55,667

That was my final word count when I sent my "novel" in to be verified today. So I made it past the 50,000 word count goal by the end of the month.  I learned a lot and now have a lot of editing and fixing to do. I realized I need to do a bit more research in some areas as well, and, of course, the book will end up being much longer than these 55,000 words. December will be a busy month, but hopefully I'm in the habit now of sitting down and writing almost every day. So even if I have to throw out half of what I wrote this month (or more), it was worth it!

In the Home Stretch

44,000 words and counting....

Ice Skating

I told Eler Beth I needed to do my blog post but didn't know what to post about. So she told me to post about the ice skating rink in town opening up this weekend. So I am.

We don't have any permanent ice skating rinks in our town, although there are a couple across the river in Louisville. But a couple years ago they put up a temporary rink in downtown Jeffersonville during the holidays, and it was so popular they left it up through most of January and then brought it back last year.

Eler Beth is a very good roller skater -- since she could walk, she could skate! And a few years ago she had her first chance at ice skating. Last year she made it to the rink here in Jeff and had such a great time! She wore her Necomimi fox ears when she went, and the little kids got a kick out of that. She's a good ice skater and is looking forward to the rink opening this Friday. 

So I'll try to get some pictures and maybe some video of her.

And hey, I'm right on track with my NaNoWriMo novel -- I'm actually a bit ahead at the moment!!

Observant and Confident Daughters

For Better or For Worse, Thursday, November 21, 2013


This reminds me of Eler Beth. I can remember working a lot of overtime when she was about 4 years old, and sometimes Thomas would start dinner for me. He would tell me how she would know exactly where I kept everything, and she would correct him if he cooked or cleaned anything differently from me. "That's not how Mom does it," she'd say, and then proceed to tell him how to do it. He took it with good grace.

When our local Meijer first opened, it was the first store in our area with the self checkout, U-Scan lanes. Once when she was about four years old, she was in there with her Dad, checking out, and it was one of the first times he'd used the self checkout. Whatever it was he was trying to buy wouldn't scan. He kept running it over the scanner, but for some reason it wouldn't scan. (Apparently he wasn't doing it right! lol)  She couldn't even see over the top of the counter, but, without saying a word, she reached up, took the item from him and ran it across the scanner.  The scanner beeped, and she popped it into the bag. Thomas said an elderly couple in line behind him burst out laughing. 

That's my girl! She has always been observant and confident, and ready to take charge when needed!

Jigsaw

Andrew dropped by after work this morning to see if Eler Beth wanted to go run some errands with him. She was still asleep. Here's how he reported the conversation they had.

Andrew: "Hey, Eler Beth, do want to go to Game Stop with me?"

Eler Beth: "I don't have all the pieces."

A: "What?"

EB: "Some of the pieces are missing."

A: "Pieces of what?"

EB: "The jigsaw puzzle. In my head. I don't have all the pieces."

Andrew to me when he came out of her room: "She's not going anywhere for a while."

He told me what she'd said, and I thought, you know what? If I had a jigsaw puzzle in my head, there would most certainly be missing pieces!

Boring Post

I don't have anything to write about. I know why I forgot to make a post two nights ago. I was having a bout of sciatica and nothing seemed to help. So I took half of a Tylenol 4 which certainly took away the pain but also made me extremely sleepy. So I went to bed early and forgot about my post.

And that's my boring post for tonight. 

P.S. Does anyone else have unsolicited ads showing up on their blogspot blogs? I do, and I don't like it!

Oh No!!

I don't know how or why, but I forgot to make a post yesterday!! So I guess I've blown NaBloPoMo for this year!

Oh well, I'll go ahead and finish the month out, TRYING to remember to post every day for the rest of the month. Can't believe I did that!!

"There's Rosemary,..."

I had a letter to mail to my sister Barbara today, and Eler Beth had a card she was sending to her as well, so she was picking out "flower" stamps to put on them. She took her time over it and explained to me afterward that she knew what some flowers were supposed to stand for, so she liked to pick them out carefully when putting a stamp on an envelope.

So of course I had to throw in some Shakespeare. I said, "There's rosemary, that's for remembrance;...." Then I just sort of trailed off. "Hmm," I said. "I used to know that whole piece. But now I can't remember it."

Our eyes immediately flew to one another's. I could see that she was thinking the same thing I was. So I let her say it.

"Well, I guess you need some rosemary, then!"

