Grandmas Goulash

Me! And every other participant in the NaNoWriMo challenge.  It's a great experience and has value that goes far beyond meeting the marker. That said, I'm proud of completing the 50,000 word challenge and prouder still to have finished my first draft of Essentials today, racing another 20,000  words past the finish line.  Editing?  I'll be starting that tomorrow.  But tonight I'm savoring my success.

They shuffled back and forth, neither advancing nor retreating. Don’t attract attention and the danger will pass. Tom did not pander to this foolishness and fled the scene. Better to be called a chicken then to be served for tomorrow’s dinner. Three Word Wednesday . is a meme that challenges writers to create something using three selected words. This week's words are advance , pander and shuffle . Click on the link to view other entries or submit your own.

I'm not sure what's on your mind, but I bet I know what's on his!

I hadn't planned on writing today, but the lure was too strong.  Just 1,005  away from the 50,000 word goal and the next chapter was begging to be written.  So I tackled it and crossed the finish line with 1.448 words to spare. Have I won the war as well?  Not yet.  I'm estimating another 20 to 30 thousand words before the first draft is completed.  There's eight days left before NaNoWriMo  draws to a close.  Completion in that time frame is  possible, but not my goal.  I'm ready to slow the pace a bit and will happily settle for 5,000 words a week.  Hopefully, I'll greet the New Year, with a completed first draft and still have found time to pursue other neglected interests.  A bit of  hopping is near the top of my list.  I've missed visiting my blog world friends.  So don't be surprised if you find me knocking at your door.  Virtually, that is. NaNoWriMo  51, 448 words and still writing.

Need a bit of tranquility? Who doesn't? Come join me. Lean back. Smell the trees, feel the gentle breeze and hear the sounds of the cascading water. You deserve a break. NaNoWriMo   48, 995 words.  Taking a quick break and then back to write some more.

"Then you discover you can't french kiss the guy who puts the new roll of toilet paper on top of the old used--up roll instead of moving it the extra two inches. What? Does he not see it? Does he not see it? I'm telling you, marriage is the Jack Kevorkian of romances." Remember that line?  In my latest Chapter of Essentials , three women have gotten together for a movie night.  I wanted them to watch a movie that would generate a little good-natured male bashing.  I thought that Rita Wilson's line from Forget Paris fit the bill perfectly. Of course, I couldn't remember the line exactly.  I don't want to confess how long it took me to locate it.  Then I wondered when the movie became available on video.  Couldn't find that, but the movie came out in 1995.  Since my scene occurs in 1999, I figured it was reasonable for my characters to be watching a video rental.  Is it okay to quote the line in my book or do I need some kind of permission?  NaNoW

Took a much needed day off from the novel, but I'm back at it again. I just love the graph that NaNoWriMo provides. Whenever I need a little motivation, I check it out. Seeing those bars soaring towards the top keeps me writing.

I'm still wiping tears from my eyes.  Calico and I just finished watching  Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice and they were tear-jerkers.  We're a bit behind in our viewing, so they weren't this week's episodes. No problem, of course.  Calico has scheduled our favorites to record and we watch them when we have the time.  It's hard to remember what it was like before we could record everything. Actually, I've been recording for a long while.  I got hooked on the soap, All My Children, when I was working a night shift.  When I switched to days, I wasn't ready to give it up.  So I hitched the TV and the cassette recorder to a timer.  When I got home, there was an audio tape of my soap waiting for me.  Having watched the show for years, I had no problem identifying the actors' voices or picturing the scenes.  I thought it was a pretty impressive setup.  Pretty cheesy in retrospect.  When it comes to technology, I'll take the good new days.

For most of you, this is just a little symbol of the season.  But if you're an SPP'er, ya know what I'm talking about!

Who do I think I'm kidding?  Grandma's finding it hard to do two things:  write a novel and post to this blog.  Two minutes to midnight and nothing to say.  Except that the novel is going better than the blogging.  I expect to cross the 40,000 word marker in the next couple of days.  I want to say that guarantees my 50,000 word finish by the end of the month.  But I'm not going to say anything.  That's the type of statement that will  cause illness, family catastrophes or the demise of my PC.  Grandma's not that crazy!  NaNoWriMo   37,587 words and still writing.

