What a month it's been!
I ended January with 8,379 words total for the month. I'm actually surprised by that. NaNoWriMo 2016 sucked for me (1,412 words, only 402 of which were for the book). And, honestly, after Linda died I just couldn't bring myself to write so December wasn't great for writing either. I spent most days staring into space in complete disbelief that she was gone. Nothing in December was festive. We still had a small XMas Eve and then a slightly bigger Yulemasukkah. But there were no huge trays of cookies for friends this year; I just didn't have it in me. I didn't even "ooo" and "aaah" about the kids' gifts like I usually do.
New Years Eve I had no intention of staying up until the ball dropped. I just wanted to crawl into bed by 9 and stare at the ceiling for an hour or two waiting for sleep. The only bits of sunshine in 2016 were publishing my first book and the birth of my grandson. The rest was just way too many phone calls or messages saying someone else had died. I lost way too many in 2016, with November being the worst month ( 3 friends I've known over 25 years + 1 of our teachers from high school who helped me immensely).
I don't know what it was, but I ended up not crawling into bed at 9. I stayed up until midnight and we turned on the TV just in time to see the ball drop. We finally went to be around 1 and when I woke up the next morning I booted up my laptop while I waited for coffee. After that first sip I wrote and wrote, and then I wrote some more. By the end of the day I had 523 words down! I wrote on 27 out the the 31 days this month! I started an #amwriting event on Twitter called #BookishTues. I've started networking with other authors. We also celebrated Festa della Befana & Burns Night and I baked and baked. Our house was filled with friends and laughter.
Here's hoping that the trend continues.