Writing Zombie No More: NaNoWriMo, Take 2

November is supposed to be all about National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) as it was for me last year.  I posted my word count several times a day, every day, last November.  I tweeted about my issues with my characters and how the one I slated to die didn't.  I stressed about Superstorm Sandy, my kids getting to and from school with Mass Transit in varying stages of workability and most of all, I stressed about getting all 1,667 words down each and every day.  But that was last November 2012.

Little did I know that the 4 and 5 cups of coffee I was imbibing to stay awake during non-writing hours was the beverage that was nourishing my little daughter.  Yes, somehow in all of that madness of NaNoWriMo 2012 I conceived and still managed to win last year.

This year??  Well, my little daughter is 3-months old and a bundle of joy!  I also went back to work the week before NaNo began.  Then, to top it all off, we had a TB scare in our household -- yeah, all in the last few weeks.  These are not excuses.  I know I can force myself to get the words down but I am still feeding my daughter on demand and sleeping on average 4 - 5 hours a day.  I can take the lessons I learned from last year and put them to work with my new and now very full schedule.

Half the time I'm so tired I could cry.  The other half I'm being pulled in 50 directions for work, pumping 2-3 times a day, my teenage children, my dear hubby, the commute, my family, my desire/need to write, my friends and Tupperware.  I've also realized that I have severe Baby Brain.  How do I know this?  I walk from one room in my home to another and cannot recall why I've come into the room?  I used to be able to recall things for several days, sometimes weeks, and would be able to get things done from a mental list in my head.  Not anymore!  So, EverNote is my best friend!

So far, I've written just over 5700 words for Book 2 of my paranormal cop thriller for NaNo this month.  I sit here and type away as my daughter lays next to me cooing and munching on my hair and her pacifier alternately.  I stare down at her and something inside of me breaks down.  I smile and realize that this year I have to give myself some slack.

There are priorities and necessities in life and then there are newborn babies.  I think I bit off more than I could chew this year by attempting to take on NaNoWriMo.  It was tough last year and it was just my teenagers and I.  They told me they didn't talk to me at all during November.  I was just a writing zombie.  Now, I guess I'm just a zombie. :-)

Okay, baby's getting restless and beginning to cry.  I'll wrap up and say that as a writing new mother I have to take one day at a time.  I have to make room in my life for the written word but it cannot consume me as I have a very little person who depends upon me for everything.  NaNoWriMo will be here for many years to come but these months are fleeting and precious.

I officially am not trying to finish NaNo this year.  I'm going to let myself forgive myself and wait to try again next year.

Wishing all my WriMo friends endless word strings and sated muses.

Happy Writing!!

My littlest angel...

Cover Reveal: Flirting With Chaos by Kenya Wright

Title: Flirting With Chaos

Author: Kenya Wright

Genre: New Adult Rock Star Erotic Romance

Publisher: Omnific Publishing

Release Date: November 19, 2013
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Synopsis:

 

Can two mentally unstable best friends have sex and not drown in chaos?

 

Rain's been washing blood off her hands for far too long. After five years, she accepts the fact that she"s still a little crazy but feels as if she's finally gotten it all under control.

 

Parties, drugs, and sex flood Jude's life, and music and scandal run through his veins. He's the son of a rock god and grandson of a jazz legend. It's no surprise that his own star is on the rise, and with so many groupies vying for his attention, his childhood best friend Rain keeps him anchored in reality.

 

She's nothing like him--an art student with no idea of her own beauty, who would rather curl up with a sci-fi novel than party in the spotlight. Everything changes when she asks him for a unique favor: she wants him to take her virginity. He's more than willing to oblige, but things get complicated when his pervy father gets involved. Meanwhile, intense feelings rise to the surface, ones neither Rain nor Jude are prepared to deal with.

 

If their relationship has any chance for survival, she must finally confront the demons of her past, and he must face the addictions of the present. When the smoke clears, will they find that sex between best friends was a good idea, or will they discover they had been Flirting With Chaos the entire time?

 

A Short Teaser...

An intricate pattern of colorful tattoos decorated both of his arms. It was a mural of his life—stars that intertwined with musical notes; guitars interlocked into microphones; nude, big breasted angels riding hulky demons. Those arms and that face had adorned the covers of magazines for years. Now he represented a legend of rock history. To obtain his interview would mean lots of money and skilled maneuvering through his agent, publicist, bodyguards, entourage, and any of the other people that walled him away from society.

Kenya Wright always knew she would be famous since the ripe old age of six when she sang the Michael Jackson thriller song in her bathroom mirror. She has tried her hand at many things from enlisting in the Navy for six years as a Persian-Farsi linguist to being a nude model at an art university.

However, writing has been the only constant love in her life. Will she succeed? Of course.

For she has been coined The Urban Fantasy Queen, the Super Iconic Writer of this Age, The Lyrical Genius of Our Generation. Granted, these are all terms coined by her, within the private walls of her bathroom as she still sings the Michael Jackson thriller song.

Kenya Wright currently resides in Miami with her three amazing, overactive children, a supportive, gorgeous husband, and three cool black cats that refuse to stop sleeping on Kenya’s head at night.

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