I Won NaNoWriMo 2018!!!

I won NaNoWriMo - it really happened. 

At approximately noon on November 30th, 2018, I validated my word count at 50, 289 words. 

On some logical, rational level I always knew I'd be able to do it. I managed to stick to my guns and do a little bit of writing every single day. Some days I managed to pound out 3,000 words and some days I wrote maybe a small paragraph or two. But I wrote every single day.

I also participated in some the NaNo chats on Twitter - particularly #NaNoWineO - and all the encouragement and support I found there was amazing and just so inspiring. I'm really glad I took on the NaNo challenge this year and took advantage of such a wonderful community of writers.

But it's not over for me. My novel isn't finished at 50k and I have a long way to go before I'm done. But the pressure's off now and I can take my time throughout December to work on my book as inspiration strikes.

Then come revisions, editing, and proofreading. Wash, rinse, repeat.

And hopefully, one day, a published novel. I hope all of you would be willing to read it!

Below, please enjoy an excerpt from the middle of the story, probably entirely out of context. It's one I had a lot of fun writing. ^_^

The data tablet was propped up against the access hatch to her temporary room and she would have missed it had her eyes not been trained on her feet. Gingerly, she picked it up and hefted its weight around in her hands. It felt about the same as a small laptop, only sturdier. She was half-tempted to drop it just to see if it would break.

Zipp must have left it there. It still stung, the way he had mocked her and called her illiterate. Was it her fault she didn’t know how to read the standard alphabet in this galaxy? But who else could have left it? No one else had been privy to that conversation.

She rolled her shoulders back and sighed. Maybe this was his way of apologizing. Unfortunately, she was going to have to face more criticism - she had no idea how to turn the damn thing on….

Down the hall, his door was closed but she could hear an odd buzzing sound leaking out from around the edges of the sealed entrance. She stood outside a moment, wondering whether or not she should knock to get his attention. He probably wouldn’t be happy to see her…

Well, any chance to annoy him was one she wouldn’t pass up now. Spirits bolstered, she rapped firmly on the metal door three times. The buzzing stopped almost immediately. A few tense moments passed and then the hatch whooshed open.

Zipp stood there, scowling down at her. His red hair had been haphazardly scooped up into a messy bun and a rolled bandanna kept the few unruly strands out of his eyes. He wore only a pair of black pants and a white tank.

The entirety of both prosthetic arms were on display and she had to check herself before ogling them outright.

“Whaddaya want, girly?”

Her eyes snapped back up to his. Wordlessly, she held up the tablet.

“Frak, you’re dumb,” Zipp sighed. “You need a lesson in basic tech, too?”

“I’d love to dump a smartphone in your lap and see you master it in under a minute,” She growled. “Just show me how to turn the frakkin’ thing on and I’ll get out of your hair.”

With deft fingers, he plucked the tablet from her hands and slid a digit over the top of the device. The screen blinked to life and he handed it back.

“You like my hair,” he drawled, a grin stretching his face. She dropped her attention to the device in front of her and tapped the screen a few times. Nothing happened.

“Okay, I’m dumb.” She admitted. “And your lovely, lovely hair is the only reason I’m gonna swallow my pride and ask you to show me how this thing works.”

He started at her for a moment, expression inscrutable. He probably didn’t want to let her in, which was just fine with her. She’d be happy to have this conversation in the hallway if he’d just get on with it. After a moment, he stepped aside.

The inside of his space was an absolute wreck, but Clover held her tongue. Mechanical parts lay strewn across the floor and she picked her way carefully over to the unmade bed, which she sat down upon reluctantly. Zipp dropped back down into his chair and gestured for the data tablet.

Handing it to him, she caught sight of the odd looking array of tools at his desk. “What were you working on, if it’s okay to ask?”

“Maintenance,” he hummed.

“Maintenance,” she repeated. “On what?”

He held up his left hand and wiggled metal fingers. A few moments more of fiddling with the tablet. “Alright, you’re set. Buttons on the side switch screens, tap the symbol to hear the sound.”

Sound? She angled the screen to face her and grinned. On the screen were a few rows of the written Crimean alphabet. Her finger made contact with the first one and a sound emitted from the back of the pad. “Bah. Bah. Bah.”

Clover looked up at Zipp. He had turned his back to her, focusing instead on the dismantling of the firearm hidden inside his left arm. The rigid set of his shoulders told her he was awaiting some kind of unpleasant response. She opted to surprise him.

“Thank you,” she said softly. He went very still at her words. “I should be able to master this in no time.”

Zipp scoffed. “I hope so! You can’t expect to survive very long being as illiterate as you are.”

She ignored his deflecting insult and instead cast her gaze around his room. “I don’t suppose I could trouble you for actual paper and a writing utensil though?”

He swiveled around and fixed her with incredulous stare. “What in the ‘verse would you need that for?”

Shrugging her shoulders, she looked back down at the symbols on her screen. It was clearly some kind of phonographic alphabet. “If I can write out the sounds in English next to these symbols, I can probably remember it easier. Lock in the information, so to speak…”

He sat back, and she got a good look at the inside of his arm. It looked remarkably barren without all the pieces of the blaster inside. Thin copper wires lined the inside and as he tapped his fingers on the desk, each wire pulled taut and then released.

Zipp watched her reaction intently, the way her pupils dilated and her lips parted. His rational self knew it was curiosity, a fascination with a technology unfamiliar to her. He often felt the same way about new upgrades as they became available. But another part of him found it….incredibly erotic.

He wondered what she would do if he lifted that hand and slowly dragged it down her cheek. If he slid each digit through the strands of her hair until he could tug her closer and….

“Can I watch?”

“Hmmm?” he was mortified at the strangled sound that came out of his throat. He coughed twice and turned to pick up his soldering iron. “Watch what?”

“The maintenance.” He could hear the smirk in her voice. But what he didn’t know was if he’d been caught in the act of fantasizing about touching her or if she simply enjoyed riling him up by throwing his own words back at him.