I know that there are precisely three regular readers of this blog.  No, four.  My mother – hi Mor, Judy, Mary and Trudi.  Hi Ladies.  Happy belated Thanksgiving, Judy & Mary.  Hugs to you T.

You may be wondering where I’ve been for the last month, as you’ve not seen anything posted here.  I do have an excuse, honest I do.  You see, I set myself a challenge this year. Or, more accurately, I accepted one.  That challenge was to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.  Why?  Just to see if I could.  So instead of laying down 500 or so words about life at Les Terraces, or the occasional BVI vignette once a week/fortnight I’ve been perched on the edge of the settee in the wee hours of the morning before the sun comes up crafting some form of a novel.

The inspiration for this challenge came one slow day in the office when I was looking for God-knows-what on the Internet and I stumbled upon a reference to National Novel Writing Month (www.NaNoWriMo.org).  As each of you ladies is well aware I’m a blonde singularly lacking in imagination … you can make your comments at the foot of this post, don’t save them as silent speech bubbles, please (you might give me some pithy comments that I can use in a book later).  I decided to embark upon the venture.  For the record, Graham thinks I’m nuts, but he did read everything that I’d written up to the half-way point in one day.  He has some catching up to do.

It has been a fascinating journey.  As of 5:15 when I slipped out of bed and re-started my computer I had 44,726 words under my belt.  The end is in sight.  No, the goal posts are in sight and I’ll score a goal on my first try, but the book, I have discovered, isn’t half way to being a complete story.  What is mind blowing is that the NaNo web site reveals that there have been 2,388,484,748 words written by participants around the globe.  Two and a quarter billion words!  It’s pretty awe inspiring (or daunting, depending upon your perspective).

So my apologies if you’ve been missing my drivel.  At least you now know why.  I’ll be back soon.  I promise!  Now, back to work.  Byeee.