Love the blogging community

Dawn, over at fourfiftythree was so kind (ON HER BIRTHDAY no less!) to pop by and clue me in on why this blog was posting oddly.

Seems having too wide of picture, such as I had on the Nov. 11th Veteran's Day post (which is now fixed) will throw the whole blog out of kilter.

Dawn herself has twin sons in the Air Force, and one's involved in the latest conflict. I think that makes for three heroes by my count-two sons willing to fight for our freedom, and one mom willing for her sons to do so.

I'm posting now because I wanted to say thank you to her.

I'm posting late because I had let myself get two days (3,400 words) behind on the National Novel Writers Month story.

Tomorrow I'll be midway through the challenge. Tonight I am at 43 single spaced pages, and FINALLY they are all off the interstate and out of the fog!

Things I have learned:

1. If you have your character eat something, you will also want to eat whatever it was that they ate. Write that they eat salad, or carrots or something low calorie that you already have in the house, so you don't find yourself wanting to run to the store to get cherry pie filling to make a cherry pie. There is no time for that sort of side stepping right now!

2. Characters want to change the spelling of their names mid way through the story. Jerry want to be Gerald now. I can not explain this.

3. I wish I had thought to sign up with NaNoWriMo earlier so I could have gotten in on the Houston NaNoWriMo writers kick off. I think it would be a lot less lonely feeling having co-novelists that I know of around to cheer me on.

4. Having a sulfur crested cockatoo as a character is the most useful plot device I could have ever dreamed up. I've had to research them for the story. They are very time demanding, yet loving pets. I plan on having an imaginary Sulfur Crested Cockatoo as a pet from now on, and visit Zoey, my friend's non-imaginary pet bird again as soon as possible. If this book ever gets published, Zoey gets mentioned on my Acknowledgement page.

If I can just pound out 1, 600 more words before I go to bed, I will be all caught up!

(Friends and family begin chant: Go Jill! Go Jill! You can do it! You can do it!)

Here's some tantalizing factoids about NaNoWriMo:

How many novels have been written through NaNoWriMo?
1999: 21 participants and six winners (winner being completed 50,000 words)
2000: 140 participants and 29 winners
2001: 5,000 participants and more than 700 winners
2002: 13,500 participants and around 2,100 winners
2003: 25,500 participants and about 3,500 winners
2004: 42,000 participants and just shy of 6,000 winners
2005: 59,000 participants and 9,769 winners.

Sarah Gruen is writing a novel this time that she already has 5 million dollar deal for.
FIVE MILLION SMACKERS!!!!!

Has anyone had their novel published?Quite a few! Jon F. Merz was one of Team 2001's winners; his NaNo book The Destructor was published by Pinnacle Books in March 2003. Lani Diane Rich, sold her 2002 NaNo-penned manuscript, Time Off For Good Behavior to Warner Books, and it came out to great reviews in October 2004, and won the Romance Writers of America RITA award for Best Debut Novel eight months later. Her 2003 NaNoWriMo novel was published by Warner Books as Maybe Baby in 2005. We had several sales of NaNoWriMo novels in 2004 and 2005. Sarah Gruen's Flying Changes began as a NaNoWriMo novel. Rebecca Agiewich sold her 2003 NaNoWriMo book, Breakup Babe to Ballantine in 2004; it'll be hitting stores in May of 2006. Dave Wilson sold his 2004 NaNoWriMo Manuscript, The Mote in Andrea's Eye, to Five Star/Gale; it'll come out in June 2006. In fall of 2005, Gayle Brandeis sold her 2004 NaNoWriMo manuscript, Self Storage, to Ballantine in a two-book deal. Around the same time, Kimberly Llewellyn found a home for her 2004 NaNoWriMo manuscript, Cashmere Boulevard, at Berkley Books. It's due out in summer 2007. Francesca Segre sold her 2003 NaNo manuscript Daughter of the Bride to Berkley Books; it came out in March, 2006. Also out this year, Jenna Bayley-Burke's NaNoWriMo novel Just One Spark came out with Mills and Boon in May. Lisa Daily started her soon to be published novel, during NaNoWriMo 2005. The Dreamgirl Academy is due out in the spring of 2008 under Plume/Penguin Putnam.