I've been finished with the book for over a week, but just haven't had time to post thoughts.  Hopefully everyone isn't totally sick of the topic by now.  :)

MAJOR SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT!!!

I won a Fang Fetish Award!  What a fun thing to see in my email.  This has got to be the nicest banner I've ever had.  Congrats to all the other winners!  I recognized a lot of deserving names on the list. :)

Black Martyr and Sex and Candles have been nominated in various categories at the Willowy Goodness Awards!  Thank you to whoever did the nominating.  I haven't posted anything new in so long it's nice to know that people still remember my work. 

I do have a couple of stories in progress.  I hope to be able to get them post-worthy soon. 

-heather

Got this from everyone.  Most of it's fine, especially 2, 3, and 4, but number one?  What did I do to deserve THAT???

I squeaked over the finish line last night, a whole day early.  Now, between this year and my win last year, I can say I have written TWO unfinished novels!   LOL!  I'm hoping this year will be different, though.  I plan on joining the cause at NaNoFiMo starting tomorrow, which is, you guessed it I'm sure: National Novel Finishing Month!  Thirty thousand words, in 31 days.  Should be easy after last month, right?  Right?

I don't know if it's any good or not, or if a rewrite will help it become something that anyone would sit down and read, but I think I owe it to this story to see it through to The End.

Any other winners out there?

November 15th already, and that means NaNoWriMo is half over.  I'm making my progress public in hopes to get myself out of this slump.  Although my word count is on pace, I actually broke the 25,000 word mark on Saturday, so since then, I haven't had a single day with a decent output.  I was hoping to stay ahead for the inevitable distractions around Thanksgiving which will cut into my writing time.

How are my fellow participants making out?  Anyone else feel like a complete fraud unworthy of even writing a Christmas card?

Once again, I'm going to put my life on hold and try to write a novel in November.  Last year, well, I finished the 50,000 words on time, but the story has yet to see those fabled words "The End".  So far this year, it feels good just to be writing anything again and it is still early enough that I have high hopes.  I know there are several of you also participating and I wish you much inspiration and few finger cramps.  If you want someone to commiserate with, just send me an email.

And now for one of those fun progress button things:

By now everyone will have heard that Steve Irwin has tragically died.  I don't know when I've been this sad to learn of the loss of a public figure.  He seemed so real and so passionate.  He saw the beauty in mother nature's ugliest children.  No snake, spider, or lizard was ever less than a spectacular specimen of life on earth to him.  His boundless energy, his work for the animals, and his smiling face will never be recovered and all the world is darker for it.  I can't imagine what his family is going through.  This is what they must have lived in fear of every day.  How awful for their nightmares to come to life.  How unfair of the fates to take him, no matter if he tempted them or not. 

Rest in peace, Steve, and know you were loved.

I'd like to thank velvetwhip for letting me know that I got a Fang Fetish Award!  Black Martyr got Runner up for the Twisted Mind category. 

I had a lot of amazing competition in that category so I'm thrilled to get Runner up.

Congrats to all the other winners on my flist!  I'm very pleased to see so many of you recognized there.

I think just about everyone has figured out by now that my email address is heathervamped@gmail.com.  I get almost no mail at yahoo anymore, but just in case you still have that address listed for me, please update.

To complete my transition away from yahoo, especially the horrid geocities, I also moved and slightly redesigned my fanfic site.  If you link to me or any of my stories, please use http://heathervamped.googlepages.com. 

I won't take down the geocities site anytime soon, especially since I know there are currently a few awards sites linking to me there (yay!), but I will no longer be updating it with new fic.

I've had the new site for awhile and just kept putting off announcing it, telling myself to wait until I could make this or that a little prettier, but I finally realized I will never be completely satisfied so I might as well just put it out there.  I've tested it pretty well, but if anyone finds anything broken, please tell me!

heather