Thornbirds and a contest

My how time flies! Just when I get sick of mosquitos and sweat, I'm shivering and standing in front of the wall heater. Sigh, I need to live in Jamaica, (sigh again).
I have committed myself to a suicidal project involving another novel. The goal is to produce a finsihed novel, 50,000 word minimum, and 175 pages long. Whether I complete this remains to be seen, and it really does not matter if I do. That being said, let me explain....
I have had this story stuck away in a dark corner for nearly thirteen years, not sure if I wanted to touch it ever again. I started it in October of 1990, as a matter of fact, I think it was around this time seventeen years ago. I wrote and wrote, poured out my heart and soul. And nearly lost it all. If I have learned anything from writing, back your stuff up, a hundred times if that's what makes you feel secure. I think I must have tossed some of it out, whole chapters are missing, but after reading what I still have, probably no big loss anyway. Some of it was okay, surprised I wrote it, other stuff, good God, how could I have wrote that?
I decided that this project, sponsored by National Novel Writing Month, (aka, NaNoWriMo), is what I need to drag out that first novel and see if it will be salvageable.

I love to read. My motto is anything that holds my attention, gets read. If it's really good, it gets read fast.
I finished a novel called "The Thornbirds" by Colleen McCullough. It takes the reader through three generations of a family who moves from New Zealand to Austrailia. The main character, Meggie, is a small child, her family poor. Her story takes you through her pains and joys, the heart cries because she cannot have the man she loves. A priest.
All in all, I liked the book. The thing is with these types of novels, I like to drag them out, sort of put it into a time frame that makes the story a little closer to reality, regardless of the era. Historical fiction with a touch of romance thrown in I think are one of my favorite reads because the novels are huge, span years of history and gives the reader a chance to know the characters better.
What I didn't like about it was, and this could just be that the author's style is foriegn, I tended to get al little lost on POVs. The parts would be titled one thing and lead you down a differnt path with a little of what the titled part portrayed.
Obviously the book became a best seller, there was even a movie made about it, although I haven't seen it. I usually find the movie to be a disappointment after reading the book, largely in part because I can't see the characters thoughts.
That children, is all for today