NaNo Madness and its Cohorts (by sarah)

I am planning on doing NaNoWriMo again this year - this is National Novel Writing Month - the challenge? To write 50, 000 words in a month - what is being termed a novel but I would consider a novella!

I did this last year and finished with more than 60 K words and met some great people who became my friends 🙂 Local and internationally. Unfortunatly I have already missed the launch parties but hope to be able to get along to a few write-ins (meet ups in coffee shops where you appear with laptops and dare each other to write or alternatively just chat!).

I plan to finish/continue the story I started last year which is slightly cheating but as I view this as my writing goal for the month - I think that's ok. You can follow my progress on Purple Monster - were I keep all my notes, reviews of research material, and raw as I write them chapters of the story! I often bung in the odd writing tip or link to an interesting article. There are a few flash fictions that are based in The Punks universe though at a slightly earlier time period, these can be found on Magenta Monster.

I was going to carry on writing the story all the way through last year but even towards the end of November last year I started having issues with simply not knowing enough about the time period half the novel is set in - ie Tudor England. I have spent alot of time reading history books and I got away with taking over our LoveFilm queue for half the year where I got out all the films and documentories based in the time period I could find. (And yes I know the films are not accurate but sometimes they give you something to go and research!).

As I am also using some alternative tech in the story I have been researching this too - namely optronics and what large scale social computing would be like if centralised and not the internet. Half the story is set in the near future and is basically cyber punk so I have been reading my way through the cyber punk novels we have in the house.

I want to beat last years word count 🙂 But being pregnant and stuff means that this may be tricky - I am however still going to try.

The other challenge I am doing is PiBoIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month) which I also did last year - this makes a nice counter balance to the Nano for me. And as I have had a great reaction from Jean from stories that came out of this and the picture book writing week - I am definatly doing this again! I am keeping track of all this stuff on Orange Monster if anyone is interested!

I am also doing the rewrite of a novel I hope to submit to the Terry Pratchette Prize so all in all that is a lot of work and I am aware I probably will not get it all done especially with my hands acting up the way they are - but I can but try. And at the end of the day anything I get done is a bonus 🙂

Think Pink Dinosaurs! (by sarah)

The Paleo-Art group that I have been submitting pictures too have done a fundraiser for breast cancer research. There idea was that for every pink dinosaur submitted during October they would donate One Dollar to the Canadian Cancer Research Campaign. Me and Jean have submitted our efforts 🙂

Here is my Think Pink Dinosaur 🙂

I know it's Canada and not the UK but really where stuff like this is concerned - a break through is a break through for everyone 🙂

Eco-Council (by sarah)

Jean has been accepted onto the Eco-Council at school - this was something she came home saying she wanted to do and so she made a card with things on it that represented environmental issues to her (so it was all dolphins and stuff) and then dictated what she wanted to say to me.

It was stuff like 'I am good at putting things in the compost bins and can tell other people how to do it right and stuff' The word stuff did come up a few times :/

She then attempted to write it all herself into the card which went a bit arrey as she had written quiet a bit on why she wanted to be on the Eco-Council all of which omitted the presance of the shiny badge they get to wear!

I was suprised she could even actually enter for it and checked with the school! Then there was getting the letter into school - Jean kept checking her bag but after she got home from school 'the letters still there mummy!' panicked wail. We'd gone through the fact that she might not get a place but she was determined to try - so in the end she handed it personally to the Head Master at their end of project display.

And she got in!

She is very happen about this even though it means she doesn't get much play on Wednesdays - the meetings being at lunch time. This is week three of meetings and she still seems happy with it 🙂 The main issue is getting her to hold her cardi properlly so that the badge doesn't get scraped across the ground - we've already had tears where she thought she had lost it but Daddy had just put the other cardigan on her.

Equal Writes (by sarah)

One of my fellow NaNoWriMers is collecting sponsers for his writing this November - he did this last year too - he is raising money for Equal Love, the campaign group from same-sex marriage rights in Melbourn 🙂 There is a FaceBook Group here.

As those who have been reading for a while will know I hate intolerance and this the same-sex marraige being denied is to me a gross example of intolerance.

Marrage is about love, about declaring that to the rest of the world - hey guys we're together! I know some people say marrage is about children but many hetrosexual couples never have children and when they do they are not necasserily inside of marrage.

Also to say it is about children is to diminish what it is worth - if it is about children then it nothing more than a snare and a trap to enforce family structure and that leads to unhealthy mental baggage for the kids in the first place :/

Marrage should not be a trap, it should be a union and as such there should be no gender/sexual orientation constraints placed upon it - people can not choose who they fall in love with - such has been known for a millenia or two.

Plus with IVF and adoption the child argument really can not stand even on it's own merits - I feel sad that society is still so bound up in hate that two caring individuals can not easily adopt just because they are the same sex. I have heard people fearful that it means two men can adopt a little girl and do dreadful things and then I think of the Wests and I think that was a hetrosexual couple and what they did was beyond words. Yes there is a risk of abuse but no more so than with adoption in general or even just who your perants happen to be 🙁

So why? Why? Can't gay marrage be allowed? We have Civil Partnership here in the UK which people tell me off for telling Jean is marrage. But I will not tell her that people of the same sex can not marry as to her any couple who are together are marrade. Obviously she is very young and kissing apparently counts as marrage but she came home very upset from pre-school last year, as the other kids had told her she couldn't marry one of her best friends. The topic came up sooner than I was expecting but we told her it was fine if she wanted to marry a girl (she will probably kill me for this post when she's about 13!).

I know people thought that we shouldn't have told her this but we have gay couples as friends! And I'm sorry but Jean is not silly and is very good at noticing human interactions :/ Plus why should we lie to her? Also we have been to a gay wedding with her so I think it would be a bit stupid to tell her they can't happen :/

Homosexuality has had to lay hidden for far too long, to the extent that friends asked if they could kiss their partners or even bring them to things like our wedding - they shouldn't have to feel like that.

Anyway - that is how I feel and why even though he is not based in the UK I felt this was something I would tell you all about 🙂

Of C-sections and Crutches (by sarah)

Good news is I am having a C-Section - perhaps a bizar thing to be happy about but after the labor I had with Jean it is a bit of a relief. The bad news is that it will apparently do nothing for the pelvic problems 🙁 the reason for c-section are that I had a level three tear with Jean as well as the apeaseotomy. I had a few problems from this with this with the stitches and blood lose last time along with part of it not having initially been caught which had to be dealt with months after birth :/

I think I was being a bit dim about that though as I hadn't realised it was normal to bleed so much after labor and things. Anyway so that is why I am having a c-section and then of course there is the fact that I have a low laying placentea and I had gestational diabetes last time. So all this means I am having lots of scans to monitor how big the baby is getting and stuff!

Unfortunatly the seperated pelvis is already becoming so painful it is as the dr put in his notes 'debilitating'. I am back on crutches in the hope that I will be able to still walk about abit - I am not using them in the house but am awear my posture is worse without them :/

The consultant assures me the baby can't fall out even though my ligaments have basically all loosened up for labor - hence mobile pelvis. Sounds like a daft question but the pelvis thing was missed with Jean as I was too sick to be allowed out of bed.

And as I've mentioned previously I am starting to have issues with getting myself out of bed and putting trousers on etc.. whilst standing up is hard.

Oh and I get screened for super bugs!

My nose bleeds are normal and so is blood pressure 🙂 Though when stressed it is spiking which sucks and increases the nose bleed :/