NaNoWriMo again

so there you have it.  thirty days of slog, and here i am.  the proud author of my THIRD NOVEL!!!
i can hardly believe it, but i've done it again, and i'm a winner again! :D

and this year, i think i might actually have written something vaguely worth reading, after last year's debacle.  although to be fair, i haven't read it back yet, so time will, inevitably, tell.  but i have hopes.  not high ones, to be sure, as i'm quite aware it needs a damn good editorial kick in the arse to make it readable.  i'm also aware that since i didn't actually know who the murderer was until about the 23rd day (and this is one of the reasons that i love NaNoWriMo), there's a lot that needs tweaking to take into account foreshadowing, and certain characters' attitudes to certain things, but that's where the rolling-in-chocolate-sauce glory of editing comes in. *happy sigh*

speaking of, since it's my first snowday since i was about twelve years old (YIPPEEE!!!!) and we have about a foot of snow outside our front door, i think i might plunge into that right about now (the editing, that is, not the snow....brrrrr!!!).  but i'll leave you with the synopsis of my third novel (god, that phrase *never* gets old!!! :o):

Cirque Du Seul

It's almost time for the winter season at the Roundhouse Circus, and the performers are rehearsing hard.  When Seb, one of the trapeze artists has an accident and ends up in a coma, people are shocked, but they get on with their lives.  The show must go on, after all.  But it soon emerges that this was no accident - someone has tampered with the trapeze.  It's not common knowledge, however.  The incident could shut the circus down for weeks, and be a disaster for the livelihoods of many, many people.  So Shona, a costumier, and Bill, a morose and misanthropic clown, set out to work out who could have wished Seb ill.  And when opening night finally comes around, it becomes evident that it's not just Seb that the would-be murderer wants dead.

spring, new life and shooting stuff

good afternoon, dear reader.

wait...afternoon?...surely that can't be right?...isn't it tuesday?...

well, yes it is.  but i'm on holiday, so ner.

weeellll...i say holiday, but really it's just leave.  can't really go on holiday, since poor Isobel is STILL in the paint shop! *grumblegrumblegrumble*. 

oh, look - never mind that now - i'm in a bit of a fragile mood today (yup - hormones strike again - expect a four AM post any day now...), and very likely to get cross or burst into tears at the drop of a mouse, so i will stick to the happy stuff, shall i?  my keyboard is, after all, not waterproof.

soooo...happy stuff.

well, spring is here.  definitely, this time.  thank the gods.  the wind is still chilly, but the flowers are coming out, there's a haze of acid green over half of the deciduous trees, the rest are budding, and some even have blossom on them. *sighs with relief*  sad bugger that i am, i was playing "Spring I-Spy" from the car on Sunday - vegetation (particularly of the flowering kind) only.  here's some of what i saw:

blackthorn blossom
cherry blossom
broom in bloom
daffodils
big, fat magnolia buds
heather
tulips
budding and blooming willow trees (of various kinds)
acid green hawthorn leaves
gorse
flowering currant
laurel buds
almond blossom
dandelions
and, most excitingly for me - daisies. my favourite flower.  i don't know what it is about these tiny, perfect little things, but i absolutely adore them.  they gladden my heart every day.  the common Day's Eye is a tiny little personification of bliss for me.  each and every one of them, no matter where they are.  i can't even make daisy chains, any more - haven't been able to for years, in fact.  i just can't bear to see them wither.  in fact i have, for about seven or eight years, worn a tiny little silver daisy on a hoop in my ear.  it's kind of a part of me....

anyway - the reason i was playing Spring I-Spy in the car is because it was a beaitifully dry, sunny day, and we were off to visit my shiny new step-grandson.

yup, you heard right, dear reader. i am a grandma.  at thirty-three years old.  sheesh!  thanks, guys - way to go! *headsmack*

i should, perhaps, explain.  hubby is 11 years older than me, and his eldest son is 20.  which, whilst it seems a ridiculously young and stupid age to me to have children...well...look - this is another of those things i'm not going to get into.  rant-avoidance techniques activated.

but...oh, he's soooo sweet! look!...

This is Finley.

look, i know - all right?  i tried to get them to spell it properly, but they wouldn't have it.... *eyeroll*

aaanyway - here we have three generations:

Stepson, Hubby, and Stepgrandson.

actually, to give him credit, stepson does seem utterly in love with the little 'un (as well as slightly zombified by lack of sleep - cue evil laughter and cries of "Revenge, at last!!!" from his parents...  hee hee hee!).  his girlfriend was just too tired to do or say anything much.  she seemed to be coping ok, though...

and that was most of Sunday taken care of.

exciting, huh?  wait till we get to Monday!!! (actually, you'll have to...)

