Power Tools!

This past weekend was one for the record books here.  I finally got my very OWN power drill/screwdriver.  I have been wanting one for, oh, about 17 years now and after several times when the drill was necessary, but I didn’t have one, I finally got one.  Yeah.  Now here’s the back story.

When I graduated from high school, my graduation present from my dad was a tool box full of all kinds of good things, which was a really great present, and it came in handy A LOT during college, especially.  (There was the incident of the bubbler, which I still remain committed to my alibi that I was at a math tutorial and they used my tools without my knowledge.  Check with Humke or Face, they’ll tell ya, so there.  UFF DA)

Okay back to the tool box.  So having this tool box has been really handy over the years, but when my little snotty brother graduated from high school (just a couple of years after I did AND went to the same college as I did) he got BOTH a toolbox and a POWER DRILL!  I was fuming.  So for the past decade I have been the biggest brat to my dad that he loved my brother more because he bought Dave a power drill.  Every time I needed a drill and had to borrow one of my dad’s I’d be a bigger snot and say something like “If I had my own drill, I wouldn’t have to borrow yours.”  Okay, I know I’m spoiled.  I know I acted like a baby and a brat.  Hey, I’m fessing up.  I’ve grown up, what can I say?

So I got to the point where I’m in my own home and I really could use a drill/screwdriver and I had a Lowe’s gift card (love Lowe’s and Home Depot!!!!) and during the black Friday sales, my dad picked out a good drill for me and then used the gift card to get it for me.  Finally!  Now admittedly, I need help with the current projects, and dad is awesome and willing to help me.  I have to fix some drape rods that have pulled out of the wall.  I don’t have the strength to hold the drill at that height, so dad will help me, but at least I have the proper tools to fix it!

I think it’s just another milestone along the way of growing up!  Go Black and Decker!

Ben’s been deployed for 74 days.  I hope they had a good Thanksgiving!

50,000 WORDS COMPLETED!!!!!!

I did it!!! I did it!!!! I did it!!!! Yeah, go me!

I actually wrote a novel (it’s not completed, and I’ll continue to work on it) of 50,000 words in a month!!! The count right now and was unofficially validated at 50,275.  As of tomorrow, I can get it officially validated which means that I can say that I won the National Novel Writing Month Challenge of 2007!!!! and NO ONE can ever take that away from me!

I am not a person who likes to brag, although having a blog means giving out information about yourself that sometimes is seen as bragging, but this time I really don’t care.  I am so proud of myself that I could shout it from the roof of my house that I actually wrote (and created a whole story too) of 50,000 words.  That turned out to be 84 pages of Microsoft Word using the font Veranda in 11 pt.  I even used the regular margins for an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper.  So if you were to make that into the size of a paper back novel, that would be around 160 pages of book.

So many thanks to everyone who loved and supported me through this month, I really do appreciate it!

49,178 Words

It’s now Saturday, November, 24 th at 7:10 pm.  I just did a word count on the novel and I’m over 49,000 words!  I really can’t believe it.  I am going to hit 50,000 tonight.  I have to say that I am really proud of myself.  I went into this project not knowing if I was going to reach the goal of 50,000 words or not.  I told myself that I was going to pace myself accordingly and not get too hard on myself if I got too tired.  Like last night, one of my writing buddies was catching up on her word count and I knew that if I pushed myself I could hit the 50,000 late last night because I could e-mail her online and get support.  But I decided that it was better for me to go to sleep and get a good night’s rest and write today as much as I could.  and I feel so much better for it, because I am rested and refreshed.  So I am going to grab something to have for dinner and then go back and write some more.  I’ll post when I reach the big 50,000 words and I get my novel unofficially verified by the Nanowrimo.

Home Stretch

Well ladies and gentlemen, as of right now, about a quarter after midnight on Saturday, November 24, My word count is 46,736.  That means that I’m 3985 words from winning the contest AND I still have a whole week to do it in.  SO I’m planning on reaching the winning number sometime today (Saturday) and then continuing until midnight on Friday the 30th at midnight to get my final word-count.  I am finally making progress with the novel, and finally yesterday, I brought all the characters to the week of the wedding, which for all purposes is “The Wedding Party,” the title of my novel.  So people are starting to sneak off and mix it up.  It has been totally awesome to write and I have enjoyed the whole process thoroughly.

