Journal/Blog

10-30-22 - Halloween, NaNoWriMo

Well, it's that time of year again, the start to my favorite collection of holidays

The irony never escapes me of how a good portion of us (myself included) wish for the colder weather during the heat of the summer and then turn right around and wish for the heat when we are shivering our butts off. I've always enjoyed the fall and the lead up to the colder weather. I can say that as I am getting older, it's not so pleasant. But, I still love the change of the seasons.

Halloween has always been fun. When I was younger, my older sister went all out for a few years. She took yarn and had a spider web on the front porch, with a painted cardboard spider on it. She made tombstones complete with 'scary' funny names and made ghosts that hung from the hooks where mom's potted plants had been during the summer. It was my older brother who helped me learn to cut out the shapes on pumpkins easier by doing them smaller pieces at a time, which still got the effect you wanted without breaking the surrounding pumpkin.

Once they were up and out of the house, though, mom and dad weren't much for Halloween. I tried to keep things up for a time, but then it just faded away. Then, we had our kids. From little bitty costumes to ones that are now, partially at least, scary, I've gotten the chance to watch ours enjoy the holiday and have them experience our stories of past tricks or treats. This was our first year just handing out candy instead of walking around and, though there weren't nearly as many kids that came by, it was really nice to stay in one place.

I've always enjoyed anticipating this time of the year and this time, I even started decorating the first week of September. Tomorrow will be fun, but also bittersweet because it's one holiday down already. New Year's is awesome, but it also signifies that another round of these is done and gone, never to return. I usually feel a little glum, but more so lately I give myself a kick in the pants to get on with it because all in all, we only have so many of these left and none of them are ever guaranteed. (Sounds depressing maybe, but it's what gives me my better perspective.)

National Novel Writers Month

Ok, how have I never heard of this before?

They say 'right time, right place', but this October I guess I have had a pretty pointed experience of that occurring. (The other time in my life was when I met my wonderful husband.) I've done research on writing before but have never come across this website or that program.

I guess I need to stop pondering over not seeing it prior to this and just get started!
I have so many beginnings to different books that I've lost count over the years. There is one main storyline that has stuck through all of that time and a second one that has been formulating for a couple of years now. Tomorrow, I plan on picking one of those and dedicating myself to it for the month of November. What the heck, right? Maybe having that drive to meet the requirements will get me to actual make headway. I really, really hope so!

I wish myself and everyone else out there the best of our abilities (luck, too, but hey - it's us that does the work, not the luck!)