It is November again. Three Novembers ago I was working on my first ever rough draft of a book. Before then, I wrote poetry and very long letters. I took a creative writing class in college, where I started a novel. I wrote one chapter. Since then,

My sister has been working on writing fantasy novels for several years. I’ve watched her, and wished I could. She heard of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), which happens each November, and invited me to join her three years ago. The goal is to write 50,000 words in the month of November. You just write, not worrying about corrections.

What would I write? One of the stories I tried to write before was the story of Eve. I have often wondered how she managed to give birth alone, just her and Adam. How did they figure out how to live in a new world? These and other questions filled my mind for years. I realized I had been taking the wrong point of view. Thus, I began to write.

If you write every day, you have to write close to 1700 words each day to write 50,000 words in 30 days. I had things to do on Friday and Saturday, and took the Sabbath off. Each year we go to my parent’s home two hours away for Thanksgiving, and my birthday is at the end of the month. My goal was to be finished before Thanksgiving, so I could spend time with my family and not have to worry for my birthday.

I finished the 50,000 words that Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Not the book, it took another six weeks to finish the first draft, all 100,000+ words of it. Then I began the rewrites. I’ve lost track of all the times I’ve gone through it. I’m finally ready to send it to an editor. I decided to write a serial, and shorten the book about Eve. It is now the first of the series, Ancient Matriarchs: Eve, First Matriarch.

In the two years since that first NaNoWriMo, I’ve completed the rough draft of two others. Last November I wrote about Enoch’s wife, this summer I wrote about Seth’s wife, and I’ve started a side series that came from the writing of that first rough draft: Lost Children of the Prophets. My husband will tell you I spend nearly every extra minute writing. I’ve found once you start, once you actually get through a rough draft, it becomes almost addictive.

It’s November again, and I’m working on the rough draft for a new book, book 3 in the series about Enos’s wife. After this month, I’ll have the rough drafts, and more, of the first four books of the series. My goal is to have at least the first three ready to publish by the end of next year. The story of the wife of Noah will finish the series, and is the only one without anything written.

Eve, First Matriarch is ready to go to the editor. I’ve talked to my artist about the cover. Watch for it to be ready soon. I haven’t published books before, so I won’t suggest a time frame, just sometime next year. Watch for it and the rest of them.

If you have an idea of what you think might go into these books, or a suggestion of a name for Noah’s wife, please comment.