My 1011 NaNoWriMo month came to an end 15 hours ago and I went to bed feeling fantastic, slept the best I have all month ans woke feeling terrific, lol It is a good feeling knowing we forged ahead - however much for the month.

My WIP  (Work in Progress.)

At one point today, I was brought to tears as I edited/rewrote to better effect a passage. That makes my novel a three hanky novel so far. lol :-).

I have just completed the edit of the 11,500 word long chapter 7 where I deal with the internal within the mind of many of my characters. This is the chapter before a big action chapter. This was the one I needed some beta readers for and thank those who helped me :-). I was anxious that this more talk less action, but getting a gimps into the mindset of all characters, chapter not be too long yet not leave out essential information.

I will put this chapter aside now until I am alone tonight and can listen to it in my Read4ME program and hear my typos so I can fix them.

NOW :-) Seeing as NaNoWriMo is over :) I begin the more balanced lifestyle goals and put away, a full months worth of washing, lol :-).

I pushed myself to exhaustion last night, day nine and into day ten of NaNoWriMo 2011.  I knew I had the opening of my novel...the so important opening passage in actually final draft stage, words, on the tip of my fingers....I pushed on and wrote.

This morning, I WAS exhausted.
Then once refreshed, I re read the opening line, opening sentence and paragraph and it is 'YEY! I DID IT.' It had been worth pushing myself. I wish I could share the words here, like a mum eager to show off her new baby, but I want this novel to be published I cannot put it any of it out in public before its official release.

Sometimes pushing yourself beyond what is sensible is well worth doing. One could care for the body and live to 100 and not achieve anything lol...what would be the point?

I will do my self care tonight and get to bed by midnight and sleep satisfied that knowing the second most important part of my novel has been written, the opening or what us authors call, 'the hook.'

The most important part of the novel is the ending and I have this write completed.
This the second novel I am writing, that will be the first in my Billabong Dreaming series, is now well into it's second draft and I am happy with it and my achievement so far. 

Don't ever discount the importance of the feeling of achievement and personal happiness when considering what is and what isn't a healthy lifestyle. It is all in the balance. Those balance scales are meant to rock back and forth with life and not be held in a stationary boring you to death motionless and perfect balance. I certainly do not want to live, only to die in old age feeling I achieved nothing aside from pride in maintenance a good looking body. 

I am well aware, that I have in the past, taken self-abuse to the extreme and been unaware of this due to my passionate pursuit of my creative careers. This time, I am aware and observing and self-adjusting as I go.

The sense of satisfaction I feel today, is far greater than any 8 hour sleep could have given me.   I am sure my friends who run marathons share this feeling even though our extremes of behaviour, seem opposite to each other, we are alike in knowing it is OK to bush beyond the sensible, to actually push into some degree of self-abusive behaviour in order to achieve a worthwhile goal.

I have illustrated my blog post with two of the characters from my novel. The young man is Theodore (Ted) Fife the younger brother of the cattle king Alan Fife who's powerful influence is seen throughout the novel even though he is not the main character the novel will revolve around his influence.  Beside Ted Fife is his senior business partner, Marcus Lang. Together they form a forboding team as Lang and Fife Solicitors at Law. 

Synopsis Dreaming Billabong

About the series of novels

The dreaming spirits assist two children end a violent and corrupt payback culture that has harmed four generations of their families and their inland town.

Book two forces the inhabitants of Fife Springs to face the terrible forces of nature and the repercussions of the payback culture.
Those who love a thief are in danger of having their sanity stolen.
Can the friendship of Emily and Jarrah survive?
Is the Emily the child of the thief, delusional or fey?
Can Jarrah come to terms with the payback culture that has been destroying his his family since the time of European settlement?
Will the revelation of the secret of the wattle to the cattle king, destroy the mountain dwellers land and the last of the Woggan-Wandong clan?

Excerpt Synopsis of the Dreaming Billabong Series of Novels.
Book one NaNoWriMo 2010 - Book 2 NaNoWriMo 2011

In early European settlement of Australia, many groups of people interacted harmoniously and with respect of each other’s culture.
Many bitter altercations did however take place. One such conflict was between the Woggan-Wandong people, and the Fife clan settlers on the huge Mimosa Downs Station. They had, at first coexisted. Misunderstandings led to violent, confrontations, which, in 1882, resulted in deadly conflict. Both groups believed the other had begun it and brutal payback resulted in spilt blood.
A conflict of this intensity is not short lasting. In the first of the series of Woggan-Wandong novels, three young children, Jarrah, Emily and Harry, all great grandchildren of the first European settler of the district, Jane Fife, return to Mimosa Downs Station to find that repercussions from those early conflicts last for generations.
Jarrah is an orphan boy caught between two cultures. He learns he is a descendant of the Scottish settlers who had arrived at Fife Springs a century before. As such, he is a possible heir to the massive Mimosa Downs Cattle Station. The early settlers had begun the Massacre of Jarrah’s other family, the traditional lifestyle living, Woggan-Wandong. The Woggan-Wandong had in payback, massacred most of the Fife clan. His Uncle Ian offers to be his benefactor and to protect him. Jarrah’s, Uncle Kanga is guiding Jarrah to a traditional initiation into manhood by teaching him about country, and the dreaming legends.
The demands of two families conflict with Jarrah’s own dreams for his future. He befriends Harry, and Emily. Emily is a disturbed and gifted child who creates her own inner world to escape the one her parents have made. Her troubled mind enhances her sixth sense, fae ability. Jarrah in turn, is developing his own dreaming time legend powers. Together the duo strives to end the terrible cycle of payback that has plagued the people of Fife Springs for more than a century.
The novel opens in the mid 1900’s, with the second rush of Australian settlement taking place with migration from Europe following World War 2 and the ripping apart of indigenous Australian families by a paternalistic society bent on perusing a white Australia policy.
The great grandchildren of the early colonial settlers are finding their lives are still affected by terrible payback crimes that began with the British colonisation of Australia. These crimes have continued in varied form though to today.
This is the first of a series of novels of a family saga, covering a time span of over a century. It deals with issues of intolerance, greed, racism and sexism, all just as relevant today as they were a century ago. The main characters are children and teenagers, with adults as supporting characters.

Woggan-Wandong, means The meeting of the Spirit Ghosts.