Friday Five for November 22, 2013

1. It's been a slow NaNoWriMo week for me. I've been so busy outside my hermit hole, I haven't had much time to write. Yet I'm still in a good place. As of yesterday, my word count is just over 36,000. I would say I could easily finish that before the end of the month if I had until the end of the month. Which I don't. We leave Wednesday to go visit my in-laws, and so I have to finish on Tuesday. The story won't be finished. I have a feeling this will be a long one, but that's okay. If I ever go back to edit it, it will need a lot of fat trimmed!

2. I've had five rejections over the past few weeks. That's affected my writing too. I've had a lot of leftover Halloween candy therapy. My jeans are a bit tight! Come December, I'll send out my short stories and try other places for them. I also have a few stories whose contracts are up. I can find places willing to take reprints for those.

3. I've baked a lot this past week. Cupcakes decorated as turkeys, banana bread, pumpkin bread, and pumpkin oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I had to make a schedule for it. I never thought I'd be a woman that needed a baking schedule! Funny where life takes us.

4. I won't be going out to do any shopping on Black Friday this year. I haven't in several years. I find myself doing more and more shopping online. It's really so much easier. I still have a rocket ship to buy for my little guy. There are some nifty ones on Amazon. Do you find that you do more shopping online these days?

5. Speaking of my brilliant boy, he is an official reader now. Yes, he's 3.5 year old, but he can read. His preschool class is small enough that his teacher can read with him for about ten minutes each day. He read two new books for me on Wednesday while I was there assisting the teacher, and he even corrects himself when he misses a word or doesn't say it right. Next semester, I'm putting him in an after school literacy program which he got special permission to be registered in. He'll get to work with the teacher he'll have next year for school. I'm one proud mama!