I lost 13 pounds the first eight weeks of this year. I was on track, exercising on the treadmill five days a week for 30 minutes and a not-going-to-be-hungry eating plan I had chosen.  Losing at a nice slow pace, hoping to keep it off. 

Until I hit a snag:

Then the first snag occurred – my basement flooded and the carpet got soggy.  I am allergic to four things, one is mold.  Within a week after the sump-pump konked out – the smell of mildew permeated my basement exercise room.  If you don’t have allergies, suffice it to say that I couldn’t breathe and wheezing is not good for exercising.  Old age doesn’t help either. After the first week I stopped going into the basement.

By then I was having full blown allergy attacks.  I went to the drug store to pick up my allergy nasal spray.  I made the mistake of going through the candy aisle.  I stood there motionless surrounded by chocolate. I went back to the door, put down the teenzy-wheenzy basket and got a cart.  Two weeks later while I danced in a chocolate haze I began to hide the Reese peanut butter eggs around the house, so that Jimmy wouldn’t know I was snarking them down like peanuts.  It was easy-peasy to buy Reese eggs – and hiding them became a new game.  After declaring that I was going to lose 30 pounds; I didn’t want Jimmy to know that I had fallen off the wagon.  As I licked chocolate off my pudgy fingers, Jimmy, began complaining that he was passing another kidney stone. No big deal – that; he passed them all the time, big ones too. 

Not a kidney stone:

He made an appointment to have a CT scan.  I sat home  snarking down Reese eggs as if the chicken that hatched them slept in my back yard.  The 13 pounds I lost floated back to my hips and thighs and found ten more along the way.  Jimmy went to have a CT scan.  He came home slightly dazed.   I could see another trip to get his stones blasted, something he disliked and made him sore for days.  But Jimmy said there was a growth in his kidney and it was fast growing.  He was scheduled for an MRI and a visit with a kidney cancer specialist.  My protective eating became defensive eating nonstop.  I couldn’t sleep and would get up in the middle of the night looking for chocolate.  Then Jim was scheduled for a special intervention treatment where the surgeon would biopsy the growth and destroy it with radio frequency waves (RFA) immediately afterwards. At that time I could barely fit into any of my clothes so I went shopping for pants with an elastic waist; you know the ones? They are seen on the Walmart Fashion Show videos.  My protective eating had turned into defensive eating.   

Jimmy finally had his surgeries and I had ballooned to my highest weight ever.  I’m not telling  how much weight I put on but the picture on this post looks about right.  The face that stared back at me from the mirror was Miss Piggy’s cousin… Miss Porky. 

Waiting is a killer:

After my husbands surgery my protective eating had build up a nice padding of fat to defend myself against most armies, maybe even nuclear attack.  In my defense I needed my fat to guard me from the horror of cancer, if, heaven-forbid, it turned out to be cancer.  My Jimmy is the perfect husband.  There will never be another man quite like him… I like to say that I spent the past 37 years training him to be perfect but the truth is that I love him and life without him was too desolate to even think about so I just kept eating and eating. 

From the first knowledge of this growth in Jimmy’s kidney I never entertained a thought that it could be cancer.  Jim talked about it… a lot.  I think he was trying to prepare me for something that I would not consider. After the biopsy he started a bucket list of things he wanted to do in the next year; another trip to Epcot; that trip to Alask athat I’ve wanted to make for the past ten years… etc.

Six Packs:

After two weeks of not hearing from the surgeon about the biopsy I no longer hid the Reese eggs, I just opened a six pack and began scarfing them down like Bubba scarfs down Bud Light.  This Friday Jim finally said: “There is something worse than not knowing; your nagging about me calling the doctor.”  He was right.  Talk about nag-nag-nag!  My middle name was nag.  I couldn’t call the doctor; no one would talk to me anyway because I wasn’t the patient.  Jimmy got tired of my constant whining and stuffing every piece of chocolate in my mouth (poor guy); he called the nurse who seemed surprised that the surgeon had not called him.  She went to get his file and told him it was renal cell cancer.  He came home from work and told me.  I didn’t shed a tear.

Stunned!  I had to say something.  “Are there anymore Reese eggs?”  I asked and brushed past him to open the freezer door.  NO EGGS!!! 

