Ladies and Gentlemen, drum roll please…..

That’s right folks. I done did it.

I awoke this morning to discover my husband was walking the dog, I think he’s bucking for husband of the year, and my day only went up hill from there.

I wrote at coop where every few minutes another mom interrupted me to ask how nano was going, wasn’t it the last day, how many more words did I have to go, why was I talking to them then. But I know they meant to be supportive and so I thank them for their love.

I waited til the hubby got home to head out to write in. He was sure I would make the last “few” words I needed with no problem.

I went to write in. Where again I was surrounded my supportive people.

In the end yes, I made those words I needed without breaking a sweat. But I have to chalk a lot of that up to people who supported me, loved me, believed in me, held me accountable all month long. So while I get to win Nano this year, as always every year I feel like there are many people in my life who get to post this winner banner on their blog, too.

My novel is not done. I have just figured out how they might be able to catch the killer. So we have to do that. Then the big denouement scene. Then the wrap up. I expect another 15-20 K ought to do it. But I won’t be writing that tonight. It’s dessert time.

Words today: 4106

Time Spent: 4 hours

Total Words 50094

 

 

Gettin’ close to the end now. Have you ever had your coffee feel like it was working in reverse? Seriously today I had two latte’s at write in and by the time I got home from that I could have gone straight to bed and to sleep.  All I could do was stumble about the house mumbling about all I needed to take care of.

Words: 1900

Time: 3 hours at write in, 30 more at home.

Total words: 45988

Est Comp: Dec 2

 

Evening friends. It is cold here. Like dear god I hope my fingers and toes don’t fall off while I walk the dog cold. Ergo, I am writing this post quickly before I go give the dog his evening stroll just in case I can’t type when I return. LOL

Words Today: 1761

Time Spent: 2 hours at a write in, 90 minutes writing I think

Total Words: 44088

Estimated Completion Date: Dec 2

So I need to write around 3K a day to make 50K. I am ok with that.

I’m at a really good point right now, they’re searching the killers house. Spence is interviewing the killer who’s playing games with Spence. It’s fun. If I hadn’t been hosting friends for games and dinner I would have written on for hours and hours I think. But sometimes you need to recharge. Made colcannon to go with my left over seven pounds of ham, played hours of games with friends. Good day.

Greetings on this post turkey day. I actually ended up at a retail location today. Gasp shock horror. See it went like this.

Dragged the kiddo out of the house by 9 to make write in. Returned home precipitously because kiddo gave himself a stomach ache chugging hot chocolate. Kiddo then asked for Sushi, I said there wasn’t time today. But the bug was planted in my head. Took kiddo to a Lego class and went to the local public library to write. Got some words in. Got some books for the kiddo and a copy of Inspector Gadget saves Christmas. It’s time to convert him to an appreciation of Inspector Gadget.

Then on the long drive home the word sushi reared it’s head in my brain for the fiftieth time since I told the kiddo no. Next thing I knew we were taking the sushi turn off. Placed our order and then needed to kill 15 minutes.  Kiddo being the savvy kiddo he is says, “We could go to the GameStop mom and let me play the demo games.” Yeah ok.

Which is how I found myself in a retail location on Black Friday. LOL

Words Today: 1666

Time: 2 hours

Total words: 42327

Est Comp Date: Dec 2. (how is that possible, 1919 to finish on time.)

 

Tonight at write in we got to talking about how some years, the idea of Nano ending is just heart breaking. You want it to go on. You want the fun to go on. Last year in fact one woman and I kept meeting every Tuesday morning after Nano ended because we were so sad to see Tuesday morning write ins go. That and I am one hell of a cook and I always made her breakfast. LOL

This year, I can’t wait for Nano to end. I don’t even care if I make 50K at this point, I just want the pain to be over.

Some might argue I’m just having a bad day. But the thing is, until write in I was having a lovely day. I woke up to discover not only had my husband made me coffee but he had already walked the dog. I got to play Twisted Fish with my kiddo. I vacuumed the house, organized all his legos, and cleaned the oven so tomorrow when I’m baking the house won’t smell of smoke.  It was a good day. Home school was easy. Then we watched a fixer upper show together and took a nap. For a normal everyday day, it does not get any better than that. It just doesn’t.

And write in was fun. All except the trying to write part. That sucked. I just want the pain to be over.

Words: not enough

Time: Way too much

Total words: about 5K less than it should be.

Estimated Comp: sometime after I lose.

I am too tired to be objective at this point, so I will say goodnight, sleep tight, don’t let the editing bug bite.

Greetings and Salutations from the Roadhouse. I love this place. I even love the drive here. No matter which way you go it involves a drive down a tree lined windy mountain road with the river rushing by on one side or the other.  I love the Makers Mark Bacon and Caramelized Onion fondue which comes with vegetables and fruit and oh alright I’ll admit it, French fries. It’s just warm and cozy and I always write well here.

Tonight was the happy hour write in. And there was easily a happy hour of chatting with V and S before we got down to brass tacks. But words were written by all.

Words Tonight: 2093

Time Spent: 3 hours at the write in but not all of it was spent writing. LOL

Total words: 36, 389

Est. Comp. Date: Back to Dec 3 (1945 needed to finish on time-good year)

Number of bizarre conversations overheard: 6,7,12, 54…oh I lost track. But it was definitely entertaining locals night at the roadhouse.

