Day 1: 632 Words

After 2 weeks of tree-hugging and non-blogging, Arbor Day has finally come to a close.  Now I'm onto the next writerly challenge of 2011.  But first, good news updates:

•  My poem has been selected for publication!  It has been such a long time since I could say that and feel genuinely excited.  So, yay!
• On June 10th, I expect to be visiting with the first in a group of MFA programs that I am strongly considering.  Soon after, I expect to celebrate with a margarita and a dunk in a swimming hole.  Double-yay!
• My horoscope told me to be ablaze with a new idea... essentially, to make love to the page.  And as cheese-tastic as I know that sounds, I am gonna be "ugh"ing my way to a (minimum) 53,000 word orgasm this summer. Ow-ow!

The challenge? At the urging of my fellow tortoise, I am now a member of the Summer Novelist's Club:

Summer is a grand time for books and reading. It's also for writing!
Beginning May 16 through August 28, members of the 2011 Ric Hess Memorial Summer Novelist's Club will write 500 words a day, every day, culminating in a completed, 53,000-word first draft. Think of it this way: It's just two pages a day!
We will all convene mid-summer at Sheffield's to touch base on progress.

So with a bunch of other Columbia alums--MFAd, teaching, rusty, published, overachieving and otherwise--I have embarked on a 106-day journey that will lead to a well-developed portfolio and a big, satisfied smile of achievement.  Here's an excerpt from today's work: Only then she is awakened.  By some superior knowledge, an uproariously magical secret, the feeling that this is something more important than she could ever choose not to bear.