National Novel Writing Month Winner, 2014

Woo hoo! For the second time, I've become a National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) winner. For those not in the know, NaNoWriMo is, as it says on its website, "a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to creative writing. On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 PM on November 30."

I first dipped my toe into the NaNoWriMo pool in 2012, successfully scribing my rough draft of what became Otter and Arthur and the Round Table, my sequel to my middle-grade fiction Otter and Arthur and the Sword in the Stone.

I gave it another stab in 2013, but came up just short on my word count as I toiled away on Abigail's Atlantis, a still unfinished middle-grade fiction. The story bounces back and forth between a twelve-year-old girl's summer working with her grandfather at a sea turtle rescue center and a twelve-year-old boy's life in modern-day Atlantis. The latter may or may not be all in Abigail's head.

Although I'm not done with that book, when November 2014 rolled around, I couldn't resist taking another shot. I'd been hit with a recent brainstorm - an adult historical fiction based on the real life of blues singer Robert Johnson. Let's hope that 2015 sees the completion of that book, and/or Abigail's Atlantis. In the meantime, thanks to NaNoWriMo for providing the catalyst for me to jump in and crank out rough drafts of my hopefully someday completed novels.