Huh?

NOTE TO SELF: Don't post to a blog when you’re suffering from sleep deprivation!

You ever have those moments when you feel like that dream about walking around naked somehow came true and now everyone can see your Spider Man Underoos? Or maybe it’s that moment when you turn on the faucet in the public bathroom, not realizing the water pressure could knock out a three-alarm fire and now the front of your pants looks like you didn’t make it in time. Or how about the time you just finished a half-hour meeting with your kid’s teacher, only to look in the rear view mirror and see you’ve had this blanket-size piece of lettuce stuck in your teeth the whole time?

Makes you want to crawl under a rock, doesn’t it? Or maybe you wish that God in His mercy would send a lightning bolt and fry you like a pork rind?

Two days ago, on a surge of emotional energy I pushed and pushed to get my novel done. So excited, posted a link on facebook that I had written “After 3 months, and slightly more than 104K words: ‘The End.’”

Satisfied with that, I then went and drafted up a blog entry to make the same announcement, only to type “four-hundred-thousand” instead of “a hundred and four thousand”.

After that, about one o’clock in the morning, I turned out the lights and dozed off, still juiced with excitement over my achievement and totally unaware of the HUGE problem with my posting.

Until today.

What can I say? Some days, it just doesn’t pay to wake up.

So, for all my fellow writers who stopped by and thought, “Wow, what a major job he did!” well, it wasn’t really as great as you believed.

So, there'll be no more posting after nine.

Lesson learned.

Who knows? Maybe I should go check my novel now and make sure the right people died in the end.

Finally!

I can only image that what I feel right now has to be similar to what a runner might feel after completing that first marathon. Though exhausted, I am riding a euphoric high that I want to last, even as I wake up in the morning. I want to run around the house and do a dance. I want to belt out a line or two of Queen’s “We Are The Champions”, only I know it would wake up the kids. I want to call up my brother, who lives five states away and one time zone ahead, and say, “Yeah baby, I did it, I did it, I did it.” My guess is, though, at this time of night he would probably say I had the wrong number and don’t call again.

Tonight, after nearly three months, and slightly more than a hundred and four thousand words written, I placed the final period on Lost Hearts, my NaNoWriMo projected for 2009. It’s been a long haul, and I’ve learned much. A few things, I plan on sharing over the next week or two. For now, though, I want to cherish the moment, even if I have to do it quietly around the house. I want to reward myself with a big bowl of ice cream, heaped over with chocolate. Maybe I’ll watch a late night program and laugh, knowing that I don’t have to wake up as early tomorrow.

And speaking of tomorrow: I finally get to read. During the last three months, I read a couple of books while writing the novel, and they provided some insights and inspiration along the way. However, those last three months will be nothing compared to the next two, as I plan to read with abandon—and not just a couple of books in three months, but at least one book each week.

Even though the novel's first draft is done, the writing isn't. Over the next few months, I will work on revising a short story or two, and write a new story that's been screaming for my attention over the last few weeks. Then, there's a piece of horror flash that I promised to expand, maybe even make into a novella by this summer. And finally, I will resume regular postings to the blog. It’s been waiting patiently for my attention over the last month, as I pressed harder and harder to get this project finished. Now, though, we get to spend some quality time with each other again.

Until next time…

“We are the champions … We are the champions…”