Is it November Yet?

I was babysitting for a friend today. She has a lot of health isssues and just really needs someone to help her out with her rambunctious, adorable 18 month old baby girl. I was sitting with her daughter and she was out in the kitchen getting breakfast.

"So, have you gotten much writing done lately?" she asked.

I tried to force a smile, even though I knew she couldn't see my face. "No. It's hard, with school and all. It's pretty crazy."

"Yeah." She laughed. "Hey, have you ever heard of this thing called NaNoWriMo?"

"YES," I replied, almost before she was done asking the question. "I actually did it last year. It was so fun! I think the most words I wrote at one sitting were about 5000."

"Five thousand?" she exclaimed. "How long did it take you to write that many words?"

I paused, nostalgic. Those were the richest three hours of that November. I sat on the floor at my sister's friend's house while she and my sister talked. They talked. I wrote. I wrote and wrote and wrote until it seemed like my fingers were going to fall off. But when I was finished, I looked up with bloodshot eyes and triumphantly announced, "I'm back on schedule." My sister and her friend gave me the weirdest look and kept on talking. But I was saved. That little blue chart now matched the curve I should be getting for that day. I felt fulfilled. "Three hours," I told my friend as I twisted her daughter's little mop of hair into a curlycue. "It was amazing."

I can't wait until November.

NaNoWriMo emails are flooding my inbox. I'm ecstatic. I can't wait to start. I want to write. I want to write fifty-thousand words. I want to write a hundred thousand words, if I can. These short spurts of creativity each day are driving me insane. I want to tear down the dam and submerge myself in all the pent-up ideas floating around behind the barrier I've put up to keep my life somewhat normal. Even if it's for only a month. Even if it was only for a day.

I can't wait until November.

I think I have the story for this year's NaNo. It's the story of my great-great grandmother, May. It's not fantasy, but it's a GOOD story. And, depending on how much research I get done, most of it will be true. I'm so excited. I want to show it to my grandmother when I'm done, to thank her for sharing those stories with me. But first I have to write it.

I can't wait until November.



Is it November yet?

~God Bless

Elisabeth (who is on a different computer and thus cannot stamp her awesome signature onto this blog post :( )

Where Do I Start?

DRIVING IS FUN.

Yes. That's a good place to start .

I got my permit two days before we left for the beach. And let me tell you, the beach was a good place to go out on the roads for the first time. I scared a few people, yes, but I know they forgave me. And those who didn't eventually will. I think.

SO THIS IS MY CAR.

Actually, it isn't my car, and that's not me in the picture. But it looks like my car (red, has wheels, same model, etc., etc.). That person doesn't look like me, no. KNOW WHY?

*suspense*

Because I have a black and white feather tucked safely behind one ear, yes sir, and I love it. It's going to be a bit long after I get my hair cut, but I don't mind :3

Did I say get my hair cut? Yes I did. You haven't even seen my hair, and so you shouldn't weep for it. I'll do enough weeping for all of us. But I've hit that stage where short hair = grown up and not old. And so I shall give in to my instincts and go for a bob. Or maybe shorter. We shall see. I'm going to be all steel and nails until the first lock falls onto my lap. Then you'll see weeping XD

This is the Lusitania. It was torpedoed by a German U-boat and sank off the coast of Ireland in May of 1915.

Did you know that my great-great grandmother had three names? I didn't either, until my grandmother started spinning yarns in her whimsical way after dinner one night. The story she told captivated me, and so I started taking notes (which is obviously what anyone does when something captivates them).

My great-great grandmother was named Anna Maria Yentz at birth, but was always called Mary Anna by her mother. She hated the name Mary Anna (which she thought was her REAL name until her mother told her otherwise) and so she called herself May. She was the third of eight sisters and fell in love with an English interpreter during the First World War when he was in the United States. This chap ran off with their two small children and life savings only a couple of years into the marriage, leaving May to find a note he'd left for her when she returned from work. Well, apparently May didn't accept that, because she saved up enough money for a boat ticket to England and was preparing to set sail after her missing children when her mother basically had a nervous breakdown and forbade her from sailing away. The boat she missed was the Lusitania.

May eventually got her kids back, sailed home for America, and married a man who guarded FDR and was even chief of police in Philadelphia, PA.

The story struck me as fascinating. And so I've undertaken the task of hunting down facts and trying to contain them all in a manuscript, or maybe even a book, about May. It might just be sort of a family history thing, or I might try my hand at historical fiction and use May's life as the basis for my plot. But I fell in love with this story, and I want to learn as much about it as I can.

Besides all the above mentioned, our last vacation of the summer was a real success. It's colder now--I'm wearing a sweater, and it makes me happy and a bit sad at the same time. It seems that fall  has REALLY arrived, and it's time to bid a fond farewell to shorts, T-Shirts, and flip-flops until next year (if my mom doesn't raid my closet before I can dig them out again).

My classes are starting for REAL this week, and I'm super excited.

Time to look up some German verbs.

~

Elisabeth

Ideas, Ideas

Okay, first of all, let me apologize for not posting in over a week. I've been sick and I've spent most of the last week on my sofa being miserable XD I haven't gotten any writing done, just a bit of brainstorming. And I think I kinda latched onto a new idea.

Maybe...

I don't know much about it yet, but all I DO know is that there are five brothers. They're not in a fantasy world; they're in ours, and I don't know what time period. And I have no idea what they do, or if they even do anything XD I think one of the brothers--maybe the oldest--has a problem. Maybe it's mental, or maybe it's physical. And one of the brothers is a lover. And one might be a scholarish rascal. But I don't know anything about the other two XD And I'm really not sure if my main character will be the youngest brother or the second-eldest. It depends on what ends up being "wrong" with the eldest. Or maybe it doesn't. I guess my idea's at "that" stage XD

I got the idea after watching "Dancing at Loughnasa" (an film set in Ireland centered around five sisters) and after watching the preview for "Little Women." Maybe it's just me, but I couldn't think of any stories about a little group of brothers other than The Brothers Karamazov, and certainly not one set in modern-day or close-to-modern-day settings. Correct me if I'm wrong; I'd like to read said books =P

All I know about my five brothers right now is that their last name is Falcarragh. And that's not even written in stone XD But it sounded cool when I said it (right?) and it's Irish =D

I must leave you now with that; just a random update about the state of my brain. Say Falcarragh five times and be very happy ^_^

God Bless~

Elisabeth

Ps. Aaaand, since this is sounding a little too like "Dancing at Loughnasa", my Falcarraghs don't live in Ireland. They might not even be Irish. They might be Swedish. I don't know. I'm tired XD