Winner!

What a joke! Normally speaking, that is, what with the MS and everything…

But, hey, right now. Just for a day or two, I’m celebrating, because I am a winner… I won the NaNoWriMo challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. I did it. I’ve done it. And I feel really chuffed!

Oh yes – for all those who read the last post – against all the odds of MS fatigue and pain, drills and hammers as background accompaniment and the usual familial relationships to contend with (you live alone but suddenly a son decides to stay a couple of days!), I – doggedly and with “Think you can stop me?” determination - stuck to my Word document (on my trusty IBM Thinkpad), kept checking my wordcount and b***** well finished the 50,000, three days early: on Friday 27th November, 5pm! So proud!

The thing is: I haven’t finished the story, so through December I’ll be joining with lots of others in NaNoFiMo – National Novel Finishing Month!

And then there’ll be the rewrites - if I haven’t given up with it by then, the plot holes I see now are getting to me! – and, finally, lots of editing (yep, with NaNoEdMo, in March!).

I’m going to try and make it work though. End up with a proper, bona fide novel in the end. Because, for one reason, I’ve grown fond of my characters (one does have MS!) and need their lives to make sense!

So, onwards…

It’s a Middle Grade children’s novel, by the way, and this is the synopsis I wrote for my NaNo profile:

“It’s an ill wind…”

A brother and sister want their separated parents to get back together again but it’s not going to be easy: their dad's an alcoholic and their mum has a degenerative disease.

“It’s an ill wind…” describes how each member of the family, with help from the children’s brainy school friend and a ghost from an old windmill, gets to move on with their lives – and come out smiling.

It’s not a bad ending for the friend or ghost either.

P.S. If any of you have/know someone who has MS (or other degenerative disease/problem) - and you’re/they’re not taking it already - I would urge you/them to add turmeric/curcumin (see also here ) to your/their regime. Even T. (my son who works at a herbalist’s), recognizes the improvement in my overall (physical and mental, especially, cognitive) health, since adding it to my own.

P.P.S. NaNoWriMo is well worth the effort (the Winner’s Certificate is going to look great on the wall!) – I have loved every moment (the forums are friendly and fantastically supportive) and it’s been good for me.

God willing, I’ll gladly do it again next year!

See you soon…

And for my latest trick...

I’ve got progressive, severe, MS. I’m sitting on a building site (see here and here). And I’m writing a novel in 30 days (NaNoWriMo)!


P.S. Missing writing my blogs [Blogger, can I have my sidebar pics. back, please!] so I’ll post this on a couple of them and hope to see you soon.

P.P.S. Lucy is fine and good company - not a bad muse!

Hope you’re well.

Blog Action Day '09 - Climate Change

Here’s an irony: I have the beginnings of two novels on Word, both with a main theme of climate change, yet have nothing planned for this, Blog Action Day ’09.

It would be good if I could cite something to do with “global warming” for my distraction, but, unless I repeat myself on MS (multiple sclerosis) and Environmental Illness (see here); or tell you I’m curled up with guilt over my use of fossil fuel electricity (I’ve researched wind turbines like mad and wish I could have one built but, alas, can’t use the roof without upstairs neighbours’ agreement to share [and that’s if we got planning permission] and can’t use the garden, again without planning permission and, realistically, a lot more money than I have) – ‘curled up with guilt’ and/or cold due to it; unless I protest at how my head hurts and MS symptoms are worsening as a result of using mercury-filled light bulbs (only type available now [aside: further weakening of elderly/infirm = more volunteers for euthanasia?]) – plus, their low-wattage (“energy”) is making me colder (cold: stops clear thinking; writing; demands more heating; could cause hypothermia); unless those reasons (all true) are all I give: a) this post will never be done in time, and b) I’ll be writing my novels…

And, therein, lies the crux of the matter: I am personally so worried about pollution and the ruination of our planet that I have become obsessed by studying astronomy and thinking about humanity’s habitation/colonization of another planet to put into these two (one for children) speculative/sci-fi books.

So, ironically and in more ways than one, I have been distracted and kept away from this blog post on climate change, by climate change.

It bothers the living daylights (great pun!) out of me and I want to thank Blogger and all the bloggers, everyone involved in Blog Action Day ’09, for their highlighting of this - most serious of all issues - issue. Let’s hope and pray that our voices (with others’ such as Greenpeace) are heard and our warnings heeded.

P.S. On a smaller note (but giant oaks start with small acorns, right?!): could borough councils work harder at recycling, and every borough council fit solar panels to homes and/or build wind turbines for their community? Just a thought…