Does 25 inches of snow equal creative abandon?

The snowstorm/blizzard arrived yesterday. By dark there was already 15 inches on the ground. The University closed at noon on Monday and the drive home was nothing short of interesting - a moronic driver in a gigantic Ford tried to go flying by us on Route 66 and ended up going diagonally down the middle of two lanes just in front of us for about 500 yards - Wacko! This morning we awoke to 25 inches - it's really beautiful and I'm very glad i don't have to try and get anywhere. The sun is brilliant, but the wind is typical-insane-Northern Arizona-nothing-to-stop-it wind...so both I-17 south and I-40 west are closed.

Does this time of being snowed-in mean I will turn my attention to creative abandon? Can I take some snippets while the new puppy, Ruby, naps to write - Gehrke calls??? We shall see...in the meantime, it's gorgeous albeit blinding!

50,084 Words - it's enough!

39,605 Words So Far

Hi All - well, I'm currently at 39,605 words - I've got until midnight, November 30 to reach 50,000. NaNoWriMo has put up the word count verification tool now, on November 25th, so people are already DONE and WINNING!!! Ugh - what's up with that??? Over achievers, I'd say!

I won't bore you with the usual rant about being behind at work, needing to make up being out last week so much with the stupid migraine - that really should be plural - stupid migraines! Oops, sorry, just did...

I am awake, it's 12:52am, Gia and Elum are talking in the Refuge of Guardians about their next step. They've been thrown together rather unceremoniously and now that Gia has shown up the action can really begin. There is no way this story is getting wrapped up in 50,000 words. Now I've got to get Gia and Elum out of there, back to Lady Lillian's so Elum and Gia can take another look at that stone column with the ancient writing, they've got to find out the Lady Lillian's daughter is the black rider and leader of the bad guys, deal with the shock and awe of THAT revelation, but put it aside and get to work, finding the last ______ (fill in the blank with the number of libraries to be found) and saving the Knowledge from destruction or worse!

OKAY? Are you with me? Good - cuz' I need all the support I can get to make it to 50K! So, thanks in advance!

Down for the Count - Damn Migraine

Well, I didn't make my word count this weekend - cuz of the crappy crap crap migraine issue - whatever...nothing to be done now. But I will be back on track later this week, after the drugs wear-off a bit more. Thanks for all your kind words and support.

9,873 Words Needed Today

It's a sunny Sunday morning and I'm sitting in the sun by the patio door - the wind is the typical crazy Arizona wind and it's pretty cold outside. The water for the birds froze last night. I filled the feeders this morning and was glad when I stepped out the glass door that I'd put on a coat and hat. Burrrrr... In the novel, it's spring on Pesgio - the colony where Elum is at the moment. When he left Cadreya it was just entering the months of ice...maybe I should add something about the different seasons as he moves from colony to colony...we'll see.

Here's to a fruitful day of writing - damn the headaches and the sore knees - I'm spending my day with Elum! NOT with a warm rice sock on my head in bed! Do you hear that head!!!???!!!

Maybe the headache meds I took this morning will make things even more interesting as I write today - I'm not sure I've ever written with these meds in my system before. This could be very interesting.

Word Count Update

11,810 words now needed by midnight Sunday! I am periodically distracted by the birds feeding - and the cute Ansel who wakes up to quickly jump down and slink his way to the sliding glass door....is this teasing him??? I can't decide.

Anyway, Galagia just got revealed as Elum's Seeker - thanks Sarah for that great idea!

I need 14,272 words this weekend...

It's Saturday and the sun is trying to break up the clouds that brought rain and something that could be called snow if you have a strong imagination. I'm inside, Sarah is dozing with the cat and while the birds chow-down on seed just outside the doors on the patio, my MC Elum is struggling to comprehend what he's just learned from his former Master, Daylin....

Once I make my word count this weekend, I'll post some excerpts here, I promise!

Thank you to my awesomest of friends, Steve for the M&M basket! You held my hand on the NYNY Roller Coaster while I screamed my head off. I'll never forget that! And know you've sent M&Ms - you are too much! Thank you!!!!!

10,509

I bumped over 10K this morning...but I must confess, I am behind! I need to be at 25,000 words by the end of the day on Sunday the 15th!!! So send me lots of great stamina! Not to mention keep that chocolate comin'! Elum has just "remembered" and in that moment realizes that the dream that has been torturing him is a past life dream - not something to come and be dreaded. He also has a clear picture now of what really happened to the Seeker and can release his pent up guilt for what he thought for months was a vision of his future.

Huge relief for him, let me tell ya! More later...

7947

I have to write nearly 3000 words a day now to get to 15,000 words by Monday, November 16th! That sounds like a lot!!! And yes, I have been procrastinating (let's not go down that long road), but I'm going to do it! Last time I did NaNoWriMo I made it to 15K by the 15th and I intend to do so this year as well! So, please wish me luck, don't be offended if I focus on this and not any of you. I still love you all, but it's NaNo-time!

5,661 Words

I really feel like I'm making progress. 5,661 words, almost 1700 of them today, so that is keeping me on track. I need to do 1667 each day to reach 50K by the end of the month. Staying up later than I should tonight to finish, but fun things are happening with the novel. Tonight I discovered that Elum is headed to the Salin Garden which is located in the triangle of Knowledge in the ancient city of Niloc.

Writing is so great when things happen you don't expect! I want this to happen with Gehrke - but how can I do that when I know the story. With Elum, it is as if he is revealing the story as we go along together down the path. With Maggie, I already know the ending, so how do I keep this going when the outcome is clear?

Anybody have any ideas?

3,978 Words Today...and Counting...