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teamaking intermission

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actually, not a great deal happened on monday.  well - not outwardly, anyway.

inwardly, i appear to have a novel growing...  now how the bloody hell did that happen?!  i asked for a short story, goddamnit!!!  *sigh*  actually, i'm not complaining.  not really.  i know i said not long ago that i was going to write short stories for a bit, and that was how this one started off, actually.  but then it grew.  and grew.  and then it grew a bit more.  it seems to be generic romantic fantasy-flavoured, but i don't really care.  i like that stuff!  and i'm not ashamed to admit it! *stands tall and proud*  at the moment, in my head, it tastes a bit like one of my very favourite books, called "Spirit Fox".  it's by...noooo...not Neil Gaiman, (for a change!) two ladies.  one of whos name i can't remember.  the other is Mickey Zucker Reichert.  and i confess i only remember that lady's name because it's soooo...well...interesting.  but i love this book.  it's generic, yes.  but it's a perfectly shining gem of a book, too - the story is beautifully told, and the romance is romantic without making me want to cringe/throw up (allllways a bonus!)

of course, mine won't be nearly up to that standard, but at least i have a high water mark to aim for.  i'm beginning to think ouroburos was a fluke...

and, once i've got this one out of my system, maybe i can go for comedy? or horror?  or both?  yeah!!!

...ahem...sorry...quite excited... *blush*

and so to today.

today, we did archery, for the first time since...um...probably early october (gets a bit cold after that to be standing around twanging stuff).  we were supposed to do climbing, but since i spent the first hour or so of today sobbing my eyes out for no good reason other than i was sad and hormonal and tired, hubby suggested we go shoot some arrows, or take a walk in the woods.  between us, we couldn't make our minds up, so we decided to combine the two and shoot some arrows in the woods.  a splendid idea, as it turned out.  it's beautiful in Shining Cliff Woods.  peaceful, spacious, and just lovely.  and there's a little lake in the middle beside which we got handfasted.

our surroundings looked like this:

today we were up on the top of the shining cliffs themselves (and they really do sparkle in the sunlight, by the way - it's just magical to see), since it's nice and flat, and not too many people go up there.  the arrows are real, and can really kill.  i know, because not only did i kill the target, i killed a tree - at least twice - and a rock.  i'm not kidding - i took a chunk out of a rock with an arrow! 0.o

when hubby and i shoot arrows, we make it a competition.  otherwise, what's the point? (other than the incredibly satisfying sound of a well-shot arrow going "thwap" or "thud" as it hits the butt, that is...)

so, the rules are:

1 point per ring, starting at 1 for the outer white ring, and 10 for the last gold ring, 15 for the bullseye.

six arrows per person per turn.

flip a coin for the choice of first or second to shoot on the first round, winner goes first thereafter.

first one to five wins the round

best of three rounds wins the match.

and, in pictures:

Robin Hubby 

hubby searching for the first of today's lost arrows.  we lost four in the end, but managed to retrieve two, so not tooo bad... :oS

 

Robina In Da (campervan) Hoody

the scores were:

5 -0 to me

5 - 3 to me

2 - 5 to hubby.

i won!!! *triumphant happydance* this has only happened once before.  but best of all, my shooting was better and more consistent than when we started last summer.

here is my winning score:

check out the two together! *pride*

needless to say, i felt a little better after that.

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thank all the gods! (and the local and Twitter friends, too!)

well, well, dear reader.  if you were on Twitter this afternoon, round about threeish (BST), you may have seen this:

RRRRRAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!! AT LAST! AT LAST! AT LAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES! YES, YOU BITCH!!! YOU DIDN'T DEFEAT ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and, shortly after, this:

*************************EPIC HAPPYDANCE**********************************

that was the sound of me finally, FINALLY!!! finishing the typing up of the bloody WIP.  gods, but it's been a slog.  it has taken me approximately 84 days, and an awful lot of tearing my hair out to get this effing thing onto my hard drive.  i think some of the horror was partly due to my not believing in this one as much as the last one.  i realised pretty early on that it was flawed, and i almost re-genre'd the whole thing.  in fact, i rewrote about the first 8,000 words, in an attempt to do this.  that didn't work, either.  the problem was always with the beginning.  in fact, this weekend, i wrote up the most troublesome section (about 8-ish thousand words) using the simple expedient of just ignoring large parts of the original text.  there was actually a lot of rambling and place-marching in the first 10 or 15 thousand words, which was a big part of the problem.  so i just took a big machete and hacked at it until i could bear to type it.  it seemed to work

so, now, i have a big lump of story that needs to be carved into something readable.

this is gonna be interesting.

and, before i go, thankyouthankyouthankyou with big, massive GINORMOUS happyhugs to all of my local and Twitter friends who have kept me sane and encouraged me and distracted me from the horror of the typing.

love you guys! XXX

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