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!