This is day three of National Novel Writing Month and I feel fine. Just fine. A bit cranky perhaps, but not about the writing, which is going OK, I guess. I skim what I wrote the day before to remind myself where I was going. Some of the typos are funny. Case in point: I meant to write a character saying, “I’m sorry for your loss.” (I know, cliché, but the point of NaNo is to get it written, get it done, edit later.) What came out instead was, “I’m sorry for your life.” I left it as is because maybe that’s what he really meant to say. I don’t know that now but perhaps I shall by the time I rewrite.

If I get that far. Life is crazy and it gets more so each day. Yes, there’s been some rejections, but I’m used to that, what I’m finding is all sorts of “Extras” being thrown at me. Even this morning was another extra. I find it highly unfair of the universe to throw things at me before I walk out the door. On my stoop was a product to evaluate. What the???

The remodeling area did get cleaned up this week which it desperately needed. Bettina passed away and the memorial is scheduled for Sunday at two. It was set for Monday at two and it would have been hard to get to, but now that it’s on Sunday, I have no excuse. I really liked her. Who wouldn’t like a woman who made incredible cookies for receptions and intermissions at the Arts Center?

And while I had it in my head before I started NaNo this year that I would write the new stuff in the morning and then edit an older work in the afternoon and evening, what I hadn’t counted on would be that there would be no choice in the matter.

I sent away to get the entry form for a first mystery novel contest, but didn’t hear back, so I forgot about it, plus I figured, why edit when I don’t have to? Well, the entry form came and once “Campus Crimes” is edited, I need to send it in old school, printed out in full. My reaction to this is: Oh My G- I’m soon going to be sending off a manuscript! A whole one–just like I’ve seen in movies and dreamt about doing since I was at least twelve years old. Holy Wow! I feel so close to living inside one of my dreams. Lol.

I’m a quarter of the way through the edit and I think I could have used the find and replace option to eliminate every ‘that’ and I’d drop the 10% Stephen King advises to cut. I think I’ve kept two ‘that’s so far. What was I thinking? Sadly, I do recall–I thought I needed a manuscript to be 100,000 words-minimum. *Sigh*

So, my friends, I need to get back to the delete button. Any luck wished this way will be greatly appreciated. Have a happy two weeks until next time!