Hello, everyone.  You’re about to discover how demented my definition of taking a break can be…  With dogged determination I endeavor to disengage form things that develop stress.  Of course I get more, different, worse stress in return.

I decided a distraction of monumental proportions was in order.

No, not that kind of monument, though I’d like to tell some to sti— it’s best if I don’t finish that sentence.  Anyway, a monumental distraction is a pretty extreme thing.  One of the biggest extremes I know came knocking at my door, or rather my calendar — National Novel Writing Month (also called NaNoWriMo).

I wasn’t going to participate, because (as you know all too well) I have so many drafts awaiting final touches and/or big editing work.  Unfortunately those projects are not a distraction.  They are work… and a kind of work from which my real job drains my creativity.

So…