The Box of Frivolity

I've been struggling with a topic for this week's post. Originally, I had planned to write about another UT Book recipe but the DMV has been dropped into the middle of a heat wave. The idea of turning the oven on in my apartment makes me sweat so I'll have to save that one for when we have a break in the heat. It's also been a hell of a week (which is the understatement of the world I know) which may have added some additional stress/pressure/whatever to the idea of what to write about today. I could take a week off but don't want to. I could post a new chapter from my novel but I don't think it's ready yet.

Then it hit me - The Box of Frivolity.

Never heard of the Box of Frivolity? That's perfectly fine because it's something I made up a few weeks ago. I have friend who was in grad school this year working on her Master's in positive psychology. The program was intense; a hybrid online/in person program completed in one year while she still worked full time. Thankfully for my friend, she's passionate about the program and her area of study so while it's been a lot of work and a lot of stress, she's at least studying something she wants to study and write about. She technically graduated in May but her thesis is due in August so she went from class and reading and short papers and projects to reading and reading and researching and writing and writing. Back in May, I asked her what book she was going to read once she finished her thesis and could resume reading books that weren't related to school. She couldn't answer. I told her she needed to find some frivolous things to read and do after finishing her thesis. She needed to give her mind and body time to deal with the fact that she wasn't going nonstop on school and work anymore. She needed to take a little break, even if it meant just an hour or two of reading a cheesy novel or watching a terrible movie.

That's how the Box of Frivolity was born. Another friend and I were discussing graduation/completing your thesis gifts and I suggested after several other ideas that we should put together a box of stuff for her that would allow her to be frivolous in small doses. So we went about amassing a box of different things that we felt fell on the frivolous scale: bubbles, a light up jump rope (which is only funny to the three of us), Batman stickers, chocolate, spa masks, and two ridiculous books that we knew she would never pick for herself but that we felt fit perfectly in the frivolous book category. Yes, I bought her the tie-in book for the new Ghostbusters movie. The other one was a dystopian YA novel of some kind (as they all are) but I can't remember the title. We also threw in some googly-eye rings and monster finger puppets. Viola - a Box of Frivolity.

I would argue that the Box of Frivolity is something we should all do every now and then to help in times of stress, sadness, disenchantment with the world, or general hopelessness. You can make one for yourself and stash it somewhere around your house, at the ready for a day when you need something silly and fun to brighten your life. Or maybe focus on others; make a Box of Frivolity for your friend who's going through something or just needs a little pick me up after a long day or week or life. Yes, you could just open up a bottle of wine with that same friend but sometimes wine makes it worse. The idea of a Box of Frivolity is really about fun and playfulness. Wine does not always accomplish that.

We need to take care of selves no matter what the circumstance. Slowing down, eating better, getting more sleep, exercising, reading a frivolous book, all of these things can help. Taking care of yourself isn't selfish; it's what you should do. I started this blog at a time in my life where I was alone; I moved to California and didn't know anyone and it was isolating at the beginning. I spent a lot of time in my first few months in my new home being stressed and angry for making what I thought was a stupid decision. When I started writing the blog, I realized it was not a stupid decision; it was the exact right decision for me at the time BUT I needed to focus on me and doing the right things for me. So I started writing. I joined a theatre group. I started walking three miles a day. I baked more (mostly for my co-workers) and I tried to eat better and cook more at home. This blog was my first Box of Frivolity; I can write about cheesy movies or from my cat's perspective because it's funny and makes me laugh. It's gets me outside of whatever is stressing me out and sometimes, it does the same for other people.

Make yourself a Box of Frivolity this weekend. I'll give you a tip: it doesn't have to be an actual box. As I said, the Island is my Box of Frivolity so yours could be a place or a person you spend time with. It can be whatever you want it to be. Or be like Pumpkin and just enjoy the actual box. Cats know best.

NaNoWriMo: What does it all mean?

I first visited Dinosaur Land in 2014 which I decided to go on an Instagram Vacation. My plan was to go from Arlington (where I live) to Baltimore (a city I love) to Richmond (to visit friends). Along the way my plan was to stop at roadside attractions and unusual points of interest like the American Visionary Arts Museum (a must see in Baltimore). I photographed the pineapple that greets visitors to Charm City and Nipper the RCA dog. I stopped at the Giant Roller Skate (but did not skate; need to go back to do that) in Bealton,VA. However, Dinosaur Land was always the true destination.

