LadyGypsy.net – the blog of Kimberly Dowd of New Jersey

Which is of course Thanksgiving weekend, which means there are plenty of non-writing things for me to do.

Yesterday we had a lovely dinner at Kristen’s parents’ home. More food than you could feasibly eat in one meal, and I was stuffed silly. Today is Black Friday, and while Mom & I didn’t go out at 5am like in years past (Stores were opening here at 3! I’m not going out at 3am. And if we went out at 5am, we’d already be 2 hours behind the rest, so may as well sleep in, head out at 10 and call it good.) it cut into the writing time.

So here I am, formerly ahead, now trying to catch up.

On our travels today, I bought this little guy from Starbucks. His real name is Huxley and he’s a writer mouse.

Squeeky squeeky! Here's some candy if you write!

But we’ve renamed him Nano and you may think he’s sweet for offering me a Hershey’s kiss if I make 2000 words tonight. But Nano is an intimidating force to be reckoned with. This is what he does when you’re not looking.

I will paint my face with your blood!

So, uh, I’ll get back to writing now. (shiver) I have 42,103 words written. Tuesday is the last day.

This is the best I’ve done since the first year, when I won the event by finishing up my 50,000+ word novel, Tumble Dry on November 30, 2004.

Progress report

This year’s story has been kicking around in my head since my JCPenney days – almost 20 years ago! I was a bit worried because I ‘tipped’ the climax of the whole plot shortly after 25,000 words, but since I did that the writing’s been so easy. Even if I finish the story before 50K, I’m convinced I can go back and flesh out the characters and scenes and the “he replied”s that I’m sure I left out.

I’ve been to two local NaNoWriMo write-ins so far, both at Jersey Java and Tea in Haddonfield, which is a really cute coffee shop! It’s where Three Beans used to be. Three Beans was cozier, but also gave off a slight “you’ll get fleas here” vibe.

With Thanksgiving at Kristen’s family’s house this year, Black Friday and its sales and a mini-reunion of sorts on Saturday* I’m really going to have to work hard this week to build up a buffer. I’ve been writing at lunch so that I don’t have too much to do after work.

The drawback is that I’m seriously braindead. My mouth can’t form words correctly. The planet that World of Warcraft is set on is literally being shattered tomorrow, and I haven’t had time to enjoy its last days. Good thing this is done on 11/30. Cataclysm comes out on 12/7.

And I took a 4 day weekend to enjoy it, too!

*Bowling with a group of friends I hung out with a lot during my Jr and Sr years. We decided to pass on the $78 per person reunion and do something a bit more fun.

It’s over between us.

See, I was completely going to do 8K words this weekend. But between this blog, my WoW blog, the freelance job that might come up again this week (please?) and the rest of my life, I was running behind to begin with.

Then…he came along. And oh my gosh I haven’t had a weekend like this in a LOOONNG time.

I spent the whole weekend with him.

I went partying with friends…

I saw new species of weird, walrus-like men…

I was chased by giants…

And for the first time since February…

I levelled!

Anyway, remember that it’s not you, it’s me.

Maybe next year?