A Break Through!

For about a week now I have really been struggling with this novel, I mean REALLY struggling. I have done everything to get my word counts up from doing a childhood flashback with my MC; introduction of a pet; to even bringing in a character WAAAAAYYYYY too early and then just letting him sit because I did not know what to do with him. All in the name of meeting my word quota....but as I said from the start...this is CRAP!

But this morning, at 4:00 am (yes, I can no longer sleep because of this looming deadline), it hit me! I think I found a way to tie up this novel and it's made things a little easier for me.

So, I got that going for me...which is nice!

Total Word Count: 41,719
Total Words Remaining: 8,281
Total Days Remaining: 5

Go Barbara Go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ack!

We had 2.7 inches of snow last night! Durwood thinks it makes the apple tree look like it's decorated for Christmas. I think it looks like slippery roads and wet pants legs at work.





After months of resisting, I succumbed to the lure of the Phoenix Tears Scarf. I got some Squiggles yarn at Loops & Links on Saturday and that was the final ingredient that made me cast on last night. I have been looking at novelty yarns ever since I got the book trying to find the perfect feather and fire looking yarns and I think I've got them. We shall see. (Besides, I had to have some blog-able knitting, didn't I?)






Oh, and here's Durwood with his Maple Pumpkin Cheesecake pie. All I can say is, YUM.

Pulling Teeth is Less Painful

Well so much for my get to Sunday's count before Sunday....I just got caught up now at 8:40 pm and I am exhausted. Only 6 more days of this ride. I am anxious to write about other things and I think it will be a while before I go back through my story and do some serious editing and researching. I am glad I jumped on this challenge, but it is HARD to balance everything!

Ok...enough whining.....Thank you Barbara for your words of wisdom and your creative offerings...your story is amazing!

Jenny - thank you for being such a great cheerleader to both Barbara and I. We could not have done it without you!

Total Word count: 38,418

Day 23--The Detective Finally Has Something To Detect

I have too much pre-murder story and not enough post-murder. I have left myself only a week for Detective Inspector Rooibos to sift through all the clues and red herrings and find out who killed Jack. We already know, of course, but we're not telling. I may actually get to "the end" by the 30th or I may not. Whichever way this turns out I'm glad I did it again. I think.

Daily total: 1,703 words
Running total: 39,809 words

Write on!
--Barbara

Day 22--Rest In Peace, Jack, You S-O-B.

Jack, the man we love to hate, is back in the food chain and not at the apex either. This evening after supper I finally let Manning jerk Jack off the bluff into the merciless air and watched him fall, silent and flailing, onto the jagged rocks at the water's edge. He was then washed, unconscious, into the sea so that Sam and Maxi can find him in the morning a few dive sites up the shore after his having spent the night as fish food. Now, finally tomorrow Detective Inspector Rooibos can come onstage and begin his sharp-eyed detecting, sort through the red herrings and focus on the murderer before NaNoWriMo ends on November 30. Dun-dun-dun.

Daily total: 1,803 words
Running total: 38,106 words

--Barbara

It's been real, Jack...

Jack wakes up this morning in a cold sweat. He gets out of bed and sets the percolator to brewing, but when the coffee is ready, he finds he can't drink it. Today the caffeine only jangles his nerves more, and Jack paces the floor with the cup in his hands if only for the calming feeling of warmth. His stomach today isn't right; his shoulders are tight. Somehow Jack can't shake the awful feeling: today he will die.

Hey, Barbara, you've inspired fan fiction. Ha!

So I thought I found the perfect little magazine for my story about the husband who gives birth to the little man, and I sent it off to them all hopeful. They specialize in surrealism/magic realism, and I believe they like the twisted. Perfect match, right? Bah! I got a nice little personal rejection yesterday that said that they enjoyed the story and that it was well written blah-blah, but in the end they found it was just too similar to the Charles Bukowski story featuring a miniature man and a woman's no-no-naughty-place. Now I'm all for stealing fantastic ideas when I know I'm doing it (epileptic prophets and a certain spin-a-lator come to mind here...), but it comes as a blow to find that I've unknowingly stolen. This is why I should read more. Humph!

Keep writing you two crazy nanoers! Jennifer, how's the progress on the ahead-by-Sunday plan?

Jenny

Day 21--Getting Closer To The Edge

Didn't happen today, maybe tomorrow. Your days are numbered, Jack.

Line of the day:

The ancient limestone thrusts its jagged and tortured bones above the sea that swirls angrily at its base. The grinding waves shove broken pieces back and forth, polishing them into a semblance of smoothness. You can tell how long the pieces have been exposed. The dark just-revealed parts grasp the skin like Velcro, leaving hundreds of tiny cuts behind; the older pieces are smooth and bleached nearly white. Underwater when a Parrotfish takes a bite of coral for the juicy polyps it contains the scar left behind is white. But the cliffs that bare themselves to the pounding waves are nearly black. The dark color lends an air of menace to the already forbidding rocks that jut like rotten jagged teeth from the foaming salty saliva of the earth.

Okay, it's a little "artsy" but you need a bit of that with the drama if only for a breather.

Keep writing, Jennifer.

--Barbara