And it's Friday once more! Things are quiet in our house. Bit is away at her grandparents. The dogs are pouting because of that, and things are vewwy vewwy quiet, though no one is hunting wabbits! I thought I'd fill you all in on what I've been working on all month, in a bit more detail.
As you can see by Itzl's concerned look, this group is for us to check in at to let people know we are alive, doing OK, and not affected by such things as heat, blizzards, floods, wild fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, power outages, or other such things that could keep us off DKos. It's also so we can find other Kossacks nearby for in-person checks when other methods of communication fail - a buddy system. Members come here to check in. If you're not here, or anywhere else on DKos, and there are adverse conditions in your area (floods, heatwaves, hurricanes, etc.), we and your buddy are going to check up on you. If you are going to be away from your computer for a day or a week, let us know here. We care!
IAN is a great group to join, and a good place to learn to write diaries. Drop one of us a PM to be added to the Itzl Alert Network anytime! We all share the publishing duties, and we welcome everyone who reads IAN to write diaries for the group! Every member is an editor, so anyone can take a turn when they have something to say, photos and music to share, a cause to promote or news!
Ok, we do have a diary schedule. But, when you are ready to write that diary, either post in thread or send FloridaSNMOM a Kosmail with the date. If you need someone to fill in, ditto. FloridaSNMOM is here on and off through the day usually from around 9:30 or 10 am eastern to around 11 pm eastern.
Monday:
BadKitties
Tuesday:
ejoanna
Wednesday:
Caedy
Thursday:
art ah zen
Friday:
FloridaSNMOM
Saturday:
Dave in Northridge
Sunday:
loggersbrat
July is Camp NaNoWriMo month. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writer's Month, and takes place in November. But for those of us for whom November is NOT a good month to write, they have two camps a year, one in April and one in July. I choose to participate in July because that's when life places the least amount of claim to my time. School is out, so I'm not doing lesson plans and teaching the kids (well kid this year). There's no holidays to worry about, other than the 4th which doesn't take a lot of time or shopping or decoration. And my breathing is usually fairly stable in July barring tropical systems anyway.
This year I set my goal at 30,000 words. I do have some health issues that still affect my daily function and I wanted to make sure to set a goal I could reach even if I had a bad week or two. Last week I hit my goal!! I'm still writing every day that I'm able to, and I'm working ahead to finish my book. It may be part of a larger series, at least it's feeling like it's going to be larger than one book, we'll see. I don't want to rush the ending.
The following is part of the prologue. It's set about 10 years before the bulk of the novel when the main character, Nora, is in 5th grade. My working title is "Darkness Comes" at this point, since "The Hunt for Barrett's Stone" seems to be the title of the larger series rather than just this one book. Please keep in mind that final editing has NOT taken place on this work yet. (The general rule is you don't edit during NaNo.) So this is only a rough draft.
The small mousy girl cringed back from the much larger boy looming over her as his hand came up to strike. But just as the blow was about to fall, she was yanked back out of the way and her friend, almost as tall as the bully himself, took her place. Her olive complected skin was pink with anger, red and gold shirt bearing the image of a boy dressed in a robe with a wand in his hand.
“Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?” she spat at the boy as his fist connected with her shoulder. She rocked with the punch that would have flung poor Abigail against the wall, but didn’t move.
“Why do you always have to get in my way Gryffindor? You’re never going to that stupid school anyway, it doesn’t exist. It’s just a stupid movie.”
She shoved at the boy to give herself a bit of breathing space. “But your halitosis does, get out of my face Brady!”
Brady growled, glancing over his shoulder at the classroom door, but it remained shut, their teacher talking loudly to someone outside. So he took a step forward and grabbed at the girl’s shirt, lifting some of her weight from her feet as he did. She swore at him and PUSHED forward again, harder, and this time he went flying back into the desks behind him, a chair skittering to its side with a crash just as the windows on the far wall CRACKED and glass tinkled down.
Half the class was now on their feet and scurrying for the back of the room, pushing Abigail back with them. Brady was picking himself up from the floor, dazed when the door popped open with a bang and Mrs. Harwell stalked into the room. One empirical glance told her everything she needed to know as the tall skinny girl stood over the slightly larger boy, glaring down on him and reaching for his shirt. She looked from the pair to the broken windows, the scattered desks and chairs and the fear on the kids faces behind them and took a breath.
“Nora, Brady, get to the office RIGHT NOW!” she barked.
“But Mrs. Harwell,” Nora started.
“I don’t want to hear a word out of you Nora Barrett, get moving!”
Nora didn’t stop to help Brady up, not that he would have let her, she just shoved a desk out of her way and stomped out the door. She could hear Mrs. Harwell behind her ordering her room to her liking once more, until she turned the corner anyway, then all she could hear were Brady’s footsteps behind her echoing in the empty hallway. She made sure to keep well ahead of him as she wound her way through the school to the office.
What have you been working on this summer? Have you been letting your creative juices flow? I know we have a group of very creative and active people here in IAN, from quilters to crafters to musicians. Do you have a novel lurking in the back of your mind that you've always wanted to write but never quite dared to put to paper?