I set myself up big time there, didn't I?
 

Stormy Weather in November

We've had about 24 hours of stormy, windy weather in these parts. But, thankfully, it didn't get as bad as they had at first thought it might. Central Illinois, on the other hand, had some devastating storms and tornadoes. We may not be out of the woods yet.  Sixty and seventy degree temperatures in November combined with thunderstorms is not usual.

Instead of thinking about our stormy weather, I thought I'd post Lena Horne's Stormy Weather. It's much nicer.

 

Tired of Writing

Phew!

I've typed my fingers off today. Got up to over 24,000, so I'm pleased. 

Today was the first day of gun season. Thomas got a big doe this afternoon. It moved past Eler Beth too fast for her to get a shot off, but a few seconds later she heard Thomas' shotgun and saw the deer drop. I'm a bit surprised they got anything with the weather the way it was yesterday and today.  And tomorrow we're supposed to have storms, so I doubt they'll go out. Looks like her next chance will next weekend.

And that's all for tonight folks!

At The Half-Way Point

Well today is the halfway point. I'm a little behind. As of tonight my word count is 21,439, behind by 3,561. But tomorrow will be a good opportunity to make a start on getting caught up.


It's the first day of gun season here in Indiana, so Thomas and Eler Beth will be out all day from 3 in the morning. If they happen to get what they want early in the day, they may be home fairly early, but usually they make a whole day of it on opening day. I do hope they get a couple because my freezer is getting empty!


Anyway, with them gone all day and Andrew at his own place, although he may drop by for a while in the morning, I'll have the whole day to write if I want to. So I'm planning a writing marathon. My daily goal is always 1,667 words, but to catch up I would need to average 1,786 words each day. I want to get at least that tomorrow, but I'd really like to do a 3,000 word day. That would almost get me caught up. Let's hope I find some inspiration throughout the day because I'm kind of at a point in the story that is dragging a bit. I took a detour away from my outline and thought it was going to work, but now I'm not sure and don't know where to go with it.

So here's wishing all of us a good and productive day tomorrow!!

Gifts for Book Nerds and Other Unique Gift Ideas

Short post today because I'm battling sinus pressure and don't feel like writing. My face hurts!

16 Fancy Gifts for Book Nerds

I especially like #s 3, 4, 5, 12, and 16.  Which are your favorites?

And as a bonus:

Set of 6 Grammar Grumble Mugs 

My favorites are "figuratively" and "loose and lose." That whole web site has some wonderful gift ideas. I haven't even had the time to go through all of them yet. I have oh so very discreetly brought it to Andrew's, Eler Beth's, and Thomas' attention. My sister Barbara makes things with altered books, and some of the things on this site remind me of some of the things she makes.

There's Almost Always A Reason

 

And I finally figured out what the reason was....

 

   **********

 For most of us there are family stories about things we did or said when we were little that would give our families a chuckle for years to come. Stories that could be pulled out and laughed over at family gatherings, or actions or sayings that we laugh about, repeat, or tease each other about in a good-natured way.

Well, I was quite a Momma's baby when I was little, and I provided my sisters with a lot of things to tease me about or bring up when I got older. I really was quite attached to Mom, and I can actually remember standing at the back door, waiting for Mom to come open it for me (because I couldn't reach the doorknob), and one of my siblings came to do it for me. I screamed, "No! I Want MOMMA To Do It!!"  And that wasn't the only occasion where that phrase was screamed. So that became a family saying. My sisters would say that my "chickens came home to roost," when my daughter was born, because I was blessed with a daughter of my own who was figuratively glued to my hip for most of her younger years, and we frequently heard some form of my own famous line, "No! I want Momma to do it!" It was only fair, I suppose. 

But there was one action on my part having to do with my attachment to my mom that really did have a reasonable origin.

When I was very young and lasting probably until I started school, I did not like my mother to take naps on the living room sofa. Poor dear, she was 42 when I was born, and even though the two oldest had moved out by the time I was a toddler, she still had a house full of kids. I know she needed a nap now and then, and I hate that I tried to disturb them, especially now that I'm in my 40s and need my own daily naps.  But at the time I really, really did not want her to nap. After she would fall asleep on the couch, I would pat her on the cheek and say, "Momma! Momma, please don't go to sleep." I'd keep doing that until she'd either get up or make me leave her alone. And my feelings were always terribly hurt if Mom disciplined me in any way, even if it was just with a dark look or a threatened punishment, so I'm sure I went away crying if she made me leave her alone.  

