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.

The Countdown Begins

Only three and a half hours until NaNoWriMo begins. Tomorrow, I start writing the novel that will change my life. Scary, huh???? Check out the Nano counter...it will update as I spew. My goal for Day One is 2500 words. Any ideas for a first line? (Keep in mind the book is about manifestations of hunger.)

Meanwhile, check out my lovelies:

The eyebrows are what make the costume. I missed my calling as a makeup artist, I think.

Pandas and Pumpkin Guts

What a great weekend...a beautiful wedding last night. Today, I finished the panda mural for our neighbors' new baby. Then while P and the girls carved pumpkins, I made hot cider and Rice Krispies Treats. I just love Halloween.

(I based this on illustrations from a really sweet book called Big Panda, Little Panda).

Good thing I have on Kicky's old mermaid costume. This looks fishy.....

Good Mail Day

The boots arrived today (and they fit!!!!). So did some really pretty yarn I ordered. So did a rejection from Soho which said that Two Rivers has "enormous commercial potential" -- too literary for the mainstream publishers, too commercial for the literary folks. I can't win.

Did I mention I'm going to write a doozy of a novel next month? (I figure if I say it enough times I'll be too ashamed not to follow through.) I am tying up all loose ends here (editing stuff, lesson plan prep, house stuff...hell, I've even started Christmas shopping). I imagine wee hour mania for a month and dream a pretty little novel at the end. I told my agent my plans today. I'm certain he's ready to write me off as a certified lunatic any day now.

But here's a real crazy thing. I found a scarf knitting pattern on a blog which (come to find out) is written by a knit-chick who also is a nanowrimo lunatic. Is this proof that compulsive writing and compulsive knitting have something in common???

I won!! 

In the trenches

I am in a bidding war...as we speak...ebay, a pair of vintage Frye harness/biker boots I've been coveting for months. Wish me luck. (Wow, this is like gambling or something...)

Wish Lit

In case anybody's interested in what I want to read (or if you want to get started on your Christmas shopping) ...here's the list I've been compiling on amazon:

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
(Mostly interested because it's gotten such a huge amount of press.)

Strange Piece of Paradise by Terri Jentz
(Mentioned on my friend, Nichelle Tramble's fabulous blog.)

Every Visible Thing: A Novel by Lisa Carey
(Sounds a lot like the book I'm going to write next month.)

Paint It Black: A Novel by Janet Fitch
(Loved White Oleander...also sounds a little like Mary Gaitskill's Veronica.)

Once Upon a Day: A Novel by Lisa Tucker
(Don't remember where I heard about this one.)

When Madeline Was Young: A Novel by Jane Hamilton
(Hamilton is another all-time favorite.)

History Lesson for Girls by Aurelie Sheehan
(Another mystery addition.)

One Mississippi: A Novel by Mark Childress
(ditto)

Cellophane by Marie Arana Jumping the Green by Leslie Schwartz
(Lots of local press...she's a Washington Post book editor, I believe)

The Tenth Circle: A Novel by Jodi Picoult
(Never read her...this one sounds interesting.)

Firefly Cloak: A Novel by Sheri Reynolds
(I'm a sucker for the mother-desertion novel.)

Freshwater Road by Denise Nicholas
(Another Mississippi Freedom Summer book...)

The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll: The Search for Dare Wright by Jean Nathan
(I was obsessed with the Lonely Doll books as a kid...totally freaky. The author's story is SO bizarre.)

Breathing Water (so much water)

Rain. Rain. Rain. God, this is miserable weather. And I still have yet to buy an umbrella. I was so desperate this morning, I brought Kicky's ruffly little Degas ballerinas umbrella to school. I looked like an idiot.

Jim's meeting ran late, so I had to meet him after I picked the girls up. We had a nice (though loud and slightly embarrassing -- the girls were putting on quite a performance -- and there was the everpresent danger of hot cocoa in little hands) lunch. Got home and decided I absolutely do not want to venture back downtown for Tayari's reading tonight. I am so useless after 7:00 p.m. anyway.

