Hey Mom, look what I did!

Scout

Look at that sweet face…what a little doll!             Or maybe not…

Came home from work…toilet paper completely unwound from a nearly full roll of TP…wrapped around the stool…multiple times.  Someone had fun while I was working hard today.

Camp NaNoWriMo Winner, June 2012

Winner’s badge

I’m so excited!  I validated my word count today and am now officially a winner in the Camp NaNoWriMo June, 2012 challenge!  I read over what I’d written today, made a few changes, added another chapter, then copied and pasted it to be validated….and then I got this nifty badge and printed out a very cool looking certificate that I’m most definitely going to frame.  And, in case you all haven’t heard enough about all of this, I just signed up for the August camp…I may be crazy, but I’m thinking I can write a sequel and actually end up with something publishable by late winter.  Wouldn’t that be something?  And a little bonus to finishing this…maybe now I can actually finish some of those short stories  that I started posting and didn’t manage to see through to the end.

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I did it!

camp nanowrimo t-shirt (Photo credit: wynlok)

Celebration!  I am now over 50,000 words in my novel for the Camp NaNoWriMo challenge!  I’m planning to read through all of it tomorrow, then copy and paste it to have the word count validated.  How about that? I managed to do it with a few days to spare~  Is that not just about the coolest thing ever?

I keep reminding myself that there’s still a lot more work to be done before I actually have a novel in my hands, but to have managed to sit down and write over 50,000 words in 27 days is something I never imagined I could do!  (And for those of you wondering about the exact word count…it stands at 50,145 today…I understand that the total may be higher or lower when it’s validated, but still…).  Anyhow, I’m feeling kind of proud tonight…like, wow!  I really am a writer!

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Neighborhood park

I’m so thankful that I live in a city that values green space.  There are several really nice parks in town and one of them happens to be within walking distance of my house.  I went there to walk around the other day..probably would have spent more time had it not been in the 90s!

Tired? Sit a spell…

Now what kind of scary tale can I concoct in these woods?

46,000+ words!

Wow…who in the world would ever have thought I’d be able to write that many words in 25 days?  Not me, for sure!  Another 4,000 words and I’ll be a NaNoWriMo winner…Camp NaNo, that is…still not sure I’ll be able to do it in November when I’m working so darn much…but I’m going to finish this month’s camp, then there’s another camp in August.  I’m definitely going to do that one too.  And who knows?  I just may end up with a completed novel out of all of this!

Tomorrow I’m going to try to finish Tim and Maria’s story…just couldn’t carve out the time to do it tonight.  Working a full-time job sure does put a crimp in my writing time!!  But…gotta pay those bills somehow, right?

Well, little Scout just climbed up my leg and I guess that’s my signal that I need to pay a little attention to her…after I staunch the flow of blood…just kidding…this time!

I almost forgot…I was doing receiving at work this afternoon and opened up this huge box.  Once I moved the packaging away to see what was inside it, I thought it was delivered to us by mistake…nope, looked at the box…it had our store name and number on it.  Couldn’t figure out who would send us a huge gift basket of baked goodies…then I saw the little enclosure.  It was a gift for our store for coming in second in the zone in an email collection contest…cool!

Basket o’ goodies

Camp NaNo, day 24

Well, I’m approaching that 50,000 word mark…at 44,265 after today’s writing.  Again, I’m not sure how much of this would be publishable, but at least I’ve gotten into the habit of writing regularly.

I decided to take a break from Tim and Maria today…really tired after work today and wanted to get in a good writing session for NaNo.  Now I’m not able to focus on developing that short story.  Thinking about going to bed soon…very soon…

Still haven’t decided on a name for the kitten…thinking of Scout…what do you think?

Is it safe?

Ye Olde Tyme Dry Goods Market, II

English: Photograph of a cleaver. Deutsch: Fotografie eines Hackbeils (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Maria grips Tim’s arm, “Uh…Tim…”  When Tim glances at Maria, he notices that his usually outspoken, brash fiancée is pale and trembling.   Out of the corner of his eye he catches sight of movement.  He pulls his gaze away from Maria’s frightened face and tries to make sense of what he sees.  The old man is now behind the counter, holding a meat cleaver in his right hand, swinging it back and forth.  WHACK!! The old man pulls the meat cleaver back up and brings it whistling down, easily slicing the piece of meat that’s sitting on the old wooden counter.   He quickly pushes that piece of meat to the side and picks up a large hunk of some sort of meat, throws it on the table and begins methodically slicing it.  When he raises his arm to make another cut, blood drips from the razor-sharp edge of the cleaver.

