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Stretching the Truth
Halloween and I have a strange relationship. All Hallow’s Eve falls on the day before my birthday. Last year, on a family get together in a Scottish faux castle, (the brochure had stretched the truth a little in declaring it an old Castle. It is a downsized replica of Warwick Castle, apparently,) my birthday was preceded by a big Halloween party. Who had the energy for another the following night? Mind you, it was an excellent party though I say so myself. My adult children had all surpassed themselves with their costumes/decorations and planning. Our grandchildren were only too happy to put on their costumes though the younger ones had…
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Sweeping away the Cobwebs
‘tis a wonderous thing, writing. I am now, perhaps, three fifths of the way towards the completion of my latest novel. This is the novel written entirely in November under the strict, “no edit” instructions of NaNoWriMo. December arrived in a flurry of festivities, the New Year with more of the same (including the unfortunate incident with the sausage). There was barely time to sit back and ponder the niceties of sentence structure or plot continuity and no time at all to contemplate denouement. So, with unfinished chapters and unanswered questions, ringing in my ears, I put the novel to one side and concentrated on family and friends. A break…
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Winning words
“I am a winner!” Yes, I went to 50,000 words and beyond in November. I surprised myself with my appreciation of this challenge. Hitherto I had heard about it from others but not felt the inclination to enter into its spirit. Now I feel I could do this every month, well, maybe every other month because I really do need some time to edit. I do not quite know the ending of this story – whose characters have taken me on twists and turns that I could never have imagined back on 1st November when I started writing it. I am sure it will reveal itself to me during the…
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A Little Magic
I am stealing some writing time to pen this post. We are on day thirteen of the NaNoWriMo task. So, how am I doing with my daily word count? I can tell you that I was very good for the first three or four days. I beat my target each day. Then I got the dreaded virus (the human kind, not the computer kind) and sitting at the keyboard was hard. Between coughing and wheezing, I managed to pen something each day but when I validated it (one validates one’s work as one pleases) the projected finish date was getting later and later. However, I was not going to let…
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30 Days has November
Today is my birthday. I do not ask for birthday messages, I only mention it because it gives me a reason to be a little selfish for a while. Don’t we all need to be just that at times? Today, I have the house to myself and time to write. I am excited because I have just begun a new novel. I didn’t know I had begun it until I read back my notes from the other month and thought, “That’s it! That’s the one!” It was that “Eureka” moment that writers long for. Life since my middle sister died has been busy to say the least. If we are…
