NaNoWriMo

Good Morning Ladies & Gentlemen. When the clock strikes, please open your book and make sure your pencils are sharpened. Or, your laptops are on, or your keyboard is functioning. You know what I mean. It is time for NaNoWriMo.

It is strange I would think about NaNoWriMo at all. Who could possibly write a novel, at least 55,000 words in a month. I don't know, certainly not me, before yesterday anyway, but I'm going to give it a try.

Three incidents coincided yesterday to completely rattle my set, very staid life, such as it is. I should say my writing life. I am a writer of historical romance. (remember that, then you can remind me later)

#1) Yesterday was Halloween which I did not know until 4:00 when George, at the Gas n' Go, asked if I was going to bring my daughter up to town for the outside Halloween party. I had not thought of a costume because last year when we went to this same party, my daughter cried and wanted to come home 5 minutes after we got there. Skip to last night after throwing a makeshift costume together, she lasted 20 minutes and upon arriving home said, "I don't think I want to do this again next year. It's just candy." No rides, no games, no fun, just the uptown merchants handing out candy. And a bunch of really scary people, some in costume, some not.

#2) I received a rejection yesterday morning, 23 hours after putting it through the e-mail. This was to one of my B-list e-mail agents. Actually, she was my #1 B-list e-mail agent because on her blog she specifically asked for Regency writing and she would love it if, you took the sex out the book it could stand alone by itself. Well, yes, my book does that. (The only reason she's B-list is she's not AAR.) Anyway, I got a form rejection that said my book was not what the agency was looking for. Naturally I wanted to write her and say, "Well take the damn thing off your blog" but I didn't.

#3) I found another writer's blog yesterday morning and read with wild abandon... she has been writing her blog for almost 2 years, heart on her sleeve, witty, charming, funny, writes YA, and didn't get an agent until 6 months ago. I was blown away. She said she queried almost 100 agents for the first book. 60 for the second. She finally landed Nathan Bransford. She also said she writes 1000 words a day. Which I thought was pretty impressive.

Last night was also the start of Daylight Saving Time. Naturally I was up at an ungodly hour. Thinking about the three previous paragraphs. So I decided to give up on my historical romances for the nonce (LOL) and develop a YA manuscript with a little paranormal stuff thrown in for good measure.

I have a main character, semi-plot, antagonist (I think), and nothing to lose. The romance isn't going to cut the mustard (obviously) and every agent blog I've read in the last two weeks is clamoring for YA. I haven't a clue about vampires (besides Twilight has already been done) but I do have a notion about witches and Celtic lore.

So, here I am, the first day of NaNoWriMo, hopefully being able to write 1000 words a day. If nothing else, I'll have 30,000 words by the end of the month. Maybe more. Wish me luck.