"...And then we can have some rest and some sleep."

"It's gone! It's done!"
"Yes, Mr Frodo... It's over now."

Three days ago I decided that I was sick of story and wanted to just get the thing done with, so this afternoon after many interruptions and several hundred repeats of The Kiss from the Penelope soundtrack, The Novel finally reached THE END. (Despite the mushy title, the above is a triumphant, victorious sort of song--fitting, if one can base the quality of a book purely on its word-count). Except that the story isn't done yet but we'll deal with that tomorrow. The Inner Editor has been in a coma since the second of November, though she...he...IT did wake up to weep furiously at the results of my one word war. There have been rather too many nights when I didn't bother to go check that the downstairs door was locked like I usually do, because if anyone was planning to burgle my house that night, they would have done it already.

Such was the euphoria that I went upstairs and made a salad. Of my own free will. This occurrence was so shocking that it had to be documented:

(It tasted fairly decent, actually, despite the black beans which I felt compelled to include purely for colour and contrast purposes. The carrot helped also, but a salad with every ingredient the same basic colour absolutely would not do. Right? Of course right. I wish we had peppers. Or that feta cheese came in more aesthetically pleasing shades . . . Never mind, that would just be weird. )

Hey, it's midnight! Thus I am off stick The Novel into the validator and watch the temperamental counter-monkeys mangle my lovely 50,048 into 48K or something. 48K is so this morning.

I love how so many of my NaNo-ing friends and acquaintances are so far ahead that it makes me feel behind even when the calendar disagrees. Positive peer pressure and all that jazz, yup yup. You all rock. Especially Owan and her cheerleader alter-ego. (Did I really just use "rock" as a verb? ...The lack of sleep must be getting to me.) I've talked to one or two people who decided to do their own personal NaNo in a non-November month, and...wow. I can't imagine doing it without all the other people who are. No motivation, etc, and all that.

And three cheers for the saner people who haven't finished yet, you can do it, Persevero! It's been an awesome November, and still is, in fact. I hear eleven library books shouting my name now with dreadful insistence.