Victory

The day after achieving one of my biggest goals, and all I can say is I'm still exhausted. Yesterday was not only the completion of the first draft of my first full length novel, but I also blasted through my word count record for one day, and left my old record eating dust.

My previous record stood at around 4k, and that was from the closing days of my first NaNoWriMo when I was exuberant at the fact I was going to finish my goal on time.

Yesterday, I ended the day with a whopping 6885 words, and it was absolutely amazing. The words were just flowing, and I never hit a point where I was sitting there going... "What now?" I just knew what was going to happen.

There was a moment where I finished a paragraph and sat back and just stared at my screen. I was so nervous, I actually ran my hands through my hair and squeezed my palms against my temples and thought... Am I really about to write this? This is the end. The end is starting right now.

And now the editing begins in earnest.

Since I have never done this before, I have no time line to lay out other than I will be trying to get this done and available on Smashwords ASAP.

I am very excited and pleased right now. And did I mention exhausted?

Exhausted...

Done

At 12:47am on 3/25/13, I finished my first book at a little over 130k words.

I can't find the words to express how I feel right now, other than I know I'm exhausted. You will get a full update tomorrow, but for right now.... Sleep.

Ground Zero

I don't know what's going on right now, but this house has been riddled by sickness since last Friday.

The toddler started it, throwing up at his sitters. Then once I got home Friday night, (after getting a good amount of writing done, thank goodness) it started for me. Oh, it was so bad. Lasted for me all night Friday night, then again Saturday afternoon. Once the puking stopped, the congestion/sinus infection set it. REALLY? So I wasn't eating normal again until Wednesday.

And that was just me.

My husband and Mother-in-Law (she's visiting) have been dealing with the same thing all week. It just catches hold and lingers.

Oh, and my son puked on me yesterday. Thanks little boy. I appreciate that.

So if the zombie invasion is starting, it's right here, right now, and I'm not making it out of this. This is ground zero.

So, as one would imagine, I haven't gotten much writing done all week. I DID manage to finish up Chapter 19, and break some ground on chapter 20 before I gave in to the sickness. I did go back and get some edits done, but just didn't feel like writing new stuff. Chapter 20 is going to be a big chapter, and I've replayed the scene in my head over and over and over again. I'm hoping it's not as difficult to get down on paper as the Joss/Becky scenes were. I should have the whole first draft done by next weekend.

Very exciting!

Oh, and I'm no longer sharing a spoon with the toddler. As easy as it is when dinner time rolls around, I have been sick 4 times in the past month. Just ugh...

Senses

Well, not sure why I want to say this here, but since I mentioned it before, you're going to get the update on my LASIK surgery.

Everything's going great with that. I still have minor double vision in my right eye, as well as dry-eye, but I'm aware I'm still very early in my healing process. I may have to have an enhancement surgery on my right eye later if that doesn't clear up, but I'm still okay with it even being the way it is now... The results of the procedure are wonderful and mind boggling.

That being said, I would like to talk about my new unaided 20/20 vision, or more to the point the effects that they're having on me.

I can't shut down.

So I'm 36, and I started wearing glasses when I was 8, and contacts when I was 12. I had a -8 in my right eye, and -7 in my left. If your don't know how bad that is, it means you simple can not function outside of your comfort zone, and even barely inside your comfort zone, without glasses/contacts. As anyone can imagine, this has been nothing short of a pain in the ass for the better part of my life. I never slept in my contacts, so I spent the night blind.

I spent the night blind for over half my life.

I never understood what that actually meant to me until now. Despite my lack of sight being a severe hindrance, (and 100% guaranteed death in a zombie apocalypse) this was part of me, a part of my consciousness that my sub-consciousness associate(d) with ... ME.

Even though I hated it, this FUZZY vision was a tangible thing to my mind. Fuzzy vision is simply a lack of clear vision, as much as cold is simply the absence of heat. When it's a sweltering 110 degrees in the Metroplex, you miss the cold... And I miss.. my fuzzy vision? Can I say that? It took me a month to even realize that was a possibility, because having clear sight is such a blessing, I didn't dare say anything against it.

But today, I have come down with another stupid cold, and I finally realized why I couldn't relax. Whenever I would get sick prior to my LASIK surgery, one of my therapeutic feel-better home-remedies was to take out my contacts and literally lose one of my senses. For some reason, that helped me shut out the world, and it would help with the discomfort. Keep in mind, I always blamed my contacts for making me feel just a smidge more uncomfortable during my time of whinyness, and sought whatever comfort whereever I could find it. Never once did it dawn on me that I was actually finding the comfort in my fuzzy sight.

Now that I realize this, I'm sure I'll get over it soon. After all, it's only been a month. My mind was just totally blown when I finally figured out why I couldn't get to sleep at night, and why I've felt extra uncomfortable all day today.

Also, for those of you that wish for good eyesight and are considering LASIK, I urge you to do it. Like I said before, it's wonderful, and in no way is this a complaint. I was just having issues getting my mind wrapped around the fact that being blind was actually useful to me for something.

Now, onto the book topic, everything is still going great. I am over halfway through chapter 19, and I figure 20 will be a rush that just spews out in a couple days. I figure I will get most of it done this weekend, AND I have a great map laid out for the re-writes that I'm gaining more and more confidence in. Things will be a' changing, and I'll be able to address some ideas that never quite sat well with me from day one.

I've also done research on having someone work up a good-looking book-cover for me. Hopefully it turns out nice. I'll be keeping the same concept of what I originally worked up, but I have a few additions in mind.

It's been a very lazy lazy day. I can't wait until I get my energy back!