NaNoWriMo 2013 Participant

I #amwriting again of course

Yesterday was November 16, and that has been a special day to me for 20 years now.  It is the anniversary of the day my husband and I stood in front of the Judge and promised to Love, and cherish the 6 month old boy who had been ours since his birth Mom handed him to me when he was 14 hours old. Adoption Day has been a joy. A celebration of the world recognizing what we already knew. But this year we are lonely for him, he's grown and working on a Crabbing boat 400 miles away from home, and I still celebrate being his Mom.

but writing means needing to reward myself with apple custard pie

 But it is also National Novel Writing Month.  I love November for the rush of typing a novel with all the emphasis on the story and non of the worry about editing it until later.  Some of my books have taken 13 years to edit so the intensity of jut doing story, while hundreds of thousands of others encourage and challenge me, is delicious freedom.  Writing is lonely, and has to be, to allow me to hear the soft voice of characters who live nowhere else but in the point where my fingertip meets the keyboard. For now

lots of fog and that is both in my mind and in my yard

 Usually I am good at this month long dash, but sometimes it doesn't work.  This year it is working, but not according to the rules so I am going with it and joining the group who call themselves nano rebels. I am still trying for the 50,000 words in a month, but with two books competing for my attention.  The third in my Duffy Barkley series is now at 60,000 words but didn't start here. I just can't stay way from it when something exciting comes into my mind for that story.  The other book, the new one, is a story of two boys facing destructive volcano eruptions 1901 years apart. But it uses the same device to communicate between times as I used in Double Time On The Oregon Trail.

snuggling the dog can count as work if I'm plotting the story

I work better with this guy in the house

 So Life is all about words on paper here this month, but of course it isn't. Today was proof of that.  My husband was just home after 48 hours away at a music festival, I got up early to write and brewed a 12 cup pot of lovely coffee all over the counter and the floor in my kitchen, so mopping happened. Then It is my sister-in-laws birthday and then My brother texted me about Christmas plans and a friend wants to come visit and someone else needs me to substitute teach and another friend needed to talk.  Family is hurting, to angry or celebrating, and actually all three. Life doesn't stop just because I have A NOVEL TO WRITE FOLKS!

And you know what, I'm glad it doesn't. I love so many people and I am not the best at letting them know sometimes, but They let me know, even when the timing isn't convenient, that good times and bad times, lonely or not. I'm not alone, even though it feels like it.

Good night

Living My Novel (a bit)

As I mentioned in my last post, I finally managed to get my Oregon Trail novel published.  I know that is only the beginning of the work.  Now I need to publicize it.  I need to carry the books with me and talk about them all the time and, in short, be nothing but obnoxious about them for awhile and then back off and hope someone else carries on the conversation.

 But I am also a Mom with only two short months left until
empty nest syndrome hits hard when my youngest moves 400 miles from home to start college.

So with the book in print, I said "yes" to a camping trip with
the family and with friends who are nearly family.  Scratch the nearly.  They have shared more of my life, holidays and celebrations and sorrows, in the last 19 years than most of my blood relatives.  Blood is important but miles are a great divide there.

 So we headed up into the hills above Ashland, Oregon to a place we all love, called "Howard Prairie Lake." The temperatures here at sea level have been in the 50's *F but there were nearly double that, so it felt both good and shocking and we spent a lot of time in the lake.

 One thing I quickly realized about washing by dipping in the lake, and walking a lot carrying water, and sitting around a smokey fire and breathing dust and no-seeums; is that I should have written even more about the smells of sweaty, smokey people working hard and living outdoors.

  The kindle version is available now at

http://www.amazon.com/Double-Time-Oregon-Trail-ebook/dp/B008G3JZB8/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1341109826&sr=1-5

 and the paperback is available now as well from CreateSpace.  https://www.createspace.com/3923513

or on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Double-Time-Oregon-Trail-1/dp/1478160926/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1341504499&sr=1-3&keywords=double+time+on+the+oregon+trail

 I realized that there is a natural inclination to gather in the firelight, to sleep soon after dark and wake early and to love the stars when you wake in the dark because the ground is hard.  I realized that carrying water is hard work, and cooking in the fresh air is hard.  But everyone is very hungry and thirsty.

I  realized that when there is the whole outdoors around you, you feel small and the presence of those you love is an immense comfort.

I realized I should have done this a lot more often as the boys were growing up.  Writing books is important but telling stories around the campfire is even more rewarding.