March in the DMV is a strange month. It's hard to predict the weather; it can be gorgeous and spring-like or hold onto winter with an impressive death grip. I once described it to a friend from New Orleans as "what would happen if February and April had a baby and that baby hated sunshine and happiness." As I was driving from Arlington to White Post, VA (where Dinosuar Land is), it started to sleet and snow. The route takes you down 66 through the Shenandoah Mountains so you can imagine how much fun this was. By the time I got to the parking lot, it stopped sleeting but was still bitter cold. Dinosaur Land was open; I was the only visitor. The young man who sold me my ticket told me to be careful but to enjoy. I stepped through the entrance into a strange and magical place. I walked around the park, taking pictures, reading the signs, and wondering why more places like this don't exist. It made me feel like a kid again and that was before I browsed in the gift shop.

No one is going to build Dinosaur Land today (unless it resembles something more like Jurassic Park) but I'm sure glad Joseph Geraci thought to do so in the early sixties. I've been back twice since 2014 and plan to go at least that many times next summer. Places like Dinosaur Land represent a lot of things: nostalgia for the good old days, a specific type of American entrepreneur, and the belief that simple entertainment is the best kind of entertainment. It's the ideal place for hipster kids to take selfie (and me too - I have some Dinosaur Land selfies too) but also a fun thing to do with little kids on a pleasant summer day. Places like Dinosaur Land make me think about my childhood and driving from wherever we lived to Detroit in the summers and the sort of hazy veil that sits on top of childhood memories. We never stopped at a place like Dinosaur Land but we had adventures and enjoyed the fun of the road.

As I started prepping for NaNoWriMo this year, I had a hard time getting into my original idea. I liked the idea but I when I sat down to write a character sketch or timeline, I got stuck. While I think it's a good idea, it's just not ready to see the light of day. Yet. So with two weeks until the start of the month, I threw out that idea and decided to go with something else. I decided to write about a Dinosaur Land-like place in a similar type of town in Virginia but tell the story from the perspective of a young girl, Iris, (and later her as an adult) whose family owns a roadside attraction called Land of Legends. She grows up there and its really the only place she knows. She wants to be an artist not run a park in the middle of nowhere. When she returns as an adult the realities of running such a business sink in; it's fallen on hard times and the land is worth more than the family legacy. Iris has to decide what to do with the park and how to preserve the history of her family.

Land of Legends features Iris's family, including her father, grandparents, aunt, and two cousins. There's a boy who returns later on but not as a love interest, a grumpy cat named Ethel, and the legends themselves. The park features a Yeti, Bigfoot, dragons, a kraken, mermaids, a maze with a Minotaur, fairies, and a family of unicorns. Imagine growing up with that in your backyard and with the expectation that you will run this one day. I genuinely liked every character I wrote even the bratty little girl who tries to climb on the unicorns. It was fun to write but as with any writing, it was also work. I struggled through 1997, the summer Iris turns 13. Getting through the middle was the most challenging part of the story. I also made the decision to kill a character although the character that died at the end was not the character I originally planned would die. That's how these things work; you have a plan but things happen and you change course. However, I kept going and I finished the first draft. I wrote a fun, little novel. It's not going to change the world but it changes me.

Which brings me to the end: what does it all mean? When I tell people about NaNoWriMo and about "winning" (which is what they call it when you get your 50K word goal and finish), they seem rather let down. I assume it's because they think winning means my novel will be published. That's not how this works. I get where they're coming from; when you write a novel people expect you to publish it. Maybe I will one day but that's not the goal for me. I have done this for the last three years to push myself to take an idea and turn it into something complete. I like the structure of the month; I have to discipline myself to write and commit to the project fully. Writing is not just a hobby for me but since it's not my full time job, taking this month to really dedicate time to an idea and to crafting characters and to seeing them develop makes me incredibly happy. It gives me purpose and fulfills my need to do something creative every day.

The other reality of this is that it doesn't stop because the month is over; not the novel or my writing. I write a weekly blog, I write for work, I write things I don't share publicly; I will always write even if no one reads. I'll take a little break from the novel but will return to it at some point to revise and edit and decide if I want to do anything else with it. I've been working on revising last year's novel, Transient Suburbia, on and off since the summer. My goal for the coming year is to finish the revisions to that novel and do something with it. I don't know what that something is but I want to see that novel out there in the world. I have two weeks off in December and most of my time is going to be devoted to working on that novel because I believe in it and I love it. Eventually I'll do the same thing with Land of Legends and my first NaNoWriMo novel, The Metro Counselor.

