NANOWRIMO: It's a Wrap!

NANOWRIMO is officially over and I won!

Last Tuesday, I had 2,895 words to go so I settled down for a write-a-thon and did it! The official word count is: 50, 118!

I’m so proud of myself. I was not about to give up no matter how frustrating it got at times. There were times writer’s block seemed to keep me from reaching my daily word count goal but I would be out walking the dog, running an errand or twiddling my thumbs and Ta-Da! I’d have an idea and I’d just run with it once I sat down to write.

It feels so good to have accomplished this! The pressure is off but now it’s time to EDIT! DUN DUN DUNNNNNNN… Now I get to figure out what I want to keep, what I don’t want to keep, make some final decisions, correct as many grammar and continuity mistakes as I can, then see where to take it from there.

And after all this, I thought I’d take a break from waking up at 6am so I could rejoin the living for a bit and get some extra sleep but noooooooo… I set my alarm for 6:30am the next day but I was wide awake at 6am with itchy writing fingers. I tried to ignore it but there I was writing away in my notebook. Oh well, I tried.

I wasn't the only one to win the 2011 Nanowrimo challenge. My friend Lindsay, blogger extraordinaire (and coworker) worked her magic too this month! And today is her birthday, so Congrats and Happy Birthday, Lindsay!

Thank you to all my friends and family for putting up with my daily word count updates on Facebook and for their words of encouragement. And I especially want to thank my husband and daughter for being supportive and putting up with me when I would shush them as I finished writing out a scene (sorry, guys!). Thanks you so much, you rock and I love you! To celebrate I baked some Nanowrimo Winners Brownies for us:

And now I leave you with an excerpt because I know everyone was probably thinking all I wrote all month, over and over and over, was “All work and no play makes Sarah a dull girl”:

He didn’t know how he felt about being back in the city. It had been thirty years. It had changed some but it was still dirty, grimy and full of lowlifes, cheats... and vampires.

He felt them everywhere he went. He tried to avoid them. But wherever he went they were there too and old habits and instinct were hard to ignore.

He found two vampires taking a nice leisurely walk. One vampire was older and the other, younger, maybe having been turned no more than a couple years ago. Any human who paid any attention to them would just assume they were two friends out to have a drink or two

.

But he knew. He had an advantage that carried over into this life, if it could be called that. And he knew what they were up to and followed them.

He watched them enter a hotel lobby and head over to the bar. They ordered wine but left it untouched, chatting with the other bar patrons. They were there for several hours. He could wait. He wasn’t going anywhere until they were.

Finally they left. With a lovely lady on the arm of the young vampire. The older one bid them good night and went on his way. The young one and the lady walked along, her stumbling, the vampire holding her steady. She laughed aloud whenever he whispered something in her ear. They stepped into an alleyway. He picked up his pace.

He found them leaning against a wall making out. He didn’t feel like a pervert because he knew the charade. It was the same for all vampires. He saw the flash of fang, the slight lift of the head before the bite, then heard the whoosh of a crossbow. He smiled as he saw the bolt slide easily through the vampire’s ear and the point coming out of the other. An excellent shot.

He kept himself hidden in the shadows to watch the rest of the operation, a sense of pride and nostalgia washing over him. Some things never change.

He heard the quiet footsteps of two people running. The drunk girl was shaking as she looked down at the vampire with the arrow sticking through its head. She was in shock, her eyes wide with fear.

“Oh my god, are you alright?” A woman’s voice asked her. It seemed to bring the drunk girl back to her senses some. She nodded.

“What happened?” She stammered.

“Gosh, I don’t know,” the other woman told her then slid a needle in the drunk woman’s arm and she fell to the ground.

He smiled. She would wake up tomorrow and vow never to drink like that again.

Then it came to his favorite part. The beheading of the vampire. Done so easily and skillfully. He wished he was there with them partaking in the fun. But that was no longer his duty anymore, not since… he wanted to turn away, it was no use torturing himself with memories of days long gone, when something made him stop. Something about the hunters.

He watched. The more he watched, the more it felt like he was turning all over again. He didn't know if he should smile with pride or run in panic. Afraid he’d do something incredibly stupid he left the hunters to their work.