[image error]Tonight I reached the first 10 000 words down! I know I won’t be able to keep the up the pace with Uni starting back soon … but I’m happy with my progress for NaNoWriMo so far. After months of medical dramas that have been sucking everything out of me, I’ve only had the odd stretches of time where I am truly focused and not struggling with whatever task that I have before me – so it’s been great that I’ve been able to focus a little more during these past few days. It’s most likely to do with the fact that I’m not dealing with the worst of the symptoms at the moment, so my body is having a rest. Whatever it is, I have welcomed these small stretches of time to focus on a few things – such as my writing.

One thing that I’m doing with NaNo this time is copying over some of my piles of scrawled handwritten notes to my computer. While doing that today, I came across an early draft for a book, Mum’s Pockets, that I started work on earlier in the year. Reading over that first draft filled me with excitement again – and I could visualise the illustrations that would go well with the book. If I can hire the right artist, it would be a very pretty book …

Mum’s Pockets is a humorous story for kids; loosely (very loosely) based on myself. When I wrote the first rough draft, I couldn’t decide which of 2 endings to go with … but after consulting with my youngest this afternoon, I found a way that I should be able to combine both ideas. So now I (pretty much) have my ending. Again, I made a mock-cover for this … and again it’s nothing like what I imagine for the published book, but it’s a good stand in. Made in Canva, with additional graphics purchased from Creative Fabrica.

Here’s a snippet from the draft:

Mum’s pockets are magic … or at least that’s what she tells us. You’d be surprised at just how much they can hold – and at what treasures she finds inside them. It doesn’t matter what we need, she always seems to have it, just there inside her pockets. She has never lost a treasure, once it’s inside those magic pockets … well, not until today, that is!

So, what’s the silliest thing that you’d expect to find in someone’s pockets? What’s the weirdest thing you’ve found in someone’s pockets? And lastly, can you ever really have enough pockets?