I can remember bringing my toys over close to the sofa and staying near her, occasionally patting her on the cheek and asking her to get up. And I can remember doing that sometimes when one of the other girls was at home, and they would tell me to "leave Momma alone!"

For years when I was older, that was a family joke, a tale on Lori. I always knew that there was some reason I did that because when it was brought up, although I'd laugh about it, I could also remember the feeling I had when I was doing it. It was a panicky feeling, a desperation, a fear. I just didn't know where it was coming from.  Until one day it hit me, and I knew.

I was four years old when my Grandmother Dowell died.  Her health had started getting bad, and her mind had started wandering about a year or so before she passed away.  She lived with my father's brother Harlan, or rather he lived with her in the house where she raised her 12 children, almost directly across the road from our house.  When the family started worrying about her being at home alone, Uncle Harlan would bring her over to our house on his way to work, so Mom could keep an eye on her. 

I can remember her coming in, dressed in an old-fashioned house dress, with her old-fashioned apron on, and Mom would brush out her hair and braid it for her first thing.  She had long, thick, iron-gray hair, and she usually wore it in a braided bun at the nape of her neck, or sometimes she just wore a single braid down her back. I can remember watching Mom brush out her hair, braid it for her, and then wind it into a braided knot and pin it for her. I don't have any other vivid memories of her being there at the house during the day, except that I can remember bringing my toys over and playing near her. I'm sure that if she was able, she helped Mom with household things, because Mamaw Dowell was never an idle woman. But what I do remember most about her being there was that she always -- always! -- took a nap in the afternoon, on the living room sofa.

Well, Mamaw napped on our sofa, and then one day Mamaw wasn't there any more. That was the first death I had ever had to deal with. It was the first funeral I can remember going to. It was the first time I can remember going to a grave yard and watching someone be buried. I don't remember feelings of sadness or confusion; I don't remember how I was told or if I asked any questions about it. I remember going to the funeral at the big Methodist Church in Hardinsburg and that it was packed with 11 of Mamaw's children, their spouses, their children, and in some cases, their grandchildren, not to mention other family members and friends. I can remember that I wasn't allowed to walk into the church with my Mom and Dad because all the children and their spouses were supposed to go in together and sit in the front, and I had to go in with my sisters. I remember crying about that. I can remember that I was sitting between my sister, Lois, 14 at the time, and my cousin Stuart (on whom I had my first ever crush -- he had sideburns!), and I started to fall asleep. I kept leaning over toward Stuart in my sleep, and I would wake up with a start, then do it all over again.  I can remember my sister Maxine, who was sitting behind us, tapping Lois on the shoulder and saying, "Pick that baby up!"  So Lois had to hold me for the rest of the service.

I can remember the drive to the grave yard -- not even a mile down the road from our house, where most of my Dowell and Roberts ancestors are buried. And I can remember the little tent top they put up over the grave, and the fake grass carpeting they put there with the chairs for the immediate family to sit. 

At some point in my early twenties I realized that the reason I didn't want Mom to nap on the couch was because I associated that with Mamaw and her death. So the next time the subject was brought up I told my Mom and my sisters what I'd figured out.  I told them that I'd always known there was a reason for it, because of the memory of how I had felt, but I had never known what the reason was, and couldn't have put the feelings into words when I was younger. And it made so much sense to them. It wasn't just a momma's baby wanting all of mom's attention, begrudging the lady even a half hour's nap during a busy day, exerting power, or getting her way. It was a little girl who'd seen a certain daily routine carried out; a routine that ended suddenly and with a finality that she couldn't fully understand.  

Sometimes my patting Momma on the cheek and begging her not to go to sleep will still come up in the context of family talk; it will get a smile.  And that's okay.  It was always okay, but now it's even more okay, because we understand what was behind it.  

Sometimes there's a very good reason for the way a child -- or an adult, for that matter -- acts, even though we may think they have no good reason or excuse. And that's a very good thing to keep in mind. 

Bub, Duke, Honey, and Jo Jo

Eler Beth and I were talking recently about pets, and I was trying to remember when was the earliest I could recall having a pet, or the earliest pets I could remember.

