The Finisher

Over the past couple months I was working on my first commission since graduating last August.  It was for a good friend and mentor of mine who wrote a story that she wanted me to illustrate.  Now I can't show you any of the drawings, but I can say that I enjoyed working on them, even though sometimes it was a real challenge.  That's kind of what brings me to today's post, the first in about a month.  We met several times to discuss the illustrations and of course, talk would sometimes turn  off topic.  She mentioned something that has been on my mind for quite a while now.  I don't quite remember what we were discussing, but the phrase she used was, "I'm a finisher.  I do things and I finish them."  I'm sure that's not quite the exact words, but you get the gist.  I've known her for about as long as I've known Caroline, so I know very well that this is true about her.  But what struck me the moment she said that was that I, myself, am the exact opposite, and at the moment it kind of bummed me out.

I will fully admit that I have trouble finishing things sometimes.  There's this thing about deadlines with me:  if there isn't one, things just won't get finished.  While I was quite the procrastinator in school I always got things done by the deadline, albeit minutes or even seconds before.  But if there's no deadline I say to myself, "I'll do it later," or "I'll start tomorrow."  Sometimes I'll even get really excited, have a plan in place, and then I just kind of piddle out halfway through.  It's why I have dozens and dozens of novel plots jotted down on my computer and only one of them is a finished rough draft.  It's why my friend's words were on my mind ever since she said them.

The problem was that I felt bad about it, but I never seemed to be able to change it.  That little voice in my ear that said I couldn't do it was always nagging me...and nagging me...and nagging me.  So now I had a voice in each ear nagging me in opposite directions.  Talk about good angel, bad angel.

And then something really strange got into me.  I don't know what it was exactly, but it sparked some kind of fierce determination.  This determination brought me to today.  It might be an insignificant thing to some people, but today is huge for me.  Today I finished the first draft of a novel.  50,576 words to be exact.  The majority of that I wrote in the last 29 days.

I freak out and do a little dance every time I think about it!  I CANNOT STOP SMILING!  I DID IT!!!!!!!

I did it as part of NaNoWriMo, which I've talked about before on here.  Basically, you write a novel in a month.  While this usually takes place in November, they also hold an even called Camp NaNoWriMo, which goes on in April and July.  In Camp NaNo, you can set a word count other that 50,000, and you can start with a preexisting story that you've already written on.  My word count goal was 33,000 because I already had a bit written, so in all I ended up over the 50k.

That brings me to the other exciting thing!  Not only did I finish my draft, I won NaNoWriMo!  It's another thing I've started many times, but piddled out on.  This time around I beat the fudge muffins out of that thing.

The next step is editing, which I haven't done much of to be honest.  I'll need a lot of help from my best reader and idea bouncer, my mom.  I might also try to find some uninhibited readers when I get revision done.  After that will be the search for an agent, which is both a frightening and an exciting thought.  But for now, just call me Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner.  I'm totally basking in my own limelight.

Way Up on the Suwannee River

It's been a little while since I've written, but things have been slow on the writing front lately.  Since last I wrote spring has come on strong here in Florida.  All the flowers in our yard are blooming and our lime tree is so full of delicious-smelling little white flowers. We're going to be swimming in limes this year.

Yesterday was the Wild Azalea Festival in White Springs, a little town about twenty minutes north of Lake City.  We decided to drive up there and check it out.  When my mom first started making and selling quilts at festivals we would do White Springs, but we haven't been in years because this festival is really small.  I really wanted to be a Mori Girl and I started out in a few layers, but I changed into a more simple Mori outfit before we left, anticipating the heat.  Here in Florida spring feels like summer, except everything is blooming.  And Florida in summer is sometimes what I imagine hell is like.  I would have died in my original outfit.

Everything in White Springs was blooming, including the abundance of wisteria that seemed to be draped over every tree.  When we first got there it seemed a bit dead because things were just getting started.  We perused the booths but didn't see anything we couldn't live without.  After that we went to check out Adams Country Store, which is a really old building in the town.  It's usually not open but yesterday it was.  There are mostly just antiques there now, but they're everyday antiques, not vases and teacups.
 

 

 
 

 

 

I really liked this beautiful stein.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My dad said that when he was little they had one of these in his house with a built in flour sifter.

 

 

 

 

My mom was in love with these canisters.

 

 

I actually did spot some teacups!

 

 

This dresser was beautiful!  And you can see my outfit in the reflection.

 

 

This bellows was bigger than me.  It was probably as big as a cow.

 

I wanted this writing desk.

 

 

I also wanted all these trunks.

 

 

My mom knew what this was as soon as she saw it.  I didn't.  It's a refrigerator!

 

Mom immediately wanted this to put the TV on, and then she proceeded to realize it was way too big.

 

 



 

Afterwards we went out back where there were a few sheds and whatnot.

 

 

 


 

My mom didn't know I was taking this picture.  Te he he!

 

There was a really pretty gate out front beside the store.

 

 After checking out the festival we went over to check out the river, and in White Springs that usually means going down to see the bath house.  The bath house is kind of a part of Stephen Foster State Park, which means it sits on the banks of the Suwannee River.  I spent my childhood on this river, which is why I frequently call it "my river."

 

The bath house used to be a tourist attraction where people would come to swim or "bathe."  The bath house is situated over a natural sulphur spring and people visited to basically renew their health and have fun.  It's not open for that kind of thing anymore, and all the lower levels shown in the old photos are gone, but it's still an interesting place to go.  My dad said it was still open when he was a child and he swam there.

 

 

 

Look at those swim suits!  I could get used to that again.

 

 

 

This bridge leads to the state park.

 

 

If you look closely in the center you can see a woodpecker.

 

 

 

Here are my parents, figuring out technology.

 

Alligators are a geographical hazard when you're a Floridian, but that doesn't usually stop us.

 

Usually you can walk all the way down and around to the outside but the river was up a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Normally you  look down from here and see the bank, but not today.  While the water was up more than usual it's been a lot higher before.  Back when tropical storm Debbie came through in 2012 only the roof and the rails were visible. 

 

More surreptitious photo taking.

 

 

 

 

After the bath house we were getting hungry and none of the festival food appealed to us so we decided to head back to Lake City.  On the way back we stopped at a boat ramp on the river and sat in a swing for a bit.

 

 

 

 When we were leaving a cat came along to lay under a picnic table.  She was so pretty, and stayed still long enough for me to take her picture, though she probably would have run if I'd made any sudden movements.  She was one of the highlights of the day.  I need a cat so much.