Oh -- weekend recap. I got sick. Really sick. I cancelled workshop Saturday morning and spent most of the day in bed. What a treat...it was almost worth feeling like ca-ca. No one else in the family needed me...and I slept. Also, my neighbor wound up having to have an emergency C-section. It was so scary...she was in a bit of danger for a while, but luckily both baby and mama are fine and coming home soon.

This weather makes me want to curl up with a book. I have a huge wishlist going on amazon...it's how I keep track of the books I want to buy. Still reading Ordinary People; just finished Digging to America (Ann Tyler).

Oh yeah...I just got a call from my old agent's office that there's been some film interest in Breathing Water. I'm not going to get my hopes up though...these things almost never pan out.

13 Friday

What a weird day. I woke up feeling particularly spunky, gathered my paints and brushes, had a quick cup of coffee, said goodbye to the girls and P, and went next door to work on the mural. C. in her crazy but understandable pregnancy-induced forgetfullness lost the book I was using as a reference, and so I started by painting the tree and leaves. (The pandas could wait, I figured.) So, C. had a doctor's appt. and she left me to my work around 9:00. I had forgotten how much I love doing murals. It's so satisfying to see my ideas materialize in such a vivid and visual way. There is something to be said for the immediate gratification factor of the visual arts. Anyway, just as I was packing up my stuff to go, C's mother called to tell me that she had been admitted to the hospital (pre-eclampsia) and that she was likely going to have the baby today.

I went back to the house, thrilled in that "there's a baby on the way" sort of way, and found an e-mail from the director of the program at school, accepting my insane offer to teach three classes next semester. (Private pre-school tuition is going to be the death of me.) It's normally not allowed, but the chair approved it, and it made me feel sort of nice. Valued. Respected. I then got an e-mail from a former student which was very, very kind. I felt so puffed up and happy all day.

Anyway, I'm waiting for the call to let me know whether the baby is a Declan or a Zadie (or a Lydia). P is out for some fundraiser at a bar thing-y, and I plan to watch "Shopgirl" and then go to bed early.....

6X and Beyond

DONE with the journals. And the semester is already half over. Fall semester always goes at lightning speed...

Tomorrow I am painting a panda mural in my neighbors' nursery (a big tree and a panda mama and baby). She's due in less than two weeks, so I really need to get on it. I have it sketched out; I just need to paint it. I'll post some pictures when it's done.

This weekend I plan to catch up on sleep. We are also (maybe -- babysitter pending) going to go see "DYBBUK" (the Teatr Novogo Fronta in collaboration with the Embassy of the Czech Republic) at P's work. I know nothing about it, but a night out with P sure does sound nice. Next week my writer friend, Jim Kokoris, is in town and we're going to meet for lunch. Tuesday night I'm going to hear my GW colleague Tayari Jones read at school. I feel like such a grown-up this week! I might even, I don't know, do something crazy like go clothes shopping for something bigger than a size 5T. I think I grew. Halfway thru my 8:00 class the other day I realized my pants were about an inch highwater. Is it possible to keep growing after 3---, I mean 29??

Grading Misery

I am losing my mind. I will never, ever require journals in my classes again. I spent the entire day yesterday grading my students' notebooks...deciphering illegible writing, locating the often well-hidden assigned entries, and trying to fairly evaluate the unevaluatable. (And I am only half-way done.) I've taken over the diningroom table in an effort to keep my real office clutter- free for the upcoming novel writing experiment:

Note: that's only half of the journals. That brown box? It has a 500 + page manuscript I am editing. The plastic bags hanging off the chair have the beginnings of homemade witch and cat costumes as well as a male to male HCMI cable that needs to go back to RadioShack but just can't seem to find its way there despite the fact that it cost $50, and we don't need it. Also, notice the piles on the secretary behind the table. Those are my magical mystery piles I just keep adding crap to (right now the top items are a kids' toy catalogue that has been ripped to shred, Taz's kitty brush, some important financial papers, and my rejection binder for Two Rivers. I'm waiting for the desk to break before I actually file stuff. God, I'm turning into a hoarder...

"Book" Hot

Here is the funniest discussion about whether some of the "hot" young authors out there are actually hot or not.

I read an interesting article once about the importance of looks in the publishing industry, questioning how Virginia Woolf might have faired in the biz today...