Here is excerpt 2 from “The Wedding Party” by Karen Marie Hedlund

So the two girls ran to catch up with the group that included Lord James, Lord Wills and that busybody Lady Darlington.  When Lady Hannah caught up to her mother, she asked Lady Elizabeth if she and Lady Freya could be the ones to show their guests to their rooms, instead of her mother.  This way Lady Elizabeth would be able to rest and not have to miss any of the night’s entertainment.  Lady Elizabeth had made one and only one map of the floor plans of the inside of Morley Manor and she labeled reach room specifically for the guest that was going to reside in that specific room during their stay at the Morley estate.  With shaking hands, Lady Elizabeth gave her daughter Hannah the map, but she then strictly told Hannah that she had to immediately return the map to her mother’s hands after she was done showing the guests to their rooms.  Lady Hannah chuckled aloud, not only about at Lady Elizabth’s prudeness, but also her precise focus on detail, while the others managed to stifle their laughter.  Lady Elizabeth explained that there were not going to be any children other than her grandchildren that were going to be born exactly nine months from today and if she was the only one to keep the master map, Everyone’s safety and security could be insured.  Lady Elizabeth said this last sentence looking directly at her daughter.  That still was not doing to deter Lady Hannah from talking with Lord Wills, if that was what she wanted to do.  Lady Hannah was not married to Lord Henry Heathgrove, yet. 

Enjoy and remember we can’t edit it yet!

Happy Thanksgiving- 10 Reasons to be Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my family and friends out there.  I am especially grateful this year and I thought that I should make a list of 10 things that I am thankful for in 2007.  These are in no particular order and I’m just thinking off the top of my head.

1) That I have a beautiful roof over my head.

2) That I was able to see my family in Florida.  This was so much fun and I have pictures and great memories to help me remember Chad and Meridith’s wedding.

3) That all of my friends (so far) have had successful pregnancies and have beautiful baby girls.  And that it’s looking good for the last friend to have her child too.

4) That I have enough to eat and that I’ll spend Thanksgiving with family and friends

5) That I know how to read.  This may seem stupid, but in many other parts of the world, women are not encouraged to be educated, and I really value my education.

6) That medical science has progressed far enough to come up with wonderful medications and techniques to diagnose and treat things like breast cancer, arthritis and heart disease so much better than they did even 10 years ago.

7) That I have the privilege of being Aunt Karen to children so wonderful as Natalie, Veronica, Varnai, Grace, AJ, Katie, Hailey, Kaitlyn and especially Addy and so many other kids.

8 ) That I know that my God is there for me always and loves and forgives me because of a thing that we call GRACE!

9) That I have learned how to use my computer (to post on this blog, to write my novel on NaNoWriMo, to play games with the kids on Webkidz, to e-mail, etc.)  I am one of the lucky ones.

10) I am thankful for Ben being safe so far and even though he’s been deployed for 65 days so far, he and his fellow soldiers are in my thoughts and prayers.

So Happy Thanksgiving All!

36,810

Yes, it’s true I have passed the 35,000 word challenge AND I have had the novel validated so that I know that my words really are going to count in the end.  I decided to post an excerpt on the NaNo website, so I thought it was just as fair to post the excerpt here.  Now remember, we are not allowed to edit this until after November.  OK?

Lady Sophia Wentworth was less than thrilled to be going to the ball tonight.  She had absolutely no energy and no desire to try and put on a good face in front of her friends.  She was tired of pretending that everything was all right when it really was not.  Lady Sophia was angry, mad at herself and really angry at Lord Thom for treating her with such disrespect.  For an entire season now, Lord Thom had been at her beck and call, treating her as if she were the most important woman in the world.  Lord Thom always saved the first dance for her, but in the last couple of weeks, he had begun to turn his attention to other young ladies of London society.  How dare he use her and abuse their friendship, leading her on, making her think that there could possibly be a future between them.  But no, her hopes have been dashed by the self centered nature of one Lord Thomas Eastwood.  But she was going to show Lord Thom.  She was going to dress to the nine’s and flirt with every man that came her way, even if he was old enough to be her grandfather! She would dance every dance and find two, no at least three gentlemen to escort her to the supper that was being provided.  That would show Lord Thom that Lady Sophia really didn’t care!

