It’s National Novel Writing Month — NaNoWriMo — and I’m supposed to be writing my novel right now, even as falling leaves continue to blanket my front yard and sidewalk and my garden waits for me to mix compost into the beds and cover them with the aforementioned leaves.

I’ve got 2,000 words to write and I want to, I really do, more than I want to deal with the four plastic grocery bags full of pears that have been ripening in my refrigerator for weeks and that are now, you guessed it, ripe. Someone has to peel them and can or freeze them or make chutneys or dehydrate them before they turn to mush. That someone is, you guessed it, me.

It’s NaNoWriMo and yet the IRS has requested documentation of the deductions I claimed on my 2010 tax form. As disorganized as anyone you know, I have already spent hours and hours stapling receipts to sheets of paper and printing credit card statements and getting bank statements sent to me and entering data into a spreadsheet. I have maybe two hours of work left before I can send it all to the tax examiner. Did I mention that it’s NaNoWriMo, and I’ve got a personal goal of 2,000 words a day?

The cupboards are getting bare as I delay grocery shopping in favor of writing; I have a contest to enter for FOUR SISTERS, ALL QUEENS, deadline coming right up; and 10 winners of my JEWEL OF MEDINA contest are still waiting to receive their signed copies from me. Heck, I still have to announce the winners. Heck, I still have to choose them. And 2,000 words to write before the end of the day.