I'll begin at the beginning.

I have been writing, in one way or another for most of my life.  From little poems and stories when I was small, to longer fan fictions for my kid sister in my teen years.  For the last ten years I have been working on an original series.  I made it about 17 chapters in only to have it be destroyed (this was before online backups and external hard drives).  Then, discovering that the plot line needed a lot of work anyway, I dove into intense research, plotting and outlining.  By January I had outlined a trilogy. Earlier this year I sat down and put pin to paper (well, fingers to keyboard) with the goal of finishing book one before the years end.

As fall approached I had nearly 20K words, but it was nowhere near what I needed.  Hoping for helpful push, I signed up for my very first NaNoWriMo.  In 30 days I wrote 29k words.  Again, it wasn't what I'd hoped for but it was amazing.

In the end, I didn't finish by New Years Eve, but on January 24th I finished my first novel.  It was an experience I can't accurately describe.  I cried.  I felt like throwing up.  I called everyone I could think of.  It was relief, joy, fear, excitement, and so many other emotions all wrapped into one.

On January 29th I submitted that novel to Cupid's Literary Connection's Blind Speed Dating contest.

I will find out on February 12th if I have made it through round one.

To end this post, I have some "thank you"s:

To my sister Leslie - for being my biggest cheerleader.

To my best friend Sandy - for grounding me and making me work.

To Brad, Meg, Leigh Ann and sooooo many other friends - for helping me with things when I was stuck.

To Taryn Albright - for helping me with my query and always saying encouraging things.

That is all for now.  I will update on the 12th when I find out whether or not I've moved to the next round.  If so, I'll explain the next step in the contest.  If not, I'll lay out my plans beyond that.  :)