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My second Monday off was as successful as the first. I added nearly seven pages of new material and was pleased with what I wrote. That gave me momentum and this morning I wrote 600 words that guided the story back to an existing scene which I’ll modify tomorrow. If this experiment continues to be a success, I will have to try it again. Maybe I’ll give it a try for the next novel’s first draft.

• My sister sells unique goods hand made of recycled materials. http://bit.ly/dam5Gr "Baby's Favorite Bunny" is TOO cute! #recycle #

• +650 words on the 2nd draft. Not happy with any of it but better than nothing, I guess.. Hope for better luck tomorrow. #

Progress on NHI has been disappointingly slow. I thought about taking a week off to focus on it, but I knew what would happen: I’d slack off on Monday thinking that I had plenty of time. Tuesday, too. Something would come up on Wednesday, and then Thursday is so close to the end of the week, why bother? On Friday, I’d eat a 7,000 calorie meal to console myself, so I’d get no writing done and gain weight.

Instead, I worked with my boss to schedule five consecutive Monday vacation days. I figured that Mondays would be the best day since I do all my household chores on the weekend and there would be few distractions. Today was the first day. I’d hoped to write three new pages and incorporate up to seven pages of the previous draft into the new. I exceeded my expectations by fifty percent-and I even goofed off a little in the afternoon.

For the rest of the week, ten pages of new and existing material is a reasonable goal. Next Monday, I’ll make sure I have even fewer things to distract me. (I needed a haircut and did some laundry that really could have waited.) If I stick with it, I could have this draft done by mid to late July.

I thought I’d get a jump on my weekend chores by cleaning the pool this morning before I went to work. However, someone had other plans:

Duck! In my Pool! (Click for larger image)

This one and its mate chose our pool for a way-station. One of our neighbor’s cats was VERY interested:

An interested party (Click for larger image)

I had to chase him off. Here’s a closeup of the pair:

The Happy Couple (Click for larger image)

They moved on by the time I left for work, and I’ll have to clean the pool tonight.