No Food – Okay, then I’ll just ruin my hair:

I ran to the bathroom determined he would  not see me cry over running out of chocolate eggs.  Once in there I paced and snooped.  This is what I found:  a box of Loreal Excellence hair color in medium brown… just a shade or two too light, but, what the heck.  And a tube of Black Sea Mud Mask with menthol to open the sinuses.  Okay, every woman worth her salt knows that if you can’t cry and you’ve run out of chocolates the next best thing is to ruin your hair.  With that in mind, I proceeded to whip up the color and apply it to my hair.  With hair piled on top of my head and the messy stuff running down my face and neck I applied the mud mask.  OMG!  Don’t ever…. do NOT ever use menthol around your eyes.  Talk about tears!

So here I am with foamy color dripping down my face and black mud all over, eyes red and teary – there was nothing to worry about except for wondering how long my eyes would stay swollen.  Anything but face the fact that the nurse had just told my husband he had a cancerous growth landlocked inside his kidney.  I paced in front of the mirror. Black goop on my face and hair slathered with gooey foam. Any other time I would have seen this as hilarious, snapped a picture and sent it to my husband to give him a chuckle.   Now it was worry, worry, worry.

Reiki scanning:

Then I remembered that for almost two months I had never felt the energy of cancer in my husband’s body.  Scanning was something that I was awesome at – almost never getting it wrong.  Cancer felt like heat to me or hot spots.  I stopped pacing and faced myself in the mirror.  NOT a pretty sight.  The black mud had dried to a dull gray chalkiness and my face looked wrinkled, old and dry.

There was a knock on the bathroom door.  “Jim!”

I opened it and lunged for him. 

“UGH!” he said, holding me at arms length.

Oops, I had forgotten the mess all over my head and face.

“Honey…” We both said at the same time.  I motioned for him to continue.

Mistake in diagnosis:

“I just talked to the surgeon…” Jimmy said.  “The doc said the nurse was wrong; she must have had the wrong file or something.  He said the tumor was benign.  Thought you would want to know.”

He smiled at me.  Or maybe I should say he tried not to laugh at me, and rather successfully too. 

SEE, that’s what I mean – fully trained!

Out of Reese eggs, nothing to defend myself against except for my own stupidity – I am starting my diet tomorrow! Only now I have 50 pounds to lose this year.  Oh well, there is hurry – no , I have plenty of time.

ps, the picture is not me.

GET THIS FACE OFF MY FLAG!!!

We must have a dictator in America because the new flag no longer has stars but the face of a dictator on it.  I don’t know about you but I am not pleased.  What the hell are they thinking, you may ask? 

Looks like Obama has finally put his real face forward.  His whole demeaner is one of an elitist, dictator, Marxist…. don’t mess with me, I’m your leader, kind of presentation.

ANYONE BUT OBAMA! 

The Health Care Bill for all Americans…. uh-oh, EXCEPT for politicians! The president, Congress, judges, Senate, etc. are exempt!! They have their own golden health care plan that you and I will be paying for.  If they are exempt from American laws, who are they?  Kings and Queens… maybe?

I support the proposed Amendment # 28 to the US Constitution

 ”Congress shall make no law that applies to any citizen of the United States that does not apply equally to all US Senators and Representatives. Congress shall make no law that applies to any US Senator or Representative that does not apply equally to all citizens of the United States. All existing laws and regulations that do not meet these criteria shall be declared null and void!”

I want to get the vote count on this amendment to see who voted against it so that I will NEVER vote for that person again. It is time to make a stand, American!

Take back your country, take back your government from these elitist!  Vote them out if they exclude themselves from being ‘just another American’ governed by their own laws. If they are part of an elite group – separate from other Americans, who are they then? 

Do you think that an elected official, elected to serve you, (in all actuality they are your employees!); should they be exempt from the bills that He/She passes???

My husband can just stop eating and lose 10 pounds in 3 days.  Not me, I would have to not eat for 3 months before I lost a pound.  Over the years of yo-yo weight loss I have found what works for me with experimentation.

First – don’t say the word “DIET” around me.

Diet conjers up thoughts of deprivation of the years when I was young and went to bed so hungry I couldn’t sleep.  Diets makes me start snarfing up all the food in sight.  Something clicks in my brain like the red button in the oval office, lights flash and my heart beats a mile a minute… panic sets in.  I see silver dots flashing in my eyes and before I know it I have raided the house of all the chips, dip, ice cream, fried foods, and somehow found the stash of oreo’s and scarfed them down after crumbling them in a glass of milk…. even the dog hides.

