NaNoWriMo is about to wrap-up and I’ve got bad news…
I’m not going to make it to the finish line.
At least not before November 30th.
I jumped out to an early lead, but like sprinting the first mile of a marathon, my pace was unsustainable.
A weekend-long birthday celebration (plus recovery time) combined with a week-long Thanksgiving trip to Alabama (plus recovery time) put me way behind and though I made a last-ditch, hail Mary all-nighter (thank you, Mountain Dew) I’m sitting at 31,000 words and change on the eve of the competition’s end.
But the beauty of NaNoWriMo is, even if you don’t hit 50,000 words in 30 days, you’re still a winner. I’m more than halfway into my next novel and have enough momentum to keep me going and get it finished before the end of the year.
So Killer Shine is rolling on, the action is just picking up on tiny Crab Island, Florida.
If you read the prologue, you know a little bit about the island and the Dawson family who resides in The Pink Pelican, an old Florida motel located on the southern tip of the island.
My inspiration for the setting (and the idea of people living in a motel) came from an old, old childhood book (it was originally my mom’s) called The Pink Motel and something a little closer to home
I’m fortunate enough to live in a beautiful, laid back, seaside town on the north Florida coast.
Just north of town is the tiny peninsula of Vilano Beach.
It’s one of my favorite spots in the St. Augustine area because it’s really a throwback to those old Florida postcards and vacation spots. There are no high-rise condos, commercial restaurants or crowded shorelines.
Among the sandy streets are a few old Florida motels including one of my favorites, the Magic Beach Motel.
It was recently bought and refurbished by some colleagues of mine and they’ve done a beautiful job capturing the colorful appeal of this old beach motel.
I was inspired by it and thought I would share a few photos of the new Magic Beach Motel — so you just need to add a coat of pink pain and you can imagine you’re looking at The Pink Pelican.
