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GKP Writing News

Going to Camp NaNo

Hot weather, endless things needing to be done, lack of drive to write anything, all make going to Camp NaNo seem hopeless. Yet, they also give incentive to participate.

This year has been an endless parade of difficulties. The latest is the air compressor springing a leak as the pressure tank rusted out. Luckily there was little pressure in the tank as I was filling it to pump up a tire. Otherwise, things might have been messy.

April was difficult as rain or pretend rain (enough to be wet, not enough to do anything) came through every couple of days. My cleaned-out goat barn is now a morass. My garden is a jungle of weeds and summer crops aren’t all planted yet.

Good things are happening too. The pullets are growing well and are staying healthy, amazingly enough. The kids are doing well. I’ve taken lots of plant pictures and am busy with the Dent County Flora books.

Yes, books.

There are lots of single volume wildflower guides. They are not complete, offering only a selection of those flowers the author thought were most common.

Excluding grasses, rushes and sedges, Dent County has an easy 1500 plants. At one plant per page, that is one enormous book. So my flora is split into smaller volumes: Dent County Blues (blue, purple and brown flowers); Dent County Reds (red, yellow and orange flowers); etc.

So, I am going to Camp NaNo with two projects in mind. One is doing pages in the flora books. The other is to finish the novel draft I’ve been ignoring for one excuse after another.

That is one of the main reasons I do keep going to Camp NaNo and joining National Novel Writing Month. I want to make my goal in the allotted time and I get back into the writing groove.

Many of my novels, including “Capri Capers“and “Dora’s Story“, began as NaNo novels.

By Karen GoatKeeper

Karen GoatKeeper loves to write. Her books include picture books, novels and nonfiction for science activity books and nature books. A recent inclusion are science teaching units.
The coming year has goals for two new novels, a picture book and some books of personal essays. This is ambitious and ignores time constraints.
She lives in the Missouri Ozarks with her small herd of Nubian dairy goats. The Ozarks provides the inspiration and setting for most of her books.