“To the stars, through difficulties.”

(Basically, I didn't have a good title and David, my character, is very quotable. *nods*) 

Well, look at that, I'm back. ;P First off, I'm so sorry for disappearing like this! I planned to still post once a week during NaNo, and then... I didn't. A dear friend from Washington State came and visited the 12th-22nd. I decided to let blogging kinda go to the wind. I was already continuing to do NaNo, and didn't want to keep doing anything else that would interfere with the time we spent together. 

Then, after she left, my life decided to get crazy busy. I'm going on a missions trip in June (more on that in a later post) and all the documents, official and otherwise, needed finished before May. So. Yes. That is how the past few weeks of my life have been. Crazy, hectic, and totally and amazingly wonderful! 

Amidst it all, I did persevere with NaNo. I think that was my only plan for the month that actually got completed. The ten days my friend was visiting, I got a bit behind, but then, the last week of NaNo, I made up for it, writing 27,991 words. (Yeah, I think I'm slightly insane. That's an average of about 3,500 words a day.) 

Word sprints and wars are seriously the best, people. They saved me this past week. As did the AMAZING Mary and Faith. These two somehow ended up being my unofficial writing buddies. It seemed we were almost all on around the same time, so we'd all get together and sprint. It was the best thing ever! *hugs you both* Together we totally crushed NaNo!

So. How did I do with NaNo? (I crushed it . . . obviously. . .xD)
Well, my goal was 90 pages. Which is around 48K words for me. I honestly wasn't sure how much writing I'd get done, so I figured it was a decent goal. (*whispers* Also, if need be, when you put your goal in pages, you can enlarge the font to make more pages...but of course I'd never do a thing like that.;))

My final page count was 145 pages, all written in point 12 Times New Roman Font. So I didn't cheat! xD I far exceeded my goal. God really blessed me with words that just kept coming. 
In fact, I was able to finish the first draft of A Question of Courage. It ended up at 65,623 words. That blew my mind. First that I actually finished the first draft, secondly that it ended up as long as it did. 

So. Yes. There's a bit of an update for you. And now some snippets, since I deprived you of them the past few weeks. xD

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Finished, Art  walked over to the side and watched the white trail of foam the ship left in her wake as it made its way back into the harbor. 

Here, in friendly waters, the ship seemed huge. So unmovable. And it was, to an extent.  But it only took one explosive to put her out of action. 

Just as it only took one bullet to end the life of a man. 

Life was fragile. Every day he was brought more awareness of that fact. Dying was a common occurrence once you got out of harbor and into the enemy’s territory. 

The wind played with the edges of his unzipped jacket, and threatened to toss his cap into the sea. But at the moment, he didn’t care. The drizzle had drifted away till it was only something of a mist, mixing with the spray that the ship’s engines tossed up. 

The sun was setting now, and for a moment it came out from behind a cloud in all its radiance and glory. It seemed to pave the waves the ship left behind in pure, liquid gold, shimmering with every crest of the waters.

Art watched it, feasting his eyes at the beauty and splendor. Right now, it looked as if he were in paradise. 

And then, just as soon as it had come, the sun slipped behind the veil of the clouds, and the glory was once again concealed. A dark grey light took over in its place, shrouding the world in gloominess. 

This looked more like what war should be.  War shouldn’t afford any beauty. No, it should always be harsh and unrelenting, so that those who fought in it learned to never let it happen again. 

Not that it would make much of a difference. It was the sons that went back to war. The older men had learned. 

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 The lyrics of Shoo, Shoo, Baby drifted across the hospital hallway as Lily made her way to the supply closet. 

You've seen him up and down the avenue

And now he's wearin' the navy blue

She had a tear in the corner of her eye

As he said his last goodbye

Why is everyone obsessed with the Navy blue? She wondered. Then she held back a smile. It did seem to help a guy’s appearance. Something about a uniform did that, thought she couldn’t put her finger on what it was. Perhaps it was what it seemed to stand for. Courage. Courage to fight for one’s country. To fight to protect the women and children left back home. It almost seemed to say something of a man’s character. Though, she knew it wasn’t always the case.

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“I swear, if these mosquitoes don’t leave me alone, I’m gonna kill them.” 

Jerry’s proclamation was met by a laugh from the rest of the men trying to catch a bit of shut eye in the tent. 

“Please, do it. That way they’ll leave me alone, too,” Darren added from his spot in the corner. 

Jerry’s lips drew back into a snarl. “I’m gonna hate these things till the day I die. And even after that. They’ve got no use living in the same place as human beings.” Despite the heat, he punched his pillow and drug the blanket up over his head. 

Rafe sighed and turned over, trying to force his brain to ignore the pesky insects that had still managed to find a way into the tent, despite the men’s attempt to close all the holes. 

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And . . . I think that's all for today. Hopefully I'll be able to get back to a normal posting schedule this next week! I have some new ideas, and I'm really excited to share them with you all!

So tell me, how did NaNo go for you? Or if you didn't do NaNo, how did April go? Are you looking forward to summer?