I did it.

I really did it. I finished a very rough draft of a novel. 29 days. 51,000 plus words. 200 pages. (This is the screen shot of my NaNoWriMo profile page...) I am sick, exhausted, and happier than I've been in a long time. Wow. It's 9:40 in the morning, but I feel like I need to pop the cork on a bottle of champagne.

I did it.

Mad Hatter (Knitter, Shopper, Writer, Raker)

I am in super-duper-girl mode today. Kicky had a field trip to see the Lincoln Memorial, so I got an extra hour at home to work. I got up at 5:00, wrote 2500 words, got the girls dressed and fed, went to Target (finished birthday and Christmas shopping for the girls as well as bought a gravy boat), came home, knit a sweater (well, part of a sweater) while watching a documentary on eating disorders (research), picked up the kids, raked every goddamned leaf off the front lawn, and ate a bowl of homemade chili. I can do anything!!!! (Actually, I'm not feeling so hot...sort of feverish with chills...but I can still move mountains!!!)

This weekend Kicky is having a Mad Hatter tea party for her birthday (15 or so kids). I'm making a teapot cake complete with a door mouse and "Eat Me" cupcakes. Then, later that day, the Thayer Family is arriving (yay!) with our awesome nephew. I am so looking forward to their visit. I love Thanksgiving; it always means sisters visiting. I wish my own could be here. We're having about ten people for Thanksgiving, and I am going to get the biggest turkey I can find. I'm thinking 50-60 pounds...

Washington Post Post

Here's the article on NaNoWriMo in the Post this weekend.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/09/AR2006110901695.html

I should make it to 20,000 words today.

Me, the girls, and my amazing boots. 

Gala

Wowee. The gala at The Atlas last night was nothing short of spectacular. It started out with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, an a capella group of DC cops (the Doo-Wop Cops). Then we were led into the flex theater for dinner (food from the three ethnic groups that founded H Street: Jewish, African-American, and Irish). The sweet potatoes were the best I have EVER had. During dinner we were entertained by a hip-hop dance troupe and Cirque de Soleil acrobats (not together...though that would have been interesting). After dinner, we were all led upstairs to the main stage theatre for a musical based on the history of H Street. Lastly, there was dessert (little tiny pies and donuts and tarts). It was incredible...so moving to see this building, this community beginning to flourish again. And my husband was a ROCKSTAR. The media was following him around with cameras. I am soooooo proud of the work he's done. His mom came for the event as well, and she was teary-eyed throughout the whole night.

The book is still on track...16,000 plus words at this point. And joy, of joys, Effie (from Breathing Water) is back! I won't spoil things, but I was so excited when I sent Mena on a walk to the boat access area at Lake Gormlaith, and found Effie there (and she wasn't alone).

Tomorrow I am talking a game plan for Two Rivers with Henry...as well as about this new book. I am excited about it. God knows if it will ever sell...I need to stop worrying about that. It's paralyzing.

Oh, lastly, I got interviewed this week by a Washington Post editor who is writing a story for the Sunday Source on NaNoWriMo. My picture might even be in the paper! How exciting. Now I HAVE to finish the novel this month.

Still ahead

I took yesterday off from the novel to clean the house...NINE loads of laundry, good gawd. But I was back up at five a.m. today, and I'm at 12,000 words. The book is sort of all over the place....not much has happened in the present story, but we're getting a whole lot of the family's history. I really, really like Finn. I actually like the whole messed up bunch of them. Franny is hazy...but then, again, she's the dead one.

Anyway, the grand opening gala at The Atlas is Wednesday. P's mom will be here tomorrow night to help us celebrate. I'm so proud of all that he's accomplished since we got here. The Atlas was featured in The Hill Rag last week....with a terrific picture of him in one of the theatre spaces.

Nocturne

So whatever bug I had came and went...thankfully, and I wrote through it. I have now gotten up at five o'clock three days in a row, and I have almost 8500 words (I haven't uploaded since this morning). It's amazing how holding back all these months is making this whole process go so easily. I've spent so much time thinking about the story that it actually feels like it's writing itself. Also, I didn't wind up making a soundtrack CD. I just turn on MusicMatch and find music for the mood I'm looking for, and hit Play. (Today it was Norah Jones and Yehuda Hanani, an Israeli-American cellist I discovered.) If I had to pick a song/composition to be theme song right now, it would be this: Nocturne, Op. 19, No. 4 - Tchaikovsky . It's so beautiful and haunting...

Things I didn't know before I started: Mena is Greek. Sam has a stalker/potential biographer. Finn is in love with a girl who's going to Brown.

Fall. 

Day One

Good writing day...check out my word count! I got up at 5:00, fought to get MusicMatch started, and then went for it. 12 pages down. I am starting to get the stomach bug though...cancelled class tomorrow, since I spent much of my day crippled in pain.

Sad news in the literary world today. William Styron has passed away.

More tomorrow as long as I am able to get from my bed to the computer.