nanowrimo

October – Fall into Halloween – Reflection

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​I mentioned in my initial blurb earlier in the month that October is my favorite month. The leaves are changing colors, the pumpkins are in full force in the neighborhood, the kids are talking about their costumes, I’m preparing my own costume, my son’s birthday is happening, we go applepicking, there is usually a one day retreat, comic store activities, the return of The Walking Dead, my parish’s anointing mass, the Living Rosary, and a host of other motivations and inspirations for writing and centering.

This year, however…

Ugh.

It is 15 days before the midterm elections. Most years I vote, but I don’t pay that much attention. I trusted President Obama and even President Bush, who I did not vote for, to keep the country steady. I trusted Congress, even in its usual disfunction to keep a check and a balance on the President, although the Republican Congress during the Obama years went a little crazy on the obstructionism. I trusted the Supreme Court to follow the law. Even Scalia, who I didn’t like and disagreed with on almost everything, had a moral compass.

But this year….Good Lord. The hyperbole is strong – this may be our last free and fair election. Vote now, you may not get another chance. This is the most important election of our lifetimes.

And you know what?

It is all of those things.

In early 2017, I re-read 1984, and i was kind of amazed at how much of it I had forgotten, and also amazed, and petrified at how much of it seemed to be coming true with the new Trump Administration. I hesitate to call it a Republican administration, but the Republicans in  Congress seem to have forgotten their function in favor of…I don’t know what it’s in favor of.

So, yeah, long story short, tl;dr, yell, scream, run, don’t walk to your nearest polling place, and VOTE!

We also were not able to go applepicking this year. This is the first year since we’ve had kids that we haven’t gone. Even when my son was nine days old, we still went applepicking. I’m so torn about this.

My oldest child is moving out.

I know; it’s time. He’s ready. I’m not, but I probably would never be, but he’s ready. He also has two jobs, a car, and has been feeding himself for mostly a year now. He’s ready. I need to keep telling myself that.

I was late to my doctor’s appointment this  morning, and I would have only been less than five minutes late. Except for the speeding ticket. I can’t even.

I was going to go as a Hufflepuff professor for Halloween. I just needed a witch’s hat, and then Jamal Khashoggi was brutally assassinated in Istanbul. In 2016, I went as a journalist because of all the attacks on the media by the Trump campaign. Back then, I had no idea how bad it would get for the journalists and their colleagues. I would have never expected any President of the United States calling our free press an enemy of the people. I even less expected that after the murder of a US Permanent Resident, writer for the Washington Post, that any President would take the side of the murderers and make excuses akin to covering up that murder. So I’m recycling my journalist costume, both in honor of the free press and in memory of Jamal Khashoggi.

Let me try and think of three positive things before I go.

My brother may come for a visit for a few days. The kids are excited and it would be nice to see him. We’ll have to come up with something interesting to do. We’re a boring group, but I think we can fake it. We’ll need to start cleaning now. Like right now.

I’m planning on doing Nanowrimo this year. I loved how last year it gave me focus and motivation. I need that again, and am very much looking forward to it. It begins in ten days!

I got hearing aids this week. I’m still getting used to them. Some things are a little too loud, but the amount of times I say “what” and cup my hand over my ear has gone down by about 99%, so that’s a bonus. I’ve noticed a real difference in church, hearing the kids talking to me from the backseat of the car, talking to a waiter or waitress in a restaurant, and I’m more disturbed by the rattling that I can now hear my car making.

51/52 – 2017 Writing Reflection

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​Looking back on 2017 and how much I’ve advanced in my writing and motivation needs to start before the year even began. For Halloween 2016, I dressed as a journalist, complete with reporter’s notebook and 1950s fedora. The election year had been a difficult one for journalists and the press in general, moreso than the usual kidnappings and murders that they face yearly all across the globe. Theirs is not an easy job, but where would we be as a society without them? The maligning they received at the hands of Candidate Trump, and continues with him as President is horrifying, not only to this country’s First Amendment, but also to this country’s value we put on knowledge and information; checks and balances.

I have always been a fan of journalists and news reporters, and my choice for two Halloweens ago was a reminder of that love, but also of what was at stake at the following week’s election. We can see how prescient that choice was.

