What a Christmas! both quiet and exciting. Friday night was a beautiful candlelight service. Christmas eve we were invited to my sister-in-law's house for dinner of "Big 'Ole's" a tradition at the Weaver house for Christmas eve dinner, along with snacks. We played a train game that was fun but definitely is a strategy game! Then a game of dominoes Chicken feet and by that time it was 11:30 and we went home.
Christmas morning we went to church and afterward I got dinner ready. It was a combined effort so one person didn't have to do it all. My sister and I played a few games then she went home and so did my Uncle. That left the evening free for me to work on my revision. I did a few chapters then got too tired.
Monday afternoon I met up with my other sister and passed out the gifts for the nieces and nephew. Played scrabble where I was losing until I came up with REMEDIAL and used all my letters and won the game! yea!
Tues it is back to work!
 

I am sorry I haven't written anything in over a month. I finished my novel and accomplished the full 50K! I am so proud of myself. November was crazy! besides having to write about 2k words per day I had weekends filled with decorating 5 acres of grounds in prep of our annual Christmas on the Campgrounds. There was a huge space that had to have trees put up and decorated as a winter wonderland. This was the staging area for the Walking Nativity and the two "hay" rides. One was pulled by a "train engine" that pulled a wagon. The kids loved that one. There was a horse drawn buggy that was a wonderful ride. The path was through the camping part of the grounds where a number of cabins had been decorated by members of the church in a contest. The winner was done as an Indian village with tents lit from the inside with white Christmas lights, there was a Bible and Cross and manger at the beginning of the section and a Sasquatch stealing presents at the end. It was over the top and deserved the First Place prize they won. The others were well done and fun to see.
Then Thanksgiving came on us and after the big day it was back to finishing the Decorating for the next two days. Then a mad dash of writing to finish my last 2500 words by the 30th. I made it and sighed but it wasn't for long as the lighting ceremony was Dec 4 and the actual event was Dec 9-11. I was there every night to take a turn at one and a half hours of greeting guests, answering questions and directing them to the activity choices.
With that over it was just one week to the Christmas Music Concert Dec 18th. I was in charge of the drama portion. Picking the players (who weren't tired from the previous week) A set of Shepherds, Wisemen, Mary and Joseph as well as a prophet and candle lighter. Oh and a serviceman to light the Candle for peace. After setting up the stage twice and running round the church an number of times to make sure everyone went in and out of the scenes at the right time I was tired. We then left church to host a small party of 10 at our house. I am so thankful for a husband that set a perfect table and greets the guest and makes sweet breads to serve. I was exhausted and took Monday off work and did nothing but eat and watch Christmas movies all day!
If you want to see the result of my work you can see pictures posted on FaceBook at Christmas on the Campgrounds. There is a picture of me as the greeter by my friend Tove. Bless her Heart!. Then if you would like to see a wonderful Christmas Musical called JOY JOY JOY go to www.apostolicfaith.org and at the home page there is a blue banner that says Podcasts and Videos. You will see Christmas Concert listed. If you watch you will see me (in black) adjusting the red runner and trying to get people in and out of scenes. Don't look to close.
I hope all who read this know that I love what I am asked to do! I do it with a willing heart and I am so blessed when it is over and others enjoy the result.
I will be working on the revision of my book this coming year. I have done 2 chapters but after this 2nd draft I will have some friends read it and give reviews and critique to make it better so it will be ready for submission or self publishing.
 

I have hit the half way point and have 25,097 words tonight. Half way through my novel and I am 2 days ahead. Still want to put in 2,000 words each day and the story is moving along quite well. Since I have to set everything up it seems slow to me. I can read a book like this in a couple days, writing one is a whole lot more work. A thriller is a lot harder than a simple paranormal romance that I am used to. But I am so proud of myself for sticking to this and geting this far!!

