I'm back! Its December 1.

As anyone who follows me on Facebook knows, I have been participating in National Novel Writing Month all of November. the object of " Nanowrimo" is to write 50,000 words in 30 days during November. I put aside all other writing projects, including blogging, to do this year's Nanowrimo. Although I STILL did not complete the 50,000-word challenge, I DID start a heck of a writing project that I plan to {eventually} finish.  I'm writing a young adult paranormal novel about a young werewolf's freshman year at university.  Writing in the YA/Paranormal Romance genre has proven to be more challenging than I had anticipated, but I am in no way giving up on completing the draft of the novel.

It has also been a rough weekend, football-wise, for me. My Steelers lost to those hated Baltimore Ravens on Thanksgiving eve and yesterday my Crimson Tide fell at literally the last daggone SECOND to that other Alabama college football team. Ugh.

Today also marks the beginning of the Advent season in the liturgical year. When Best Dude and I walked into the nave today before morning Mass, I noticed that the altar cloths, our priest's vestments and the wall hangings on the east wall are a glorious purple hue. To me, Advent is a season of hopeful anticipation for new beginnings.

This year Best Dude and I will participate in Las Posadas, a symbolic procession of a likeness of the Blessed Mother & St Joseph that will travel from house to house among parishioners throughout the Advent season. I've not done this before, so I'm looking forward to Mary & Joseph " visiting"our house on the 10th of this month. Las Posadas reminds me that the hopeful anticipation of the season sets the tone for what the Christmas hustle & bustle REALLY should be about: Our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm as guilty as the next person when it comes to the secular,. albeit FUN aspects of the holiday season.

It is hard, but I am making a concerted effort to take " time out for the coming Christ" this Advent. Won't you join me?

Amen.

1 Advent 2013

NaNoWriMo...I'm in!

It is official. I, Sarah Beth, am an official participant of National Novel Writers' Month. The idea is to write {at leas}t 50,000 words during the month of November. there is a web site where you can enter your word count daily and also communicate with " writing buddies" from your geographical area & even around the world.

This year I am focusing on FUN...and not quality. As a matter of fact this year's genre is a Young Adult Paranormal novel about a coming-of-age female vampire.

Yup. I'm writing a vampire novella.

 My heroine, Katharine { or Kat, as she'll be known to my readers} is the anti-Bella Swan.  My heroine is strong, confident & ready to fulfill her destiny. Unlike Bella, Kat embraces the changes that fate has forced upon her.

Naturally, my young heroine will have a love interest, but her object of affection will be her 18th Century British Lit professor. He is a tall, dark and handsome....human.

Stay tuned, as I have not yet worked out the details of that plot line yet!

 Kat knows that pairings between vampires & humans is forbidden---she herself is the result of a young human man falling in love with an impressionable vampire girl. In order to protect her, Kat's parents placed her with a human family who were childhood friends of her father. Kat loves her foster parents very much, but from the tender age of four, she knew she was inherently different..

Here we go......