It’s been a long year. L–O–N–G.

I’ve had a few missteps and missed deadlines on the blog, but I’m happy with how far i’ve come, the changes I’ve made, and confident in the changes still to come in the new year.

I’m grateful and appreciative for every follower, every like, and every comment. Each one helps me to grow just a little bit more as a writer.

I now also consider my attempts at art and photography as part of my writing and my writing life.

I participated in Nanowrimo, and I was very satisfied with how much was written in those thirty days: over 35,000 words. As I’ve said before, I didn’t make it to the 50,000 word goal, but I do have 35,000+ words more than I had on November 1st. I’m looking forward to creating outlines and editing and more research in the early parts of the new year to get my book on its way.

I have also decided to send a letter of intent to a local continuing education department and teach a six week class on writing. The workshops, and my contributions to them, not to mention this blog, have given me the confidence to believe that this is a next step in my writing life.

In reading too many books that I feel I could have written, not so much better, but differently and valued, I believe I have another book in me, this one specifically on journaling. Or writing. Or inspiration. It’s still in flux.

This looking back will have me looking forward by the end of the week. Stay tuned.

Nanowrimo – A Final Assessment

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​Nanowrimo is in the wind until next year. I do not have any solid plans for what i’ll do next year, but this year was, by my estimation a success. No, I did not meet the 50,000 word goal, but I did have more words written at the end of November than at the beginning, and for me, that is a worthy accomplishment.

I have been talking about writing a book about my journeys through Wales since I graduated from college, lo many years ago, and I’ve never been able to get it off the ground. Part of that is the vastness of this project. Another are that the questions of where do I begin and where do I focus have been nagging at me since, well, since the beginning.

As I have studied the English and literature fields, both as a teacher and a writer, there have been many evolutions since I first set foot in Wales and found a calling that has stuck with me, and affected much of my spiritual life. And whether religious or not, it is truly spiritual. Literature has gone from one genre per publication to multi-genres and mult-focuses. interconnectedness. Connecting the dots of the many facets of our lives.

Is it possible that I was waiting for something rather than procrastinating? Perhaps that is what I was waiting for whether I knew that’s what I was waiting for or not. For years, decades, it felt like self-loathing and procrastination, laziness and the feelings of not being good enough to complete a compelling book and story or perhaps to even begin one, and so I never have.

I’ve continued to take notes, to write blurbs, to write dozens of outlines that then became outdated, and I’ve been relatively okay with just keeping it in my head with a question mark.

Now, I have several blurbs and beyond, ranging from as little as 75 words to as many as 3,465 in a single piece.

I’ve accepted that this is more than a memoir, which I had only accepted it being a few short years ago thanks to my library writing group.

I’ve accepted that it is a memoir, tha people may actually want to hear my stories, but it’s also more than that. It’s a travel guide – where to go, what to see, what and how to pack. It is also a spiritual guide, more of a spiritual journey that is personal to me, but also an offering of advice to begin your own journey of the spirit; a walk of faith, whatever that path may lead you to as it led me to many different and unexpected places.

I had originally intended to do some outlining and editing in December, but keeping up on this site and getting ready for the December holidays, which include innumerable church and retreat times plus sharing a car with my husband who has to actually go into work a few times each week has made this month a little more stressful than it would have usually been. I’ve decided therefore to put off the focus on the editing process and plans for what I didn’t write in November for January, specifically beginning on the 4th.

My final Nano assessment is a rousing success as far as I’m concerned. My official total for the month of November is 35, 308 words. That is just the word count for the book of Wales. I also had twenty separate posts, some writing, some photography, some art. It made me happy to work on my book and not leave this page by the wayside. Sometimes multi-tasking can be a blessing.

In the early part of next week, I will have an Advent reflection, a book review, and a reflection on Mary, only a few days past her Feast Day of the immaculate Conception.

As this month and this year comes to a close, I hope to have some surprises in store and some positive changes here, but also at home and with my spirit.

Have a blessed Advent and Holiday Season.

Gratitude Through the Rosary

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​One of the things my priest spoke about this morning about gratitude and saying thank you really resonated with me. It wasn’t just about gratitude or the gospel where the only one to return thankful for healing was the Samaritan, although that was a part of it. There was also a reference to all of G-d’s miracles here on Earth, and that reminded me of something I wrote yesterday for Nanowrimo and my book on Wales. 

