I apologize for the recent lack of posts. I have been on a nearly two-week trip over Thanksgiving, during which I became engaged to the most wonderful man on the face of the earth. 
Writing posts will return shortly. Hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving!
I’m not participating this year. As much fun as it sounded like (and I tried last year, but didn’t make the 50K), I have too much to do to try to cram that in this year. That, and I hate the way I never finish projects, particularly writing projects. So, instead of NaNo, I am continuing my work on the “practice novel” I mentioned several posts back. That novel is now at 10,325 words. Not a lot, but better than I’ve done in awhile. The WIP meter in the right sidebar is my visual for this project, in case anyone was wondering.
I do, however, have several friends participating, one of which has taken the time to read over parts of my project and give me feedback on it. 
Wow, having a writing “partner” even part time is awesome.
On another note, recently I checked out the 2007 O. Henry awards from my library. I’ve only finished two of the short stories so far, but “The Scent of Cinnamon,” by Charles Lambert, definitely packed the punch of an O. Henry. I was disappointed with the first one in the book, but the second made up for it. I am always rather leary of modern fiction, but we shall see how this plays out.
Writing is my stress relief.
I have known this for some time, but it came to light once more this morning. I just finished studying for another CLEP exam, one that I was supposed to take Tuesday, but upon taking the practice test discovered that I wasn’t ready for it. Ergh. So I’ve been studying some more, and I’ll take the test on Saturday. Anyway, I’ve been really stressed over it. This morning I took the practice test, and I scored high enough to think I’ll do fine on the exam.
Then I ran to my writing. Guild lessons, joint authorship story, practice novel, whatever. Anything. That was the first thing that came to mind, and it was just such a relief and an enjoyment.
It’s times like this when I just know, “This is what I was born to do.”
