I am now a NaNoWriMo Winner

It was incredibly difficult but I have done it. 

I had a lot of things happen in my life over this one short month that made me think many times that I wouldn't be able to make it. However, I am a force to be reckoned with when I put my mind to something and I can stand in the face of adversity and kick it firmly between it's legs while it's busy staring back at me.

I wrote a novel in 28 days, 4 hours and 20 minutes despite it all. Not only that but I wrote a novel that has a lot of potential. It is going to require editing and the other usual pre-publisher preparations but this is something special and it is glaringly obvious. 

I want to take a moment to thank the person that mattered most of all in making this happen... The person who didn't let me down. Who had to suffer through the good days and the bad days. The only one who can fully understand just how much went into the story and who was there to wipe away my tears of frustration and pain as needed, and helped pick me up and get me back to it again when I wanted to give up and curl up and die. I would like to thank...

Myself. 

That had to be recognised... 

I would also like to thank two very good friends of mine that assisted in research and some very difficult fact checking. D and N thank you because I was really struggling and it made a work of fiction that much more factual and you made it happen and got me the answers I needed when I needed them and also gave me some valuable criticisms on specifics that I could have easily missed otherwise.

I would also like that thank a very good friend of mine who also is named D but I refer to more often as B, for the hours of discussions around right and wrong and helping me to pick the correct one in the end. I may walk the line but I am confident I did the right thing and wouldn't have without you.

And everyone else that has had to listen to me going on about this story for absolutely ages I'd like to thank you for putting up with having to hear about it. I hope this won't be the last time you hear about it though!

It is now nearly 5 am on a Sunday morning and I haven't slept more than a few hours in several days (read weeks) so I am going to reward myself and finally be able to sleep deeply knowing that things are finally okay. I have been successful. I have made something happen. I have earned it. I have won.