November 16, 2021 @ 10:12 AM

National Novel Writing Month is well underway.  
 
Participants aim to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. 
See link below for more information.
 
 
If you’ve read Hooked On You (Mistywood Lane Book 4), you know which couple I’m working with now.  These two are the most fun. Okay, I feel this way about all my WIP couples. Because I started this project months before NaNoWriMo, I'm not officially participating this year. 
 
I wrote rough drafts for two of my Mistywood Lane novels during National Novel Writing Month.  He Could Be the One (Quinn and Lance) and Hooked On You (Zoe and Preston). 
 
At the end of those Novembers (2015 and 2019) what I had was nowhere near the final products. More like bare bones frames with jumbled ideas. I tend to write novels that are 90,000 words and up. He Could Be the One debuted  in 2016 and Hooked On You,  June of this year. 
 
Speaking of He Could Be the One... If you haven't read it, now is a good time. The first scene features a big Thanksgiving dinner. Though it's not packaged as a holiday romance, it's set during the holiday season, with related activities sprinkled throughout the first two-thirds of the novel, roughly 200 pages of a 300 page novel (using the trade paper count with smallish print to estimate.)
 
 
I have four T-shirts I often wear in rotation while writing.
One is a Target find: The Book Was Better. (Notable exception: The Godfather.)
 
 At a Romance Writers of America national conference I purchased Late Night with the Romance Writer, which features a David Letterman-style top ten list.  (It’s an oldie!)
 
Warning: What You Do May Appear in My Next Book is another one I purchased at RWA nationals.  All I have to say about this one is LMAO.
 
Read Black Romance with brown hands and a big red heart is a relatively recent acquisition. 
 
Crafting Corner: Was thrilled when I heard Michelle  Obama made the cover of the latest Vogue Knitting magazine. (In my Stitch Away Stress blog post, I added a link to a story about Michelle taking up knitting during quarantine. This is so cool!)
 
Couldn't wait for my VK issue to arrive. See pic above with one of my Traveling Afghans, a Lion Brand Yarn make-along project. I did the knit (shown) and crochet versions.
 
Right now, I'm still on a sock-knitting kick. This is the "Candy Corn" pair I whipped up for Halloween house socks. But I’m adding other projects (crochet and knit) to stay on top of my holiday list. 
 
In the spirit of this sock phase, check out the sock/stocking pj pants I nabbed at Old Navy after a tip from one of my favorite sock-knitting podcasters.
See? Obsessed!!