The morning of October 25, 2009 dawned like just about any other Sunday morning. There was the usual groggy stumbling for the tea kettle, the quality time with Prayer Book and Bible, the rousting sleepy family members out of bed to get ready for church. Something was different that morning, though. That something was a thought. It started with "I wonder..." and ended with my signing up for NaNoWriMo and writing the first draft of a novel during the month of November. The stuff in between included some Dorothy Sayers mystery-inspired plotting, a lot of caffeine, and sore arms from typing so long at the computer. My family was amazingly supportive, most likely owing to the assurance that it was to be a short absence, this time of my body being in the room and my mind being in a little town somewhere where murder was being planned and a blackmailer was on the loose.
It was an astounding time for me. I learned that I could do it. I could take an idea and turn it into a story, with characters and dialog and some decidedly uneven prose. As I told Shannon, I emerged from November and my NaNoWriMo experience a different person--one who jots down scraps of conversations, interesting names and bizarre story ideas (and isn't afraid to use them).
Muchos thanks (in random order) to Jennessa, Shannon, Jani, daHubby, SuperCraftyDancerGirl, JuniorBravesFanatic, my writing buddies on NaNo, my local NaNo group, to Chris Baty for starting NaNoWriMo in the first place, and to all the people over the years who have encouraged me to keep writing, even when I didn't think I could do it (Leslie and Papa, especially!).
