Where have I been? As many of my Azerbaijani friends know and many of you probably don't, I spent the month of November participating in National Novel Writing Month. Participants are encouraged to attempt to write 50,000 words in the 30 days of November. That breaks down to roughly 1,667 words a day. I'm happy to report that despite moving halfway across the world and leaving 10,000 words for the final two days, I successfully completed the 50,000 words and my novel!
I have attempted to capture the country as I experienced it and explore what it must have been like to grow up in a constantly changing socio-political environment. Someone my grandparent's age has experienced communism, capitalism, independence, ethnic cleansing, war, atheism and Islam, official language and alphabet changes, the use of three different currencies; All of this in one lifetime. I am so grateful to the people I met and love in Azerbaijan and didn't want to forget what they've gone through. Will I try to get it published? I don't know. It needs a lot of revision. But there aren't that many books about Azerbaijan so...we'll see.
