I made it! Last night at 1 AM I wrote my 50,000 word, went to the website to validate my word count, was told I only had 49,917 words, wrote some more, validated again, and lo and behold, I am a winner of NaNoWriMo 2009! (I get a printable certificate and a web badge.)

Winning, by the way, just indicates that I reached my 50,000 word goal. Actually, I have a few more pages to write to wind up my last plot threads, and I can go back to the site and update my word count if I finish any time before midnight on Monday, November 30th. But frankly, I am so excited not to be working on a deadline that I'm not sure any more writing will be done this week. Just to give you an idea of me working against the clock, I wrote 6,000 words between Thanksgiving dinner and returning to work on Saturday morning. I'm exhausted!

Hurrah for NaNoWriMo!