memorial service for Toni Morrison, who was another author with classics that I loved and have reading memories of that are beyond sacred. What is the word for that exactly?  It is not “holy,” and it seems more substantial than “sacred.” Maybe a food vocabulary is what captures it, like when you have a meal that you will always remember, or when something really hits the spot.  But it is really is as simple as what it is, which is when you are depressed, or have a slight lost feeling, and you read a book that will always be Beloved.