This year, I strongly considered not participating in National Novel Writing Month. If you're not aware of it, here's some info: http://nanowrimo.org/

Normally, it's the worst month in which to do it because my kiddo gets a week off school, not to mention that the weather normally sucks. Like I can write anything that makes any kind of sense with my kiddo around. This year, it's the month when I have editing clients, five cavities being "filled," two birthdays to celebrate, a school conference, the weather will likely suck, and my kiddo gets a week off school.

So I've managed to write this blog post and nothing else so far this month. I'm taking a few minutes away from my client to do so.

The reason I decided to participate is I want the shirt, and it seems wrong to get the shirt without participating. There's this space theme this year that's way cool. And yes, I'm being serious. I like space.

But I have already decided that I am going to lose. I am NOT going to write 50,000 words this month. Why? Because for me, it's both unreasonable and detrimental to my mental and physical health. Not only that, but it makes me write LESS. If you look at my history on the above site and then on their affiliate "Camp NaNo" site, you'll notice I've won at Camp. Twice. At NaNo, zero times. Not only have I never won at NaNo, but the most I ever wrote (25,000 words) was *less* than one of my Camp projects. There's a reason for that. Camp allows me to set an achievable goal. NaNo does not. I am not motivated by the pressure and anxiety from deadlines... unless running away is the result you're looking for.

Every month, I set achievable goals for myself and chart them on Excel, and I'm not going to allow this month to be any different except that I'm going to attend write-ins when possible and buy myself a shirt at the end of it. Yes, I will lose NaNo this year, but I will win at Chryse NaNo. I will ignore the 50,000 word ridiculousness (for me) but still have a decent word count to work with. 

If you have the ability to come up with 50,000 words this month, more power to you. That's great. If not, consider coming up with a goal that's achievable for you. 

Dental appointment yesterday. I must seem like such a lunatic--and technically, I am. I lay in the comfy exam chair, staring at the forest screensaver and listening to the soothing music as my hygienist typed notes.

As I listened more closely, I couldn't help but break into laughter. "In the Arms of an Angel" was playing.

Out of all the people who could have heard that song, it seemed funny that it would be the metalhead writing about demons. So it makes me wonder: is it a "sign"? Maybe angels play some part in my story that I hadn't considered.

Been busy with kiddo stuff lately. He has some kind of cold. For those of you who don't have children with autism, it's work. My son is this amazing brainiac, so I'm always taking him up to the local medical college--he's eight--to look at models and walk around the campus. But he also happens to have a difficult time expressing himself at times, which makes Mommy mind-reading helpful. Sorry for veering there. I get excited about pretty much everything :-)

In the ABOUT section, you can read the first pages of my latest, Kill the King. It's the story I've been burning to write... but never knew I was burning to write. Scott Nicholson, who wrote the wildly popular After series, inspired it completely accidentally, as did my background as a massage therapist.

I had decided to enter a story of mine into the Writers of the Future contest, and I began to do a little research into what kinds of stories they might like, etc. Scott's story, Vampire Shortstop, was the Writers of the Future winner one year. I've talked to Scott before, and he's a super nice guy, but I couldn't manage to find his story. I messaged him, and he told me it was in one of his short story collections--I'll find out which and link--and even offered to give it to me. Like I said, super nice. 

I bought it and read it, and something occurred to me. 

Blood.

It's this story of this vampire on a Little League team.

I couldn't help but think about vampires and blood. Because in a lot of other stories, it's supposed to be different (or at least important) somehow, right? As a State of Ohio Medical Board licensed massage therapist, I learned so much about anatomy and physiology, and one of the side note things I learned about was blood doping.

So I thought, What if a vampire blood doped with a human during the Olympics? They probably have all these special powers, right?

But vampires are boring. So then I thought, What if a demon blood dopes with a human? Then I was off.