Due to overwhelming circumstances beyond my control, I had to leave the blogging world behind for a short period of time. There were a number of things that I needed to work out. Most of them I have made a lot of progress but some of the major hurdles are still a good distance in the future to be dealt with. I suppose that I'll deal with them when they pop up . Until then, I am content to distract myself with a number of different projects. So what have I been doing in the time away?
Let's see. In September 2012, I decided to take my writing more seriously. I've always been a writer of sorts. I often created short stories and poetry while novel length creations seemed to allude me. Before this year, it had taken me nearly seven years to complete a novel from beginning to end. That doesn't include the editing and revision process either! I attended my first writer's conference that month as well. 2012 was also the year in which I actually submitted a short story and poem for publication in a local e-magazine. To my delight, they were both published!
During the month of November 2012, I participated in the annual NaNoWriMo contest. For those who don't know what that is, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month (www.nanowrimo.org). Throughout the entire month, millions of would-be authors spend hours to reach the goal of having written 50,000 words. I have been attempted it on and off since 2005. Unfortunately, my success rate isn't very good as I have only "won" twice in the past seven years. However, this last year gave me the basis of a novel that I continued working on well past the end of November. In fact, I completed the novel in its entirety in April of this year. I have been quite pleased and shocked that I was able to finish one in six months!
Also during the later part of 2012, I decided that I wanted to do something community related in the honor of my brother's memory. Due to some unforeseen complications, what I had intended and the end result are slightly different but the essential desire is the same. I want to give back to those less fortunate in the community, especially the children, elderly and soldiers/veterans. My brother was huge on helping those groups and I'd like to carry on his giving nature. So I decided that I would help create hat and scarf sets for our local children's center. They have a 61 bed facility which is nearly always full, if not overflowing at times. Therefore, I set my goal at 75. Currently, I stand at 27 completed sets and have continued working through them one stitch at a time. My friends and family have been gracious enough to donate yarn, hats and their encouragement to keep me going.
Recently I have begun a second blog where I will be posting reviews of books that I have read. I have been entering giveaways where a requirement is to review the book and thought this was a perfect opportunity to expand on my love (okay, addiction) of words. You can find it at http://confessionsofawordaddict.blogspot.com/ and I do hope you enjoy it.
Other things have been going on, especially with my health, but I am going to save that for another day. My hands are going to revolt against me if I continue to push them. Hope you all have a wonderful and painless day!
Until next time,
Kay
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