HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

I'll post my monthly review with my IWSG post next week. That way, I can report my final progress report for NaNoWriMo.

I know Thanksgiving is going to look different for a lot of people this year. My family's too big to get together for the first time in a while, so immediately families are getting together. If nothing else, find reasons to be thankful, and if for nothing else, be thankful we're still alive.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

November Writing Update

 

Can you believe it's already the middle of November?! It's crazy. I have successfully written every day for NaNoWriMo, and I've passed the 20k words mark! I had to tell myself this time to just not worry about hitting 1,667 words every day. Those first few days, I was passing that, and I even passed 2,000 words a couple of days. I didn't think I could write every day anymore, so I'm excited that I can. If not by the end of November, I will have a completed first draft of my urban fantasy in December!

How is everyone coming with their NaNoWriMo goals?

Celebrating My Mom - Carrie Finney-Holmes

Happy Veteran's Day!

I'll have some words to share next month, and they'll be words I WROTE for NaNoWriMo.

Today would have been my Mom's 64th birthday. She died of Stage 4 metastatic lung cancer, and she had never smoked a day in her life. They are researching the cause of lung cancer in non-smokers, as there is an uptick in this occurrence. Please donate to a lung cancer society, as lung cancer research is highly underfunded compared to other cancers.

We are currently celebrating Mom with a British Brunch, because she was a huge anglophile. For now, please enjoy her incomparable singing voice as she lead our church choir and the Newark Symphony Orchestra in The First Noel.

Insecure Writers Support Group: Into The Place Where You Dream

 

Happy November!

I can't believe this year is already up, but I guess it's a good thing when 3/4 of it has been in quarantine. Here's to a better 2021, even though we still have December. On the bright side, November is also the start of the Holiday Season, beginning with Thanksgiving, my favorite "2-day" holiday (gotta finish those leftovers)!

How is everyone doing with NaNoWriMo? I've successfully gotten through the first 3 days! I think having a publisher to answer to put a fire under my butt. Ha. I'm taking it a day at a time, because if I think about the fact that I have 27 more days to write 1,667 words (well a little less, because I'm actually averaging 1,735 words right now, and the website lowers the bar daily when you write over 1,667) EACH DAY, I will go into panic mode. I'm also writing with a group of other writers in a bigger group called Black Girl Gamers. I joined maybe a month before my mom passed, so these ladies have been a big comfort to me this year. If you're trying NaNoWriMo alone and struggling, try to look for some friends who can join you and support you through it. But also, it's okay if you don't reach 1,667. I have to tell myself that, too, so I don't get disappointed in myself. The important thing is you're writing.

All right, onto this month's question: Albert Camus once said, “The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.” Flannery O’Conner said, “I write to discover what I know.” Authors across time and distance have had many reasons to write. Why do you write what you write?

Robert Olen Butler said "Art doesn't come from the mind. It comes from where you dream." I'm a big dream writer. I dream vividly, and in color, which is apparently rare, but I know many people who dream in color, so I have questions. Anyway, I write to share what sick and twisted thoughts are in my mind, and to create worlds others can escape into from time to time. Sometimes you can find a moral. Sometimes, meh. As a black woman writing fantasy, I also want younger black girls who love fantasy books and video games that it's okay and they're not alone in what they love.

Why do you write what you write?