Writing yesterday about the church of Wales, in so much as the land is a huge outdoor sacred place to pray came back today with the homily, more reminders of the sacredness in nature – this mornng’s bright sun, the cool air, but not too cold, the leaves carpeting the ground in a multitude of bright and colorful hues.

Even after so much time, I still don’t understand how a homily can have such meaning in a personal way. How does the Holy Spirit guide my priest to say something that not only resonates, but almost gives me an electroshock at its accuracy.

Those of us who were there this morning, as he said were not there out of obligation. No one was required to be there, but there we all were, listening to the Scriptures, bringing canned goods and non-perishables, receiving a loaf of bread to continue our celebration of the Eucharist and to share in the breaking of bread with our extended families, feeling thankful and receiving words of encouragement to bring that thankfulness with us throughout our day.

One of the things I touched upon yesterday was how Wales itself formed a holy, living rosary. I love the rosary, and I feel very close to Mary in so many ways and for so many reasons. I also feel a similar attachment to my saint, Elen of Caernarfon. I enjoy praying the rosary, either alone or in a group, but when I’m alone, I’m often at a loss of how to start it. I know the Our Father and the Hail Mary, and I’ve gotten the Doxology down, but the in-betweens, the mysteries if I don’t have my “cheat sheet”, the Hail, Holy Queen, and even the Apostles’ Creed (the one I like the best.)

If I’m alone, I often have to make it up as I go along, and so I’ll choose five things or people to acknowledge and pray for (as I did in Ireland) to cover the five decades. I know that the group I’m with during the week will pray for the unborn. I’m not against this, but it seems…too political. I try to add women who have difficult choices. I do this silently for fear to offend but when I’m alone I don’t include it. It just doesn’t come up on my mind’s radar for the rosary. I think of the rosary as more than intercessory, but as gratitude. Thank you, Mary for your Son. Thank you, Mary for your guidance. Thank you, Mary for your support and holding me up when I need holding up.

As I wrote yesterday, I listed ten things, one simple decade that encompassed my “Welsh rosary” and now I’m starting art for it.

As my priest talked about the blessings we all have, and the hardships, family present and gone, far away, but with us in spirit, it made me think of that Welsh decade that just came to me so easily while I was writing. I didn’t think I’d do this, but it seems to be doing it itself.

A Thanksgiving Decade

1. The bright sun, warm on my face

2. The cool air, the reminder that winter is coming, and once we’ve gotten through, the joy and rebirth of spring will be upon us.

3. The brightly colored leaves.

4. The perfectly hued blue sky.

5. The music of the choir. The sounds of voices raised in song, the songs themselves a prayer.

6. The flickering candles.

7. The loaves of bread waiting to be blessed and shared.

8. The generosity of the parish with cans and boxes for the poor.

9. The cold wetness of the holy water forming a cross on my forehead.

10. The Spirit descending upon us all as we go forth into the world this Thanksgiving day.

Nanowrimo 2017: Not Precisely the Halfway Mark

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My novel is not a novel, but a non-fiction multi-genre exploration. It is part memoir, part travel guide, and part spiritual journey. It will include photographs and history, both of myself and the land. I haven’t been this excited about a writing project in a long time. I’m very glad that I took up the challenge of Nanowrimo in order to jump into this book and get it started. I’ve been talking about writing this for at least two decades.

As you can see from the above graphic, I’m about 5,000 words short of where I’m supposed to be at this point.

But that’s okay.

I’m also 20,000+ words ahead of where I was on November 1st.

There were a couple of days when I wrote 0 words, but I was also writing other things, like pieces for here and my writing group. There was one day when I wrote 3,313 words.

Currently, I have 18 saved documents of varying lengths from 75 to 2,468 ranging in topics from the dreaded GPS of 2009 to Driving and Comfort Zones, two topics that don’t really go together. At all.

I had decided to simply write about what I felt like in relation to my book on my journey through Wales, and that’s what I’m doing. I’m very happy with my progress. Some of it can be repetitive, although not as much as I feared. Some subjects overlap with different years and places, and one of the hard parts is going to be gathering these writings into a cohesive form that flows but also stays true to my experiences. I’m planning on putting together an outline sometime in December as I read and edit what I will have at the end of November.

