Happy New Year

Ok, I'll admit it, I've been a bad girl! It has been a long time since my last post. There are no excuses but I'll give a few anyway....

November brought NaNoWriMo and I had a good wee story to run with. By the end of week one I was already playing catch up. Nothing new there though, I like deadlines and do my best work on the lead up to one. I love the excitement of 'will I, won't I make it?'. So, by the last week, I was still only half way through the 50,000 word target! I was determined to make it but then disaster struck. Beth got a nasty vomiting bug two days before the deadline when I was about to pull an all-nighter. In the end, I did pull an all-nighter, cleaning and holding the bowl for her to puke into. It was terrible. I had never seen her so sick.

We had started off that day so well. She had gone in to school as normal, spent some time with her dad's family and then we went into town to attend the Festival of Lights and Dundalk's attempt at breaking a world record. We smashed it, over 5,000 Santas attended the Santa Run. Beth and I caught a bit of it but, unfortunately, she had started getting sick at that point so we left before all 5,000 went past.

On the 30th of November, I had to put out 8,000 words. My hands ached, my brain was fried but by 11.15pm I reached 50,006 words and cried with relief (not literally, I was more numb than anything else). What followed were days of nothing. My mind shut down and I wasn't entirely unhappy about it. However, it went on too long and I'm here now to blow away the cobwebs and start anew. 

Here are a few photos from the last month or so.

At the Festival of Lights, BP (Before Puke)

This was the scene a couple of hours later. Poor baby!

Thankfully, she was all better by the following weekend for her stage debut with her ballet class. It was an arduous three hours in the audience for a three minute stage appearance but I was so proud of my little ballerina!

In the middle, at the back

Meeting Santa

Sporting our festive apparel on Christmas Eve

'The Doc is in' Beth's main present from Santa

Beth loves the orange that Santa always leaves in the toe of the stocking

Pepperoni enjoying the fire

Looking angelic on Christmas Day

Waiting for midnight while Mum watches Jools Holland's New Years Eve Hootenanny

Tomorrow, I hope to do a recap on last year's resolutions and make some new ones. Hope everyone out there had a beautiful Christmas and a Happy New Year, I know I did!

Preparing for NaNoWriMo

Well, it's that time of year again. On the 1st of November, writers all over the world will get stuck in, trying to reach 50,000 words by November 30th. Last years NaNo was my first and I began Devil in the Clouds. This year, I have a new project. The working title is Allie's Return. At the moment, it is just a load of ideas, back story and possible hardships for the protagonist Allie.

She came to me while I was watching a movie, In The Land Of Women. I wasn't trying to think of anything, just watch the movie, but there she was, lying in bed, dying of a hangover while her boyfriend of five years stood at the door of the bedroom, breaking up with her. It's weird how characters can just jump into your head and take up residence for the duration. Closer to November, I'll post a synopsis. However, my stories always seem to take a different direction to the original plan. 

In other news, my fancy phone is broken again and, although I'm not totally lost without it, I do miss it for handiness. I can't check all my online accounts easily, like Twitter and Facebook. That might not be a bad thing, it means I'm getting more work done!

Beth started ballet lessons a few weeks ago. They'll have a Christmas Concert in December and I can't wait to see her on stage performing. I loved being on stage (acting, not dancing) and I hope she catches the bug :-)

Before her second lesson