NaBloPoMo and Lisa
One of the great benefits of having taken part in this curious online world for so long, is you know the back-story behind things. As many of you will know, NaNoWriMo will kick off in a couple of weeks time – if you’ve not heard of it, it’s pretty simple – write a 50,000 word novel during November. Lots of people try it, as have I, spectacularly unsuccessfully.
One year, back when people posted perhaps one or two blog posts a week (this is WAY before mobile phones took over the world), somebody had the bright idea of trying to post to a blog once a day during November.
It got called”NaBloPoMo” (National Blog Posting Month).
Because I keep everything, and am kind of insane, I still have the post stored away from the day I discovered it, and the things I wrote that November (it was 2006, btw).
Looking back now, 2008 marked the end of my involvement in the mayhem, because my life got tipped upside down by the arrival of three little girls in my life.
Here’s the thing – even all these years later, whenever I think about NaNoWriMo, or NaBloPoMo, I still think about a friend I made that first year. Her name was Lisa.
Wecommented on each other’s blog posts throughout the month, and become close friends. The friendship somehow endured for yearswriting emails back and forth now and again, reading each other’s blogs, and even calling on Skype from time to time.
And then she died.
One Winter morning just after New Year in 2010 her car left the road and she was killed instantly. Seeing her comments in the archives of my blog still causes me to pause, and to remember her laughter, her stories, and her smile.