Well. That was interesting…

Nov 8, 2016, was a great day for me; my first opportunity ever to vote for a woman president. Hopefully, it won’t be my last. 

I know the big news this week is the election. While I have a lot of thoughts about that, I’m so saturated by politics on all my other channels that I’ve decided to not get into it here. I will, however, say this: There’s been a lot of anxiety this week, but also many signs that a brighter future is within our reach. I, for one, need some time to let the steam die down and to regroup. In other words, the topic of politics is not dead, just on a mini vacation. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Now, where was I pre-November 8?

Oh, yeah. I think I had started a novel. Something about trying to write 50,000 words in a month. What kind of a whack-a-doodle idea is that? In any case, I was clipping along just fine until I got bowled over by current events, and everything came to a screeching halt.

Still, sometime between November 1 and today, I’ve managed to pass the 10,000 word mark on my new paranormal romance/suspense novel, EvenSong. Miraculously, at least a handful of those words were written during this past week.

I’ve pretty much lost all hope of reaching the 50k mark by the end of the month; I just don’t know how I can make up for the lost time. But that’s okay. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my writer’s journey, it’s that some things are more important than writing. Family. Friends. Colleagues. Community. All of these came first this past week, and I have no regrets about that.

Despite my rather miserable word count, I’m actually pretty happy and increasingly excited about my progress on EvenSong.  I’ve managed a couple of extraordinary passages, if I may say so myself. And I made a very important breakthrough: I found the voice of my main character, Katerina.

Figuring out Katerina as a person has been a challenge since the idea for EvenSong first sprouted inside my head. I had been immersed so long in the voice of Helen from The Hunting Grounds that I had a hard time letting her go and allowing someone else in.

So imagine my excitement when, within the first couple of days of starting NanoWrimo, I happened upon Katerina’s voice, and it turned out to be completely different from Helen’s.

Where Helen is serious and skeptical, Katerina is bright and full of hope. While Helen is the consummate business woman, down to earth and practical, Katerina is a free-spirited artist, always playing on the edge between imagination and reality.

A woman with her own history of pain and loss, Katerina has nonetheless successfully nurtured the child within. For better or worse, she boldly dives into love and romance, eagerly dressing up the mundane with her own fantasies. She is fiercely independent. And she has a cat.

I must say, I like her. I like her a lot.

So that is my big news this week: I have at last tuned into the unique and compelling voice of the protagonist for my new work in progress. I know that’s not much compared to some of the events that have rocked our political sphere, but sometimes I have to hold onto the small things, the day-to-day achievements within my personal life, in order to weather the larger events of this world.

I’ve finished this week exhausted on so many levels, wishing I could resume a stronger rhythm with NanoWrimo, but unable to get there just yet. I’d talk more about why, but as you know…that would just lead us back into politics.

And that is a topic better left for another day.