Nano is nearly over!

Wow! Look at all those green bars piling up in the word count thingamijig! Go green!

We are awesome.

And we still have approx 36 hours (depending on your time zone) left of Nano to go!

And everyone who participated is awesome, including those who just could not find the time to write because life got in the way, or could not find the words to write, or had a better offer (submissions, anyone? - go Nat!!).

Whatever you end up with at the end of November is okay.

And I want to thank our fellow 50ks bloggers, as you took the pressure off the Topless Tabledancing Tarts. We didn't have to perform so regularly.

So here is the challenge to my fellow bloggers. Post an excerpt from your Nano work on this blog. Good, bad, unedited, ful of Nanoisms. It's your choice. Let's get a taste of what everyone was doing this month.

Here goes (word doc open, searching for something now) - an excerpt from Reality Check:

Dylan placed the drinks on the table and pulled up a chair close to Kirsty. As soon as he’d taken his seat, his mobile started vibrating again. The bitch! It’s as if she knew where he was and who he was with. No-one had warned him that Siobhan was working with the production company and if she was going to keep up this level of harassment then he was tempted to take his project elsewhere. He’d managed to escape her for the last couple of years and it was almost as if it was out of sight, out of mind, but now that she’d spotted him in the meeting today and seized his new business card, she had called him every half hour. He stared at the familiar number flashing up on his screen.

“Sorry, Kirsty, I’ll turn my phone off.”

He hit the end button and turned the mobile off.

Kirsty smiled. “Don’t you need to answer it?”

“It’s nothing vital. I’ll catch up on the messages tomorrow.”

Damn Siobhan! It was over years ago. Why didn’t she get that? Why did she think there’d be another chance for them?

“Are you okay?” Kirsty asked. “You seem a little preoccupied.”

He forced a smile, searching for an excuse. He did not want to bring Siobhan’s name into the conversation, though he was sure that Kirsty would have noticed the tension in the meeting room that morning. He was sure that everyone else in the room had known that he and Siobhan had been a major item for a couple of years. She’d given him his first break, but the relationship had become so controlling that he’d had to break it off, and change his number. There was only one cure to shake the spectre of Siobhan, and that was the delightful young lady who now sat in front of him, waiting for him to speak.

“I’m fine Kirsty. I’m just feeling a little under the gun to come up with the right concept and the right location.”

“I hope that Bilby Creek will be the solution that you need. It’ll be fun to visit again. I haven’t been back there for six months.”

He smiled, a real smile this time. “I’m looking forward to the trip, especially with such a beautiful tour guide. I thought we’d leave early Saturday morning, stay the night and drive back Sunday evening, in time to have you back at work on Monday morning.”

“It’s a shame I have to go back to work on Monday.”

He downed his beer and stared at her. “Don’t you enjoy your job?”

“Being called into the meeting today is the most exciting thing that’s happened in five months on the job. Most of the time it’s just photocopying, typing and filing.”

“I’m happy to have contributed some excitement into your work day.”

Kirsty’s cheeks reddened to a delightful blush.

“So you’re my knight in shining technology come to rescue me from my life of computer files and paperwork?”

He laughed, and reached over to rest his hand on hers. “I’ll see what I can do to rescue you. I might just be in need of a personal assistant for this production. Or even a star for this reality show set in Bilby Creek. The prodigal daughter returns to her home town.”

Kirsty let out a tiny squeal. “Are you serious? You’d put me in the show?”

“If that’s want you want. Of course the network will have to approve it, but I’m sure we can persuade them with a good screen test.”

He swallowed his words. He knew that Kirsty would be magic on the screen, and would probably provide the network with a ratings bonanza, but he was hoping that it wasn’t the only reason she’d agreed to go out with him that evening. Because he liked her. Really really liked her. And he didn’t want to find out that she was just in it for her fifteen minutes of fame like all the other girls had been.

“I’d never thought about doing reality TV before,” Kirsty replied.

“Do give it some thought. It may not be the best thing, especially if you want an acting career. Sure there’s a few reality celebs who have moved past the stigma of their shows, but many of them have just ended up on the C-list, and back at their dull and boring lives within months of their television appearance.”

“I know. I’ve read TV Week. I know how quickly the fame appears and goes away again. I just think it would be an interesting experience.”

“Your whole life would be up there on the screen for everyone to dissect and rake over in internet forums. Your life would no longer be private. Every move you make off camera will be reported back to the press in some form. At least while the show is screening. Are you prepared for that?”

Kirsty shrugged, sweeping her straw around the chunks of ice left in the bottom of the glass. “Not really. But I’ll do whatever it takes. Besides the producers may not want me. I might flunk this screen test.”

“I doubt it. I’ll take a camera down to Bilby Creek with us and you can do a bit of your tour guide on camera. We’ll get enough of an idea whether it’ll work or not from that, and then I can take it back to the production company, as a suggestion.”

He smiled, gazing at her loveliness, her peaches and cream complexion where the blush had now faded, her beautiful brunette waves framing her face. He felt his stomach lurch as he realised it had been a really stupid suggestion. Ratings-wise, an absolute first-rate choice, but for him, he knew that it would make his life very very complex. Because he had a bad reputation for not keeping his private life and professional life separate and already, just by being out with Kirsty tonight, and longing for much, much more, he was swimming back out into the sea, far beyond the safety of the flags.

This is Dylan:




And this is Kirsty:


Okay, who's next?