Camp Nanowrimo

I posted my thoughts about what happened in Boston on another blog. I am not ignoring it. Just trying not to say the same thing over and over again.

As far as Camp Nanowrimo goes, I have not only done 10,000 words but I have passed 30,000 words. I'm even doing some editing. My new goal is to get 50,000 words this month, and maybe, maybe even finish this first draft. I'm already beginning to craft the ending in my head, but I still have some words to write between where I am now and that scene. Still, I have made much more progress than I expected and I am feeling pretty good about it.

Quick update on my novel- NaNoWriMo project

Some of you may recall that back in November I was working on a novel. I have never actually attempted something this long before. I was very proud to reach my goal of 50,000 words that month. However, a novel is longer than that, and really I am not even sure if that is the halfway mark.

Well the folks over at www.nanowrimo.org have something called "Camp NaNoWriMo" for April where participants do a scaled down version. You can set your word count goal to be whatever you want. I've set mine low- 10,000 because that is more than I have managed to write during December, January, February, and March combined. I'm still working on the November project, and the last I checked I'm only on page 114 of this thing. I've got some new ideas though so I am hoping to make some more progress.

Sadly, although I asked for and got the Dragon Speaking software for my birthday, I haven't actually had time to learn how to use it so I'm still plugging away the old fashioned way- jotting down notes when I have time, and plugging things into my very large Google Doc when I'm ready. Like before, I actually have two files going. One is the actual novel, and the other is the notes and pieces. Sometimes I can actually copy and paste directly from the notes file into the novel, but mostly it's a place to jot down a quick idea or a link to a website for more ideas, and then follow up on those things later.

Anyway, "Whispering Hills" is still a work in progress, but hopefully in the midst of insanity that April is for me, I will make progress. Not expecting to complete it this month, although who knows? Anything could happen!

Photos of the farm

If you've ever clicked on the "Where is Clessonville?" tab, then you know it's a fictional place that references Buckland, MA. My father's family has lived in Buckland for many generations, and my maternal grandfather's family used to as well. My father still has a bit of a farm on Walnut Hill. I went for a visit on Sunday, which happened to be Easter. A calf was born on Saturday. Her name is Ester. She was one day old when I got to see her.  She will probably be the last calf born on the farm until next Spring.