My own personal Advent...

... is nearly at its end, if all continues to go as well as it has. I can't be more specific, as usual, but know that the waiting is nearly over! I sometimes feel a little bad about keeping people in the dark, especially when they ask me things like - "any bites yet?" or "have you heard anything?" The answer is yes I have, but no, I can't tell you more! I am very thankful for all the support I've gotten from friends and family during the course of this process, and especially to my long-suffering husband. :)

I have also finished my novel for NaNoWriMo! It is the first time ever that I have ever finished a novel, or anything really longer than a short story. From the fourth grade I wanted to be a writer, and dreamed of what kind of book I would write. And now I know that I CAN DO IT!!! And then my wonderful husband surprised me by having a printed copy bound at Staples to make it look like a "real" book! He picked out a cover picture and everything! Isn't it beautiful?!?! This is a real place, from Tao Fong Shan in Hong Kong, where the book is based and where Beau and I went for a week in J-Term.

The end of NaNoWriMo came just in time, for now I have a sermon to work on, the most important sermon yet in my entire life so far!! No pressure.

This weekend we got our first ever real Christmas tree from a place just down the road from us. SO FAR the cats have been merely curious, but not interested in climbing it... yet. They just seem to think that it's fun to drink from the base instead of their own bowl. And last night we went to the annual Christmas/Advent gathering of Lutheran pastor, professors, and students from around the Princeton area. I am continually amazed by how many people we all know mutually - it is indeed a small Lutheran world, especially out here in the Lutheran Diaspora (this is actually what we call ourselves out here!).

Ok, people, enough chit-chat. I actually have stuff to do. :)

Chorus of Yay!

Yay! My process is progressing! That's about all I can say, but I'm way excited!

I already have 19,000 words on my novel. I think that this is the farthest I have gotten in the total of three years that I have done NaNoWriMo. Yay!

We bought a tall cat tower that "seats" two for a GREAT deal! Yay Petsmart! And they love it!

The weather has gotten cooler, so that is a Yay too. It feels like real fall here, with temps in the 40s and 50s and mostly sunny. The foliage here is lovely. There is a kind of bush that grows around here and all of then are currently turning bright red - it is so pretty!

I think we might be actually really liking it out here!

NaNoWriMo Day 5!

8,000+ words already!

I am most definitely enjoying the fall weather around here - not counting that crazy Nor'easter we got last week with 2 inches of snow! The snow is gone now and it has been around 50 degrees and wonderful. Layers! I love wearing layers.

Beau has been feeling poorly off and on for the last couple of weeks, and he finally went to see someone about it. Apparently he has "Sinusitis," which is basically an infection of the sinuses due to complications of a cold and allergies. He's got antibiotics and we got an air purifier for the bedroom so he can sleep better at night.

We had two trick-or-treaters. But we had supper with a good friend from seminary and watched the Luther movie! Yay! Happy Reformation Day!

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I'm currently enjoying a recent book by Brian McLaren, A New Kind of Christianity. Seriously, read this book.

I wish I had more to share, but I don't. Still waiting. I should write the 95 Theses of Waiting: How Not to Loose Your Marbles. Oh, wait.... ;)

Day 1 of NaNoWriMo

Here is an excerpt of the beginning of my novel for your enjoyment:

When she woke up, Abigail was completely disoriented. She had no idea where she was, what time it was, or why she was waking up in a strange bed. The room was utterly dark and she had the feeling as if she was being suspended in space and time. She also realized she had a terrible headache and every muscle in her body groaned with stiffness. Slowly the room began to take shape as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. It was a small room with just enough space for a desk and a bed under the dark window. There was her suitcase next to the desk, unopened. Her cane was perched next to the bed. The air-conditioner above the door hummed away in an attempt to take the damp edge out of the air to create an atmosphere more comfortable for sleeping. Abigail realized that she was rather warm.
She somehow found the motivation to reach over to the bedside stand and grab her cell phone, touching the screen in an effort to find the time and end this disconcerting feeling of being out of time. After a moment of blindness from the lit screen, her brain tried to comprehend the numbers that flashed across it: 4:06 AM. 4:06 A.M. Wait, that means it’s morning, she thought sluggishly. But why was she awake so early? And why did she feel as if she had been run over by a bus, mentally and physically.

She remembered in a rush that took her breath away. Her graduation. Her decision to go do seminary in Hong Kong. The conversation with her parents. Her 16 hour flight over about a dozen time zones. The bus ride in the dark and the cab up the mountain and someone helping her with her bags and collapsing on the bed.

She looked at the window, where the every so slight blush of dawn was illuminating palm fronds from a tree right outside her window. Oh good God, she thought. She made it. She was really here, at the Lutheran Seminary at Hong Kong.

NaNoWriMo 2011

Yay! Something to keep my occupied - writing a novel in 30 days! What is NaNoWriMo? I'm glad you asked!

"National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing on November 1. The goal is to write a 50,000 word, (approximately 175 page) novel by 11:59:59, November 30.


Here is a brief synopsis of my novel, called When the Mountains Sing:

Abigail's parents pretty much flipped when she announced to her agnostic family on the day of her college graduation that not only was she going to seminary, she was traveling to a mountain in Hong Kong to do it. There is one more complication - she has a mild form of spina bifida, which makes walking difficult, but not impossible for normal circumstances. But how will she be able to handle herself, alone, in a foreign country, at a school at the top of a mountain? Fortunately along the way she meets several interesting students and professors, and through her experiences, authentically encounters God and deepens her understanding of the meaning of suffering, both personal and communal. 

It all begins on Tuesday, November 1! Wish me luck!!