For those of you also writing for Nanowrimo, there is good news and bad news. They are both the same: we are halfway through. If you’re doing well, great; keep going. If you haven’t started or have slowed down, that’s okay; you still have time. Keep going.

Nanowrimo – An Introduction

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​NaNoWriMo is the acronym of National Novel Writing Month and it takes place every November. The Nanowrimo website offers regional write-ins and support, pep talk emails and onsite messages as well as writing buddies and if you want feedback. It is a good time to jump start or restart your novel. This is my third year participating. My first two years I concentrated on a fan fiction that is still in progress, and while this year, I’m working on a non-fiction, part-memoir, part-travel guide, part-spiritual journey, I think that I can use Nanowrimo to get me on the right track.

As implied in the title it begins on November 1st and continues until November 30th.

Yesterday was not a very successful day. I forgot pretty much everything in my life, and ended up missing non-writing events as well as entirely forgetting about it being November 1st. I completed 0 words.

Today, however, I drove myself to Cracker Barrel, and wrote on my Kindle & keyboard for almost two hours for a CB total of 1396 words. I’ve come home and done another 529 words in between making dinner and juggling kids and afterschool snacks.

I do not intend to use this space for Nanowrimo updates, but I may share excerpts. I may do both of those on the Nanowrimo website or on my Facebook page associated with this site.

If you’re not already following me there, I can be found at Griffins and Ginger Snaps FB, and to reach my Nanowrimo Profile Page, just click the link.

My Nanowrimo working title is A Wales Roundabout.

That refers to the roundabout way I discovered my attachment to Wales, my discovery of Wales, and how Wales has even impacted my religious life and spiritual journey. It also references the abundance of roundabouts found in the nation of Wales. Really, more than necessary, and way more confusing than any I’ve encountered in the US, and we’re definitely trying to compete with that complexity.

I will be continuing with regularly scheduled posts throughout November. Im back on track with my weekly reflections under the tag, the new 52. I’m not sure that it will continue through 2018, but other than losing my way now and then, I do kind of like having a weekly reflection about everyday life that also stands out as different and/or special.

Welcome readers to the Nano experience and welcome new Nano friends to my writing site.

Nanowrimo and Blogwrimo

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Well, it’s that time of year again. Nanowrimo. NAtional NOvel WRiting MOnth. Every November, several hundreds of potential writers huddle around their writing implements and write. The goal is 50,000 words before November 30th. All new. Begin writing on November 1st, put your pencils (quills or keyboards) down, time’s up on November 30th and you should have the makings of a real novel, ready for the editing process.

This works for some people. I’ve done it twice officially, and for the first two weeks, I went like gangbusters. Eventually, I slowed down, but we all have our paces and our non-writing lives to put up with. In my case, I have a family with three children and my blog and church responsibilities, and even with an extraordinary amount of help from my husband, it can still be a handful to get the incentive to just sit down and write.

Hence, why today I am at the library where there is no television and no bag of Doritos calling my name.

I hesitate to sign up for Nanowrimo officially this year. One of the benefits of signing up are the weekly emails I would get from published writers with their own versions of hang in there. They are less intimidating and more inspiring and some days that’s all you need to get on the writing train.

My Nanowrimo this year is me working two times a week on my books. I have one on my home buying experience – very bad, and one on my visit to Wales and what Wales is to me – very good. Guess which one I’d rather work on? This fall, beginning this month, I’m going to carve out periods of my day where all I do are those two books. Thoughts, outlines, quotations, research. Some of that I may share here as book excerpts.

Another goal for November is to redesign my weekly format here. For example, I think I’m going to make Thursday Travels a regular weekly feature. I am going to have weekly features M-F, possibly adding odds and ends on the weekend. Please, please let me know what you like and how you feel about the format. If you’re not reading, I’m not doing my job, ad I’m willing to accept feedback and suggestions to make this site better.

