I don't live to write; I write to live.

Starting on November 1, for the first time since 2008,  I will be participating in National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo participants spend the month of November trying to write at least 50,000 words toward a novel. This is my third attempt. Surprisingly, I have been successful in the first two attempts.

I will be working on the sequel to my 2007 NaNoWriMo project, which was called "Love Divine" and which I may or may not attempt to publish before too much longer. The new project will be called "A Great and Mighty Wonder". I have to say, I'm very excited about this. This new project comes hot on the heels of being published in Higher Things Magazine. It's been three years since my last NaNo attempt, and my life has changed a great deal since the last time I participated. Last time, I was running a community center in southeastern Louisiana. Now I am a pastor in southern Illinois. Last time, my children were young enough that they were taking naps and were generally pretty quiet. Now the twins are nearly six, and they are anything but quiet and sedate. The differences might make the process more difficult, especially since I have no intention of letting the writing process interfere with my various vocations.

If you're taking the ride with me, good luck and God bless you. If not, WHY NOT?!?!? But seriously, if you've ever thought about writing a novel but haven't done it, give NaNoWriMo some thought. Even if you don't make the 50,000 word goal for the month of November, anything you write puts you that much closer to a finished novel. And if you do it in November, you know you'll have hundreds of thousands of other people taking the journey with you.

Good luck, and good writing!