Miss me? 

Well, I did it! And in record time, too. According to the word count verifier at http://www.nanowrimo.org/ I rang in at 51,825 words, as of yesterday evening.

The "novel" itself is pure shite, full of unrealized characters, hanging plot threads, gaping holes and far too many adverbs. However, that's NaNo for you. I have a reliable (i.e. non-butt-licking) friend doing a beta on it to let me know if there's a snowball's chance it can be salvaged, or whether it'd be worth the time & effort to do a complete edit & re-write. Even if not, it's got me back writing again, which was the primary goal.

With aching back, arms & fingers, I am now taking a well-deserved rest from my keyboard, and getting out of the house! So I won't be updating again until next week.

Yes, Tom, I'm reading your book, several chapters in as of now. And, in case you wanted to know, I'm a lumper, not a splitter! I like the style of it -- will post a full review some time after I get back.

Here's a celebratory photo (I call it "Yellow Rose of Ottawa"):