It’s a long story, how I came by the title, The Kind Of Honduras, for my novel. In fact, I now know the story is well over 50,000 words. I’m a proud NaNoWriMo Winner!
I just scrambled and uploaded the 50,277 words of my novel so far, and I think I probably have at least another 20,000 to go before I finish this story. But the brilliant people at the Office of Letters and Light, who created National Novel Writing Month, inspired me to get my butt in the chair at my desk for “this wild write-a-thon: 30 days of high-velocity, pedal-to-the-metal noveling,” and write the 50,000 words required to be a “winner.”
Yes, I have two long flights, to Moscow and back, to thank for 16,000 of those words. But all the rest happened during a month when I did a half marathon, hiked numerous times, visited with many friends and lots of family, presented at a national conference, paid bills, grocery shopped, did laundry, cooked dinner, stacked wood (okay, David mostly did that), put my garden to bed for the winter, trimmed my perennials, mowed the lawn for the last time, made several batches of apple sauce, hosted 19 for Thanksgiving, and had our annual bonfire. And I have four days to spare!
So here’s my next commitment, even though the month coming up is even busier than this one was. I’m going to finish the first draft of The King Of Honduras by the end of December. Expect regular updates. If you don’t see any, ask. I’m going to be able to go to parties next year and say (this is one of the motivators on the NaNoWriMo website), not that I’ve always wanted to write a novel, but that “I wrote a novel.” It may not be any good, but first I have to get it written to figure that part out.
Grace Mattern 