I did it, and I hope I don't live to regret it.

As you might have guessed from my postings, I've always enjoyed writing and assumed I'd be a writer some day. Well, with recent events in my life . . .

1) My sister dying and making me realize that you can never put off what you want to accomplish,

2) My cousin Lori's unexpected encouragement, and true enjoyment, of my writing, and

3) My sister-in-laws actually getting something published (the bitch!).

((I really love my sister-in-law and she is a very religious person; so I hope she appreciates my humor in the last remark.)) . . .

I did something totally out of the blue with not thinking about it at all.

I signed up online to participate in the Nation Novel in a Month program (NaNoWriMo) -- www.nanowrimo.org. My sister-in-law first participated years ago and I was jealous when she did it the first time. We were both really into our writing then. She's never dropped the ball though. She completed a whole novel in a month. Went on to sign up and complete a several-year long course in writing online. She's attended writing conventions, met with potential agents, and now has some short stories published. And she's several years younger than me. As I feel uncomfortable continually calling her a bitch, I will refer to her as B from now on. (Feel free to substitute any thing you want for B; it could be Better Writer, Best Woman, Brighter than Me, the options are limitless.)

Anyway, she sends out a message to everyone encouraging us to participate in a contest she is holding in honor of her first publications. The link about B's contest is http://www.almarquardt.com/contest.html -- go check it out.

So there I am on her website, which is dedicated to writing, reading about her publishing something and I'm feeling both envious and low. Then I follow her link to her blog at http://almarquardt.com/blog/ and she has a post about her entering the NaNoWriMo contest for her 4th year. The next thing I know, I'm on the site and signing up.

Now normal people, have known for months they were going to participate in this event. They have pre-plotted, written out their characters profiles, have a basic idea (or a chapter outline) for their upcoming book, and have met with others participating in the same area. Sort of like a bunch of race horses neighing at the starting line. And the moment the clock rolled over to Nov. 1 they WERE OFF!

Me, I sign up Nov. 2 with nothing prepared, no support group, a business I have to run, in the middle of about 6 different patterns I wanted to get finished and out on my site this month, and a son I watch full time. Yeah, this is going to happen.

No, I'm not giving up before I start. I fully intend to complete my 50,000 words during the month of November. But, I will have to make sacrifices . . . starting with two of my favorite things to do; blog and write ehow articles.

Tonight, I went out and posted up three new ehow articles just so they wouldn't be hanging over me while I work on my novel. http://www.ehow.com/members/mistymq-articles.html

And now I am explaining to my family and friends why I won't be blogging much over the next month. Blogging, while something I only started a few weeks ago, has quickly become my new hobby. I enjoy it and think about what I can write about all day. I hope to post a few quick ones every now and then just to keep me current.

Wish me well!