In a normal year (if there is such a thing), November is a crazy month for me. There are three family birthdays, chicken butchering at my uncle’s, Thanksgiving, plus all the normal, day-to-day and week-to-week things. This year I decided to be even a little more crazy. I’m doing NaNoWriMo, kind of.

For those who don’t know, NaNo is short for National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days or less. I went into it knowing that I would most likely not get to the 50,000 words, but my goal is to try to write at least a few words every day of the month and write as much as I can. I’m also splitting the 50,000 words up between at least two stories.

My projects

Project #1:

The first project I am working on, is called When Roses Bloom Again. Here is a book cover mock up I made to help with a little motivation.

The story is based very loosely on the Beauty and the Beast fairytale and is set roughly during the reign of King Rehoboam in Israel. Ehud is a descendant of Anak and is a slave until he is accused of murder and runs away. Chava is a priest’s daughter who has a soft spot for Ehud and convinces her father to go after Ehud.

Originally, this story was meant to be entered into the “Five Enchanted Roses” short story contest, and it might still be entered. We will see how the writing process goes and if I can get it written well enough before December 31st.

Project #2:

This project is a supplemental short story for the Hymns of the West series. It takes place starting about where book 3 starts and there is a brief mention of the main characters in chapter five of Amazing Grace. My plan is to publish Redeemed: a Hymns of the West Short Story about a month or two after Amazing Grace is published.

Cole is a confirmed bachelor. He has two nephews and has never had a desire to marry anyone except one young woman who is his best friend and has never seen him as anything but a friend. Then his sister and her husband die and he suddenly has the care of his four nieces and nephews, ages 2-8. Cole is overjoyed to see them and get to spend more time than just an occasional visit with them. But after just a few weeks with them, he realizes that something more needs to be done, and a nanny just won’t cut it. He needs a wife.

Project #3:

If I decide not to work on Redeemed when I finish When Roses Bloom Again, I might get started working on book #4 of the Hymns of the West series which is about Ruth from A Mighty Fortress. I have a rough outline of the book so far, but no coherent synopsis yet.

In addition

Okay, first, I know that I’m crazy. But while I do all this writing, I’m also working on getting Amazing Grace ready to send to my beta-readers. I finished editing it Saturday night and need to do at least one more read through. I would greatly appreciate prayers throughout this process. Amazing Grace is one of the harder books to write because so much happens in it to so many different characters that it is hard to keep it all straight.

What about you? How many of you are doing NaNoWriMo? What kinds of projects are you writing? Do you have a goal other than 50,000 words?