I have lost 15 pounds since December 11th on the following 5/30/Half Plan (see I didn’t use the “D” word!)

  Check with your health professional before starting ANY exercise and eating plan!  Start out slowly - you can’t climb Mt. Everest in one day.  If you go off your eating plan for one meal, just put that behind you and keep thinking about 5/30/HALF…. it works!

 ”5/30/Half Plan” 

(or 5/30/half for short)

5 is for 5 pounds - 5 pounds is all you need to keep in your head! 

Let’s start out with the goal of ”5″ – all you have to do is lose 5 pounds….. at a time.  Your goal is to lose 5 pounds.  After you lose 5 pounds you get to celebrate and have one meal where you can eat what you want.  (in moderation, you wouldn’t eat the whole pizza…no, you wouldn’t!) If you binge and eat 5 pounds of fried potatoes – just drink a cup of hot green tea with a laxative tea or two senekot tablets.  Cleansing is always good for the body!  

30 is for 30 minutes of walking, (treadmill) bike, dance/zumba, every day for six days!   If you have stairs in your house or at your office, walk up and down the stairs for 10 minutes straight – 3 times a day or if you are young and healthy – walk up and down stairs for the full 30 minutes! 

Start out slow the first week… do ten minutes at a time or fifteen two times a day.  On Mondays I am slow and walk 30 minutes.  Tuesday I do 45 minutes.  I take off Wednesday and walk an hour on Thursday and on Saturday I walk for an hour before I clean my house.  

After a week (or two) change your 30 minutes:  Alternate 5 minutes at 3.0 then speed up for 1 or 2 minutes, if you are able – jog for 1 or 2 minutes.  Do this for your 30 minute workout. Finish with 3 minutes of slowing down to 1.8 mpg.   I put a movie in and usually forget that I am even walking, before I know it I have done 45 minute or an hour.   Music is also great… Madonna, Britney or Lady Gaga are the my favorite exercise music.  

This is all the exercise I do!   3 hours of walking a week and cleaning 9 rooms every Saturday (about 4 hours).

I don’t lift weights - if you want to work with weights then keep in mind that muscles weigh more than fat and you may actually put on a few pounds at first.  Building muscles will increase our metabolism over time and burn more fat but only if you watch your carbs and eat more protein. Low-weights with lots of reps will define your muscles if done about 3 times a week. 

If you have a dog – get him outside walking with you when the weather is nice.  30 minutes a day – just walk, slow, fast, medium, doesn’t matter, just move, keep moving for 30 minutes!

Half – this means eat half portions of food.  Cut your food in half but eat 5 meals a day. 

There you have it – 5/30/HALF PLAN

I am 5’3″ and weigh …. a lot right now.  I cut 500 calories a week from my eating and am eating around 1200 – 1400 calories a day.  I spread it out over my waking hours and have never felt deprived or as if I am dieting (Oh, NO! there is that word.)

Drink water, tea or coffee when you feel hungry, eat almonds, carry them with you! 

Take a calcium supplement or drink milk (not whole milk) eat cheese, cottage cheese, yougurt with nuts or cereal on top.

• Eat breakfast (keep protein drinks or bars handy and fruit)
• Mid-morning snack (half-way between breakfast and lunch) salted almonds, piece of fruit, applesause with cinnamon to burn calories, peanut butter, fruit or protein drink or bar (keep it about 200 calories)
• Eat a big lunch!  This should be your big meal of the day; pasta with a salad, chicken with veggies or salad, subway grilled chicken….about 500 calories
• Mid afternoon snack - salted almonds/other nuts or protein bar or drink (Adkins, Slimfast watch the sugars!), fruit slices (McDonalds apple slices!)
• Lite dinner, salad with grilled chicken, frozen Weight Watchers, stir fry with rice.
• No eating after 7PM if possible.  Drink water or tea with honey.
• Half hour before bedtime – two hersheys chocolate kisses and a cup of hot tea with honey in it…..ALWAYS… always have chocolate! 

Water, water, water – 6 ounces 8 times a day, or just count out 5 bottles of water and drink all of them every day.  Water washes out the fat. 

Watch your intake of soft drinks even diet pop – this was the hardest for me!  Use honey to sweeten tea or coffee.  Drink one cup of green tea a day (you can use peach tea WITH the green tea if you do not like the taste of green tea).  

