“A white lace of frost webs the sidewalk; a kaleidoscope of leaves. Hillsides are ablaze with flame-colored trees, fields lie fallow and dark, and cornstalks dry to the color of bone in the low golden sun. The sky promises rain tonight and winds rise to torture the clouds. Fog swirls down the darkened street, shrouding the candlelit grin of a glowing jack-o-lantern, and the veil between the land of the living and the land of the dead grows as thin and insubstantial as the mist.”
:: Michelle Morgan ::
October was the month of exhaustion.
I love Autumn, and I tried to lower my expectations, but in reality, I just had too much to do to actually rest. I ran a group mentorship programme, prepared for #NaNoWriMo, shifted my working hours at day-job, looked after Smoke who still seemed to not feel 100% well, saw family, gave blood, renewed all the adult insurance paperwork, and switched my bank account.
Phew!
Reflections on the Journey
i. Read 12 books: 4/12 – With NaNo approaching, I stuck with my non-fiction reading, but didn’t complete any books this month.
ii. Edit second novel for submission: 1/1 – I submitted Darkening Skies to a new opportunity, following beta-reader feedback.
iii. Track my wordcount and aim for 100,000 words: 48,808/100,000 words – This month I dropped my streak, but picked back up to write at least something daily, and I’m on track to catch up as long as I can complete NaNoWriMo.
iv. Build upon my wellness routine: October was a transitional month. My day-job shifts were variable, I ran my first group coaching programme, and I prepared for National Novel Writing Month.
Two things I did manage this month, was trying new recipes. We had a bunch of sausages to use up, and thus both recipes focused on these. Having said this, I made Coconut Curry with Beef Sausages, and used Chicken Sausages in this Pasta Bake. I helpfully forgot to photograph them, but my husband took leftovers to work the next day for lunch, so it can’t have been that bad!
Damh the Bard released a beautiful album, speaking and singing the first ‘branch’ of the Welsh mythology tales of the Mabinogi: focusing on tales of Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed.
October’s Experience Collected
- 100/200XP
- 350/350XP
- 300/300XP
- 400/400XP
Total XP for October: 1,125/1,250
Total XP towards Level Up: 7,625/7,500
Total XP towards Level 5: 125/7,500
Smoke and Embers
At the end of last month, we took a picture for the cats birthday, and have been spending more time in the evenings playing with their favourite toy.
Smoke did his usual trick of playing ‘broken’ and Ember got incredibly cuddly. With the cold moving in, they began cuddling up together again, which was adorable.
Jumping the Wall…
- I ran a group coaching programme, which was amazing fun, cemented how much I love this work, and taught me a bunch [mostly about technology and timezone issues!] I’ll be running another round in the new year, focused on Bringing about Balance.
- I had another guest post published at The Mindful Word focusing on the Mindfulness and its Limitations when Alzheimers is involved.
- I gave blood for the second time. Despite some issues last time, this time it went very smoothly and I didn’t have any dizziness.
- I also had a post featured in the October edition of Badassery Magazine.
- I continued preparing my NaNoWriMo novel…
- We put up a gazebo in the garden to act as a temporary car-port, and had a weekend away in Canterbury.
The Path Ahead…
- NaNoWriMo will take over my life. As always.
- I’m aiming to get to at least two of the actual ‘write-in’s, and have created a Discord server for my Nerd Fitness group to share our novelling-woes online.
- We’ve made some plans to see friends one weekend.
- Work continues to have odd shifts, so I’m getting back into a sense of routine.