There's Bub, of course. Bub belonged to my Grandmother Dowell whose house was almost directly across the road from ours. He was long-haired, mostly white with some light brown patches. My memory of him is that he was kind of medium to medium-large, but I was pretty little, so that memory could be skewed. I'll have to see if I can find a picture of him. I don't know where she got him, or if he actually belonged to my Uncle Harlan, one of my Dad's bachelor brothers who lived with Mamaw Dowell until she died. I'd say he was a collie/shepherd mix, with who knows what else thrown in.

He loved Mamaw and would walk with her over to our house and back when she was still feeling up to walking over by herself.  He was very, very protective of her.  He would also meet me in the drive when I was allowed to walk over to Mamaw's by myself (with Mom watching, unknown to me), and he'd walk me home. He always seemed to know when Mom was frying chicken or baking biscuits, and he'd wait at the back door for a hand-out. 

I think his real name was "Whitey," but at some point he became just "Bub." He was a sweetie and loved kids. And if someone said to him, "Awww, poor old Bub," in a slow, sorrowful drawl, he'd lie down on his side and make a sound between a whine and a howl that sounded for all the world like he was saying, "AwWwwW." And then of course he'd get a belly rub. I don't remember when or how Bub died, but I'm pretty sure it was from old age, and it was after my Mamaw died in 1970.

Another dog I can remember from my early childhood was my sister P.J.'s dog, Duke. He was a Rhodesian Ridgeback, smart as a whip, and loyally in love with P.J.  He would do anything for her. I think she had him before and after she was married, and as she married when I was about 5, I was probably pretty little when she first got him.  I can remember him knocking me down one time, accidentally, and licking my face, and I said to him, "Aw, dawdie! Aw, Doot!"  And that became a family story. I must have been pretty little if I couldn't pronounce doggie or Duke correctly, but I can remember it well. I was standing at the back door, waiting for someone to open the door for me, and when they opened it, Duke ran in and knocked me down. I wasn't really mad at him, though. He was a sweetie too.

The third dog I can remember from when I was really young was Honey.  She was honey-colored, small to medium, and that's really all I can remember about her, except that she was my sister Barbara's dog, and Barbara told me she'd share her with me. So Honey was my very first dog. The only other thing I remember about her, though, was that she got hit by a car, and we buried her directly across the road in what we called "the sand banks."  Over the years a lot of our fur babies were buried there.  Barbara put up a wooden marker for her and engraved her name on it. For many, many years it stood there, weathered but stuck tight, and you could still make out the letters spelling "Honey" when I was a teenager. 

Then there was Jo Jo.  He was sort of my dog, too. He belonged to my Dad's youngest brother, my Uncle Leonard. Uncle Leonard and his family moved into Mamaw's house after she died, and Uncle Harlan bought and moved into a mobile home and set it up on acreage he owned directly across from Mamaw's house (which he also owned), and next to my Dad's property.  Jo Jo had a habit of coming over to our house too. He was a standard poodle mixed with something that gave him some weight to go with his height. His hiar was solid black with lovely curls hair that were never clipped. I don't know why Uncle Leonard gave him to me, but he was technically the first dog I ever owned on my own.  I have no idea what happened to him, though. Perhaps he just died of old age. I didn't have him long, and I don't remember grieving for him, but perhaps I did.  Honey's death is really the first pet death that I can remember being aware of.

Well, anyway, those were the dogs of my extreme babyhood and youth.   

I Guess It's Time To Get A Smartphone

I've held off long enough. My really, really good, really, really old Samsung is starting to mess up on me. I recently got Thomas a Samsung Galaxy III, and we brought him into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming. Now it's my turn. 

I have nothing against them. I just never have seen my need for a phone that does everything that I don't really need it to do. And from what I've seen of some smart phones, they do everything but make calls. However, the Galaxy III is pretty sweet, and it does seem to make calls as well as everything else.

Part of me wants to hold off until the last second, though; until my old Samsung flip phone breathes its last breath. But Thomas is tired of it fading out at random times when he calls me, so he says I'm getting a new phone this week. Guess I will.

Who Was I Trying To Kid?

First of all, I haven't had time this past weekend to work on my NaNoNovel or to come up with a decent blog post. I did finish editing a short story for someone, so I guess my brain did get some exercise.
 
So will my muse whisper to me tomorrow? I sure hope so.

On another note, I don't know why I thought I would be calm and cool when both my kids became independent or semi-independent. Andrew has his own place and is 24 years old, and I realized this afternoon after he left our house that I was pretty much holding my breath until he called to say he'd gotten home safely. That probably won't end any time soon, will it? 

