Grandma Henke

I’m not as quite as brave as Alice but apparently I’m as … to quote her, “stoooooooopid”.    Here I am thinking I can take the busiest month of the near, if you don’t count December or July, and write a 50,000 novel!    What kind of a psycho cyber friend have I stumbled across anyway?     She’s already posted an excerpt from her book but I haven’t the foggiest idea of how she did it … and who’s got the time to figure it out?   Obviously she’s a speed learner.       I have 3,070 words, so if I write another thousand I’ll be right on my schedule since I have to get my 50,000 words in by the 27th of November because I am flying to Seattle on the 28th and I seriously doubt I will have time to finish it when my little grandchildren catch sight of me.    We like to play, you see … and play and play and play.     So, only 46,930 words to go.   

This is an interesting way of writing, though.    I feel a little pressured … well, I admit I feel a lot pressured; particularly since right off the bat on day two one of my characters took off on his own and messed the heck out of what I had in mind.     I hope to he knows what he’s up to, but it’s obvious he doesn’t or he’d have never taken that turn in the first place.  The other thing I am having trouble with is that one of my people wanted to cuss … and I don’t do that and I’m in control of the keyboard.    I had my son, Warren, read the first 4 pages and his comment … “Are you sure she would have only said Crap?     Well if she’s coming out of my keyboard she’d better watch her mouth, that’s for sure.   I’ll march her right into the bathroom and wash my fingers off with soap!   We’re going to have to work that out between us somehow.   Character #2 has been put in a real bind with #1 going off like he did … He’s in a bit of a dilemma.     So … I’ll take the advice from the Pep Talk letter from nanowrimo that came in yesterday’s email and go forth, tap, tap, tapping away … come hell or high water or unruly characters with a mind of their own.

For me the biggest problem is finding some quiet time.     I have four grandchildren living under my roof and they notice when I’m not visible, and they talk to me when I am.    I’m going to have to make me a big bold “DO NOT DISTURB GRANDMA” sign … yeah, I know … I’m disturbed enough already!  

The day before yesterday I had about decided not to do it … there were plenty of sane reasons, but then I remembered  I’d have to tell Alice.   I just couldn’t look into her cyber face and tell her I was already whimping out.    Now I’m glad I started.   It’s actually been fun .. a lot of work and time consuming, but fun.    In fact, it is a bit addicting.       Meeting deadlines happens to be one of the things that gives me a high, but sometimes the process of getting there isn’t very pretty.   Hang in there husband … November only has 30 days.    Oh, the title of my book just might be “Nettie’s Gate” …. or not.

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