With the help of Gollum's voice, I give you my exciting news!

For a blog about writing, I sure don't talk about my own work much.  And it isn't because it's not important to me or I don't feel like sharing.  It is simply because I never really felt worthy of discussing my own work when there are so many authors out there already published, living the dream, waiting to be discovered by readers.  (Alright so maybe not quite to The Dream yet.)  

But I suppose with the news I have to share that it is about time I begin talking about...well...Me! 

Okay, not me directly but my work.  I have been working on the same book for seven(ish) years now.  Writing, editing, re-drafting, writing all over again, repeat.  And last year I made a promise to myself.  I said "Self, I promise that I will finish this novel and I will get it out there.  I will allow others to read it.  I will send it to publishers.  I will get it published."  And in reply I said "Self, that is an excellent plan.  How do we do it?"  And self said "Well, I must finish writing it.  And if we use NaNoWriMo to help us with that then we can edit it and finally we will do the bravest thing ever and send it to a publisher!"  And me, thrilled with this plan said "Self, you are a genius!"  

So with all of this going on in my head, a friend decided to challenge everyone in a group doing NaNoWriMo to a race.  Whoever hit 50,000 words first wins.  And this is when I said "Self, we can do this! We can totally beat everyone else by typing really fast. Plus we have an advantage, we already know the story."  Self  replied "Now, now. This isn't about quantity it is about quality.  We must- wait, if we hit 50,000 words first we win?"  I chuckle "Yes. We will win the race AND our book will be done ahead of schedule! So self, can we do itsssss?"  Using Gollum's voice self replies "Yesssssssssss precioussssss, we can.  We will win.  We will WIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNN!"  

And we did.  *We wonnnns the race.  And after winning we took a break from writing.  After our break we took another break while waiting for our Beta readers to get back to usssss.  

*Gollum voice turned off* And now I am in the final editing stage before sending this manuscript to some publishers.  Yep, that is right! I am sending my manuscript to publishers in less than two weeks!!! 

*And not to brag or anything BUT I really did win the race.  With just over 50,000 words, I finished on Day 18.  Also, I owe a huge THANKS to Chas Hathaway for giving me the last push I needed to pass my goal! (He challenged the members of Author's Think Tank on Facebook who were participating in NaNoWriMo  to  race to 50,000.  While I already had enough motives, I would have never made it without him as well as the support from everyone involved in the challenge/race! 

Also, I owe a huge Thank you to Tiffani Baker.  If not for her I would not have made my goal.  She allowed me to keep my Fingers for typing.