The 2015 Stats:

• Started on: November 1
• Finished on: November 23
• Total days: 19 days (I wasn't able to write four days for various reasons)
• Best day: November 22 - 8171 words
• Worst day: November 18 - 184 words
• Total words: 50078
• Pages: 95
• Chapters: 26
• Number of times I watched the kraken scene from the 1981 film Clash of the Titan: 40
• Number of pairs of themed socks purchased: 3 (Yeti, Bigfoots, Unicorns - all from Target)
• Packages of peanut M&Ms: 2
• Bottles of wine: 2

I'm happy to share my "finished" NaNoWriMo novels with anyone interested in reading them. I wanted to post the whole novel this year but it didn't really lend itself to being posted on a blog. 

Coming soon to the Island: the conclusion of NaNoWriMo, The Eye Shadow Experiment (no, I did not join a band but it is an excellent band name), a check in on how online dating is going, and my guide to not hating the holidays. 

The conclusion - Actually, It’s Pronounced Mil-e-wah-que

And so another NaNoWriMo has come to an end. I have successfully completed my second year and second novel. It was another year of people asking me "You're doing what exactly?" and "You mean you don't really win anything?". I take these questions as one should, with a smile and the knowledge that I did win something at least to me. Now I have two novels that are in some shape that I can do something with. That may be very vague but it's what I have for now. I commit to editing my novels this year and doing more with them. And of course, sharing it with all of you.

Let's take a look at this year in numbers:

• Days to complete the novel: 22
• Final word count: 50,963 (I thought I would be 1K over; I was close.)
• Most words written in a day: 6,202 (done on the day I finished)
• Least words written in a day: 591 (all other days were over 1400 words)
• Number of pages: 106 (everyone asks me this)
• Number of chapters: 33 and an epilogue
• Alcohol consumed: 2 beers, 1.5 bottles of wine over 22 days (#hemingwaywasadrunk)
• Number of times Pumpkin gave me the "you are a horrible pet mom" look: 4000

I finished early again this year (four days earlier than last year) only because I gave myself a deadline of finishing before going to visit family for Thanksgiving. I like my characters a lot and am looking forward to revisiting them in a few months.

Here's the epilogue of the novel. It may be a "spoiler" of sorts but it was one of my favorite parts to write so I think it's fitting that I share it here. It's the final column Harper writes for the magazine that she's written for since graduating from college. She named her column after a line in a song by The Replacements.

Enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving!

I Never Travel Far, Without a Little Big Star

Actually, It’s Pronounced Mil-e-wah-que

By Harper Monroe

I live a very privileged life. I have a family who cares about me, a job I love, and the possibility of a future with a person who sort of fell into my life. I can honestly say that the worst thing that has ever happened to me is that one day a long time ago someone that I thought was my best friend, that I would know forever decided to end our friendship. He ended it because adolescence is a confusing time and hormones and petty jealousy make things seem like more than they actually are. At the time, I felt nothing. Then I felt anger and rage and sadness. Then nothing again. Until now.

First loves are magical and awkward and hurt more than any other love you’ll ever experience. It’s especially hard when you’ve never met the person you’re in love with, when you only have their words to rely on to figure out who they are. In our hyper-connected, tendency to over share world, it’s easy to hide behind a status on Facebook or a tweet. You can craft and re-craft your image and how you want the world to perceive you. You can be casual and impersonal all the time. You can respond in haste and anger without any meaning. If you wait long enough, people will forget. That’s how social media works. Wait a news cycle and it’s all forgiven.

Writing a letter is more personal than that. Sure, you can paint the picture that you want to in a letter too but the mere act of sitting down and taking pen to paper is more personal than any status update, text. or email. You have to know the person. You have to be personal. You have to ask questions and answer questions. You have to give of yourself in a way that we don’t when we tell everyone in our network what we had for lunch. You have to believe that those letters and the conversations are the conversations you’d have if you were face to face. There is trust and the expectation of privacy when you send a letter to someone.

When I was in the fourth grade I met a boy named Ben. Well, I never actually met him. He was my pen pal, assigned by some company that created pen pals kits for elementary schools. I’m sure a very sophisticated algorithm was used to match us. We were supposed to learn about how to write letters, practice our cursive writing, and learn about someone who lived in a town that was different from ours. There was no expectation that we would remain friends or even write to one another after the assignment ended. The only expectation was that we would send twenty letters to each other. Our teachers couldn’t force friendship. I was crushed when I found out that my pen pal was a boy. What would I have in common with a boy? What would we talk about? My teacher, Mrs, Henderson, wouldn’t budge. She challenged me to write to this boy, to stop being the hyper serious nine year old that I was. She wanted me to have fun and be myself.

