Announcing NaNoWriMo 2008 Winner Laura M. Crawford

I did it!!

My official word count is (drum roll, please):

50,664

I received my certificate, which I promptly filled out and saved and printed. I worked my tail off to get this finished. I am truly proud of myself, and will continue with this novel, edit it, and hopefully find a publisher for it. If no one wants to publish it then I will turn it into a book, and an ebook, and sell or give it away.

The thing about doing something this challenging is that it really shows you what you are capable of. I did screw off a bit, and I did not write every single day, and initially I did not reach my goal of finishing by November 14th, but I knew I did not want to let another year pass by without finishing in the winner's circle.

Now I'm off to finish another of my goals. Yes, it's writing related. I want to establish my web sites, get my multiple streams of income going, and be able to reach that place of financial freedom, where I can do what I want, work as a writer, and be able to work at home. It's more than just making money, it's making a life. And since life is so short, and death is so long, I want to make the most of my life and enjoy as much of it as I can.

After being able to accomplish this feat of writing 50,664 words in less than 30 days, there is no limit to what I can do.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We had Thanksgiving dinner last weekend with my son, Alex, in Illinois. We are still eating the leftovers.

We went to my parents house this morning for traditional turkey dinner, then went to QH's parents. I didn't have the space to eat again. I'm still full and it's almost 11pm!! But that's fine, I won't have to cook all week! :)

The best part was spending the time with my family and getting caught up on what everyone has been up to. We also have a houseguest, QH's son, is staying with us this weekend.

I am still doing the NaNoWriMo novel, and hope to be at the finish line before Sunday night. I will keep you posted. My current word count stands at:

23,426 words

I will count my blessings, and I hope you all do the same and have a great day!

We're leaving tomorrow...

For Illinois. I am still cooking, mainly because I was lazy and slept last night. I ran around town today getting the last minute stuff, and also reprioritizing (whew that's a big word!), some of my lists. I decided there were things I was not going to get done, some things that could wait, and a few that just were not that important to begin with. I never used to do that. I would just run my butt off trying to do all of it, and failing miserably. Now, I find that my time is much more precious, and I'm not getting a medal if I accomplish all of that anyway.

Enlightenment is wonderful, isn't it?

I am still doing the NaNoWriMo novel, and I have not had time to write anything except grocery and to do lists for the last few days, but I will finish, before the deadline. I know I was trying to have everything said and done by November 14, but I had to reprioritize my life a bit (love that word!).

I am very excited to be seeing Alex again. I am wondering how much he has changed in the last couple of months. I know this won't be such a long stretch in seeing him, since he will be home around December 19, 2008. We don't know for how long, yet, but I have learned to go with the flow. I can't drive myself nuts over things I have no control over. It's a huge waste of time and energy, and I am way too tired right now to do that!

I will log back in on Monday, and I hope you all have a great weekend. And please say a few prayers the weather is going to be nice for our trip. Thanks a lot!

And for those who are still doing NaNo, keep on writing!!!

NaNo Update-November 17, 2008

I wish I could say that I am finished as planned with my NaNoWriMo novel this year. My date was November 14, 2008, but I have been a bit busy and I am almost halfway there. My current word count is:

22,974

I will finish this week. I am bound and determined, and I will be cooking this week to take Thanksgiving dinner to my son, Alex, in Illinois. He is unable to come home for Thanksgiving, but he doesn't have duty this coming weekend, so we are going to him. I think it will be fun, and I am sure looking forward to seeing him again. I know he has about 30 days and he will be home for Christmas, which is coming a lot faster than I thought. But first things first.

I am also proud to announce that I have launched my ezine "Recession Rescue". I also started a Yahoo! Group with the same name. If you are interested in joining, please send me an email at recessionrescue@yahoo.com. It is a great group and I hope to help people save money, save time and save their sanity during these challenging economic times. I have a few other things related to the ezine in the works and will announce them to everyone once they are ready. In the meantime, I welcome you all to come and check it out and contribute!

Now, back to work.

NaNoWriMo Update--November 10, 2008

Hello, Everyone!

In my last update I wrote 8,305 words. I wrote later that night and added 2,320 more words. On November 6, 2008, I wrote a measly 670 words which brought my grand total to 11,295. Not a bad start.

On Saturday, November 8, 2008, I beat my previous personal best. I wrote 8,832 words, in one day!!! That brings my grand total up to 20,127 words. I am more than halfway there.

I decided to go to bed early last night. I was pretty tired. I made banana bread all day, and cooked dinner. It was cold and windy and we had some snow flurries, so it was the perfect day to stay inside and warm up the oven and cook. We spent Saturday, during the day, taking down my gazebo for the winter, putting the cushions for the patio chairs in the storeroom, and we put plastic on the windows inside the house to keep the cold drafts from coming in. We do this every year and it helps a lot with conserving heat. We do have one window above the sink we don't put plastic on, so if we need to get some fresh air into the house, we have that and the door.

I am getting excited to finish NaNoWriMo, but I am more excited to be going to Illinois on November 21, 2008 to see my son. We will be taking Thanksgiving to him this year, since he won't be able to make it home. I have a smoked turkey on order, and will make cheesy potatoes, blueberry cheesecake bars, and bring bread and butter along with a few other goodies from me and Grandma. I can't believe how fast this year has gone by, can you?

I will keep you all posted with any news, but in the meantime, stay warm and keep on writing!

NaNo Update--November 3, 2008

I hope you are all enjoying this wonderful weather. It's supposed to hit over 70 degrees this afternoon. I want to play hookey from work, but I won't.

This was a great weekend. We went to a Halloween party at our friends' house and it was fun. We were home by the witching hour, and we spent all of yesterday outside doing cleaning and yard work. I didn't start my NaNoWriMo novel until last night and I reached my personal best for daily word count. Drum roll please...

8,305 words!!

I can hear QH now. He will be saying I should have at least 2 novels a month written at that pace! Don't be surprised to find me chained to my computer, ha, ha, ha!

The story came out of nowhere and it was more interesting than the one I outlined. I thought I should go with it. I call it "Red's Revenge" and it is a spin on the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale. I have an excerpt posted on my author site on the NaNoWriMo page. Just look up Laura Crawford.

I just updated my Novel Info, so check it out and let me know what you think. I put it in the Horror & Thriller category, because I think that was a better fit than Mystery & Suspense. I could be wrong.

I have to get things done around here, and head off to work I will update my word count tomorrow.

In the meantime, go out and vote tomorrow, and I hope you are all well rested from gaining your hour of sleep from the time change this weekend.

And enjoy the weather!!