Happy Camper

NaNoFail was the original title of this post. I don't know what it'll be in the end, even as I write this. Because, in the end, I didn't fail.

I didn't write a single word in November this year. Okay, literalists, I hear you. What I mean is I didn't participate in NaNoWriMo this year. 2010 was the first year I participated in NaNoWriMo. I wrote a fun romp called, "Plain Vanilla." It was my first attempt at writing anything more than 500 words (outside of school) and I managed to produce at least 50,000.

I called myself an author.

In 2011, I wrote for pleasure, not volume. It was "Book One" in my Now & Then "series" which I published here. (And, yes, the quotation marks are intentional.) It's not good but it's good fun and it was fun to write.

In 2012, I wrote the second in the Now & Then series. This was a more serious undertaking. I had a goal of 100,000 words (50,000 of which were written in November). I did research, character outlines, and plot diagrams. I planned this story for a year.

I hit my goal for 2012 but I didn't like how the story turned out. It started out well enough but by the time I was finished with it, I was finished with it.

This year, my goal was to go back and polish last year's story.

November is traditionally a slow month for me at work so what better time than to write? Or edit? Except, edit is a four-letter word so I opted to work instead. Except, work is a four-letter word as well. I would have called editing a good exercise but "work out" is a synonym for "exercise," which is too close to "work" for comfort so I went to Hawaii and did nothing. (NaNoFail.)

Today, a friend of mine gave me the best present ever. She read my 2011 online story. Better still, she got it. (She gets me so that explains a lot.) Even though I wrote it in 2011, she only got around to reading it this year. When she did, she knew she had to get me this*:

(I know, crappy photo. New phone is still on order.)

The first Now & Then was about designer genes. The second was about water. The third (when I get around to it) will be all about an evil Condiment Conglomerate. But the next one will definitely have to be about coffee. (World domination through caffeine, anyone??)

I have a new fan.

Happy Camper.



*It has as much to do with the fact that it's a red coffee mug as anything. (You're just going to have to read the story.)