Gasp

It's the last gasp, about thirty-someish hours until the end of the month. For NaNo'ers, this is either a sweet deadline or impending doom. I hope you're in the former camp, but if you're not, or you didn't try NaNoWriMo this year, I hope you'll give it a try again next time. I truly do believe that it's a magical month (likely because I start gearing up for it far in advance.) For the more writerly among you, I'm looking to you for guidance as to the proper "soak" time to allow the first draft before sitting down and re-reading it again, and to find the courage to re-read and re-write. I'm mired in last year's novel, opting to jump in and fix every tiny little thing instead of stepping back and looking at the structure of the Whole, and going from there. The collision of words on the page leaves me speechless at times, and I don't have a good strategy for plowing through it. Help!

Thanksgiving came particularly late this year, too, so I didn't realize just how close to the end of the year we truly are. 2009 is running out on us, and I'm shaking myself awake to face the holidays... they've had a four-week head start, and are moving at quite a clip already. Time to be pulling out all the hall-decking from the shed and start giving the house over to tinsel and bells and non-stop seasonal bossa nova. Considering that we're still pulling down Halloween art projects from my preschooler, this is quite an undertaking. The Spirit of the Season is upon us, as I was reminded when I saw this Lettera 22 being offered for $250 on the local Craigslist. That also leaves me speechless.