 

Here it is the end of day four of the NANOWRIMO and I am at 10,013 words, I am still at the setting the stage, stage. Most of the charachers are introduced and have some spot in the story. The action will start o begin. Well not so much the action but the set up of the plot and what the goal of the Hero will be.
The changes that he has experienced
 

I am so thrilled at how this is progressing. I have found that my muse is moving quite well. i still have to put all my pieces that I write at different times on different appliances together so I get an accurate total. I am almost at 5,000 for the 3 day and it is growing. I add a little every free moment so sometimes it is on my phone that I email and then it is added to my main manuscript. I hope I can keep them all together and not lose them.

I am so proud of myself. I hope to keep the momentum going.
 

Here we are at the end of October. There is just 7 days until the kickoff of the National Novel Write Month. I have been working on chapters of my book. plotting them so I have an idea what they are going to be about. Easily changed and certainly not written in stone. I am very pleased with what I have right now. It is the detail that needs to be there to entice those readers that like this type of reading. We will see how it pans out. This is way out of my comfort zone so there is the challenge.
I found out last night at church that Sam Cantrell and Seth Morgan are also doing the NaNo. I can't wait to see how they write. It will be interesting.
I was thinking about people I know that would be the characters that I want to be in my story. I chose famous ones for the NaNo site but I think in my mind I choose Yvonne Wilson for Beth, about 10 yrs earlier. I think she has the confidence. I like her sassy attitude yet there is a vulnerabilities when she is put in the spotlight. I like the character of Anthony would be good played by Bradley Cooper and the Mufid to be played by Zachary Quinto.I don't know any of these guys but I like the way they played their characters in the series Heroes.
 

Here I am almost half way through the month and I have got my story oulined. I went to town on it and filled out pages of outlines, character forms and plotted the story.
BUT! I am second guessing my plot. It was such a good idea, I thought. It isn't just a thriller, or espionage, or supernaturlal, it is all of that. There are religious undertones. I guess it doesn't matter if its good. It is about the dicipline of writing every day. When it is done then the editing starts.
I went to the Portland WORDSTOCK yesterday. I volunteered and met some authors I have never read before; Robert Greer and Pierre Ouellette. Not real talkative, but good authors I guess. I will look them up. They both said they write mysteries, medical, thrillers. Hmm I need to look at that.
I also met a YA writer, andI bought her book and I really like it. The author is R.A. McDonald. The book is called Ada, Legend of a Healer. A pranormal book and it is only 250 pages. I would be done reading it normallay, but I have other things going on so read it just at night. Interesting character. A girl who has the gift of healing. Yet goes on a quest to find her mother who abandoned her.
I met some publishers and self-publishing companies as well as some editors. They offer free reads. I think I will send one of my novels in for a look see. I will read through the Christmas Murder and see if I have mess it up while cutting amd pasting it from WDC to my word. I lost the other copy when we goa new computer. An Apple...not real sold on it yet.

Just a note about the dog. Oreo turned out to be a schnauzer. There might be some Shih Tzu in her but not visible. I had a hard time connecting with her and we did change her name to Ariel as my sister-in-law's dog is Oreo. This dog is 3 yrs old and is a very good dog. Trained for outside but that is all. She doesn't know any tricks and I don't know if she can be trained. I am going to start hand signal training for simple commands like sit, stay and come. I can't believe she would ever nip anyone unless the child was hurting her. She is so good. My husband took to her faster than I did and took her to get a bath and clipped. She is so cute now.I guess we are keeping her.
 

