NaNoWriMo On the Road!

November is the month for NaNoWriMo--that's the "write a novel in a month challenge" for those not familiar with the program. I successfully wrote a novel (or a series of novelettes) a few years back in my first NaNoWriMo, and I'm hoping that I'll be able to at least start and finish a proposed novella I've had in mind for a few weeks now this coming November.

The added challenge to my "novel challenge" is that we'll be on the road for the next few months quite a bit. 

Yet I still think it's a doable feat. Why? Well, for one thing I won't be able to access the Internet quite as often as I can now. I'm one of those dinosaurs who don't access the Internet via my mobile phone. (My cell phone is not "smart".  It only lets me talk and listen on it. I prefer it that way.) So while we're traveling, I'll be without Internet distractions. I hope this means I'll be able to concentrate on developing my story and finishing it before the end of November. 

I have two story ideas actually, but my best bet this NaNoWriMo is the next story in the continuing tale of the young vampire Edwin Carstairs, first introduced in my Celine Chatillon novella, Blood Bond. I had a dream that Edwin survives and thrives as a vampire and 35 years later, at the onset of World War II, he is recruited to find a rogue vampire in league with a Nazi scientist... none other than his former lover, Ophelia Jones. The tentative title is Blood in Berlin.

If that story idea doesn't get the creative juice flowing, then I have a romantic-comedy idea about two lonely people who watch each other from afar and dream what life would be like if they were together. But will they ever get together in reality? That's the rub! 

Hey, why don't I let the readers decide? You tell me which one of these story ideas strike you as one you'd like to read in the comments below. Thanks and Happy NaNoWriMo to us all! :)

 

Container Gardening Part 2

I said I'd post some more photos of how our "container gardening" was going this summer, and I forgot. Truthfully, it didn't go well at all. The extreme heat our poor plants experienced on our second floor apartment balcony just did many of them in. The few that survived didn't start to thrive until later in the season. At least our pepper plant is still producing baby peppers.


I want to express my wholehearted thanks to my friend Michele A. for babysitting our carrots and beets while we've been in and out of town helping  Mom. We harvested what we could of these crops, and while our attempts at organic container gardening weren't successful by any means, we can at least say we tried. Next year, we hope we can obtain some actual land to plant seeds in. Keep your fingers crossed!

The green tops of the beets and carrots look quite healthy.

This is all we harvested, but we learned a lot.

Space--carrots and beets need more space to grow larger!

November will bring a lot of challenges--The Nanowrimo Challenge (write a novel in a month) for one of them. Stay tuned for updates and how you can enjoy a free story this holiday season. Don't forget to check out my newly updated web page at http://www.cynthianna.com/ too.

All you green thumbs out there--please tell us in the comments section below what we could have done differently to grow better crops in our containers. Thanks.