Well, I have pretty much made it through another NaNo. I have a shiny new image and everything!

I’ve also been reading getting ready for Thanksgiving. We have a turkey defrosting in the fridge, and this takes forever. It takes planning and stick-with-it-ness. Which is a word, spellcheck! (Apparently spellcheck also does not think spellcheck is a word.) Like writing a novel. Man this metaphor is really bad – but so tasty.

I digress, as happens a lot with me while writing.

I keep thinking it’s silly to keep doing this NaNoWriMo thing, for my third year now. And keep also teetering on the edge of “am I a real writer?”

Last year, I did contemporary fiction, which is a departure from my usual fantasy mold and scary because it is real and has to be factual. I was surprised to discover all the places I’ve really been and how easy research is. Seriously, I and the world have changed a lot since I was first writing. Research is so much easier and my experiences are so much more varied.

This year, I amped it up another notch by writing science fiction and realized it is actually pretty hard science fiction. Science fiction also always used to scare me because you need to really know stuff. I’ve done a lot of research on the subjects I write about – mostly for “important” academic essays and – wow – I know weird things about overpopulation and carrying capacity.

So, I’m taking a break from writing and word counts now to – well, mostly, to world build and flesh out this intriguing technological system people have.

Oh, and also I found out that turkey pardoning is a real thing and not a joke as I initially believed. I learn new things every day….