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

Have Yourself a Merry Christmas, or whatever melts your butter.

Shoo Fly pie and pumpkin too, no Apple Pan dowdy yet because I am the only one here who likes molasses.

 I love the fall, but I always sense my clothing getting tighter.  I don't think that they shrink in the heat. I think it is the cold that tightens the space between each thread.

Yep. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

After All I ran the weaving lab at Southern Oregon State College as an undergraduate, so you can trust me about those fiber arts.

 The Sky has been lovely here when we can see it, and obscured by (I love this term) and atmospheric river for most of the time! Flooding, mud slides, power outages. Yeah, business as usual.

And here it is time to celebrate the holidays already.  If you are one who hates being told Happy Holidays, skip this next line.

             Happy Holidays! 

  I love them, if you want to wish me a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah Blessed Eid, Happy Kwanzaa or  Happy Winter Solstice or whatever  melts your butter. Thank You.

I love my record of my life which the much ridiculed Christmas form letter has provided along with the annual photo card. I keep them in a binder but want to make a book for me.


Today I realized it is time to write the annual Christmas Card and take the Family picture as I have done every year since 1987 when my husband and I were Students in Beijing and I wrote and doodled it by hand.

I am very thankful now for the easiest record. What Year did I get Injured, When did we go to Your Mom's house last, How old were the kids when . . .? the questions are all answered in these and if the house burned I know the record is safe at my moms and some friends who tell me they keep them and treasure them too.

BTW, I love adding people to the mailing list when I make new friends but I never take people off so every year there is the smile at remembering a friend I saw every day 30 years ago but only hear from once every couple years now.

At the Christmas Tree lot.

One branch of my maple has turned red, the rest of the tree is still mostly green.

 The perk of living with rain, is that rainbows are frequent too.

 My family uses a lot of trees each year, the woodstove keeps us warm and keeps the house dry enough to avoid the mold which permeates the Pacific Northwest

 But the Christmas Tree warms the house in a whole different way.

 Ok, maybe there is one other reason that November saw my clothes getting tighter.  I did glue myself to the computer until I managed to Write 50, 000 words for a 
National Novel Writing Month
 WIN!

All that glue must be hard on the cloth.

but it means that Duffy Barkley is Not a Dog

and

Duffy Barkley: Seek Well 

should be joined by the third book in the series by the end of summer 2013

Reason enough to challenge the end of the world theory.