I just posted 3,978 words to NaNoWriMo today. A terrific start! It's been an incredibly fun day! Here's to a successful start and a great month of creativity, imagination, and Elum taking us on the adventure of a lifetime!

November 1st - NaNoWriMo Begins...Look Out Words, Here I Come

I'm re-acquainting myself with Elum and his story this morning - getting back into his world and finding his path. The Knowledge and how it was hidden, how Kajine (the initial bad guy) first becomes capable of stealing Knowledge, the Dark Master who helps him develop his skills, and Daylin, Elum's Master who will help him "remember" how the Knowledge must be released with balance.

So here is my request, to all my friends, as you have time, please check back in with my blog to see how I'm doing and offer my words of encouragement, send shipments of chocolate (Ha! Well, I'm only sort of kidding), coupons for Coca-Cola, and if you want to drop by the house some evening, there will surely be home made brownies available for eating.

Less than 9 hours to go...NaNoWriMo is about to begin...

I wonder if I'll stay up and write a bit at midnight? I know thousands of people will be doing just that - but sheesh, I can hardly stay awake after 10pm these days. I think the plan will be to get up early tomorrow and have at it. Elum awaits his next adventure!

Two Books = 100,000 Words?

NaNoWriMo begins in two days and I've got two books to write. Does that mean 100,000 words?

1. The Day of Days - the story of Edward and Margaret Gehrke's adventures touring the country by train and car, visiting every National Park but one between 1909 and 1953...in re-writes, new approaches, additional stories, mixed with our experiences of today
2. The Guardian - the story of Elum, the Guardian, suffering after the loss of his Seeker and re-entering the world of Guardians and Seekers to protect the sacred knowledge from the destroyers and make it finally available again to all. This is my NaNoWriMo novel.

So, my chances??? Pretty good, I think - I'm already so busy with work and Maggie what's one more thing??? Ha! It's gonna be a crazy month! But here's to fun and creativity, and inspiration.

My NaNoWriMo Strategy

1. Go to bed early
2. Get up early to write
3. Drink milk
4. Let my story take me where it wants to go
5. Don't slack on the chocolate
6. Get my friends to send me support
7. Have fun
8. Have fun
9. Have fun
10. Oh, yeah, and have fun!
    

7 More Days 'til NaNoWriMo

Seven more days to go and I'll be writing every day. I should be doing that anyway, but NaNoWriMo will make it so! 1667 words a day for 30 days to reach the 50,000 word mark. Can I do it this year? Heck ya! I am ready, excited, and all set to make some progress!

Gehrke is moving ahead too: coming at this from a different angle is helping a lot. Not getting distracted is still tough...but that's not unusual and I'm trying to not be too hard on myself.

I'm asking for your support as NaNoWriMo gets started --- being involved in two projects simultaneously (not including my job projects) is going to be interesting, but I'm hoping one will feed the other.

Maybe I just needed to whine???

Sunday afternoon's writing at Macy's actually worked - I made progress - yippee! Ed and Maggie are speaking again and my brain is listening, forming words, which are forming sentences, and those are actually coming down through my fingers hitting little letters on the computer and getting turned into 1's and 0's and then converted into something you can read - imagine that! Thank the gods!

at Macy's trying to write - why am I struggling so???

Sarah and I are at Macy's (for those of you in Lincoln, read "The Mill," for those of you in Denver, read "Kaladi Brothers") eating yogurt and drinking "specials" and I am trying to write Gehrke. I have to say that I really don't understand why I am struggling so with this book. It makes me want to scream! I have an inspiration and I write things down - usually this happens to me late at night, right before I go to sleep. I learned a while ago to always have paper and pen by my bed to capture these "moments of brain activity." I've got a book full of pieces of the story, I've got a couple of text docs on my computer that include pieces, but when I actually sit down and try to pull this all together I flame out - big time! What the heck is up with this?

So I got a book this week titled, "The I Ching for Writers," by Sarah Jane Sloane. (This is what happens whenever I try to kill some time in a bookstore - I end up buying a book.) In my defense, this book seems to be the perfect book for me: it's about divination and writing - what more could you want? It really spoke to me because as I was looking it over Sloane started talking about fear and writing. She says, "Embrace your fear; look it in the eye; write down everything it says" [page 5 if you're interested]. This is an approach I haven't taken yet - but it's very intriguing to think about what my fear is "saying..."

The next thing that happened - and this really sealed my buying this book - was looking at the first interpretation: Ch'ien which by no coincidence means to begin again...this is what I'm doing with the Gehrke book. I am beginning again and the interpretation presented by Sloane, indicates that taking a new approach to an existing project will result in success and not just regular success, but "great success" [page 25]

All bodes well for a positive result. Everyone loves Maggie's writing (what's not to love), I've gotten good feedback on my approaches to the new way of presenting the content, all indications point to success (beyond Sloane's book). So what the h*ll is going on? Why can't I just sit down and write? What is causing me to seize up, dry up and just stair at the page...waiting for something to happen...that never does?

Help!

Margaret Gehrke: An Amazing Writer and Wonderful Inspiration

If you had a chance to watch Ken Burn's wonderful documentary on the National Parks, you will have "heard" Margaret's voice. She has been my writing inspiration since 1994.

This photograph is from the collections of the Nebraska State Historical Society.

It's almost time to Nano again!

It's pretty crazy to think that it's almost November! I know it is just October 8, but it seems like October got here quick, so I'm anticipating a quick arrival for November. OK, so I'm writing a book already - two actually, one fiction and one non-fiction, but heck, why not add another into the mix? So here's to lost of creativity - starting retroactively back to the beginning of September - Ha!