NaNoWriMo

I am doing my best to be a real participant in the National Novel Writing Month Challenge thing going on right now. The novel I am working on, and have been working on, is all about the mad cap adventures of a thirty-something mother of twins, who lives in the suburbs, has two cats, likes to surf the Internet and post on blogs. (HEY - you are supposed to write what you know!) I have so many stories and observations and misadventures now that I am a mother, and a mother of Twins at that. I also have more projects going on now than I ever did before. I used to be content just doing a lot of Martha Stewart-y things - like baking all my breads and cookies myself; doing arty things - like lining baskets with flannel as gifts (then filling them with homemade cookies); athletic things - like running 20 to 30 miles a week and going to the gym at 5:30 am before work, and going snowboarding on the weekends in the winter (read October to April - my dear husband is a ski resort volunteer) and keeping the cerebellum in tune by daily crossword puzzles and the Celebrity Cipher and the Jumble. I have always done a lot of reading.

Now that we don't take the paper anymore (it costs too much money and takes up too much space), I don't get my puzzle fix. Now that the DH no longer volunteers at the resort, we don't get free ski passes anymore. (I don’t think we are going to be forking over $1,200 EACH for season passes anytime soon!) And now that I am no longer working in Dilbert World/Cubicle Hell, I no longer belong to a gym. Boo hoo. I do miss that. But, I like/need to keep working on projects, myself and to learn new things, so I am still running, still cooking and, in spite of my six full time jobs (a "full time" job is an 8 hour day, right? So a Mama, on call and on duty 24 hours a day, has three full time jobs, ya with me? Therefore, a mother of twins, or a mother of two, has SIX full time jobs, because each child requires 100% of a Mama's attention, correct?) I am teaching myself how to knit, got the blog going and I want to get the novel really well on its way as well.

My novel’s main character is a woman by the name of Harriet. Why Harriet? I really could not say, except it seemed not to be the name of anyone I knew. Apparently, people get mad when I write about them, go figure, so Harriet is part me and part no body I have ever met and part every body I have ever known. That way no one can accuse me of stealing their identity and exposing their life, in novel form, to the universe.

I know I have the blog as a forum in which to tell my stories, explain my actions, amuse my fans and air my grievances, but there are things that happen to me and things that I experience that are not suitable fodder for the blog mill. For example, somebody told something to someone who told someone else, who told me and I got mad. But the people in this little tale are not to be named, because it’s not cool to blog nasty things about someone. Naturally, it would be much better to write a book about it instead. Yep - good thinking, dear MOT. However, what I have so far is so very novelized that I really don’t think anyone would recognize themselves, even my sister, of whom I make mention freely in the blog, in my book and in general. No, most of the characters, not only Harriet, are unholy blends of many different folks. Folks I have loved, detested and felt indifferent about as well. I am either going to call my book Names Changed to protect the Guilty, or, as a friend suggested, Names Changed to protect the Author. Or I am thinking of 48 hours a day – Life with new twins. What do y’all think?