Tuesday, October 03, 2006

NaNoWriMo and life

If you look under the photo on my blog, you will see a new addition to the sidebar. It's a fabulous participant icon that is supposed to update my NaNoWriMo wordcount as I update it on the NaNoWriMo site. I hope it works, because that means updating one place rather than two. And in November, you save time wherever you can!

I finally decided which story to write and it isn't one of the two. An idea I had a few months ago sounds very appealing to me for this year's NaNo. It's called "Under the Magnolia Tree" and the tagline is "Southern families have secrets too" Basically the plot I have so far involves a young woman inheriting a Southern homestead from relatives she didn't know she had. Within the walls of the house and the grounds, she discovers secrets her family kept for hundreds of years. These secrets cause her life to intertwine with many residents of the town, including a mysterious man who seems to know more about her family than she does.

That's pretty much all I have at the moment, but I do know some of the ways I will reveal some of the secrets, and I know that something will be buried underneath the magnolia tree that stands in the front yard of the stately home. I'm not sure what it will be yet, but I'm sure the story will tell me when it's time. (at least I hope it does!)

So anyway, planning the novel will take the rest of this month. While working on that, I'm also researching some new markets for Summer's Blossom. There are several publishers out there looking for inspirational romances, especially those that have series potential, so I will be sending query letters to them. After the Storm is on the shelf for now. I just can't do it right now. Writing the story was actually starting to depress me, and that's not good for anyone!

On another front, I started the Couch to 5K running program today. I found a podcast that takes you through the entire 12-week program, so I've downloaded it and am using it to help me get in shape for the 5K that Col, Katie, Sonny, Sheila and I are going to run in March. Well, I know for a fact that Col is going to do it and she said the other girls are in. I hope they all do it, because everything is more fun with a group. The diet is still going well. I didn't actually lose any weight last week, but I did lose a couple of inches, so I'm not going to complain.

Tomorrow I'm going to call some out of town friends. I feel an intense need to connect with people I've known for a long time. Chris, if you're reading this, I will probably call you on my way home from work tomorrow! Speaking of tomorrow, my GPS is scheduled for delivery sometime tomorrow, which means I'll have it when I get home. That's exciting! I'll plan my first geocaching trip for Saturday morning. That afternoon and evening, I'll be at Bayfest (Mobile's music festival) but I don't currently have plans for that morning. Maybe I'll hunt for some simple caches with Noah. I really hope he likes it, because I want to use this activity to help get him out of the house some. He spends too much time in front of his computer (of course, so do I!) So anyway, it looks like another busy weekend for me!

2 comments:

  1. Your story sounds like a great idea!

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  2. Thanks to both of you! I was talking out the idea with my mother last night and she actually came up with some interesting twists that I might try to incorporate into the story if I can. She's such a creative person, but she doesn't write. Sometimes when I'm stuck on something I ask for her opinion and it helps get me started again! It's nice to have someone like that. I dreamed about the story last night. That's always a good sign for me.

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