Tuesday 28 November 2017

I Won!

November has been a month of concerted writing effort. Along with thousands of writers worldwide, I have participated in the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) challenge to write 50,000 words for the 30 days of November. I reached that target last night!
If you're wondering, that's the size of a Mills & Boon romance. My books tend to be 100,000 words so this gets the first draft half written in a month. And since I already had 30,000 words written at the start I now have 80,000 and need to wrap the story up in another 20,000. Doable before Xmas, I reckon, if I just keep up the momentum and routine of NaNo!
One of the great things about NaNo is the support and encouragement of other writers also doing the challenge. This will carry on after November to keep us all inspired and focused on our goals.
Thank you, Romance Writers of NZ C2C Chapter! You are the best!
Congratulations to all who accepted the challenge and have already achieved the goal and to those who will achieve it before the deadline, midnight tomorrow!
If you started and life got in the way, all new words are a bonus! Life is pretty much all about 'timing', and when the timing is right, the words will flow! And there's always the April challenge!

Thursday 16 November 2017

The Magic of Coromandel

What is your magic place? Do you have a place you go, even in your imagination if you are too busy to go physically, to rest the body and replenish the spirit?
Mine is Coromandel. I often post about it and the beautiful pohutukawa trees that cover the hillsides, line the roads and hang over the sea from perilous rocky anchorages.
Most of the year they are a uniform sea of dark green, and silver from the undersides of the leaves. Come November, more silver appears with the flower buds and then comes the burst of glorious colour, different shades of red.
My favourite is the deep crimson and this morning a friend sent me a photo of the first one spotted in flower by her visitors from Canada. I imagine they were as appreciative as I am of the magnificent display.
We usually make our annual trip up the Peninsula around New Year by which time the edges of the road are still lined with ribbons of withered red stamens and a few last trees are still in flower. I have yet to make a trip during full bloom.
Perhaps this year?