If you don’t like chocolate – have one sinful low calorie snack before bedtime, one oreo cookie dipped in hot tea….yummy.  All day long I can eat sparingly because I know I can have my chocolate every night!  

• If you eat out, chose your meal wisely, stay away from fried foods.  If you most eat fried chicken eat one piece only – this is not about depriving yourself but of maintaining good healthy life style.  
• Ask for substitue for french fries which seems to come with everything. 
• Breakfast is very important when you try to lose weight.  If you don’t eat or drink something nourishing for breakfast your body gets stingy about shucking off fat – it won’t do it!  Your body will hold onto fat like a woman who is getting her purse stolen….we women can be pretty stupid at times when faced with giving up something like our purses! 
• Eat less red meat.  Instead choose other protein foods, chicken, shrimp, talapia, grouper (white fish without bones).  If you dont’ like the taste of fish watch a Youtube video on blackening fish – yummy.  Blackening will add lots of unique taste and disguise the fishy taste. 
• Always look at the food on your plate as if it is a slab of marble and you are the sculpture.  Cut the entre into two pieces and push one aside. Eat half of your meal, put down your fork and talk about the weather or take deep breaths.  Order a cup of hot tea and sip it for a few minutes while you imagine yourself wearing one size smaller jeans.
• HALF a plate of food will eventually equal you being half your size!  Remember the 5/30/HALF?  Half your size does not mean that you will lose half your weight (most of us would be walking skeletons if we lost half our weight… I’d be about 80 some pounds!) Half your size – if you are now a size 12 – means you will be a size 6.  

 If you eat out.  When you order tell the waiter/waitress that you want a take out box.  If she forgets, remind her to bring a doggy bag when she delivers the food. 

Look at your plate.  Take a knife and divide the meat in half and the starchy food in half too.  Start out eating the veggies. Ask for a takeout box when you order and when your food comes put half of your meat and starchy food in the takeout box (leave it on the table when you leave because nobody eats leftovers and they will rot in the frig!) 

Let me know how you are doing!  I will begin to post before/after pictures on the sight.   

NEVER ever deprive yourself of something you are craving.  Just eat a few bites of it.   If you wake up and you want a doughnut, you should have the doughnut but only eat  half of it and throw the other half away.  This is not a diet and it is not about depriving yourself of the foods you love.

You don’t have to be a Reiki practitioner to balance your own energy centers.  Start the new year right by opening your personal power energy center and bring prosperity into your life.  This energy center is at the bottom of your breast bone where your ribs begin in the middle of your chest. 

Place both your hands with the tips of your fingers at the bottom of your breast bone.  Then slide your hands away from your breast bone, moving them toward your side.  As you do this imagine a big golden ball of light entering the middle of your chest moving inside the area of your breast bone.  This is your solar plexus energy center. 

Take a deep breath as this golden light fills your inner being with energy of good health, prosperity and joy.  Do this six to nine times (should take about 5 minutes). 

Afterwards close your eyes and take deep breaths, letting the air move through your body.  You should feel the energy of this golden light moving from your presonal power energy center throughout your body.  It is filling your body with golden light of prosperity, good health and joy. 

Now is a good time to clear your home of stale, stagnant and negative energy.  You can light a candle or incense stick and open your front door.  As you stand in the open doorway ask any negative energy that has accumlated in your life and home to leave.  Take a few deep breaths and then ask the angels to bring in healing energy, joyful energy and prosperity.  Take three deep breaths and blow out your candle.

Show gratitude for your clearing and the bringing in of fresh healing energy!

Blessings to all of you!

May this New Year for you and all your loved ones be:

A year of health and happiness,

A year of wealth and wisdom,

A year of peace and prosperity, and,

A year filled with love and laughter.  It is a new year – start it as if it is a new life!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY Beata and Michael Z!!

I have a friend, Neveah, who is an artist and an Intuitive Reader (you will find a page on this web site that is Neveah’s – check it out!).  Neveah noticed my last post, “Prayer for Prosperity and Health”.  She emailed to remind me of some Universal truths about life and the way we think about it.

STOP THINKING NEGATIVELY

When  you find yourself thinking about all the things in your life that you do NOT want – STOP IT!  This type thinking is not productive.  For one thing worry will send enzymes, hormones and acids into your base cells that will play havoc with your immune system.  It may affect your life on all levels, work, friends and family; it can also cause insomnia, accidents and emotional disturbances and withdrawal from life; eating disorders, anger issues, and many, many more conflicts in your life.