Maria, whimpering, her hand covering her mouth, takes a step back only to be startled by a pair of hands roughly grasping her upper arms.  She spins around, breaking the hold, only to be met by the bottomless dark eyes of the old woman.   Maria moves closer to Tim, not taking her eyes from the older woman.  When she hears the screen door hinges squeal and then the door slam, she breathes a sigh of relief.  Thank goodness someone else is in the store now.  This is just way too creepy.

Tim looks at Maria when he hears the heavy footsteps making their way across the uneven floor.  He shares Maria’s feelings of relief.  He won’t ever admit this to anyone, but over the past few minutes, he believed they had walked into a horror movie, a real-life horror movie.  A dark old building full of squeaks and groans, the strange elderly couple, the meat cleaver, the bloody apron, the weird way the old people could move without making a sound.  The only thing missing was the scary soundtrack.  He chuckles, feeling silly for thinking these old folks would wish to do them harm.  Or even be capable of doing them harm, as old as they are.  Tim shakes his head as he shares a smile with Maria.

Holding hands, Tim and Maria side step around the old woman, anxious to get a glimpse of their rescuer.  When they walk past the end of the aisle, they look toward the front of the store.  Their gazes rake from side to side, not finding anyone else in the store.  They quickly look at one another with looks of disbelief.  And when they hear that same heavy, even tread approaching them from the back of the store, they quickly decide to make a hasty retreat.  As they near the door, it slowly begins inching its way  open, a loud drawn-out squeak hurting their ears. They stop, not sure what to do now, only wanting to get out of this place, to get far away from this town.  As the door opens the rest of the way, Tim thrusts Maria behind him…

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Ye Olde Tyme Dry Goods Market

View of the Hermit in a rocking chair, by Freeman, J. (Josiah) 2 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Tim and Maria sit in the air-conditioned Lexus debating whether or not to enter the shabby old store.  Maria says, “I don’t know, it looks kind of creepy.  I mean you can’t even see in the windows.”

Tim sighs deeply, shaking his head, “You said you were hungry and thirsty.  We’re out here in the middle of nowhere.  This may be our best bet to find anything at all to eat or drink before we get to your Uncle’s cabin.”  Looking around at the deserted town, Tim says,  “I guess what I want to know is what kind of people live out here like this?  I’m surprised they even have electricity this far out.”

Maria rolls her eyes, “Don’t be an idiot. Of course they have electricity.  Gosh, you may be surprised to find they even have phone service!”

Tim opens his door, “Smart aleck!  You can stay out here if you want, but I’m going inside.  They probably don’t have any kind of specialty coffees, but surely they have Coke.  Right now, I’ll settle for just about anything.”

Maria looks around at the empty streets, dusk having taken hold, and no street lights to keep the darkness at bay.  “Hold on.  I’m coming with you.”

They climb the old wooden steps, making their way across the porch.  Tim stops next to a wooden rocking chair and taps it, causing it to rock back and forth.  “Look at these old things.  Looks like they were painted at one time.  Probably 50 years ago.”  They walk past the chair and Tim pulls open the screen door.  He glances over his shoulder at the chair and notices it’s still rocking.  He thinks that’s odd, shakes his head, but doesn’t say anything about it to Maria.

She follows him into the dark, musty smelling store.  They close the screen door and stand there letting their eyes adjust to the darkness.  Maria whispers, “This is weird.  I wonder if there’s anyone here.  Maybe this place isn’t really open.”

Tim takes a couple of steps forward on the creaky wooden floor when suddenly an elderly woman appears.  She has her grey hair pulled back into a bun, wearing a calico dress with an old-fashioned looking white apron protecting her clothes.  She silently walks behind the counter then glances at the young couple, “Hep ya?”

Tim and Maria look at each other.  Tim raises an eyebrow.  Marie nods in response to his silent question.  Tim meets the woman’s gaze with a smile, “Uh, yeah.  We’re traveling and saw your store.  Thought we’d stop in and pick up some snacks and Cokes to get us through the rest of our trip.”

