Nanoday #23 — Heart of Clouds — (the first in a series of young teen romance novels) is only 5522 (now 3669) words from the end …

It’s been an incredibly exhausting, exciting, novel “Novel” writing experience.

I am so tired I haven’t slept well for about 3 weeks.  I will not do second books at this kind of pace — nope.

It’s been a fun and charming tale to unfold — truly.

I had written many short stories before, and many are published in the web — but this was a new foray and I loved it.  Writing a book for children allows you to remember childhood.  How fab.

I’m soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo tired!

But, I have the end in sight, this morning.

I posted segments of the tale here in the blog and  on my page in NaNoWriMo!

(that was my initial synopsis!) — looking to rewrite that one soon… but, how can I write a synopsis before I’ve written the work?  I don’t work that way!  Also, will need a proper outline et al.  I entered the first 250 words to a contest…

The novel is about a lot of things — love is the key motif — am thinking of the synopsis this am before I start writing to the finish.  I like it and I think it has cross generational appeal not just for moms and daughters but for dads and sons?  Its core mythos is about love for the planet, too — and people and animals.

Okay.  Enough.  To the end we go…..

excerpt from today — the chapter is “sweet lives”

The sky was the palest blue that day, as Devlin threaded his fingers into hers.
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” he asked her.
“I don’t know,” she said.
“What do you want to be?”
“I don’t know either.”
The two of them laughed a little at their lack of plans.  “I think I might be the kind of person who sees where life takes me without too many plans, Teenie.”
“Me too,” she said.
“I want to see a lot of things around the world though.”
“Me too.  I want to learn a lot of different languages too.”
“I want to have adventures.”
“I want to ride on a camel sometime.”
“I want to go deep inside the heart of a cave.”
“I want to swim in the deepest ocean.”
“I want to climb the highest mountain.”
“I want to plant the tiniest tree.”
“I want to find a road no one has ever been on.”
“I want to see all the stars over the desert at night.”
“I want to ride every kind of horse.”
“I want to drive every kind of car.”
“I want to travel to every country on earth.”
“I want to write poems.”
“I want to create maps of things.”
“I want to look through telescopes.”
“I want to dress up in costumes.”
“I want to bake pies with you.”
Teenie laughed and squeezed Devlin’s hand as he said that last one.
“I want to run to the ends of the earth,” he continued.
“I want to hide in the treetops.”
“Which trees?”
“Old redwoods.  My dad taught me about them.”
“I want to fly a plane over the trees you will be hiding in.”
“I want to decorate the castles you build.”
“Like the driftwood hut?”
“Oh, all the different ones,” she said.
“I want to build a wooden boat and sail the seven seas.”
“I will be the pirate who comes aboard.”
Teenie started to laugh again, just looking at the clouds.  It felt nice to be making all kinds of plans with Devlin Underwood at her side.  It felt nice the way he was holding her hand too — not too tightly but warm and happy, under the sun and the bluest sky she’d
ever remembered seeing.
“I want to make you a crown of flowers,” he said.
And then he was off, running across the meadow in search of them with Melloman at his heels.  Brownie had been sleeping by her side and she picked him up and cradled him against her.  Teenie watched Devlin as he soared across the meadow like a bird almost.  His arms were outstretched like wings.  He was off to find the last of the flowers that had carpeted the meadow all spring.