Aren't you scared?

That question was posed to me by my daughter a couple days ago. She told me that they had posted the ISIS "hit list" (I have no idea about the validity of said list) and said Seattle was on it. It makes sense. This area has military bases, ports, vulnerable travel routes, areas where large groups of people gather. I'd understand if we were really on some terrorist hit list.

She asked if we were far enough away from Seattle to avoid any damage from bombs. I said, "I don't know. If it's nuclear, maybe not."

"Aren't you scared?"

I didn't even really need to think about this. I told her, "I can't be."

"WHY!"

I told her I was not willing to live a life in fear. There are things that we cannot control and what is the point of worrying about them. If they're going to happen, they're going to happen. I also told her much of the time, media plays on our fears and make things sound worse than they are in order to get ratings. Politicians use our fears to get votes. I don't ignore that things are frightening right now, but I will not let my fears run my life.

I think she got it. Living in fear would only make me, us, the world, batshit crazy. If ISIS comes and bombs Seattle tomorrow, I can't stop it, I can't control it, I will just need to handle it if I make it through.

I will not let the media, politicians or terrorists play on my fears.  Only spiders can do that.

It's NaNo Time

I've decided again to try my hand at NaNoWriMo again. This will be my 7th year. I've only "won" two times. The pattern appears to be the lack of time since being divorced. I've been close. I think I got up to 30k one year, but I decided to put that book aside when I found out fairy tale retellings were all the rage (which seemed to happen while I was writing that one).

I'm pretty determined this year. I've not finished a book for a while (and by a while I mean 3 or so years,  I mean, I haven't even written a blog in two months). I would like to get one completed project under my belt. Maybe that will get me more motivated to write more.

I've also decided to sway from Young Adult and write a women's lit novel.  It's kind of about a middle aged woman struggling to find where she fits in the world while battling severe depression. So, not really a far stretch from what I normally write, but I think it will be fun to be a little more free with my words.

So far I have just over 3,600 words.

Who's doing NaNoWriMo this year? What are you writing?

Good luck to those of you participating.