Yesterday, I stepped outside and thought, “Ooh, it’s starting to feel like Christmas.” It was 61 degrees outside. Yep, the Floridian is strong in me. I grew up in upstate New York and Wisconsin, spent almost all of my childhood Christmases in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and yet somehow, Christmas weather has become the low sixties. But I think it was also that it was dark and early. That feels like winter, doesn’t it?

Anyway, I’m enjoying the cooler — but not cold — weather. This time of year is the reason people live in Florida.

I think I’ve finally abandoned my NaNo aspirations. Not my Cici plans, I’m definitely going to keep working on Cici 2. But there’s just no way I’m finishing 50K words in the month of November. The good news, I suppose, is that it’s at least in part because I’m spending too much time editing and revising Fen. I’m about halfway done with my revisions, I think, and focusing lots of energy on them, hoping to be done by the end of the month. I was talking to my dad and stepmom about the book yesterday, trying to analyze what sort of validation I actually need to decide to publish it, and got annoyed with myself. Somehow between publishing Ghosts eight years ago and now, I have become cowardly. I don’t know why, really, and I don’t know what standard of perfection I’m aspiring to, but I think Fen is fun and certainly fun enough to share. So I’m going to polish for a little longer — the ending has literal gaps that need to be fixed — but then I am going to let go.

Meanwhile, Becca, the Write Better Faster teacher, has provided me with a writing task that I am so looking forward to trying. She suggested that my one thing — we are to only change one thing in our process, because changing ALL the things never works for anyone — be that I end my morning words with processing what I wrote the previous day and what I’m planning to write the current day. I’m not going to say it was quite a lightning bolt, but it was a definite sharp shock of recognition. My best writing days always start that way. So why haven’t I ever tried to do it intentionally? And I have no idea why I haven’t, but I’m looking forward to making it part of my process and seeing where it takes me. I’ve also got some reading to do and some notes for ideas on what to do when I get stuck.

But it is also Thanksgiving week. I’ve got cranberry sauce and pumpkin to make, some presents to buy, some more presents to wrap… and lots of things to be grateful for.

Happy Thanksgiving!