End of year reflection

This blog is getting an overhaul and I should be rolling out something fun in the next month or so. I started it back when blogs were still this thing you do for personal and professional reflection, but social media has kind of taken over that role for me, and so this is becoming more and more a personal afterthought vs. a real blog. I'd rather roll it over to something more functional.

But here is a final old-timey post for 2014.

Death and renewal were very instructive themes this year--in the best and worst ways, and not for me. In fact, people I love are still facing incredible loss, while 2014 continues to bring me gifts and blessings and triumphs that even now I'm not quite sure I deserve. And yet, deserving or no, I have them and I'm grateful for them. I'm superstitious enough not to go on too long about just how great things are, but I'm thrilled to reach the end of this year with words of thanks on my lips rather than weary relief.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Eyes up!

NaNoWriMo 2014

National Novel Writing Month, a.k.a. NaNoWriMo, a.k.a. this thing I keep thinking I'll do every year and don't.

Except for this year. Bam!

Slamming 50,000 words together in 30 days doesn't lend itself to great writing, and in this case I tried to set aside the silly desire to write well and just focus on the word count. Happy to report that not all of it sucks. I don't always write well even when I'm really, REALLY trying anyway, so I suppose this evens out in the wash.

Terribly proud to finally complete a NanoWriMo challenge on the fourth try. Even though every word was started from scratch this month, the idea is actually something I started and stopped years and years ago. Here's an excerpt before this thing disappears into the bowels of my hard drive, never to be seen again (unless I'm desperate to mine it for other projects.)

QUARANTINE: Nathan Hope and his ex-wife, Dr. Jin Tracy, have been divorced for a little over two years. Nathan gets news that his ex was part of a medical mission working in West Africa when an outbreak hits the region. As an American, Jin is being brought home for treatment. Jin has no other family, and she didn't update her emergency contact information after their divorce, so it's her ex that is called in as her next-of-kin.

In this scene, Nathan is talking with one of the mission's PR wranglers, Melinda Corso, who is asking some deeply personal questions about the couple.

Felt as good as they promised it would to finish this thing. Congrats to all the other people who finished too!