Happy Thanksgiving and What I'm grateful for....

I will keep this short and sweet, but I feel that I must wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving and briefly expound on what I am thankful for this year. I typically find such things as slightly overdone, sentimental, and silly, but it's always a good idea to sit back and evaluate what you are blessed with. Of course, I can't be completely serious, so some of my thoughts will be irreverent!

1. Family. Yes, it is a given. I count myself very lucky to have a great family. We're very close and I wouldn't have it any other way.Yes, they get on my last nerve, we're all quirky and dysfunctional in our own ways, but at the end of the day, I love them all. Even when they shake up our usual Thanksgiving plans by deciding to go to Florida (as we did when I was growing up) despite the fact that this is my first Thanksgiving in 8 years where I haven't had to drive an hour plus to reach the celebration.

2. My apartment. I really love my apartment. I would love it even more if we had been able to buy it, but I digress. It's a great place, my ideal really since I can walk and bike downtown and I have a Target five minutes away. Oh it's the little things...

3. Hot tea. How would I survive without it? I probably couldn't actually...

4. Cold weather. I'm one of those freaks who loves coats and hats and mittens. I'd rather bundle up than fry in the southern heat and not be able to take off clothes...

5. Books. I shouldn't have to expound on this one.

6. "Mad Men". I told you I would be irreverent! But knowing that "Mad Men" has just two more seasons before it goes off the air makes me sad thus I plan on enjoying these last seasons all the more. And pray that Matthew Weiner will change his mind and extend the show until 1970.

7. All of my lovely readers. As most of you know, a writer is never so happy as when someone reads their work--and dare I say, like it? Or at least comment on it. So how could I not be grateful for all of you?

So Happy Thanksgiving to you all. Be happy and safe. What are you grateful for this year (or in general)?

Oh Fall...

I love fall.
I think it has to do with the cooler weather. I hate to be hot--which is a pretty inescapable fact when you live in the South. You would think after 29 years of living, my body would have finally acclimated, but no...it hasn't. I would gladly move to more northern climes in order to escape the sauna that is South Carolina in the summer. But my husband is allergic to any place above the Mason-Dixon Line. Sigh.

One thing that I do not like about fall (or spring, for that matter) is the inevitable onset of allergies. I have had a particularly rough time this year due to moving to a slightly different environment--meaning a whole new host of irritants to send me into fits of sneezing, coughing, and wheezing.

Feeling bad certainly impacts my writing. My brain is befuddled and it takes a lot out of me to forumlate something out of the fog. I launched into November, determined to participate in NaNoWriMo, but my word count has been sadly truncated due to the allergies that just won't quit. I'd much rather go home, get in bed and read Edith Wharton's The Bucaneers or watch Ringer (otherwise known as my new guilty pleasure.)

It doesn't help that I am in the part of my new novel where I am still setting up characters and places in preparation for more dramatic scenes. I hate the set-up; I either put it off or race through it so I can get to the juicy bits. And then I have to go back and do some heavy re-writing, which is never fun.

I have no other profound thoughts for you today. My sleep was seriously disturbed when I woke up at 2am this morning in need of some ibprofen. Of course I had none, so I went to the store. And promptly got pulled over by a cop because my tag light was out. Yes really. Oh the joys of living in a small town!

So what about you? What part of your novel is the most trying to write? How do you motivate yourself to get those parts done?