The woman stares at them, then tilts her head to the side toward an old Coke machine.  “Co’ Cola’s right thar, get what ya want.  Got tater chips and candy here behind the counter.”

Tim and Maria walk hesitantly to the Coke machine.  It kind of looks like a small chest type freezer with a clear lid on top.  Tim lifts the lid and they each grab a small glass bottle of Coke.  Tim speaks softly to Maria, “I haven’t seen these since I was really young.  Grandma used to have these when we’d come to visit.”

They amble up and down the few aisles, looking at the groceries for sale.  Maria picks up a tin of corn meal.  “Look at this.  It’s metal…strange.” She puts the tin back on the shelf, takes a couple of steps, and stops to look at a large glass jar on the top shelf.  “What in the world is this?”  She stands staring at the jar.  “Oh my gosh, Tim…pickled pigs’ feet.  I didn’t even know there really was such a thing.”

Tim nods, turns a corner and stops suddenly as he almost runs into a man standing there.  When the man turns around, Tim is startled to see  blood stains on the front of the apron the man is wearing.  Tim quickly takes a step back.  Maria gasps as she steps around the corner and comes face to face with the old man.  When he sees Maria, he smiles at her, his teeth stained by tobacco, several of them missing.  “Well howdy there, young lady…young man.  What brings you here to our fine establishment?  It’s been a good little while since we’ve had folks as young as you all stop in.”  He looks over Maria’s shoulder, “Looky here, Mammy”

When Maria and Tim look behind them, they are both surprised to see the elderly woman standing in the aisle behind Maria.  It occurs to Tim that the elderly couple has kind of penned them in, blocking any exit.  How in the world did she sneak up behind them without making a sound?  Every step that Tim and Maria have taken has been accompanied by squeaks and groans as the floorboards shift beneath their feet.  Tim has a brief second to ponder that mystery…

Camp NaNo, day 21

nanowrimo, day 16 goal (Photo credit: paloetic)

I came home from work hot and tired.  Talked to the neighbor for a while (he was sitting outside with his dog when I pulled up…I know, it’s so miserably hot that I can’t even imagine sitting out there for any period of time).  I stepped inside and the kitten (I’ve got to come up with a name for her sometime) was sleeping on the couch.  I grabbed her to introduce her to the neighbor.  I was a little worried about how she would react to the dog, but this little kitten is unafraid of anything.  Not sure if that’s a good thing or not…could prove dangerous in some situations.  Anyhow, she seemed to enjoy seeing what was happening out there in the big, bad world.  She watched a low-flying jet go by, kind of seemed to find that interesting.   Then we came back into the blessed air conditioning…ahh…

After doing a few every day chores, I convinced myself to sit down at the computer, thinking I’d probably do well to  write 500 words today.  Wrote 200 words, got up to do something else, planning to sit down and write another 200 words.   I only write like that when I’m not feeling it, just doing it to get in the word count and then it ends up not being worth reading.  But the second time I sat down, it started to move and I ended up with a little over 1400 words for the day.  Still not sure how much of it was worth much, but some of the dialogue ended up being pretty decent. So maybe it was worth it after all.

I’m pretty excited!  My word count for the month has now exceeded  40,000!  How cool is that?

 

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Writing for Camp NaNo

I didn’t get as much writing done last night on my novel as I’ve been doing.  It was my first day back at work from vacation.  Then I picked up the kitten after work last night and spent quite a bit of time with her and Spook…you know, got to make sure Spook understands she’s still my baby girl, poor thing.

So sat down fairly late to write and ended up only putting down a little over 1100 words…still has me at almost 38000 words for the month, but I don’t want to start slacking now after such a great start.  I still need to write 1200 words a day to reach my goal of 50000 by the end of the month.  Definitely doable, but not if I don’t keep at it.

I’ve got a few hours before I have to go to work, so I plan to sit down and do my writing before I go in today…hopefully get more than the minimum today.  I guess that kind of depends on how many things the kitten knocks over or how many times she tries to jump on Spook before I have to get ready!  I’d forgotten how much fun (and how much work) a kitten is…Spook is 6 years old after all, so much calmer than she used to be. But I think she was every bit as active as this little one is…so hopefully they’ll end up being buddies.  Aww…idea for a children’s book…kitties with human attributes, adoption, maybe a separation thing with a reunion at the end???  The ideas are there…now to make the time to take care of all of them.

Kitten playing with Spook’s toy