The first time I heard about this alien thing  of nanowrimo was in a writers magazine the year my youngest was born. He wasn’t quite nine months, and I remember that I was starting to feel restless inside, the way I always did when the kids came up to the one year mark.

Its like once I’ve done the initial hard work, of breastfeeding/waking up at nights/keeping a newborn alive  things start to feel too easy. I’m not sure why, and I’m not sure why I don’t do better with relaxing. Maybe I’m a little more type A personality than I realize, but I start looking for extra work to give myself. In the past, after having babies, we’ve moved provinces or houses, or I’ve changed jobs, or all three.

But here we were, in October 2015. I had no plans to move anywhere, change jobs, or buy a new car. We just were living life. A busy life by any standards, with a 9 month old, three and four year olds and a twelve -going-on-36 year old, but normal. I went to work, husband made sure the kids were alive and the house hadn’t burned down. Normal.

Then I read about nanowrimo. You see, until this point in my life I’d always said “one day I want to write a book”, but it was in the same way other people say “one day I want to win the lottery” Basically, it was a fantasy, a fairy tale.

Inspiration struck me in that minute when I read about this concept. National novel writing month. It had some key concepts that sold me. One, it was free. I really find free the best price. Two, it was easy. The goal was to write 50,000 words, a short novel, and see how you did.

So I went for it. I committed to writing every day, with the help of my amazing husband. This meant that when I got up at 4:30 in the am instead of trolling Facebook for other people’s excitement I would write. I would write in spare minutes at work, and in evenings in front of the tv at home. My husband, Gunga, enjoyed this as it gave him chances to play Halo, which I normally rolled my eyes at.  The kids went to bed at seven and I would write until bed for me. And by December 5th my first draft was done. But with a snag- this book had decided to be a trilogy. Seriously? After all that?

So here I am, April of 2017, about to embark on camp nanowrimo for the second time, and I couldn’t be happier with myself. I have three books done, polishing in the polisher of my brain, one at the editor for someone else’s brain to polish, and several rejections from publishers. I’m actually thrilled at rejection still (it’s only been 2) because they are giving me ways to improve, and I will get there.

So for this month of the camp, I’m putting the books that are done on the shelf while I create a fourth spin off. I think it’s going to be called “dragons are a girls best friend”

Wish me luck!