It has been a while since I posted anything. As a matter of fact, I noticed my last posting was in November during Nanowrimo 2019. Since that time, Christmas and Valentine’s Day came and went, I’ve written some short stories, and it is now close to Easter, and the Coronavirus is going around forcing everyone into lock-down.

This has helped me to put certain things into perspective. We never know what life has in store for us, so we have to do our best with what we have. I don’t know why I think that sounds negative. But it does, and yet it’s true. When the first few days of lock-down happened, everyone was in a panic about what to do. Most people are out of work. You can’t go anywhere except the grocery store (if there is anything to buy). It’s boooooring. I took a different approach. I said, “I now have plenty of time on my hands. I’ll get up early and write. Everyone needs to be more positive. This is all a test to see how we will react. ” (If you’re wondering who is doing the testing, insert any figure real or imaginary you please.) This lasted all of three days. Then I fell into end of the world mode with everyone else.

But I’ve decided to change again. This morning, I woke up and did a write-in session with some other writers at Story-A-Day. (I had been doing this and then quit because I was under the delusion it was imperative to stay up all night and sleep most of the day.) I started working on my novel for Nanowrimo. And now I am writing this blog post because I figured Why not? I’m taking a different attitude and hope I can influence other people to take a different attitude as well.

Back to Nanowrimo: I am writing a novel tentatively called Witch’s Brew. If you have looked at any of my stories you will know I wrote a flash story called “Witch’s Brew.” Last May I was doing Story-A-Day May where you write a short story every day in May. The first story I wrote was “Witch’s Brew.” It was good for a short story. I could have left it alone. I’m sure it could stand on its own. But, I got to thinking about it more. A few days later, I wrote a follow up story (not so much a story as a scene). I got to thinking Hmm. Maybe this could be a novel. Then I dropped it. And during Nanowrimo 2019 I tried (ha, ha) to write a different novel that had nothing to do with the flash story.

About a month ago, I wrote another small scene for Witch’s Brew. So now I’ve decided it has to be a novel and that is my project for Camp Nanowrimo. This project is 25,000 words for April. If things go well (and I’m VERY hopeful this time), I will continue this story in November’s Nanowrimo (“Why wait until November to finish?” you ask. “If you knew me, you wouldn’t ask that,” I reply haughtily.) If you are also doing Nano and you would like a buddy, my Nano name is nataliegoodwinwriter. Best to all until next time!

It’s that time of year again — Nanowrimo — a time when writers everywhere sit down and try to bang out 50,000 words of a novel. And although it’s officially day 6, for me it’s only day 2 because I started late. The novel I am currently working on is The Mind Travelers (may change title). It is a story about the first daughters of an ancient matriarchy with powerful mental abilities. It’s still pretty sketchy, but I’m working on it. I didn’t outline the novel. I have written out a brief summary (not fully developed and therefore subject to change). Usually I just dive into the story and see what happens. I’ll keep everyone updated on my progress.