i did it!

and to think, those 51,921 words are but the TIP OF THE ICEBERG. lots more to write, and lots to edit and clarify. right now it's a huge mishmash of this 'n' that, or as jami puts it, "puking on the page" !! i prefer the more refined phrase: word dump ;-)

11/11/11

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today is the date when three 11's align for the first time in a century. there's much ado on the internet about the significance of the numbers of this date, like the Mayan calendar and spiritual interpretations. i'm not going to write about it other than making this note of it. read here for some interesting factoids about 11/11/11.

November 11 also happens to be Veteran's Day, and PBS posted this blurb on Facebook today in honor of the day:

This Day in History: Today is Veteran's Day, also known as Armistice Day. On this day in 1918, on the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month," all fighting on the Western Front of World War I ceased. The Armistice Day agreement promised an end to fighting between the Allied powers and Germany.

American Experience's "War Letters" brings to life vivid letters from the front. Watch Lloyd, an American soldier writing to his mother, recount the emotions on the front on that historic day.

on another somber note: t-4 days until i am officially old .... wa-a-a-a-ah! :(

** thanks to imranhunzai.wordpress.com for the graphic *

it's NANO time!

it's November again and time for another month of NaNoWriMo! i had originally planned to work on the Harry story again. i'd even worked on character profiles and descriptions, site and layout information, etc. the weekend of oct 28-29 i was full prepared to continue with the pre-planning of that story. my friend jami had even given me "Ready, Set, Novel!", the new NaNo writer's workbook, as an early birthday gift to help get me going.

but then during that weekend i received an email and some tweets about memoir writing that got me really jazzed about returned to that genre. so, once again, i'll be working on my life story. i've done a prelim outline and made some chicken-scratching notes of things i want to be sure to include, memories of events that have been brought forward by some of my other writing. i dusted them off and cleared out the cobwebs. i even gathered up all my fabulous books about memoir writing and placed them right next to my desk so they're handy when i need to look something up or to get additional motivation.

and now i'm ready to put pen to paper, digitally-speaking.

i've been participating in NaNo since 2005, and only achieved the 50k mark once, in 2008. let's see what i can do this year. as always, if i make 50k it's icing on the cake. the important thing is that the whole NaNo project really pushes me to write, write, write. so however many words i manage to churn out is that many words more than if i don't participate at all. keep your fingers and toes crossed for me that i manage to sprint, or hurtle, or at least crawl across the finish line this year!