I can't believe I did this, but I signed up to sweat with Sven. Seventy days to write a novel, accompanied by the 200+ other writers who've signed up to do the same thing. If you're feeling brave, you still have another day to sign up. The challenge begins on Monday. It ends on Jan 15. Yeah, that's more than 70 days, but the sponsors have built in 23 days of down time for you to use however you see fit. Me, I have company coming up for Thanksgiving (probably a week or so) and a week-long Caribbean cruise over the Christmas holiday to fit in, but I think I can do it.

And, frankly, I just need the kick in the pants. I am a GREAT deadline girl.

When I have a deadline.

I wrote my master's thesis in 3 weeks, once push came to shove, and got it approved with very little revisions. I wrote all kinds of academic papers the night before they were due (or the day of, if the class was that evening).

I CAN produce under pressure. And I'm darn well gonna do it.

So, what's my goal? First, I have to finish this Golden Heart entry. I have about 50 pages to go, I'm guessing, and a 5 page synopsis. Then I plan to write the rough first draft of the next book I envision in this series. I wrote the first pages to this book in Dallas this year, one night when my roomies were out and I was full to bursting with inspiration and drive. I think I need to write around 90k words, give or take a few.

I'll be reporting my progress here as I go. I hope you'll decide to sweat with me. There's still time! Don't make me suffer alone…… ๐Ÿ™‚