Fair Warning

November is National Novel Writing Month and I will write a novel. This past year or so has been challenging for me in the writing department. Family illness knocked me on my butt and I’ve been struggling to pick myself up hence. My mom was diagnosed with a rare but benign slow growing brain tumor that the people in scrubs tell us we won’t really have to worry about for another 10 to 15 years. Like I won’t think about it every day until then. My dad was diagnosed with cancer and just last week completed (hooray!) his treatment. My mind is mostly clear and I haven’t an “omigod my parents are mortal!” moment in about ten days. But they are well now and they are moving on with their lives so I know it's time for me to move forward with my own.

So I’m back to writing. Actual scheduled writing that I think about and not just typing a few words in between treatments or scribbling ideas on the back of Starbucks napkins. And most importantly: When people ask me what I don’t feel like pulling my turtleneck over my head. I’m excited about my project. I've missed the tickles in my stomach and being so eager to find out what happens next that I stay up to write about it. Writer's Trill, welcome back.

So this is fair warning: Next week’s and all of November’s posts will give all you a [sometimes scary] peek at my writing process: word count updates, triumphs, failures, cups of coffee ingested to keep me awake and minutes spent jogging to keep me sane, and number and kind of object broken when the jogging didn't work.

I hope some of you will join me.