‘HOW DOES ONE STOP WORRYING?’

There are all sorts of techniques to feed your mind healthy thoughts.  First you must BE AWARE of when your thoughts start down the WORRY Lane.  What do you do when you worry?  Do you eat?  Bite your nails?  Smoke?  Stop eating?  Yell at others?  Withdraw?

Analyse yourself the next time you find yourself worrying.

When your realize you have crossed the road into the worry zone, imagine the stop sign ( have put one on this post for you to examine and memorize).  STOP, you are on the wrong road, make a detour to another road, this one is called “Happy Thought Blvd” and while you are on this road you can think of all the things in your life that you have to be thankful for.  If you have nothing or are in too much distress to remember your blessings, then take a break from worrying.  Take five minutes off from worrying; play cards, read a book, listen to music, think about the life you want to live right now; but take five minutes off.  Do this every hour.  Make a concerted effort to take a five minute break every hour if possible.  During this five minutes, let your mind roam to what you want in your life, see yourself with it. 

For instance:

If you want a new car think about the car you want; try to recall the scent of a new car.  If you don’t know what a new car smells like go to a dealership and sit in the cars, pick the one that you like, ask to test drive it.  Before you leave the new car dealership, ask the salesman or someone to take a picture of you in the car you love. 

If you want a companion go visit a dog shelter and hold a dog, the do will thank you for it.  Have you ever smelled puppy breath?  Oh, my, it is such a sweet scent and makes you come alive. 

If your life is in total chaos, bad relationships, poor health, out of work, try taking a walk somewhere that you can walk in the woods, smell the musty scent of leaves, kick them and breathe the fresh air. If finding a wooded area is out of the question for you, then just stand outside and take deep breaths; listen to the air as it enters and leaves your lungs.  Know that there is no limit to the air that you breathe on planet Earth and the creator provided this for you just as all your needs were provided for, the only thing stopping you from having the things you want is your own thoughts and fears.  

Your Soul Wants You To Be Happy

Your inner-being, your soul, wants you to have anything that you can imagine yourself having. Go ahead, imagine your life with good health, joy, love and with enough funds that you will be happy.  Happiness comes when we stop worrying about what is lacking in our lives.  Turn your thoughts to productive ones like planting seeds in your future garden; focus on what you want your future to be.

Your reality is not what you see around you even though it appears to be.  Thoughts are energy that feed your reality.  Physics has proven that matter is nothing more than molecules moving in space and time. Thoughts are one of the ingredients to ‘move’ that matter, in fact, thoughts are like planting seeds in fertile soil and watching them grow.  We can grow weeds that are not productive or we can grow vines rich with fruit to make wine.

Our lives mirror our thoughts.

Your life today is a mirror of your thoughts of yesterday.  Think about where you were in life five years ago!  Were  you worried about paying bills; keeping the old car running; making the mortgage payment or were dealing with health issues?  Piles of bills that you cannot pay is certainly something to be concerned about but we have to take time off from worry otherwise health issues may appear. 

Going through a relationship adjustment is certainly a chaotic time but when we dwell on past relationships we create issues in our life today by constantly thinking about the past relationships that didnt’ work for you.  This is negative thinking; instead think about what kind of relationship you want now.  Go ahead write a list of what you are looking for and look at it often.  Do not be too specific, as in, blond with blue-eyes, cute butt, all men have cute butts!  (did you laugh?)

Maybe you were brought up in a home where nothing was easy and as you lay in bed at night you heard your parents fighting.  Certainly all of this is disturbing but at some point we have to take responsibility in our lives and STOP worrying about the past and make new roads into the future.

It is easy to ‘get stuck’ in worry zone.  It is like getting caught in a canyon worn by years and years of water running deeper and deeper.  We find ourselves unable to see out of it and continue moving deeper and deeper.  Negative thinking is the same. One distress leads to another and soon we may not be able to cope.

The “here-an-now” is a result of yesterday’s thoughts. In fact your life “right here and right now” is already past as soon as you arrive at the end of this sentence.

Thoughts move energy forward in time and in space.  Thoughts create our reality for tomorrow and the next day.  So your past thoughts have created the space you are in ’right here, right now’s’.

Change Your Thoughts

If you want to make your tomorrow reality a brighter, happier place, change your thoughts to what you want in your life. STOP dwelling on what you do NOT want.

