Yay, me!

As of right this minute, 3.40pm, 30^th April 2013, I’ve completed Camp NaNoWriMo. For the uninitiated that means that in the last 30 days I’ve finished 50,000 words of my novel, Overly Caffeinated Werewolves (Are not Pretty), and I'll get all sorts of cute goodies like computer badges and half-price writing programs.

 Yay me! Happy Dance! I'm a winner - it says so on my stats page and I didn't even need to run anywhere or muck around with a ball!It’s a wonderful feeling. A nice solid, bulk of work, sitting there emanating good vibes at me from the heart of my computer. There's still another 25-35,000 words to go, but the main structures there, and its been so much fun to write and I can't wait to juggle it around a bit and see what happens.

So, yes, my manuscripts a mess. Things are all higgledy-piggledy and towards the end there I was just writing scenes with neither placement not correct punctuation. 

Stuff happened I did not plan and that still vaguely perplexes me. Did I know the Sun goddess and her fiery chariot were going to play such a strong role, or that Mia would go hang out with the Greek style, but double-breasted, Amazons in Amazonia, where the Sun and the Moon have a massive break-up fight in the middle of the river?

I didn’t have a clue. But she did. And they did. And I think it will work.

Nor did I know Mia's detectiving would lead her to the land of the Were-Cats and the sad tale of the were-wolf and the were-cat who fell in love and had kittubs, who become the Lands first police force….

Okay, I admit, when you don’t have the time to think things through plots get messy… but I’m sure given a few strong blows and some nails I can hang it all together!

But the words are there. I’m confident that with a bit of play I can make something fun and strong and full of fizz from them.

And now, now I can finally edit! Those pages that weren’t quite right so I rewrote them? Those extra adjectives that so aren’t my protagonists style. Vamos! They go.

I just have to wait until I’ve uploaded the words and it’s all been verified and I  can hack into the manuscript with an ax and remove all the dead wood and really see it’s beautiful  trunk and branches.  (Have I played with that metaphor enough? – the trees out the window before me are stunning falls of sun-caught gold, so I’m very ‘treed’ up.)

Presently, thanks to too many 4am writing starts, I am a tad sleep deprived, and possibly a little too caffeinated. When you have to stop and think before you can work out how many coffees you've drunk, the suggestion is there's been a few too many. 

But... oo. Happy shivers. Hello, my little manuscript, I'm very pleased to meet you!

Weekly Stills

1. Blossoms in evening light
2. My Sprocket. I think I can see him as a teenager in this photo. He's growing so quickly.
3. My Sprocket and my Poppet. What, my children play with sticks? Yep. The best toys. Well, until somebody loses an eye... But for now? En guarde!
4. Woah! Poppet, being walked by our dog Issy. Poppet doesn't get to walk Issy often as Issy, a street dog I found being drowned on the Island of Isabel in the Solomon Islands and presented to my Beloved as a just-started-going-out-present, is not entirely reliable around other dogs. I blame it on the quarantine when she was very young. Luckily this park was fully fenced and no one else was there.
5. A feather in the light.
6 & 7. So I mentioned that I'm rapturously in love with Autumn? The affair continues. I adore the autumn colours. I always feel slightly adulterous to admit my love of the imported European trees... but just look at the colours!

 8. An (out of focus) riot of daisies.
9. My Sprocket, just out of surgery for his grommets, and waiting in observation until we were allowed to leave. He was not a fan of the cannula that had to stay in till we left.. They gave us his gas mask to take home as a toy for his teddies. It'll get a lot of use!
10. My lovely cherry tomatoes. I seem to eat some every time I'm in the garden.

Joining with the wonderful Em at The Beetleshack. I'm so excited about her baby coming soon. (I'm not clucky, I'm not clucky, I'm not clucky. Oooo. Baby...Little baby.)

17/52

1. My Sprocket, about to go into theatre to get grommets put in. He looked so little and young I just wanted to swoop him up and take him home again! On the way over in the car he'd been saying "I'm a lucky boy, I get to go to daddy's work!" It all went very well and he is once more climbing about at the speed of light!

2. My Poppet, holding onto daddy's hand. Increasingly she just looks so knowing and herself. She's only two and a half but already such a determined, imaginative character. My hilarious little firecracker!

Joining with the lovely Jodi over at Che and Fidel for a photo of my babies once a week in 2013.

So We're All a Little Bit Blue...

Yesterday, my Sprocket had grommets put in his ears to help his hearing.
When he came home, his little nose bleeding a touch and still subdued, there was not a question that what the little boy wanted the little boy would get. So we're suckers. Mostly, I'm okay with that.
What he wanted was to watch 'big boy' shows on ABC3, which generally are banned.
And to make blue cupcakes.
And if my brave little boy wanted blue cupcakes, well, blue cupcakes he would get. We made the bluest cupcakes I've ever seen or even imagined. A truly beautiful, rich teal. Those with a weaker stomach might have thought the cupcakes distinctly queasifying. The kids loved them and ate them all before they cooled enough to ice.
Now, I should have realised that he'd recovered from his trip to the hospital when I had to tell him off for climbing on top of the wardrobe. But no. When there was a suspicious silence I just thought, O, the kids are playing nicely together.
Eventually, two and two clicked. My Poppet coming through and telling me they hadn't been making a mess in the kitchen, possibly gave the show away. There was just something about her grin.
And they had been playing nicely together.
My beloved heard my exclamation and asked me to tell him it had nothing to do with the blue food dye.
I told him I didn't think I could do that.
Because, playing very nicely and quietly, they'd painted the entire kitchen floor, and a few chairs and the table for good measure, blue.
I think I can safely say that my little one recovered from surgery quite quickly.
We're all a bit blue now. Hands, feet, pyjamas, faces.
It's slowly washing off.

Moi, Moi, Moi

A friend recently emailed some photos she took of me when we were in Melbourne-City awhile back in the summer. It always feels very odd putting up photos of myself, but if the kids want to look back in years to come - this was me during their childhood!
Place: Random Melbourne Laneway with Characteristic Street Art.
Wearing: Dress from random Queensland op-shop. I love it as it never crumples, never needs ironing and goes with all shoes.