National Novel Writing Month

I finished. Sleeping Kings: The Shepherd is done. I'm submitting it to my Ideal Reader and to my Medical Consultant for review of the rough draft and then I intend to do a full rewrite in the January-March timeframe, and it will be available for anyone who is curious about the ongoing story started with Josh's story.

It has been an ordeal. I am amazed at the work done by my sister and my dad, who both won as well. This has been just about my favorite November, and I love November.

Thanks for everybody who supported and encouraged. That's pretty much everybody.

One hundred and three thousand, one hundred sixty-nine.

And I still have two more days. And four more chapters to write.

National Novel Writing Month

Last night, I won National Novel Writing Month.

That means that I passed 50,000 words before the end of the month. It's not a race. Everybody who manages that is said to have "won." Heather and Dad both seem to be in an excellent position to make it through, too.

I'm not cheering as much as I maybe could, because yesterday morning, knowing that I was approaching 50,000, I checked on my outline and what I had left to write, and it looks like the novel I'm working on is going to need right at 100,000 words. So, really, I'm only half done. The project guidelines don't require you to finish the book, just to hit the requisite word count, but I really want to get this novel done this month.

So, yeah, now instead of coasting to the end of the month, I'm going to be trying to produce twice the daily word count that I have Heather and Dad working on (and that in itself is a grueling pace). It'll be a lot of work, but the novel is turning out a lot better than I expected it to, so it will probably be worth it.

Anyway, yeah, I'm doing a double NaNoWriMo this year. Wish me luck.

Journal Entry

Okay, I said I would make posts if anything big happened.

How is 25,000 words, for something big? Eh? Huh? Bwa-hah!

That's right, I've got 25,000 words done on my National Novel Writing Month. The goal for that project is 50,000 words in one month. My goal for this particular novel is about 70,000 words. So I'm either 1/3 or 1/2 done with my month's goal, and it's only the 7th. No matter how you cut it, that's awesome.

Gwyn and Dad and Heather are all doing it with me, and they're doing an incredible job. I'm so impressed with everyone! We went to Little Rock last weekend to visit my parents, and Dad and I spent several hours every day writing together. He was having such a good time, and it was awesome to get to see his excitement. I'm enjoying playing the coaching role, too. Every other day I have a long talk with Heather or Dad, and I'm always putting together emails with general advice for everyone.

So, yeah, I'm having a good time.

On Friday, I'm having friends over for dinner and a movie, and Saturday, seems like Josh will be taking me to the OU game. That's awesome. It's making up to be an awesome November.

Hope everyone's doing well. I'm off to write a couple more pages.

My Little Girl (a poem)

Sometimes I dream of what you'll be,
My little girl, my precious heart,
So many things for you to see
In this big life you've yet to start.

I think you'll be adorable,
Your happy smile, your eyes so wide,
And anything is possible
For you, who fill my heart with pride.

I hope you'll be a brilliant one
But there's so much to understand.
Too soon you'll crawl and walk and run.
Just know I'm there to hold your hand.

I pray that you'll have common sense,
Be blessed with health and grow up strong.
Be full of quiet confidence
And joy that drives you all day long.

I know that you'll be dear to me
No matter how your life may go.
My little girl, with heart so free,
I'll help you live and love and grow.

Journal Suspension

I know you're all going to be heartbroken about this, but for the next month, I'm going to stop trying to post a daily record of events.

As my dad put it, I'm throwing a lot of irons into the fire, over the next five weeks, and the biggest one is enough to take up all my free time anyway. So posting here about days where I basically did nothing isn't a high priority on my list of available activities.

I'll still try to post if anything interesting happens, and I'll probably end up writing a bunch about my projects as I work on them, but I'm going to drop the pretense of doing this as a diary.

That said...I had a really good weekend. We got to visit B-- and E--'s place again last Thursday, then Friday night we went to a party with the young married couples from church, and it wasn't horrible. Saturday I helped K-- clean out his garage, then watched AB while T-- scrapped, and yesterday we spent most of the afternoon and evening with D-- and K-- and N--. It was a lot of fun.

Today, I'm skipping work because my cold has lingered, and though I'll probably be in good working condition by early afternoon, T-- was going to hire a babysitter for that time, so I'll just stay home all day and get some stuff accomplished.

Have a good November.

Journal Entry

Tuesday, October 23rd
Tuesday night was the next-to-last class in our wedding seminar. D-- wasn't available to babysit AB, so we had more work than usual as we got her ready to take with us, but we were still only a few minutes late to class (and not the last ones to arrive). Class went pretty well, and afterward we talked K-- and N-- into coming home with us to watch Heroes. That was fun. K-- also checked on my progress on Portal, which I finished later that night. Very fun game.

Wednesday, October 24th
Last night, D-- came over for dinner, and then K-- and N-- showed up to carpool with us over to B-- and E--'s. The guys went over there to hang out, and the girls went over there to see the baby. It worked out for everybody.

We had a pretty good time, talking and catching up (and me drinking all of B--'s OJ and vodka), and it was nearly 9:00 by the time we got home. At that point, T-- did some painting and I read up on CGI and Python web tools while we watched a couple old episodes of Jim. Then it was bed time.