Look at the stop sign and memorize it.  When you catch yourself thinking about stacks of bills that you cannot pay or worrying about your health, bring the stop sign into focus and make a mental detour to what you want your future reality to be.

Your inner-being, your soul, wants you to have anything that you can imagine yourself having. Go ahead, imagine your life with good health, joy, love and with enough funds that you will be happy.  Happiness comes when we stop worrying about what is lacking in our lives.  Turn your thoughts to productive ones like planting seeds in your future garden; focus on what you want your future to be.

Reach for thoughts that bring you happiness.  If you need a new car, take time and go sit in a new car; smell the new car scent (do they have a new car spray?) Ask someone to take a picture of you in a new car.  Look at it often.  Imagine what it feels like to drive that new car.

If you want a new home, visit open houses.  Sit at the kitchen counter, walk into the back yard and breathe the scents of the home, listen to the unique sounds if the neighborhood.  Ask someone to take a picture of you standing in the home, in front of it, in the yard.  Stop worrying about how you will pay for it, just enjoy the moment, enjoy the luxury of being in a nice home, enjoy the dream of a life that you want.

Take your thoughts off of what you lack in your life and focus on what you want in your life.  When you begin to think about the things in your life that you lack - STOP!!

Pull out the STOP sign.  Take out the pictures of you in the new car, in the new home or standing on a beach.  If you have a picture of yourself and you are obese, paste  your head on a thinner you and carry it around with you.  When you worry take out the memories of what you want in your life.

Dare to dream and dream big.

A waste of time?  The worst that can happen is that you spend time each day imagining a better life, day dreaming, visualizing, realizing that life can get better.  This is time out of the worry zone; time to allow your stomach acids recede; time for your stress hormones to level off.  This time will allow your body to remember and adjust to life without stress.

I ask you, WHAT IS WRONG WITH THAT?

Dream make your thoughts your new future. May you be blessed with joy, good health and prosperity!

You may say, “So what?  That doesn’t affect me.”  But it does.  When small shops close their doors, it becomes part of a spirl, like water running down the drain.  We are all connected and what affects one end of the chain shakes the other end. 

If you are interested in shaking the chain from the middle I welcome you as part of this prosperity/health prayer.

Close your eyes and envision a spider web made of golden thread.  On each corner where the threads come together that is where we all sit.  At these corners imagine a golden light of the Creators love and see it move from one link to the next, creating a shimmering light.  This light carries love, good health and prosperity, to me, to you and to all who take part in this prayer.

Blessings – love, light, health and prosperity!

Before I forget (and you start the week one hour behind) – Sunday morning, November 5th, was the time to Fall Back an hour!

The end of daylight savings time was Saturday, November 5th at midnight!  If you didn’t and you venture out this week you may find that you are out of step…. by one hour.  You will be one hour later.  An hour late in the fast-paced world of 2011 could be disastrous.

I don’t set clocks back, my husband does all the mechanical things around our home and work.  Me – I am a clumsy mess around all things mechanical.  A hammer or a screw driver?  I wouldn’t know what the difference is, if something is broke I just pick one of the tools up and pound on what won’t work.  Amazingly, sometimes it works!

So, yesterday morning my husband (he’s such a sweetie!) set back all the clocks in our home and offices.  This weekend was a fog for me anyway, I felt out of sync with the world but I’ve been in creative-writer mode since November 1st.  So the change in time had no affect. 

http://www.nanowrimo.org/

What’s with all the writing? 

I joined novel in a month on November 1st.  50,000 word novel just written freely, no corrections, just creativity, thoughts, write a book, write, write, write…. then on November 30th if you have written 50,000 words or more you win a certificate. 

A certificate for writing 50,000 words in 30 days!   

Yeh, nothing like another piece of paper to hang on your walls.  This is sort of like the  Power Rod Tour for classic car junkies.  The Power Tour is where you travel from Point A to end up at Point F and check in at all the points in-between.  It is one week journey across country from one city to the next with about 2000 or more other enthusiast.  In other words as my husband is so fond of saying, “Every day it is a car show!”

The Novel In a Month is a challenge. Challenge!  Challenge!  CHALLENGE!  When you finish you have 50,000 words to edit and somewhere in there is a good start for a novel that you may get published!

PUBLISH!!  Now that is a word I can wrap my mind around!

Check out http://www.nanowrimo.org/