I wrote throughout November about my experience doing National Novel Writing Month this year, when thousands of crazy writers set the goal to write 50,000 words of a novel in one month.  I told you at the end of November that I hit my personal goal of 60,000 words, but I seem to have neglected to update on how my December writing turned out!

My larger goal was to complete the novel draft by the end of the year, and I estimated it would be about 75,000 words.  So I wrote away at roughly 500 words a day through December.  And it was much harder!  Maybe it was because I’d already been writing so much in November, or because I lost the NaNoWriMo communal motivation, or just because I re-set my word goal and so I met that instead of the higher one.  Or maybe December’s just a busier month…

But, regardless, I did keep moving forward through the story and the word count, and I crossed the 75,000 word mark on December 29th.  (!)  Which left me with just one problem–I still wasn’t at the end of the story!

Luckily I took December 31st as a vacation day, spent most of the day at my computer, and pounded out 3,292 words in one day, my highest word count day for the entire two months.  And most importantly–it brought me to the end of the story!

I’m happy with what I have as a first draft, though I’m setting it aside for a while, to get some distance before I try revising.  Right now, I’m revising The People the Fairies Forget, which if all goes well will be the third book in my Beyond the Tales series.  And with any luck, this NaNo project will eventually be #4.

But until it’s published and you can read it that way, perhaps one more excerpt?  I thought I’d pull out a scene featuring an appearance by a character who readers of the first two books will recognize… 😀

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The haze was not too thick for Karina to see when another figure suddenly appeared in the middle of the room. She thought of Lady Diamond, with her disappearing trick—but this silhouette seemed too wide. And also… Karina squinted. Was the smoke particularly bad by the floor, or was the silhouette hovering a foot off the ground?

“Oh dear, this is most unpleasant!” an unfamiliar voice announced, high-pitched and disapproving. The new arrival waved a hand, and the smoke spiraled together, condensing down into a small bright ball, and hovered above the woman’s palm.

In the clearer air, there was no question that the woman was hovering above the ground. Maybe because of the little wings extending out through her pink dress, flapping madly. A gentle fall of sparkles descended from no particularly clear source, accumulating on the floor beneath her in a pile only slightly more golden than her blond hair.

“Are you a fairy?” Rosie asked in tones of hushed awe.

The sparkling woman smiled at her approvingly. “Yes, that’s right! I am Marjoram, and I’m a certified Good Fairy, so there is no reason to be alarmed.”

Karina didn’t care what the floating lady said, the fact that she was floating was sufficient reason to be alarmed.