Walkin’ On Sunshine…

Well, this months NaNoWriMo attempt is turning into a bust.   It’s just about noon on the 21st, and instead of being at 30,000 words, like I should be – I’m just over 15,000. Alas, it’s 15,000 words more than I had 21 days ago, right? 🙂 I’m proud of what I’ve done, and will challenge    that NaNoWriMo beast again next year – this time, to the death!

I also received an email last week, congratulating me on placing within the top 10 submissions, for the recent Reader’s Digest, My Life contest. They received just under 5,000 entries, and while quite of few of them were moving, I chose a more realistic, humorous approach, as I usually do – and it was a success! I still can’t believe I placed so high, and along with the cash prize (WooHoo), I have the chance of being published in a magazine that’s a staple in every American bathroom!!!

Aside from that I’m still submitting an article monthly for the local Entertainment News Northwest Magazine (www.ennw.info) and have recently been asked by a friend to contribute a few columns to a “Women Talk” section of the local weekly paper!

You might say that things are really turning around for me lately. I feel supremely blessed, not only for the doors that seem to be opening for me, but for the opportunities I’ve had in the past, allowing me to grow, mature, and become more aware of the world around me. And, of course, for the amazingly inspirational and supportive family & friends that have never let me imagine failure as an option. To you, I am eternally grateful!

So, for today, I’m dancing in the streets, skipping under a rainbow, and walkin’ on sunshine, here in the frigidly cold northwest!

~ m 🙂

Ready?… Begin!

          I’m not sure how it happened, but October is at it’s end, and for once in my life I’m not suprememly stoked about Halloween and all of the costumed, children spooking, skin crawling, sugar high, in ebriated goodness it seems to leave in it’s wake. This year, my insomnia inducing excitement is due to the impending month of NaNoWriMo that at some point in the last few weeks I decided, for whatever reason, might be a good idea?!!?!?!?! Shoot me now! *lol*

For those of you that haven’t fully embraced their word slut nerd yet, NaNoWriMo is a celebration, as well as a self mutilation of sorts. It’s the worldwide celebration, nay, observance of November, which is National Novel Writing Month. Being the rebel that I am though, I’m participating with a bit of a twist. Instead of tackling a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, I’ll be slaving over a memoir, telling the story of my paternal grandmothers life, struggles, successes, and passing. She’s someone that I’ve known next to nothing about, because of some of those complicated stuggles within her life. Things that at the time weren’t spoken of, because of their taboo nature, and since, have been swept under the rug because they aren’t things that people long to hear about. But, in hoping to know myself better – I’ve realized I need to take a closer look at my past, as well as the lives of those that have come before me. Those that, in the case of my grandmother, I wasn’t able to know.

 So, please realize that for the next 30 days I’ll most likely be MIA – since I’ll be using every word I can eek out of myself to help make that 50,000 goal! Even if their meaningless gibbers that I would usually post here – I’ll need them in the original manuscript to edit out later… Have an amazing Halloween, a great Thanksgiving… and I’ll see you again bright & early December 1st!

~ m