NaNoWriMo Winner

NaNoWriMo, which stands for National Novel Writing Month, is a crazy event that happens every November.  The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel during the month.  This was the ten year anniversary of the event, though it’s the first year I heard about it.

I decided to participate this year because I’ve been thinking about writing a novel for a while.  It was a bit difficult since I started November 1st with just a vague idea for a story and no outline, but I managed.  I had to average 1667 words per day to get all 50,000 finished by the end of Novemeber.  I did it, I won!

My badge of honor:

Here’s an excerpt from the not at all edited and not even quite finished novel:

I was shocked awake by a hellacious pounding on the window next to my head. I jumped out of bed, brandishing the wakizashi like a baseball bat. I’m not quite sure how my addled brain remembered to grab it at all. The first thing I noticed was the sunlight streaming through the window. The second was a livid Nicolae burning holes into me with his eyes right outside said window. I shrank back, even though his eyes weren’t glowing red anymore they were just as scary this morning.

He motioned toward the front door and stalked off. I hesitantly unlocked my bedroom door and limped to the front door. My right knee was stiff this morning and my arm was still a bit sore as well. I unlocked and opened it to find a still furious man standing right in front of me.

“You revoked my invitation,” he gritted out.

I stood stunned that my silly idea had actually worked. “You mean that actually works?” I asked. “Vampires or evil or whatever,” I waved in his direction, “can’t enter without an invitation?”

“Yes, now if you would kindly invite me in, I would appreciate it.” The words were bitten off in anger.

I looked at him. I’m not sure inviting a furious vampire into my one sanctuary was such a good idea. He must have seen the hesitation on my face as I felt his power build, though I couldn’t actually feel any of it seeping into the house.

“So help me, Ava McKenzie, if you do not invite me back into my own house I will forget about all promises and you will be fair game just as soon as you step a single toe outside. And since I know how much food is in the house, that will be sooner rather than later.” His smile was absolutely demonic.

I backed away, watching him carefully. I figured now was not a good time to point out that this was technically my house now.

So there you have it.  Let me know if you’d be tempted to read the rest of it based on that snippet.  :)