Wrapping things up

A week from today, we will be on the plane back to the US.  I was going to chronicle our oh-so-organized process of sorting through our things and packing up, but so far it's just happened around the fringes of my attention.  Mike has made great progress sorting through his collections of books, games, art supplies, and dice, while I occasionally throw a few books into a box, or clothes into a bag. Mostly, I'm trying desperately to finish this draft of my cheesy romance novel before we take off.  

I began plotting this novel in late October or early November of 2007, shortly before Nova was born. I knew that I wouldn't have the energy and brain power to do NaNoWriMo that year, but a year later, in the midst of ridiculous amounts of household stress, I decided to give it a go again.  I started writing on the first and plowed through a few bumps in the road before losing two days to a vicious stomach bug (first me, then Nova, then Mike... or maybe Nova was first).  I took two days out to put together a grant application (unsuccessful, but I suppose it was worth something to do the exercise) and somehow managed to just pull past the 50,000 word mark on November 30th.  

That landed me about 2/3 of the way through the plot.  I had great intentions of plowing on and finishing the story in December, but I was just too tired. I took a break from writing and sank all of my remaining creative energy into Christmas baking.  

I poked at the manuscript a couple of times over the winter, but I didn't start serious work on it again until the middle of May.  I revised and cleaned up what I'd done during November, and now I've moved on to the final sequence, or close to it. I know that I'm going to have to do a major overhaul of the later half of the book, but I want to wrap up this draft, no matter how messy, by the time we fly out next week -- preferably sooner.  

Meanwhile, Nova and I are battling a nasty head cold, but I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel -- swallowing is less painful today.

So, despite my best-laid plans, I'm afraid packing and cleaning the apartment is going to turn into an eleventh hour project again.  I'm not worried, though. I can pack as fast as I need to.

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