November--the Long and Short of it

It's crazy to think that it's been a month since I posted.  I actually started drafting a post at the beginning of the month, and I just couldn't really get into it.  Tonight, I'm so exhausted that when I was reading to the kids right now, I was stumbling over my words, but it seemed wrong not to post at all in November.

I mentioned before the month started that I was working on short story submissions.  I submitted a superhero novella that wasn't picked up for the anthology but they've asked to consider it for another line of novellas.  I also submitted a bunch of other short stories and novellas... and I hope to have news to announce about those soon.

My goal for this year was to submit 12 short stories by the end of the year.  It's nearly December, and I've submitted 9.  I plan to enter the Mystery Times Ten contest by December 31st, so that leaves 2 more submissions.

I also completed NaNoWriMo this month.  The novel I'd planned kept getting pushed back in favor of short story revision and submission and, in the end, my muse refused to cooperate and work on a YA horror story. Instead, I did five novellas that were holiday/season-centric.  It was fun.  I completed my 50K on 11/11/11.

I'm finishing the month of November with some really long days working on some silhouette murals for the nativity collection display at our church.  I've done similar murals in the past, but this year in addition to the "Jerusalem" skyline they asked for wisemen, shepherds, camels, sheep, and then trees of various types.  So, I've spent hour upon hour since Monday sketching and cutting and putting up the silhouettes.  The murals are over 100 feet in length so it's a big task.  Especially since camels are the hardest things I've ever sketched.  Seriously... even when they look right... they don't look right.  Their anatomy appears to defy all that I know of the natural world.  I'm exhausted... partly because it's really stressful to work on projects like this where you have an immediate audience of other volunteers and you're trying to quickly adapt art to fit on the spot.  Plus, there were also a few other non-mural things that came up that I've been helping with or making decisions on.  It's just a very intense week.  On Friday, it'll open to the public and there'll be hundreds of people going through to see several hundred nativities... and it'll all be worth it.

My nights have been long too.  B isn't sleeping well.  Yesterday, she stayed home from school because she wasn't feeling well due to lack of sleep. (She'd only slept a few hours all night.)  My own insomnia kicked in to full gear around fifth grade, so seeing her struggling with this... kills me.  I know it's not my fault, but it feels like my fault.  I brought these genes to the mix and between her OCD and her insomnia... she really got nailed by the worst of what I brought.  I think it's partly hormones and partly stress at school causing this insomnia... and her OCD.  It just sucks, though.  She can't seem to stay asleep more than a few hours and then sometimes she can't get back to sleep.

I also managed to injure my foot really bad two weeks ago.  I tripped over the kids' metal stilts.  It didn't swell at all, and I had it x-rayed and there's nothing wrong with it... per se... other than it's been two weeks, and I have to keep slamming it with the maximum dosages of ibuprofen and naproxen around the clock or it's crippling.  The ER doctor called it a gnarly stub, but she said if it wasn't healed by 10 days, I should come back in or see my doctor because it's possible it's something else or they missed a fracture.  I just really don't want to go back in, so I keep tossing back the meds... for a stubbed toe.  It's ridiculous.

Then, there was Thanksgiving... and I really wanted to blog about all the things I'm thankful for, but time slipped away from me, and this mural thing started up.  *sighs* I need a few more hours in my day.  Hours that can be spent sleeping, not sketching or writing or revising. Maybe I'll manage a post on that in December because I really do have a lot to be thankful for.

So, that's been my November.  I really need to submit another two short stories in addition to the Mystery Times Ten short... and I have a lot of revision ahead of me.