November has been one of those months where I feel as if I have been doing a lot but accomplishing little. I’ve been very busy with multiple projects, yet if someone stopped me now to ask me what I’m working on, it may take me a few moments to come up with an answer that doesn’t embarrass me.

I’ve really pulled back the reigns a bit on my extraneous writing, with the majority of my focus being on school, work, and NaNoWriMo. I’m ashamed to say I am WAAAAAY behind on the word count, having neglected my daily quota the last two days to pour my attention into a book I’ve been reading. A good friend recommended that I pick up Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman and I’ve basically sacrificed every free moment I have to reading it, as it’s too good to put down. I’ve found myself carrying the book to the gym, to work, to the bathroom – it’s an illness, really. So when the little reminder on my cell phone rings every evening to signal my two hour NaNo block, I’m finding it to be a knee-jerk reaction to turn off the alarm and promise myself that I’ll catch up [on my word quote] the next day. Or the next day. Or the next. Oops.

So, while I feel like I’ve got a lot of things going right now, I don’t have very much to show for it. A half-finished novel, a lot of poems floating in my mind but not finding marriage with paper, and my nose buried so deep in a book that I can smell the paper and paste in my sleep. Oh, and tomorrow is Thanksgiving and everyone is expecting my homemade mashed sweet potatoes and garlic cauliflower. Crap. Better get working on that.

Juggling optimist,

~ Victoria Elizabeth Ann