Making Progress

So...I'm participating in NaNoWriMo this month and so far not doing too badly. I'm a couple hundred words behind where I should be, but I'm confident I can catch that up. It's good to get back to these characters. I've missed them over the last month. However, the problem lies in the fact that I'm four days in and already hit a roadblock. The path of this story seems to be overgrown and hazy and although I have an overall global view of the course it will take, I don't have a specific road map so I'm working at hacking through the brush and finding my way through the fog. But that's half the fun of NaNoWriMo...or so I'm told. For any of the rest of you who are participating and want to buddy up, my nickname is: mkdbail.


I'm also working on my presentation for the women's studies conference I'm going to attend this weekend. For anyone who's interested, it's entitled: "Images of Women in East of Eden: Cathy as Masculine or Monster?" I realized my speech runs over the time limit so I need to cut it some and then practice it so I won't look like a moron or have to read it word for word off the page. We'll see how this whole episode goes. I'm starting to get nervous.

And just a trivial note: I'm over halfway through my first MFA semester and it appears I'll survive it, barring any drastic unforeseens. Then it's only 3 more semesters to go...Yay!

Hope everyone had a good Halloween, hope autumn is treating you well, and that winter's vengeance hasn't hit you yet. (Here in ND we've had one snowstorm in October which left us about an inch of snow that melted the next day. Since then just cool and clear. Everyone's on pins and needles waiting for the next shoe - or snowstorm - to drop).