In the end, Mrs. Henderson was right. I had fun and I was myself. Ben and I became best friends, something I don’t think Mrs. Henderson would have ever expected. We learned from one another, shared music and books and movies. We made each other mixtapes. We grew up together. We told each other secrets. We were ourselves and the start of who we would grow up to be.

I have almost 200 letters from Ben. We wrote to each other almost weekly from 1988 to 1994. One day, Ben met a girl and fell in love in the way that ninth graders fall in love. The only things that mattered to Ben were his band and that girl. He decided that it was time stop childish things and that included being friends with me. The thirty-five year old me totally understands. The fifteen year old me did not.

Twenty years is a long time. In that time I’ve graduated from high school and college, moved to California, and started the only job I ever wanted to have. I have a book coming out in the fall and might even have a television show out later this year. My siblings have both married, my parents moved back to Michigan, my sister has twins of her own. All of these things are significant and important. All of things are what normal people do (well maybe not the book and the tv show but you get my point).

Ben became a rock star.

That’s something that I cannot wrap my head around. It happened but it does not compute. Of course, he’s not really Ben anymore. He’s Martin Hendrixe, lead singer of Transient Suburbia. His life involves studios and tours and adoring fans. He both is and is not the boy I knew.

I am sitting at a place called The Diner. It’s in Milwaukee, WI and it’s an actual diner. You can order breakfast all day long if you want. Frankly, I could use some pancakes but I am not here to eat. It’s 10 pm on a Thursday in the middle of August. It’s the corner booth, the best booth in the place. This is the booth where Ben, Jane, Adam, and Dave became Transient Suburbia. I am waiting with 100 Transient Suburbia fans who followed the clues on Twitter to find the secret show at the place where the band was born. I was brought here partially because this is what I do and partially because I am as much a part of Transient Suburbia as Ben or any of the band members. All those letters to Ben inspired the lyrics for some of the band’s most famous songs. I called my life “transient suburbia” in a letter once and that became the band’s name. I am what you hear between the lyrics and the music.

The audience is getting restless in the way excited concertgoers get restless. The crowd buzzes with a mix of anticipation, boredom, and rock and roll. They’ve been standing for two hours. They are ready for the show to start and their heroes to appear and sing their favorite songs. Or disappoint them by only playing new stuff. Such is the life of a music fan.

A young woman, maybe seventeen or eighteen, keeps looking at me sitting in the booth, jotting notes and observations in my trusty notebook. She and her friend consult one another in whispers. After ten minutes of this, she decides to ask me what my deal is. That’s her actual question. It’s not rude, not really. I tell her I’m a journalist and that I traveled with the band so that I could see this show. I introduce myself. She freaks out; she knows who I am. She reads my column and more importantly, she knows that I am the girl that “Outlaw For Your Love”  is about. It is her favorite Transient Suburbia song. She asks if I would be in a picture with her. I agree as long as she agrees to send it to me so I can add it to the web version of the article. Her name is Marlene. Marlene’s excitement has drawn attention from others nearby (it’s a diner after all and not that big). A murmur goes through the crowd. They know I’m her, the girl that Martin/Ben let go. The girl all the songs are about.

I wave at a few people and go back to my position as observer and recorder.The show should be starting any minute now. The lights will dim, the crowd will get quiet for a split second, and then erupt in the exuberant way that concert crowds do. I suspect this show will be very loud; diners are not really designed for rock concerts. No one in the room cares about that of course. They are ready for this once in a lifetime experience. None of them have ever been this close to their favorite band before. This is a night they will never forget.

The lights dim. The crowd gets quiet for just a second or two. And then bam! The lights come up and there they are. There is Transient Suburbia. There is rock and roll glory. They launch into their first song and I can feel the crowd move with them. The acoustics are such that I can feel the drums in my stomach and the guitar is in my head. I am in the song. I am the song. We all are.