Today a couple were sent to jail because they had a premi baby at home, didn't take it to the hospital and it died. Yet there are thousands of women who CHOSE to kill their baby at Abortion Clinics and nothing is done to them? Where is the justice?
So if this mother went to a clinic and the baby was born and they stood around until it died....that is ok????
Without any reference to religious beliefs, just on the above statements. What is the difference? They say the religious belief was not a factor but I think the lawyer was an idiot for not showing the similarities between allowing the child to die at home and buried properly or letting it die and be DISPOSED of like trash. Where is our JUSTICE?!
I saw a video on youtube about a man who interviews people about Adof Hitler, then brings the conversation to Abortion and by the time he is done these people are having second thoughts about their stance on Abortion. After watching this video I am more convinced that most young people today are pro-choice because it is popular and they want to be considered popular or "with it" but when challenged, they will think about right and wrong and come up with a different choice.
Check out youtube 180 or go to www.heartchangers.com
 

I have been ignoring the mess that I have. Clutter is more like it and not enough space to put things. Sat I HAVE to make a dent in this clutter. I have started a new business and purchased bins to keep the information in them. Now I have to take the bins from the other things and put them away. You have to keep your papers for 5-7 years and now those boxes are taking up too much space. I am going to get to the storage room and repack some of the half empty boxes and up them in the crawl space. The two bins with tax and papers and stuff are going down there also, and I will move the colored bins into their spot. I have a number of containers with scrapbook papers and stuff still sitting in the closet. They are going to be moved to the crawl space too. After 5 years and no place to get them out and work on them, They are being relegated to the nether regions.
With the tables cleared of "papers" and the office cleared of extra Bins, I will feel better about the accomplishment! and hubby will be happy when he comes home next week.
I have been working on the outline for the November Novel of the month. Since this is not a straight romance or a single Main Character but one that involves 3 peoples lives they all have to have their own story and then they have to be connected. Now the great thing about this 50,000 words, If I find that I want to add a character add to a backstory. I can just put in a ADDL INFO: and then keep going with the story. It is the word count and the fact that you have a novel written at the end of the month!!

 

I have joined the ranks of the Novel in a Month Club. It was a big decision, but I have written a 1,000 word short story for a contest in a a couple of hours. I can set aside 2-3 hours a day, off and on, to write 2,000. Maybe in the heat of the moment I can write more. Who knows. the biggest challenge is keeping at it for a whole month.
November is a few weeks away and I had to come up with a story. What to write. There is no prompt for this. I am way out of my comfort zone. Do a write a romance? boring and I don't know that I could do it for 50,000 words right now. I am loving paranormal, but I have to write a new story. I went over the plot lines for one of the stories I was going to write in my Kindred series, but I wasn't feeling it. I want to challenge myself.
A few days ago my son and I watched the movie Devil. I was very reluctant as it was written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. I consider him so edgy that I haven't watched many of his movies. This one had me so intrigued that I didn't get up and leave the room.
The plot: 4 people trapped in an elevator and one is the Devil. So simple and yet he wove the story so magnificently I was entranced. I got to thinking about the weaving of that plot. It was similar to the book I just finished by Brad Thor, FULL BLACK. A story about an attempt to take over the USA and how it was thwarted. That is a very simplistic plot description as it is a very complex book. Adding to this mix is a short story I read here on WDC that was very well done and I picked a little snippet from epenny's story.
My plot is there is an evil suitcase causing disasters where it goes. This story is about a horrible situation.It covers just two days maybe less. It involves 4 people that I have connect. It will be a web. I love the idea, but I am not married to it. I am going to try to see if anyone will read the plot and tell me if I have bitten off more than I can chew or if I just need to work on it more.

My next big news is we are getting a dog today. Monday, my sister, called me and said her daughter's friend and mother have to leave their apartment this friday and the new place will not accept dogs. She knew I wanted a little Shih Tzu so offered it to me.
Here is the thing, I have looked into getting a dog, but I work now and was afraid that the dog would not be happy and we would have problems. I gave up on the idea. now here is a free dog with all her personal toys, bed, kennel and food (for now) handed to me free. Then I find out that my friend and her daughters are really wanting a dog. If this little dog isn't working out for us, I have someone that wants her. It is a win win situation.
Her name is Oreo. Well, that won't work as my sister-in-laws little Shih Tzu is also called Oreo. I am changing it to Ariel. Close enough not to confuse the dog too much.
I will post more often letting anyone who reads this, know how we are doing. Also my novel journey.