Although I made steady progress this weekend, I didn’t post an update here. I thought that events in Paris on Friday were far more important than writing about word counts and write-ins.

I did go to a great write-in on Saturday. My Shenandoah Valley NaNoWriMo group had an in-person meet-up with another NaNoWriMo group from the far northern end of the Valley. We started in a coffee shop in Winchester, moved to a Denny’s in Strasburg, a Panera in Harrisonburg, and ended with an online write-in for the evening. It was great to meet people you normally only “see” online. Lots of talking about writing, but lots of writing happened, too.

Today was an epic writing day. I wrote a bit at home this morning, went to my regular SWAG write-in at a local coffee shop at lunch time, and wrote more this evening. Even I was a bit shocked when I added up the total words for the half-dozen or so scenes I wrote today: 6,045. That brings me over 45,000 (45,167) and puts winning NaNoWriMo in the near future. Tomorrow perhaps.

The story is not quite ready to end, though. I’ve gotten the two lovers through some ups and downs, and they’re on the same page about their future. But… I can’t help it. I have to throw a wrench in the works and maybe leave it with a cliffhanger. Not usually done in a romance, but I’ve ever been one to turn things on their heads.

I’ll set today’s excerpt up a bit. Alexei has decided he wants to move to London so he and Mai will have plenty of face time to determine if they are, indeed, in a relationship. Mai comes to America for a visit and a test of living in proximity. Nelson, Alexei’s former partner and now his boss, offers Mai a job in America, but she wants to take it for the right reason, and that may not be Alexei. She wakes him up in the middle of the night to give him her answer:

“Alexei?”

“Mmf,” he murmured, then brought himself awake. “What? What’s wrong?”

“If I moved here, I’m not living here. It’s too small,” she said.

He rolled over and looked at her. “Okay,” he said.

“And I’m still finishing my masters, and I’ll go back to England to fulfill my RAF obligations,” she said.

“No problem.”

“And I have to have a life beyond you,” she said.

“Nelson works us all too hard to have a life,” he murmured.

“Be serious and listen to me. I can’t do this for you. I have to do it for me,” she said.

“I think I said that earlier,” he replied.

“Well, yes, but you were trying to convince me to take the job,” she said.

“Are you going to take the job?” he asked, and held his breath for her answer.

“And if we don’t work out, we’ll have to be professional enough to work together,” she said.

“Of course.”

“You’re saying what I want to hear so you can get back to sleep,” she said.

“Mostly. Are you going to take the job?”

“Can the paperwork hit Holt’s desk by the time I return from hols?”