Hooray!
I entered the NanoWrimo Novel-in-a-Month challenge for
November 2006. NanoWrimo had about 70,000 entrants
this year, with several thousand winners--of which I was
one! Now I have the right to display this graphic on my
website, as well as the hefty accomplishment of 50,000 words
written on my next book. Is it any good? I haven't the least
idea. Ask me in about six months when I've had time to
revise it. It was a lot fun though, and I urge budding
writers to mark next November for this fun, free,
frustration, and fantastic endeavor!
I'm
a teacher at a public high school in Oregon. I'm married to
a wonderful, long-suffering man--also a teacher. I have
three children, two boys currently working their way out of
my nest and into college, and a daughter, grown with a
family of her own.
I've
taught for seventeen years now, mostly computer stuff. You
can imagine me in my classroom, computer cables strung
around my neck for safe-keeping, and waving spare computer
parts for emphasis. Kids are wonderful. I figure I've taught
about two thousand of them so far. I've done a lot of
laughing and a lot of bouncing off the walls, and some
crying, too. But that's life, isn't it? The endless energy
of teenagers is contagious, fortunately. Also exhausting,
but fun.
My
cat and dog fail to understand why I devote so much
attention to my laptop computer. The cat doesn't mind much,
though. He's discovered that he can sleep on my shoulders
while I'm typing. Apart from an occasional tail in the
mouth, it works out. It's nice to be loved.
Sometimes kids (and adults) ask me how to get into writing,
and be comfortable with it. I tell them to do as I did.
Write long, long letters to your sister a couple of times a
month, and just keep doing it for twenty years. The thing
about letters is that you write about daily events,
anecdotes, or what someone said at work. You tell about all
your ups and downs, and all that emotion just pours out
because you know it's being read by someone who loves you.
In those circumstances, it's amazing how easy writing can
become! My love forever to my dear sister, Katie
O'Brien.
