November

Have you heard of NaNoWriMo? It stands for National Novel Writing Month. It’s a contest of sorts where people sign up to write a novel over the 30 days that hath November. You win bragging rights (and some discounts offered by contest sponsors) if your novel reaches 50,000 words. That’s an average of 1,667 words per day.

I’m doing it this year. (I can hear so many of you muttering, with some concern in your voices, “She really is off her rocker.”)

Since I have absolutely no imagination, it’s all about me and a few of the people in my life. I use fake names, but everything else is real (at least what I perceive to be real). So I may never publish, in any form, certain parts of it.

My fake name is Nora because someone once told me I was the next Nora Ephron, and I took it as a compliment. (I hope he is still reading this blog, but there is no way for me to tell.)

My novel currently contains 36,894 words. I’m kind of proud of that, though I’m not sure why.

Here are a few excerpts from various chapters.

The Blogger

As with so many other things in the past, Nora had become obsessed with the blog. Her husband had just been in the room ranting about how she was ALWAYS on the computer. (In fairness, that was after she told him to get busy and go get something done around the house. So, she accepted his valid criticism quietly.) All she wanted to do was write, and she had started exploring other platforms for her writing. Including this write-a-novel-in-a-month contest where she competes against herself – her favorite kind of contest. With the threat of hosting Thanksgiving dinner looming ahead of her, what could she possibly be thinking?

The Insomniac

Thinking about all these family members reminded Nora about Thanksgiving. Was she really going to host Thanksgiving dinner? If so, she had to get an email out to the family. Or should she use one of those on-line invitation web sites? She noticed turkeys were on sale the last time she was at the grocery store. She should go get one soon. Or should she get two? She would have to clear out the freezer. What should she have people bring? Not wine. Based on past experience, this group didn’t do a good job with the wine. How many people would come? At least the septic system had been freshly pumped. But she needed to remember to buy a vegetable peeler. Ugh. She would have to put together a new to do list. And she need to re-do her to do lists. They were getting a bit disorganized for her tastes.

The Marriage

Nora’s husband liked her family. But it sometimes surprised even her how much time he was willing to spend with them and how much he was willing to do for them. He had agreed without hesitation to hosting Thanksgiving. (However, not without commenting that he would need to prepare himself for her being crabby the couple of weeks before hand.) He was always up for visiting anyone in the family at a moments notice. And when she asked him to come help move some furniture from her parents’ condo into their house, he only asked “Why?” once. Her answer had been to tell him not to ask any questions. And he didn’t complain when he couldn’t park his car in the garage for those couple of months it took to clear all that furniture out. And when he asked her where her brother was going to stay after he sold his condo, he only flinched a little when she told him with them.

Half Way

This novel contest wasn’t without its stresses. Thanksgiving was quickly approaching, and, based on on-line turkey calculators, she needed to get a 33 pound turkey. Where in the world was she going to find a turkey that size? Did they even make them that big?

There was also every day life to deal with. Since the beginning of the month, there had been a number of errands and appointments. The movers had come to get the last of her parents’ stuff, she had brought the car in for servicing, there had been multiple visits to various doctors for various reasons, she and Jane had gone into Boston to visit a college (where they sat in traffic for two hours on the way in and on the way out), she was making some updates in Jo and Emily’s bedrooms (painting, carpets, and moving out furniture and clutter), and she had just discovered that some misguided soul had, for some unknown reason, removed the burlap from the bushes she had recently covered.

Her brother was also staying with them for a few days on an inflatable twin mattress in their basement. Her husband asked her why, but she didn’t really know. He had showed up off the plane from Wisconsin with a cooler full of frozen deer meat and the clothes on his back which consisted of a sweatshirt, a Red Sox tee shirt, and a pair of baggy, faded jeans. In a few days, he would head down to his place in Florida, and she would have her freezer back. (Jane suspected he was actually the one who had uncovered the bushes to attract the deer.)

A Chapter To Be Written

Something about Nora talking to her uncle on the phone about a plan for disconnecting and reconnecting the kitchen sink and having him walk her through the rewiring of an electrical outlet. And Nora buying a turkey or two at Costco.