Excerpt:

“I assume you brought Matt to fill in those of us not in the inner sanctum on our legal position.” Board member #5 asked.
Matt nodded and cleared his throat. “Legally speaking, if Harold has embezzled a considerably amount of money from the country club accounts, you, as the board, could be held responsible.”
“Don’t we have insurance for this sort of thing?” Board member #7 asked in horror.
“Not against deliberate defrauding.” Matt calmly replied.
“How the hell did that happen?” Board Member #5 shouted.
No one answered. Dead silence dragged on.
“Someone made that decision Gregg?” Board Member #5 said.
Gregg sipped a small amount of wine before answering. I thought to myself he was stalling rather than actually wanting the wine. “Harold and I discussed it when he took the position and decided we could drop that rider from our policy and increase our accident coverage without substantially changing the cost to the club.”
“You decided? This wasn’t brought before the board for a vote?” Board Member #4 challenged.
Gregg shook his head shortly.
“And the legal ramification of that?” Board Member #4 turned to Matt.
Matt shrugged. “It would really depend on the wording of the board charter. But without seeing that my guess is that you are all still on the hook. This board is responsible to the membership. Everyone is being cagey about the financial ramifications but it looks like over a million dollars is missing. That’s enough to bankrupt this club.”
“I think that’s premature.” Gregg tried to interject but the rest of the board members were too busy exclaiming and starting to formulate sentences, arguments, or attacks.
I circled the table pouring more wine onto troubled waters, but my goal was not to soothe but to increase the tension until someone said something of value to the case.
I popped my head into the kitchen. Malin barely looked up from her notepad where she was scribbling notes and rubbing her nose in equal frantic measures. Interesting. I wondered if she knew she rubbed her nose when thinking hard. At least she’d look like Rudolph by the time we met back up with Spence later. I kept my laugh to myself and went back to the dining room to collect the lunch dishes before people started throwing them.

New Character: Malin Brody

The State Police Psychologist she is brought in to evaluate the responses of the board members when they find out a whole lot of money is missing. She also has a bit of a ridiculous crush on Spence. Drama, Drama.

It’s late and I am tired. I took most of the day off Nano. Hung out with my kiddo since he didn’t have coop today. Then tonight I went out to Cinebarre with a couple of girlfriends for Bond and Booze. That’s James Bond to you. LOL

I think I ruined my eye for Bond films, though. All I could do was catch the mistakes they made. Too much research for my spy novel I guess. shrug. Oh well.

Words: 296

Time: 15 minutes.

Total: 34296

Est Comp Date: Dec 4 (1963 a day to finish on time)

Oh dear, I really shouldn’t have taken today off but I am having such trouble giving a bleep right now. LOL. Excerpt and new character tomorrow. I think.

This is the last thing on my to do list tonight. I’m listening to my hubby and son play chess. The hubby is up two games to nothing. LOL. I’ve just finished a painting I promised my son I would do by Christmas, so go me. When I get done typing this update I will go play cribbage with the hubby and son. I like winter evenings.

Words today: 1921

Time spent: 3 hours at write in but I swear 2/3 of that was chit chat. MY brain just would not focus on writing.

Total Words: 34000 (nice round number)

Estimated completion: Dec 3 (1778 a day to finish on time)

No excerpt today. It was clunky bizarre writing.  But tomorrow I will have a new character for you. evil laughter….

My days seem to be going by faster. I think it comes back to how busy things have been. I had business to attend to with the hubby this morning and then off to the write in. It was a small attendance today which made all the easier for a chatty member to keep the focus off writing for the majority of the time. sigh. Then lunch, where S and I worked out the over arching plan for the Nano to Publish Workshop Seminar series we are doing next year. Yes, that’s right. A monthly workshop where we will help people with some sort of completed manuscript get themselves through the gauntlet to self-published by the end of the year. Pretty exciting stuff.

Then off to Costco where the topic of the day was a apparently my hair. Thirty minutes inside the store and 6 separate comments on the color. Wow.

Back home to host pizza dinner and movie night for three of my son’s friends.

Words written: 1932

Time Spent: 30 at write in, 30 more while the kiddos watched Scooby Doo 2.

Total Words: 32079

Estimated Comp: Dec 3. (1793 a day to finish on time)

Excerpt:

Witlow was holding out a file folder. “Have you seen the autopsy report yet?”
“Not the full one, no. But I met with the medical examiner.”
“You might want to look at this.”
His brows furrowed, Spence set down his interrogation notes and took the report. He scanned along through the findings he already knew about. Then he paused. Livor mortis demonstrated the body had been on it’s side in a semi fetal position from time of death long enough for the blood to settle on the right side. Harold Paulson had been moved. That was pretty much a given already. Spence scanned on. The final toxocology was in, but he already knew about the Rohypnol. The medical examiner listed the cause of death as homocide. Spence looked up, “What? I don’t see anything new that’s probative let alone earth shattering.”
“Notice the lack of injuries to the heels.”
“Yeah.”
Witlow stared at him for a long moment.
“He wasn’t dragged.” Spence grinned maniacally. “Someone carried his body. Someone strong.”
“Or used something to transport him in.” Witlow added.
Spence’s smiled faded just a touch.
“But either way, we are looking for someone strong. How big is your girl?”
Spence tilted his head as considered. “Five three maybe. Curvy rather than thin. How big is Paulson again?” Flipping open the autopsy report he checked Paulson’s stats. “Five eleven, one seventy.”
“Probably too much for Tess unless she’s hiding a body builders body.”
Spence nodded and his smile returned.
“Ok now that we’ve saved your love life, how does that limit our possible suspect pool?”
“My guess is most of the women are technically out unless it’s a husband and wife team situation.”
“A partnership is complicated though. Two can keep a secret if one of them is dead.” Barnes added unexpectedly.
Spence stopped mid action and turned to Barnes. “Is that the answer right there? Two of them were keeping a secret and now one of them is dead?”
“You mean Paulson’s partner killed him to end the search for the embezzled money?” Witlow was right there with Spence.