And now that Eler Beth has her license and is coming and going on her own more often my worry level has gone into full-blown MOM-mode. (And is it bad that I worry about Andrew when he's on the road more than I worry about Eler Beth? She's the better driver and has more common sense. Is that a gender thing?)

Well all my chicks are home safe (and so is the old rooster, haha) so I'm off to bed. It has been a long weekend and a long day. I'll try to get some writing done and come up with something interesting to blog about tomorrow. Or not.

Later!

Remember the Wonder Twins?

I was rather proud of myself for coming up with the speech bubbles for this one!

Beautiful Weather; Stressful Day

I'm not feeling a long blog post tonight, and I haven't written any for NaNoWriMo today. That's okay, I'll make it up. I'm doing pretty well for the first week, anyway. (See sidebar.)

The weather was really beautiful today, but I didn't have much of a chance to enjoy it.  Today was the memorial service for a very dear, elderly friend of ours who died on Tuesday. She was 84 years old and one of the sweetest, happiest, liveliest ladies I know. She thought the world of Andrew and Eler Beth, and they loved her too. I love that my kids have always had good friends of older generations. It's good for the older ones and the younger ones.

Anyway, her service was today, so I was busy shopping and cooking for the gathering afterward. The service was lovely. She and her husband, whose health isn't that good, had been married for 35 years. It was a second marriage for both of them. He is black, and she was white, the oldest mixed-race couple I knew. Both of her sons from her first marriage were there, along with many of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and two of his three surviving children were there as well. All together with her own and the steps, she had 5 living children, and 34 grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She was a lovely woman, and we will miss her.

This evening was busy too, and I am only now getting a chance to stop and make a blog post. I just almost skipped it; decided I didn't care, and I'd just not worry about making it through NaBlo without missing a post. But there's still a little time before midnight, and my perfectionism kicked in, so here I am.  It isn't much of one, but it's all I've got. 

So goodnight for now, and I'll be back tomorrow. Same bat time, same bat station.

Poodwaddle World Clock

This is rather interesting and something else we can waste our time on.

POODWADDLE WORLD CLOCK

Cat Fonts and BitStrips

Veronica over at California Dreamin' Squirrel introduced me to these neat 

Isn't that neat? I can't seem to get the HTML to work, but you can save the image and place it like a picture or copy and paste. The web site is NekoFont.

In other news...

Have you noticed your FB friends posting BitStrips lately? I have seen some that are really quite cute, and I've been impressed with how much some of the avatars can be made to look like the real person. So I finally gave in and downloaded the BitStrip app and the desktop program, and I posted a couple of them today. One was of me with my sister, P.J., since she's been posting some funny ones lately. 

I thought my kids would think they were funny, too, but for some reason Eler Beth doesn't like them at all. I think Andrew is neutral regarding them. Well I think they're fun as well as funny! And hey, if you can find something interactive on the web that is clean and funny and that makes your friends smile or laugh, why not use it? If anyone doesn't like them, they can always hide the app on Facebook.

Beware! I will probably post some BitStrips on my blog as well. Below is the one I posted today. Dee is our eldest sister and the high speed chase is sort of family joke.

   Okay, so Goodnight All! (Hey I got the HTML to work!)

My Sister May Not Be Teaching Much Longer

I have a lot of respect for the teaching profession and for good teachers. I also know that a teacher is more a slave to bureaucracies and state and federal teaching standards than they have ever been in the past. My sister who has been a teacher for almost 30 years is thinking of retiring sooner than she had planned simply because she doesn't feel like she can do any real good any longer. She has, and I quote from a recent letter from her, 

"... just about come to the conclusion that teaching isn't for me.  Only took 27 years to figure it out, too.  Or maybe it's just that the joy of teaching has vanished due to the fact that we no longer get to teach because we are always assessing students to see their strengths and weaknesses to guide our teaching, but we don't have time to teach because we are spending so much time testing.   Therefore, there is really no need to test or assess because I can already tell you that my kids don't know it because I haven't had time to teach it because I'm testing.  Everyone and his brother wants to mandate what goes on with education without a clue as to what is age appropriate.  At least that's how it seems.  There is so much more that I could say, but won't." 

