I'm Writing Our History on the Bedroom Wall

Wow. I disappeared for while there didn't I?

Well, to be perfectly honest I was pretty busy. I had Samahin preparations toworry about. It went well, by the way, and I will get back to my witch 101 lessons as soon as I'm able, although I confess, its likely to be December before I get to it.

As you well know, its November, and for me that means its a writing month. Some of you know I've written a novel, and although I was unable to get agented for it, I still am very proud of that peice of work. I think its beautiful writing, one of the few things I've ever done that I am immensly proud of. The reason I got that thing started was NaNoWriMo.

In case you aren't familiar, Nano is short for National Novel Writing Month, and its done every year in the hopes of bringing authors and would be authors fun and joy as they scramble to get words on paper. The idea is that if you write a 50,000 word novel in the space of a month you "win." My first year doing Nano I won, and I won big. Iwrote nearly 200k words that month. That eventually (after, like, six revisions) became my first novel. Since then I have not had as much success, life has a tendency to get in the way; and by life I mean the terrible personal decisions I made in the successive years.

This year I am back at it again with a brilliant new plot and a lot of energy. I'm also being encouraged by my partners to get back in the saddle and get to writing again. So far I've hit 12k words. I'm pretty proud. I should mention I have plenty of friends who are encouraging me as well. It gives me a lot of hope.

Nano is also the reason I met Perpet, my very best friend in the world. She was our city's municipal leaison. We met at the prepratory meeting and rest is history. I'll forever be grateful to Nano for her, if nothing else, because my life would not be the same without her. I also met Sakura through Nano that year, and he has enriched my life as well. If you are a budding, would be, or hope to be writer, I encourage you to pop on the dorums and go for it. Its still early in the month, you've got plenty of time. Hell, its fun, and that's got to count for something right?

Outside of living at my desk chair and neglecting my blog I'm preparing for our vacation. We only take off once a year, and I look forward to it. I must admit, I've been extremely grumpy the last few weeks, so a break is somethign I could use. We're going to the beautiful city of Eureka Springs Arkansas this year, and its going to be great fun. While we're there we are plannign on shopping, antiquing (antiqing? eh!) take a spa day, having photos done, eating a bunch and taking a ghost tour at The Crescent Hotel. Its America's most haunted hotel. You should check out their site, its awesome. The photos creep me out.

I might also add that this is where Perpet got married to The Boy. A funny story for all you nay-sayers I discovered last night. While we were there at the hotel, I was charmed to find they had cats in the hotel. No suprise, since cats are meant to be guardians of people from spirits. I sat down in one of the fancy lobby chairs while Perpet was sorting out stuff with the minister who was to marry them.

Two gorgeous black and grey cats were playing at my feet in no time. I was delighted, because I love cats. Then a giant orange cat leaped into my lap and I was happy to give him cuddles. BBD looked at me askance and asked what I was doing. I emptied the orange kitty off my lap and told him I was petting the cat, why did he care. He looked at the cats at my feet and said no, they were sitting at my feet. I said yes, except for the orange one that just went out onto the porch. He rolled his eyes and walked off.

I told perpet about the cats and she spotted the two grey and balck ones immediately. From what she told me last night she spent the rest of the weekend hunting for the ginger cat. (I suspect she's like me and has a weakness for yellow tabbies) I was on the website last night and discovered the hotel's last ginger cat passed away in 1994! I was petting a ghost kids. I'm not nuts. I swear. I held that cat. I knew it was there. Apparently, BBD thought I was nuts because I looked like I was petting nothing...There's quite a few accounts of this cat, Morris, hanging around guests, as I fond out later last night. Wow. I feel both incredibly creeped out, and awed at the same time.

In other ghostly news, I had a dream about my grandfather about two weeks ago. He (and the lord and lady) came to visit me while I was sleeping. If I give you the particulars chances are I'd sit and cry at the computer, but sufice to say it was a moving visit and I felt very loved and touched when I woke.

I also discovered (because I think I've mentioned I've seen the Lord and Lady before, but was never able to figure out which archetypal for they were taking) that my Lord, such as he is, is The Baron Samedi, the king of the Voodoo Guedes. I'll let you do your own wiki search if you're really interested in him. I will say this, I think its entirely me that he's not only a god of death, but of sex, mirth and life. Trust me to have him appear as a snappy dresser who likes to drink and smoke. Eh? Yeah, its totally me. I found him while I was doing research on death gods. It was, um, a shock.

Other than those things, my life has gone on pretty well as normal. I've been playing Scrabble with Flyguy and Kitten quite a bit. They're getting good enough to beat me on a regular basis. I like the challenge but am convinced if I work harder, I can maintain a winning streak.

I hope all my lovelies in blogland are happy and well. I'll not disappear so long again, I promise.

AGxx