The sun, ferns, salt and dark lager have bleached my brain. I am now sitting by myself at the (mahogany? kaori wood?) bar at a place called “Schnappa Rock” and enjoying a very tall pint while I write and look at the ocean:

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Tēnā koutou ! I’m in Aukland, New Zealand!

But don’t have much time to write, because I am jetlagged and have to go… write. Behind quite a bit on my NaNoWriMo novel and have calculated that I need to hit about 4000 words/day to make it happen. (You thought I quit? Oh, come on- you should know me better than that. Don’t you know sarcasm when you read it?)

Aside from zoning out to Ugly Betty episodes and trying to sleep in uncomfortable no-legroom positions during my 12 hour flight, I did manage to eek out another 1000 words or so — so off I go for the remaining 3 tonight, before I pass out in a jet-lag-gin-and-tonic stupor and wake again tomorrow to head off for the North Island’s Bay of Islands.

Hei konā ~

Christopher David DeJong
Feb. 14, 1976 – Nov. 20, 2007

It’s been a long year since you left us, yet the loss is still fresh. Slowly the pain lessens and is replaced with memory, but the “missing” will always be there.

Let us miss you without selfishness, without desperation, but only with love.

You will always be a bright spark in our hearts just as you were in our lives.

We know you are safe and at peace. Let us follow your example and have peace in our hearts…

We are taking good care of your dogs.

We love you, Chris–

…ok, team–

It’s time for a serious heart-to-heart. I know I’m infamous for my abundant pep talks (asked for or not) and Can Do attitude; for my always cheery “cheer up, Slugger!” encouragement and optimistic outlooks.

Wow. How annoying.

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Despite being on the road, I’m still NaNo-ing! I’ve made my way back to Taos, New Mexico, sagebrush of my heart, and am snuggling down into 7 (burrr!) degree nights, the cold air like a blanket of quiet.

Good thing I’m being well taken care of; some friends I met last time have put me up, and are supplying me with plenty of hot chai tea. Then I move on to Mabel Dodge for a week-long writing retreat with Natalie Goldberg. It’s a silent week of meditation, walking, and writing practice, a perfect time to accumulate words as week two of NaNoWriMo is upon us.

See you in a week, when we’ll have another NaNo wordcount update, with all the usual suspects.

We’re not even through the first week, and already our wordcounts are piling up. Gadzooks! The NaNoWriMo site is so busy that they’ve disabled some of the features, so I can’t install a geeky-neato wordtracker widget. Guess I’ll have to track by hand.

Our writers (in no particular order):

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I’m a bad girl, I know (I should be getting my 8 hours, or at the very least out having some Halloween fun like a normal 27-year-old) but I just couldn’t help myself– It’s just past midnight on November first, and it’s officially time to start writing! NaNoWriMo is upon us!

I have to say, it feels really good to be back at the keys in a fast-n-furious novel showdown, to feel the wind whipping through my fingers as they fly in focused frenzy — and, as I give myself permission to put quantity over quality for the next 30 days. Ye-Ha!

Word count as of 12:45am: 426 words.