We do our best to conserve on energy, particularly when it comes to heating our home.  Living green is a prime motivator.  So is saving green.   Days are easy, we dress warmly and keep the temperature in the sixties.  Bedtime is another story.  Sleep does not come easily when you are cold.   Add too many blankets and you'll just feel weighted down and confined.  In the north, we always used electric blankets,  dialing the amount of heat we needed.    Didn't suppose those were used much in the south.  Time to think again.  Today Calico returned from the store with three of them.  My granddaughter is quite excited.  And so am I.  I'm feeling toastier just thinking about it.

I gave myself until tomorrow to resume writing.  Didn't even last that long.  An hour ago, I couldn't resist the urge and started pounding the keys again. NaNoWriMo   33,399 words.  Not counting this extensive post!

Some days the writing flows smoothly.  More often is varies between smooth and grinding.  The last chapter?  It just ground all the way.   The material was plentiful, but I couldn't find the right words and it was pure drugery the whole way through.  I'm happy that I've built a little breathing room into my word count, because I need a day off.  I'm not without plans for the evening, however.  Grandma has a hot date. NaNoWriMo  32,061 words and pausing to catch my breath.

In the early days of their marriage, Elaine's husband shows her a home he would like to buy. The kitchen was beyond appalling.  The original linoleum still graced the floor, dull and peeling. Outdated appliances had aged to a grayish yellow. The countertops had lost their finish and dampness had eroded them into crumbling pasty slabs. Sagging cupboard doors provided the only color,  painted by some demented artist in alternating patches of neon pink and green. “Did you see the hardwood floors and the fireplace, Elaine?  Look at the space in this kitchen.” No amount of space could convince her to live in this dump. Talk about a difference in perspectives! NaNoWriMo   30, 231 words and still writing Don't forget to head over to the Weekend Writers' Retreat  to enjoy submissions from more authors.

for writing. I usually write for the NaNoWriMo challenge in the early hours of the morning.   Our home isn't terribly noisy, but some days anything will distract me and the flow of words halt.  So you can usually find me writing somewhere between 1am and 4am.  Sometimes, I don't finish the daily quota of words.  My eyes begin to blur and so does my mind.  That happened this morning, leaving me about 500 words short of my goal.  I got some sleep, arose around 11am and fortified by caffiene and breakfast, I decided to give it a try.  Surely I could manage 500 more words. I could.  Then I wrote some more.  When I finished it was after 5pm.  I had long since tired of writing, but the words didn't want to stop.  Over 3500 of them. The quality wasn't bad either.  I've produced far worse when I've written far less. The bottom line is that I've nothing left for the blog today.   But I'll be back tomorrow. NaNoWriMo   27, 906 words and still writing.

For more pics, hop on over to Wordless Wednesday .

I've heard that the secret to writing is to write about what you know. That's always puzzled me. Do you have to be a murderer to write about murder? Has Stephen King experienced all the horrors that make his tales so riveting? It just didn't seem logical. Discouraging too. How much does one person know? I'm pretty good at a couple of things, computer programming comes to mind. But I've been out of the field for five years now. Things change rapidly. Perhaps I could write a story about the olden days of computing. Maybe one novel, okay maybe a chapter in a novel, but it's not going to go much further. I have smaller skills too. I'm pretty good at baking bread, but I don't want to write a cookbook. In the last week, I think I've come to understand the concept a bit better. NaNoWriMo gets the credit. I've got the general plot for my story, but each chapter could be described in two or three sentences. That won't land me anywhere near that 50

We just didn't deserve last weekend. Our summer had been brutal and we didn't see the last of 100 degree days until the end of September. October had a plethora of ninety degree ones. How can it be possible that less than a month later we were facing a freeze? Not to mention a furnace that refused to produce. The temperature reached the low seventies today and there was no need for a space heater. That's more what I had in mind. Let's hope it lasts until the furnace repair folks return our call.

