NANOWRIMO '08 VICTORY

I finished my Nano novel today. It was 50536 words when it went through the counter. If I could remember how to do it I would upload my certificate, but I can't.

I could have gone on writing too.

The first time I did NaNoWriMo was 2005 and I scraped through then. I never revised that work because it was rubbish.
This time I just dropped into the Zone and wrote. I wrote almost every day with the aim of 2000 words a day. Sometimes I was exhausted and limped through to my total and on others I had to double check my word count because it seemed too easy.

I feel good.

snakeskin

Yes I've been sluggish, but it's damned hard to slough off of your old skin and get the new one working right, but I'm all gleaming and wriggling now.

I'm tackling NanoWrimo again. Partly to see if I have any writing in me, because the last one was done to save my sanity. but also because it's fun.
I'm enjoying the slog and punching in my daily total. I get the writing done in small bites and it's largely physical discomfort that gets me up and leaving the laptop.
I walk the dog with more pleasure because the fresh air tastes better. I enjoy the TV programmes that I do see. I'm rationing myself to one maybe two per day and they are my reward for working hard.

Ok if you don't believe that I'm really trying hard I 've posted chapter one first draft aka load of rubbish over on 'Whatever comes'. and I HAVe written chapters two and three as well!

I'm back and this time I think I'll be staying

Well it's a long time since I posted, but I think I'm going to stick around this time. I've realised it's time to change. I'm used to change and I miss it, there's no fizz any more.

Since I doubt that life is going to throw anything new my way aside from bad news, bad health and slow decline into terminal Bleah I must create some interest to divert my attention. So I am going to start writing properly; in other words I shall be professional about it. I shall set myself targets and write every day; I've done that before so that's not a problem.
This time however I'm going to submit stuff to publishers.I always shied away from that before because I didn't want rejection, but now I realise that there'll be tension and excited anticipation while waiting for those letters telling me 'No Thanks'. I shan't mind the failures because I'll be able to tell myself that there's always another publisher so there'll always be fizz in that, plus the enormous buzz from actually finishing stuff.
I'm getting excited just thinking about it!

It's odd the way my mind makes decisions. I've been in an old pattern recently but failed to realise it. I've been slothful and sad, but little things kept popping into my mind. I was remembering snippets from stories I'd written and I've been having vivid dreams with intricate story-lines. That pattern of depression and day/night dreams has always preceded any major decision I've made but I'd forgotten because it's been a long time since I took any action.

It's been a while

Almost a year has slipped through my hands without any posts. My life hasn't been uneventful, but I deal in tiny events now like seeing otters in the wild.

I have one major event to tell- my sister and I found each other. Neither of us knew of the other's existence but we were coincidentally wading in family history waters trying to find something in the murk.
We bumped into each other online and at first neither of us could believe the other was real, but now we've met and it's true and it's great.

Life is easier now. I suppose partially this is due to the passage of time although nothing dims my memories of Tony. I think it's more because I have built a life that has good things in it. I was extremely lucky to move to this flat in the Spring. I now live comfortably in a place that has revived my delight in the natural world. The pains have eased.

Written something!!!

I've written a short short piece of fiction for a competition and entered it. Maybe it's no good but it's better than nuffin. It's over on 'Whatever Comes' if anyone cares to look at it.
Strange ? But I do perform if there's a deadline. Maybe I should go on a creative writing course, I was always able to turn essays in on time.

If you made it up they'd never believe it.

An article from this morning's Guardian newspaper almost beggars belief. Even quoting it I find it hard to accept , but her'es an extract that refers to a memorandum prepared for the House committee on oversight and government reform which is examining Iraqi reconstruction...........

"They also found that $774,300 in cash had been stolen from one division's vault. Cash payments were made from the back of a pickup truck, and cash was stored in unguarded sacks in Iraqi ministry offices. One official was given $6.75m in cash, and was ordered to spend it in one week before the interim Iraqi government took control of Iraqi funds."

The minutes from a May 2004 CPA meeting reveal "a single disbursement of $500m in security funding labelled merely 'TBD', meaning 'to be determined'."

The memorandum concludes: "Many of the funds appear to have been lost to corruption and waste ... thousands of 'ghost employees' were receiving pay cheques from Iraqi ministries under the CPA's control. Some of the funds could have enriched both criminals and insurgents fighting the United States."

So now the US government is the banker for Al Quaida?

Blue and Orange

The video I referred to yesterday has emerged. It seems to confirm that the A10s fired on british troops with orange badged vehicles.
The only comment from the US government is that they 'would view whoever leaked the video as "criminally responsible". Can we be assured that the pilots will be held responsible too?