NaNoWriMo Day 30

Word Count: 50,078/50,000
Time Left: 0 days, 0 hours, 44 minutes

!!!!!

The story still is not finished, with two or three scenes left to finish in the middle, and the final climatic battle and aftermath/wrapup only partially done, but I have hit my word count, and will retire for the night. Later, I will finish, and do the editing; I like this one, I really do, and though it needs work, I want to see it go somewhere, preferably to a publisher.

To my favorite skeptic: I told you so!! ;-)

To various other siblings: thank you, thank you, thank you, for helping free up a bit of my time today. Actually, for your help all week. I owe you a big one (so what is it, dessert? lunch out somewhere? a new music book? I can be flexible.)

To everyone else: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I did it!!!!!!!!!!! And yes, you can say it; I'm insane.

Yay!!!!

NaNoWriMo Week 4 End...

Word Count: 30,006/50,000
Time Left: 1 day, 2 hours, 6 minutes

I cheated; I skipped an update last week, completely took Thanksgiving weekend from Wednesday onward off, and barely made it up to where I am now in a couple hours worth of writing. Hmm. So here is what is supposed to be the weekly update, recognizing that I have 20,000 words left to write and one day (in which I am babysitting all day) to do so. And the rest of tonight. If I happen to win, this is so everyone knows how crazy I am - after a vote of confidence from my favorite skeptic (where did that come from, anyway?), I'm not giving up yet.

In other news, we finally have fall colors! It's about that time of year when I start singing "let it snow, let it snow, let it snow" over and over... but we finally have fall colors! This makes me excited, and I will forgive the winter for not coming.

Also, the birds are migrating, it seems. At least I assume that to be the case when I mistakenly think of shade and park under a tree, only to open my door and hear a deafening chorus of cheeps, chirps, and other bird-like noises. My surprise was great when upon looking up, I discovered that nearly every inch of every branch of the tree was covered with birds. Lots and lots of birds. Lots of noisy, chirping, black, insane birds. I moved my car very quickly to a nice open space away from the tree. .. Only after walking a while outside the chain of stores do I realize that every single tree in the entire parking area is the same, and become very afraid. (Hands, people; have we all seen Birds?)

Thanksgiving, and I won't even attempt to list all I'm thankful for, was a lovely weekend. While there's something to be said for small, quiet dinners, where everyone can sit at the same table and talk to everyone else and count on a share of the leftovers, I wouldn't trade in the large multi-table day long gathering I was introduced to down here. In fact, the whole weekend was a brilliant combination of parties and music and hanging out and general good times. And now, before I babble on entirely too long and waste my night away, I shall return to my writing.

(Huge night ahead of us? Yep. Sharp pointy deadline coming up fast at the end? Most likely. Bring it on!)

What Comes of Compromise

"The Brookfield Zoo announced this week the birth of a baby okapi — an endangered African animal that looks as if it were put together by committee."

There's been a new birth at the Brookfield Zoo, not something generally noteworthy except for two things; it's a baby okapi (possibly the coolest animal ever, after the elephant), and I wanted to quote the opening line of the article.

This thing below is an actual okapi (Omaha Zoo, not Brookfield), but the pictures do not do justice to its strangeness. Alas, my own photography has failed me, for the light was not good enough for a good picture at the time.

Pictures Are Important Too!

This is what happens with a brain fried from writing 5000 words in a session and running out of previously thought-out plot. (I did another 1000 later that night.)

The first is my 13 year old and the second is her grandmother. The third is most definitely not my villian though he was terribly fun to create. Perhaps I'll keep him around for a villian in an even more intentionally nonsensical adventure.

Enjoy!





(Yes, these are all from eLouai.com - I haven't gone switching doll sites.)

I Can Feel Better; I'm Not Bucky

Ann Arbor Weeps

Mister Schembechler passed away on November 17th of a heart attack. He was something of a legend to Wolverine fans; I grew up around people who knew him, people who had a strong respect and love for him with or without knowing him personally, and could recognize his name long before I had any idea what football was. I'm sure the response back home in Ann Arbor has been overwhelming, and there has certainly been no lack of articles in the Ann Arbor News about him and all he did for the community.