a lot like Christmas? I don't like rushing things. Over the years, the commercialized side of Christmas has done just that. When I was younger, the Christmas themes arrived at the stores on the day after Thanksgiving. Eventually, they got more aggressive. Turkeys and mistletoe sat side by side. Soon they started showing up with the witches and ghosts. I don't go to the stores much now. Just as well, I fear I'd find them sitting next to the Independence Day decorations. So I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that I spent a good part of today perusing Christmas clip-art. Sure, I had my reasons. I'm preparing a tutorial for the Christmas edition of my graphic group's newsletter. At the beginning, it felt strange. The strangeness began to recede. As the day wore on, the Christmas spirit began to prevail. Although I had gathered enough material, I couldn't seem to stop. I'll just look at one more image or perhaps one more page. Wait, make that

I decided from the start, that once a week, I would take a break from writing my novel. That means that I have to do a higher word count each day, of course, but a day off each week makes it worthwhile. I was more than ready today and throughly enjoyed my break. I hadn't intended to take a blogging break. I did that all summer and I'm trying to get back in the swing of things. Suddenly, it's 11:54PM and I realize I haven't posted. I mentioned it to Calico, who gasped and ran to her blog. Calico has an excuse. We woke up to a cold house this am, the pilot light on the furnace won't stay lit. She researched and replaced the most likely part. No luck. She researched some more. Next possibility is the gas valve, something that will require professional services. She blocked a couple doorways with sheets and started the space heater in our main room. Things warmed up and we'll be fine until we can call someone on Monday. Calico continued her day, com

Only a few pinholes of light relieved the blackness of the woodshed. It wasn’t very big and his hiding spot was even smaller. An ant crawled up his arm and he shivered as he flicked it off. He hated bugs and the shed had plenty of them. At least it wasn’t a spider. Those were so creepy and three had landed on him the last time he’d hidden here. Still it was a good spot. Pa had looked for him here more than once. Opening the door and bellowing his name. He stayed quiet, just like Mama said. He tensed as the door creaked open. He heard the labored breathing as Pa stood for a minute, letting his eyes adjust to the darkness. But all that was visible was the poorly stacked wood and a few tools hanging on the wall. “Damned woman can’t even stack wood right.” He slammed the battered door and the shed shook. Small pieces of dirt and chips rained onto his head, but James remained crouched in the small space behind the stack. Mama had made the hiding spot just for him and showed him how to a

So I finished the sixth chapter of Essentials around 4am.  It wasn't until I stopped that I noticed the tears trickling down my cheeks.  I've had stories move me to tears before, but never one of my own.  Usually I'm too busy thinking about what comes next or what needs to be changed to experience any emotion from my writing.  Perhaps I was just tired.  Still I wondered.  So later in the day I asked Calico to read it.  Same effect. Part of the NaNoWriMo writing process irritates me.  I like to correct errors as I see them.   It's hard to stop reviewing and editing.  Previous chapters linger in my mind, whispering seductively.  "Come back,  I'll change for you."  It's a struggle to resist. Still the process has it's advantages.  Thoughts flow and details I've never considered find their way into the writing.  And then there is Chapter 6.  Perhaps I'll stick with NaNoWriMo a bit longer. 9,416 words and still writing.

Essentials - Chapter 1  “How can she afford a home?” “You saw her home. “ “The van? My God. That can’t be. How can four people live in a van?”  When I heard the word homeless, I always pictured bag ladies and disheveled individuals huddled in cardboard boxes.  Street people.   Not all of the homeless are in the streets, however.  They can be found seeking shelter in vehicles, boats, storage units, colleges and abandoned buildings.   They range in age from infants to senior senior citizens.  They are found in cities, suburbs and rural areas. Homelessness is a key topic in my new novel.  I'll be blogging more about it this month as I face the NaNoWriMo challenge.

NaNoWriMo has begun. The clock had barely moved past midnight when I started writing. By 4AM, I had spewed 2845 words into my word processing software. That's substantially more than the daily target. I’m hoping to get a couple days of leisure somewhere in the month or a little wiggle room when the creative impulse gets blocked. Speaking of wiggly, Chapter 1 begins with a wiggly puppy. Is Grandma writing a 50,000 word children's book? I assure you, that's not the case.  Essentials contains subject matter that has no place in children's literature. No, not the racy stuff. I'm talking about hatred and intolerance.  A character filled with these emotions would not use politically correct terms to describe those whose race, social status, religious beliefs or sexual orientation differ from his own. I need to use the terms that he would use. Those words offend me. I cringe as I put them on paper. I understand the difference between the author and the story. When