Returning with a Vengeance

This last year has been rough for me. Wild, crazy, with a lot of good stuff and a lot of really, really bad stuff. My few regular readers who followed me here from my old blog know what I'm talking about. For the rest of you, know that the day the world shifted on its axis was November 30, 2012. I'd finished NaNo. I'd WON NaNo. Then my whole life fell apart. Just. Like. That.

And, whew, it's been a bumpy ride.

In trying to save life-as-I-knew-it, I made a promise to NEVER again participate in the time-suck known as NaNo. Turns out that wouldn't have saved anything, but that's largely moot at this point. As is my foolish promise.

Still, this year has been too full of adjustment and single-mothering to leave room for such sanity-saving trifles as writing and blogging. I've read about half my normal quota of books, which pains me more than I can express. (Susan is getting ahead!) My NaNo 2012 book has been completely neglected since I crossed the finish line. I hope to someday go back to it, but maybe after I figure out what the villain(s) really want. I've been working a little bit on a new-shiny, but I've hardly been able to call myself a writer all year ('cause writers WRITE, and I haven't been).

So here we are on November 1, 2013. Well, I guess, since it's after midnight, it's technically November 2. I'm gearing up to do NaNo again. This is my third year, though I registered under my shiny old name, so NaNo won't acknowledge that I'm a veteran. I'm scared, I'm nervous, I'm wondering how I'm ever going to pull off 1667 words a day all month when I've barely been able to manage 100 words a month--and that's if you count writing-related Facebook posts.

All day, the world has been conspiring to keep me from writing. I had 161 words--half of which had to be re-rewritten (my tablet neglected to save my brilliant changes before I could transfer them to the desktop)--when I finally started sprinting at around 10:30.

By 11:55, I had 1,739.

I'm back.

I'm a: