Branching out

One of my resolutions for 2012 was to light a fire under my butt and do something with what I've been calling my "mom book." I started writing it years (and years) ago, but somehow life just seemed to keep getting in the way:

• Changed jobs
• Started knitting again
• Said goodbye to one of our dogs (*sniff*)
• Began learning kenpo karate
• Welcomed a new dog into my heart
• Visited my mother and stepfather in California
• Was laid off
• Took up spinning (spinning fiber, that is)
• Started freelance writing and editing
• Provided a variety of support to
• My big bruddah, who went through a painful divorce
• My husband, who had major surgery
• My father, who had a stroke
• My sons, who continued to be a source of delight -- and frustration (of course)

And while all this was going on, I worked on my mom book off and on. Three years ago, on a whim, I decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write a 50,000 novel in 30 days. It doesn't have to be perfect -- hell, it doesn't even have to be coherent. The purpose of this insane endeavor (insane because it's held in November, always a busy month) is so that you can prove to yourself that you can string together that number of words, relatively painlessly, by getting into a daily writing habit. So far, I've participated in NaNoWriMo in 2009, 2010, and 2011 ... and I won each of those years. Boo-yah!

Early this last December, while I was preening over my most recent NaNo win, my older son said, "Yeah, mom, but how many books have you finished writing?" I sputtered and squirmed, but the fact is that I hadn't finished any of the four ... no, wait, make that six ... books I'd started writing. Whoa.

During the last week of December, I decided that I'd try blogging my mom book. I have bits and pieces of it written, so those posts would be easy. I had chapter heads and subheads, so I had a road map of what still needed to be written. And it wasn't like I'd have to post something every day, right?

So on January 1, 2012, I clicked Publish on my first post on The Blog of Mom. The year stretched ahead of me, and I'm pretty excited to see where it will lead me.