Vocabulary is something else. You may notice that I usually refer to this as a site rather than a blog. I’m more comfortable in this Word Press format, but I’m trying to make this more of a website, a go-to place. I try to have pages for information and topics like my Crisis Intervention Page, my Photo Credits page, and a new page I’m opening up for my Books Read and Movies Watched. There are many things I want to do with my time here, and one of those is becoming a resource. After years of people coming to me to find out where kids eat free or how to make that smiley face on a text, I think I might create that kind of a resource here, especially for the things that I love and that I love to share like traveling, my spiritual journey and writing.

I’m also including more of my own photographs as well.

This fall season has been phenomenal for family viewing and fandom communion (in a non-religious sense). My two main shows, The Walking Dead and Supernatural are in supreme shape. I’m loving every episode and I have meta coming out of my ears. This will benefit those of you who like the fandom posts. I will probably add a weekly fandom feature, possibly more than once a week if the shows warrant it. I’m also working on some reviews of those lesser known shows like iZombie and Major Crimes. If you love fandom stuff or don’t like it as much as me, I still want to know how you feel so I can include all my readers into the most posts.

All in all, I’m hoping to make a site that people enjoy coming to and sharing.

Election Diary and Recovery, Part 1

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I’ve been quiet overnight and since the Election Results.

Obviously, if quietly, I am ecstatic that the President was re-elected. I truly believe that of all the candidates who stepped into the field this season that he was the best person to do this important job.

It is more than a job. Just like my position as a parent, there are things that the President must do for all of his citizens, whether he likes it or not, whether fair to everyone or what’s best to some at the moment, and this President has shown over and over again that he is willing to compromise and have people in his own party be against him to do what is right, and I hope the Republican politicians learn something from this.

It’s hard to say. I will say that Democrats tend to be more diverse, and less divisive, and that is one of the reasons that we discuss things more and argue and don’t always agree, but still remain together and open-minded. And that is probably the best thing about being a Democrat.

I can talk about my views on reproduction and mental health and marriage equality, and I can listen to your views on those issues whether you agree with me or not, and at the end of the day, we can logically discuss and even debate issues and still remain respectful and friends.

I’m not going to get into any issue here. I may write a longer piece about my specific views, but that is for my family (read: siblings), and if I post it here, I will just let you know so you can read or avoid.

 

In the middle of Mass I was hit in the head with ideas that I’ve been looking for for weeks for a new online thingy. I’m going to get that worked up today.

As for Nano, I’m not doing exactly 50,000 words for the month. For one thing, I started late. For another, it’s daunting and I’m ready for motivating and inspiring, but not daunting. I’m going to set a goal of at least 1000 words per day and to take the pressure off, I’m going to write them as scene vignettes of what needs to be in the story and then weave them together into a semblance of a continuing story.

Today, I do need to do my workshop submission for their journal first and start the cutting/pasting for the Cookbook.

 

Something I will leave you with that kind of illustrates some kind of electoral gap. While the returns were coming in, I was on the phone with Andy, and MSNBC had projected the President as being re-elected. As with the last election, I gave Andy the good news. The President had 274 electoral votes and Governor Romney had 203. It was over. My husband was dancing around the living room (and actually, not that dissimilar to four years ago), and in my ear, Andy was saying that it’s not over, there’s nothing official, the President’s Twitter, his Tumblr have nothing, don’t get too excited, it’s not over. What is your husband doing? Stop that. My son is yelling from his bedroom the exact same thing – it’s not over yet, stop cheering, it’s not over yet. There is no confirmation.

Andy observed that the two people ‘in the room’ who were under 30 were not convinced that the President was re-elected until the social media weighed in, insisting that we wait for confirmation.

I didn’t need confirmation – it was right there on my news channel in big, bold, red, white and blue. FOUR MORE YEARS.

After about a minute more of this discussion, Andy ‘confirmed’, as did my son that Twitter had finally made it ‘official’ and the President would have another term. And then Tumblr exploded.

Confirmed.

I think my response was that it was nice that the youngsters caught up with the old folks with our old fashioned news outlets and teletypes, but we had our President almost eight minutes earlier.

My plea to the masses, my begging of friends, please, please, friends, please, do not let social media drive and drag us apart. Use social media to bring our two sides together. It can be done with a little faith. 😉

*tongue in cheek* And now, I go have a chicken salad sandwich and begin to write.