25,187 That’s Halfway through !

It’s not yet the 15th, that would be Thursday and today’s only Tuesday and I’m halfway through my word count.  Yeah!  I still haven’t gotten to the wedding yet, but I do know that my male main character who I had planned on being the one getting married (his name is Lord Henry) may or may not be getting married.  He’s met the woman of his dreams, the only problem is that she’s actually twins, and he doesn’t know yet that he’s fallen in love with two different women.  But two of what I thought were minor characters are making puppy love sick eyes at each other every chance they get, so maybe they’ll end up being the ones married.   This is the great thing about not planning everything out before hand, that I can just go where ever the characters take me.

And Stace- as for actually reading this “novel” at this point.  Never gonna happen!  I may print an excerpt, but part of the rules are that we have to turn off our internal editor, which is really hard for me.  (Ms Type A personality :0 ) I turned off the spell check function and the grammar check and even that’s driving me nuts, not to go back to the last sentence to correct mistakes.  And even if I make factual mistakes, I just have to go on.  The whole deal is just to write.  It’s actually very calming.   I really can’t believe I’ve gotten this far!  (Many thanks to my writing buddy who has a lot going on herself, but has been very encouraging to me!)

Ben has been deployed for 57 days.  That’s almost 2 months.  I can’t believe it’s been that long, on the other hand for deployments, that’s nothing.  I just keep praying that he’ll come home soon and safe to his family and friends!

15,000 Words

I’ve had a sinus infection since I came back from my trip to Florida, so I’m not back to being fully back to my normal self (whatever normal means.  After all these years, I’ve stopped trying to define what normal is. )  And I’ve been trying to keep up with the National Novel Writing Month contest NaNoWriMo.  As of today we’re supposed to have written 15,000 words, well I stopped my writing in mid sentence to do this post to let you all know that I’ve reached 15,000 words!  YEAH!  Go me!

I really didn’t think that I would even make it this far at the end of the month.  I also worried that I would have nothing to write about, but it seems every day that as I type the plot and the characters just seem to come out and flow.  I will tell you that I have no idea what’s going to happen next, and I’m not going to plan what I’m going to write tomorrow, because it is much better for me to just let things happen.  My characters are fleshing themselves out and they’re heading towards the weekend that the main part of the novel is going to be set (I think?!) which is over a weekend of a wedding.  (Many thanks to my cousin Chad and his new wife Meridith for the wedding idea.)  So it’s onward ho from here! 

Just Checkin’ In

It’s so weird having a blog.  I’m not used to having people actually read what I write.  I’ve been away where I haven’t been able to access my computer easily.  My cousin Chad got married last Saturday in Orlando, Florida and I flew down for the wedding.  It was awesome seeing my wonderful extended family.  I always forget how big my family can be when you add the in-laws and in my case when you add the out-laws too! (I’m referring to my cousin Kent who lovingly refers to himself as “The Pirate.”- I’ll post a picture in the coming days when I have more time to download all of my pictures:) )

The only free time I had was in the car on the way to and from the wedding rehearsal and on the plane for as long as my computer battery would allow.  And all of that time was dedicated to the NaNo novel.  I’m up to 8400 words right where I’m supposed to be for today, but it’s going to be a challenge to get the 10,000 words for tomorrow, because I’m so tired.

So I’m off to sleep.

Ben’s been deployed for 49 days.

The Wedding Party-a novel by me!

It’s 12:01 am on Thursday, November 1, 2007.  National Novel Writing Month begins now, so here’s to 50,000 words!  Good Luck to all 90,000 other participants who are also writing as of today!