School in Wales won't be giving out home work

At first thought I rather liked the idea. I had a really big problem with the amount of homework Andrew was bringing home when he was in school, and it was starting to get ridiculous for Eler Beth before I started home schooling her. It was one of the factors in our decision to home school. I do believe that home work is important and can be a valuable educational tool. Completing and turning in home work and scheduling time for home work can teach responsibility, be a source of self-confidence and pride, and provide good opportunities for parents to be a part of their children's education. But there should be a limit.

I first read about this school in a BBC article. It is a school in Wales, UK, that will open next year with plans for giving out no homework. It is a free school that will service about 1,100 students from 11 to 18 years old. The downsize is that students will not be dismissed until around 5 p.m. which would mean children would be traveling home during "rush hour." The purpose of the no homework policy, according to the prospective principal of the Jane Austen Academy, Claire Heald, is to allow families more free time together in the evenings. 

"Rather than setting homework that students could go home and struggle with, and where there may be limited access to computers, they will do that in the school day.  We are saying that when they go home they should enjoy quality family time....There will not be any traditional homework and that has been really well received by parents who respect the fact that family time will be family time."

Students will be expected to study at home for tests and will have a longer school day in which to complete their school work. It will be interesting to see how this works out. Other schools have actively reduced the amount of home work sent home with students, and apparently this isn't the first school in the UK to ban homework. There has been quite a debate about it in the media, and I have been interested in reading what both sides have to say.

There are children who don't have a home life that is conducive to home work, and there are children who either can't or won't be motivated to sit down and do their home work. I can't help but think that this policy would actually help them.

What do you think? 

Links to relative articles above.

  

Back to Cooking

I'm still in some pain, but it's so much better. I managed to cook dinner tonight. Did a pork loin roast with broccoli and rice on the side. I like to use pineapple wine when I do a pork loin, and man, was it good!! I think it's the best one I've ever made. Thomas always makes enough pineapple wine for me to have on hand to cook with. We actually have some friends who like it to drink, but I like to cook with it. 

Eler Beth has really come in handy this past weekend. She has run errands for me, done grocery shopping, and driven me when I needed it. It's nice to have a trustworthy daughter with her license. I did write today, but not too much; still hurts to sit up too long.

So anyway, this is my NaBlo post for today. Not too interesting, but it's going to have to do for now.

Later dudes!

Yes, Tonight I'm There

I had something sort of planned to write about for my third NaBlo post today, but I can't get my brain to work right for that topic. And I can't come up with anything else, so this is it for today folks. My back is feeling better, but not 100%; I'm still groggy, and my brain is still foggy, so I'm off to bed, and hopefully tomorrow I will produce something more interesting that this. : )

Regal Bryant Helms Is One Year Old

At Bass Pro Shop he couldn't figure out why those "dogs" wouldn't play with him!

I must get this posted before I pass out. I stretched today and pulled something in my upper back. Now I can't turn my head very far in either direction or tuck my chin down. I took a painkiller -- usually only take half of one because a whole one knocks me out. The half didn't touch it, so I took the other half.  It has eased up some of the pain, but not all of it. I'm sitting here in my high-backed desk chair with a pillow supporting my upper back, neck, and head, and I'm starting to feel a bit woozy.  

Bryant turned one year old yesterday. Today Eler Beth took him to Feeder's Supply to bathe him. He didn't care for it; it wasn't like getting a bath at home! But Eler Beth loved it!! They have bathing stations there where you can wash your own dog for $10.00. For a big, eighty pound dog like Bryant that is very convenient and economical. She drove him there by herself in her truck, and then she took him to Bass Pro Shop for the first time. This was their first adventure by themselves, no one else along for the ride. I thought I would post some of the pictures she took, as well as some of his 8-week-old pictures to show how big he's grown.

 "It's right behind me, isn't it?!?"

He has a noble mein, doesn't he?

Eight Weeks Old

At The End Of Day One

Not bad for the first day! My goal was 1,667.

Pep Talks from James Patterson and Rainbow Rowell

NaBloPoMo Post #1

 

Welcome to November 1, 2013, Day One of NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo. I thought I would share the pep talk emails we got from James Patterson and Rainbow Rowell this past week. I enjoyed them and pulled a quote from Rowell that I think I'll use as my signature line for a while.

James Patterson's Pep Talk


Rainbow Rowell's Pep Talk

"That’s not writing, I thought, that’s just piling up words.
But then I thought about how wonderful it would be to have a pile of 50,000 words…" -- Rainbow Rowell, on National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)