I did it! Kind of… Yesterday, on Thanksgiving, I reached 50,000 words of my NaNoWriMo challenge. I met the word count goal, but adding the 50,000 didn’t finish my story. Cleo Book 2 is about 85% done, so it’s close, but I don’t think I’ll finish the book before the end of November. I will finish the first draft by the end of the year though, that’s my new goal. The NaNoWriMo challenge helped me make writing one of my top priorities and helped me prove to myself that I can find the time to write every day. I made it to some of my local NaNo write-ins and connected with other writers in a fun, supportive atmosphere. There were some hard nights when I’d look at the screen, hardly awake, and see that I still needed a thousand words until I could go to bed, but somehow, I always met my daily goal. I must admit, I do not type fast; it has been a weakness in my life. I averaged writing about two hours a day this month and my typing speed significantly improved! If you haven’t tried doing a NaNoWriMo challenge, I recommend it. Anyway, I hope everyone had a lovely November and a happy Thanksgiving. Post details of your favorite November memory in the comments!
Happy Fall!
Hello Cleo Followers!
Sorry I didn’t post in September; it was a crazy month. My husband and I were optimistic enough to bring our two young sons, ages 20 months and 4 years old, on a 17-day adventure to England and France. We took lots of pictures of us smiling at all the amazing sites, but let’s just say that when we landed back in the States, we were tempted to kiss the ground, vowing we’d never travel out of the country with young children again. If you’re signed up for my newsletter, I shall share some of our scary, funny, and hard times we endured there. We can now look back and laugh at most of the situations….most.
Anyway, October is my and my husband’s favorite! The Pacific Northwest is stunning right now. I went on a run yesterday evening and stopped in my tracks several times, gawking at the sun setting over a vast, bright green field. My kids and I picked about 100 pounds of apples in the past couple weeks. Most of which I turned into applesauce and apple cider. I’ve got tons of apple cider in my deep freezer. We’re saving it for Thanksgiving when our family will come to visit. I made butternut squash soup with squash from our garden and also made a ton of pumpkin puree to make all kinds of pumpkin goodies. But I probably made a mistake letting my four-year-old have full access to all the seeds we scraped out of our pumpkins. I found him running all over our yard with a spoon, “planting” all the pumpkin seeds. I guess we’ll see if our lot is covered with pumpkin vines this time next fall.
Halloween is just around the corner! What are you dressing up as? My older son and I have been working on his costume all week, building an ark and carving a staff and making him a beard so he can be the biblical Noah, and his brother be one of his animals on the ark, a tiger. Last, I love this month because my husband and I got married this month 7 years ago. We attended a wedding at the end of September and as the bride and groom were exchanging their hand-written vows, we realized that we had never written our own for each other somehow. So, this year we wrote our vows and read them to each other on our anniversary. One of my favorite gifts yet.
I started my book club back up for the school year and in the
month of October we are reading the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, a short story by
Washington Irving. And since that story is so short, we are also reading
Rebecca, By: Daphne du Maurier.
My husband and I read Sleepy Hollow together in two nights. It was beautiful
writing, but nothing like the gory or scary I was expecting like from the
movie. I started reading Rebecca yesterday, and oh man am I hooked. Read it
with me!
I am happy to be getting back into my routine, especially since I’ve made so
much more time to write. I’d say I am only a couple months away from having my
first rough draft of the second Cleo book! I’m so excited. Keep in touch for
more updates.
Writing
I put my kids to bed at nine, my husband to bed at eleven. Then, if everything in my house is in order, which it never is, I write… Though I didn’t fancy writing, until recent years, it is now my obsession. When I’m not writing, I’m thinking about how each situation could fit into a future novel. Nights I lie in bed, not having typed or written about the stories filling my head, are restless. Why creating stories and forming them into words, sentences, and characters makes me feel so fulfilled, I will never know. I’ll also never know why I cut ten inches off my hair… So many mysteries in life.
Passions
I become passionate about too many things. This summer I’ve been going to u-pick fruit farms with two of my friends and turning my haul into freezer jam. So far, I’ve turned 70 pounds of strawberries, 50 pounds of peaches, and 20 pounds of raspberries into jam. There’s about 20 pounds of blueberries sitting in my deep freeze, waiting to be next. I need more containers first…
Next, I’ve been training the past several months for my triathlon I completed last weekend at Hagg Lake. It was so fun and inspirational; I’m already starting my training for it again next year and talked my husband into competing too. My three-year-old thinks he will race with us. He wanted to start “training” today.
Third, I was at my local city council meeting again a couple nights ago representing our Library Board. An amnesty program that my board members and I have been working on all summer got approved by the council and will start August 1st. It’s so exciting to be part of the changes happening in our little library.
Jam, racing, hiking, libraries, writing… These are only a few things I’m passionate about at the moment. Comment a list of what you’re passionate about!
Summer Update
It’s been a busy month so far! I hosted my local book club meeting at my house since they all read my book! It was so fun to have a group of people talk about my story in their point-of-view and hear all their thoughts and theories. We had a random name draw for a free, signed copy of my book and everyone brought some awesome snacks to share.
I’ve also been busy with working on things for the library in my town since I am the city’s Library Board President. I have an awesome board to work with; we’re excited about the library re-model and are coming up with lots of new programs to offer. Our board just took a few matters to the last city council meeting, which was fun to see and be a part of.
I am getting farther on book two and am so excited to share it with the world soon. My husband and I were coming up with names for the second book the whole drive home from the coast on Saturday. Naming things is incredibly difficult. Cleo: Under the Surface had two other names before we settled on this one. Want to guess what they were?
Thanks for all your support! Go to your local library! Libraries are cool!
Also, this month is my birthday…