There's no end to this quest, just another chapter

This time last year I was contemplating what 2013 would bring and hoping that this year would be a good one. I was also thinking about personal growth and how I would tackle my 34th year on this planet. I settled on being the leading lady of my own life. Eventually, I selected a few key ways I thought I could quantify this quest. Throughout the year, I've chronicled my progress on these items along with my musings on movies, music, and how we're all doing everything wrong. As the year draws to a close, I can honestly say that I feel less like the best friend and more in charge of my leading lady life. I did a lot of what I set out to do: try new things, bring new people into my life and spend time with those already there, be more adventurous in fashion, and travel somewhere I've always wanted to go. My year looked something like this:

• I wrote a novel in a month (November). Now I know that I can write a novel and now I can go back and edit this one and start on the next idea (which will not be written in a month and will require heavy research and maybe a visit or two to Detroit).
• Traveled to Paris (alone) for a birthday champagne toast at the summit of the Eiffel Tower. I did other things too but seriously this was pretty cool and definitely a highlight of my year. 
• Designed and created my first Lego purse. I had so much fun with this and will return to the world of Lego purse creation in 2014. I have several that I'm designing right now and hopefully will have them done by the end of January. Who knows where this will lead?
• Became an information desk volunteer at the National of Women in the Arts. You should come visit. 
• Wrote 66 Island posts this year (including this one). 
• Made some new friends, joined an album club, and went out more than I probably have since college. That's pretty good for an introvert like me.
• Shopped my closet, found a pair of boots I love, and added skirts and dresses into the rotation so I don't wear jeans every day of my life.
• Read 50 books this year. The national average is 4. And I took November off.
• Convinced several senior leaders to participate in a contest where one of them would have to dress as Santa and another as an elf. For the children (for charity). Shocked when most of them came through and it was a successful event overall. 
• Gave a short presentation on this blog at a work event that was very well received. This was the highlight of my professional accomplishments this year.

That's a lot of stuff. What's been most revelatory for me is that I focused on what I wanted to do and accomplish and not so much on what others might expect or want me to do. That's a change for me; I'm a natural counselor in the sense that I'm usually most concerned for others and what they're doing and how their actions impact their lives. And how I can help. That's why I was so good at being the best friend. What I discovered this year is that you can be both the leading lady of your own life while still being the best friend in others' lives. You don't have to sacrifice one to be the other. Like everything in life, it's about balance, focusing on what you want, and telling people the truth.

People often lament leaving a certain time in their lives. I read a lot of articles this year in which the author discussed his/her desire to relive their twenties and I can honestly say I don't want to go back. I'm more confident and interesting in my thirties and I'll probably be even more awesome in my forties and fifties and beyond. It has taken me 34 years to be good with the person that I am and this year has been particularly helpful in that journey. I am not perfect and I don't have to be. It's not easy to say that but it's true. Leading ladies aren't perfect - that's just something the movies has made us believe.

The quest doesn't end because the calendar does. I just move to the next chapter. A new year is all about possibilities. I don't have to have it figured out to know that it's going to be a great year and I'm going to do some amazing things. I just know. And knowing is half the battle (as G.I. Joe tells us). 

Thanks for visiting the Island in 2013. I hope that you'll come back in 2014. Lots of good things are coming your way: my love letter to Treme and New Orleans, a post about waffles, some more Lazy Movie Weekends, we'll make it to the 200th post, and I'll make my annual attempt to answer Pumpkin's questions on Answer Your Cat's Questions Day. It's going to be an exciting 2014 here on the Island!

Happy New Year from the Island! 

Make smart life choices - have a DD or take a taxi if you're out partying like it's 1999.

Words are not scary...

I'm a winner! Yes, I completed National Novel Writing Month. I have the winner's certificate and the crippling addiction to salt and pepper Triscuits to prove it. It's been a month, well 26 days, and I'm looking forward to going back to the novel and fixing it. Editing is not the goal of NaNoWriMo; getting to the end is. There are lots of things I'd like to go back and add and finesse. And I will. After I take a little break from these characters and spend a little time doing other things like reading and eating real meals.

It's been an interesting month. I have spent at least 3-4 hours a day writing since starting the novel on November 1. This is in addition to going to work, seeing family and friends, running errands, doing chores, you know living life and all. When I wasn't sitting at my computer writing, I was jotting things down in my notebook or thinking about some plot point or little thing about a character. My daily word goal might have been 1667 words (although I did more than this almost every day that I wrote), but I was writing more that didn't make it in or was just for me to reference. There's actually an entirely different ending somewhere in the book. It would have been sadder but also true to the characters. However, other things would have had to happen that didn't for this ending to work.

