Greetings and Salutations

Hello and welcome to my blog. Here is where I will be recording my progress through my novel.

Begun in November 2007 for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), what started out as a frantic 50,000 word challenge has taken on a life of its own. My current word count is well over 75,000 words, to be updated later with an exact count, and is divided into 4 parts, 3 of which are finished and in rough draft form. The parts are somewhere around 25K words each, but, as I said, they are only rough drafts. The 25K just seemed to be a nice round number with which to end each part. As scattered-brained as I am, I've done a bit of reworking on part one, completely eliminating an entire character, despite the fact that the final part is still only on page 5. It's okay to laugh here. I find it pretty funny myself.

Anyway, I've decided to create this blog to sort of make notes on this project for anyone who might want to follow me down this path of insanity, or maybe even for myself to go back and shake my head sadly at my silly misguided notion that I could actually write a real novel. As things go from completion of rough draft to harrowing rewrite to hair-pulling frustration as my friends and family assist me in perfecting it even further to the inevitable writing of the query letter to publishers and eventual receiving of rejection letters, I will attempt to post all about the smiles and frowns, the ups and downs of this wacky world of noveling.

So can I call myself an author if I haven't been published yet?

I think so, although I feel a bit silly for it. Being an author does not necessarily mean being good at what you do or even being paid for what you do.

All I know is that I'm creating something. It's a story. I like it. So far my friends and family see the potential too. Whether or not the publishing world agrees with me...well, I think that's getting ahead of myself. For now, I need to finish that pesky part four.

But welcome to the dungeon, where I am shackled to my laptop. I'm a prisoner to my art! Come along and join the madness! LOL