Which brings me to the most fascinating part of NaNoWriMo: every single person I talk to wants to know either what I won or when my novel will be published. Here the definitive answers to both of these questions: a sense of accomplishment and I don't know. You don't really win anything by finishing a NaNoWriMo novel. There are contests you can enter that might help with the publishing part and we get offers for binding the book and other author-y things but there's not a novel that is voted the winner. Over 300,000 people participated in some way this year. How would a winner be selected? So my standard answer to what I won is a sense of accomplishment and knowledge that I can do this. I can take an idea (however small and odd to everyone else), create characters, figure out a plot, and get us to an ending that I enjoy. If you don't try something you'll never know what you're capable of and now I know that I am capable of writing a novel.

Then there's the second question: when are you going to publish it? I really don't know. It's not ready for publishing. First of all, it needs to be edited. I rarely went back and reread what I wrote. I knew that if I did that I would never finish because I would keep changing things and focus too much on something that may or may not matter in the larger picture of the story. BUT there are also lots of things I know I need to work on before I would feel confident letting people read it let alone consider publishing it. There are some plot points I want to tighten and a few I'd like to expand (I would like to spend more time with Marnie and Oliver in their first dating phase and definitely give Ms. Thompson and Mr. Webb some additional background) and I think I need to work a bit more on the Metro Counselor organization before we get to the big reorganization that takes place later in the novel. A month is not a long time and even if I had taken the extra four days (since I finished on November 26), I still would be exactly where I am today. So, maybe I will try to self publish it, maybe I won't. But I do promise that when I'm ready to, you'll be allowed to read it in its entirety.

So what does a finished novel and NaNoWriMo look like in numbers? Let's take a look at my experience this month by the numbers:

• Days to complete: 26 days 
• Average words per day: 1903
• Hours per day: 3-4 (although there were several days where I wrote all day and others when I wrote for 30 minutes)
• Pages: 100 (single spaced, 12 point Times)
• Chapters: 30 plus a Prologue and Epilogue
• Final word count: 52,217
• Words to finish (what I wrote on the last day): 3476 - this breaks down to 1259 to reach the 50K goal and another 2217 to finish the novel
• Number of Hallmark holiday movies watched while writing: 15
• Number of boxes of salt and pepper Triscuits consumed: 3
• Number of hours I owe Pumpkin in petting and attention: 624
• Number of times I asked myself why I was torturing myself this way: 75
• Number of times I listened to my "Lou Reed Dance Party" mix: 17
• Number of times I listened to the song "Gold Dust Woman": I wish I had kept track. I would estimate about 75
• New bands added into a writing mix during week three: 4 (thanks to those who suggested music)
• Glasses of champagne consumed upon completion: 1
  

Top five favorite things I wrote:

1. "Holy cats, Marnie! You've been Lloyd Doblered!"
2. "He hates scarves and unnecessary hats."
3.  "Later today I promise to walk into something in the office because I’m daydreaming of Oliver if that will make you feel better.”
   “Yes it would. Just don’t cause any real injuries. You have a presentation tomorrow and a press conference on the 30th. No casts, stitches or braces please.”
   “I make no promises.”
4.  Marnie and Oliver's second first date - second first dates should be a thing
5. A debate between Marnie and Oliver about the album Lulu (Lou Reed and Metallica) - I agree with Marnie that it will age well.

I had a blast doing this and will definitely do it again next year. I plan to work on The Metro Counselor a bit over the holidays so hopefully I'll have something that I feel comfortable showing people sometime in the new year. Today is the last day of NaNoWriMo so if you know other people who are participating make sure to cheer them on in this last sprint to the finish. The last 5000 words are the hardest. I want to thank Neek Confessional and Bad Shakespeare for being my two biggest cheerleaders this month and for sharing their own novels with me (and the world). I wish Jessica and I had thought to get #hemingwaywasadrunk trending but alas, we did not. Maybe next year. They're both hilarious and great writers so if you haven't checked out their blogs, you should. It's good for your soul.

So you if you want to relive my NaNoWriMo posts, here they are in order starting at the beginning of the month:

• Let the writing commence!
• My main character is probably me
• That was unexpected
• Lou Reed Dance Party

I guess I should also thank the late Lou Reed. I had not intended for him to be such a big part of the novel but it happened. I like that his music was playing when my Marnie meets Oliver and that they share that musical moment. I like that Oliver made Marnie a mix tape called "Lou Reed Dance Party." I'm not entirely sure Lou would enjoy this novel but I hope he doesn't mind that he inspired some of it.

Up next on the Island: One month left in this leading lady quest so we'll check in on my progress and see what's left to do this year. And I promise the return of Lazy Movie Weekend with a holiday themed entry.