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nanowrimo: week two update

16 Monday Nov 2009

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I don’t have so much to report this week, except that I’ve decided my own personal goal this year is 30,000 words (1,000 words / day) rather than the competition goal of 50,000. By that measure, I am slightly ahead of the game and having fun to boot! I have two short stories in the works and have been having fun fiddling away at them when I have the odd moment. I’m rediscovering the pleasures of writing for fun and discovering that I am better at incorporating dialog than I was when I last wrote fiction (when I was about fifteen).

More next weekend!

nanowrimo: week one update

08 Sunday Nov 2009

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I’ve reached the end of week one of National Novel Writing Month with the first four parts of my “short” story completed. I thought it was going to be a little short story and it’s turning into a novella — a process which is taking me back to my teenage years when novels tended to span hundreds of typed, single-spaced pages with no end in sight. I was aided and abetted by an inadvertent seven-hour wait in the Grand Rapids airport on my return to Boston . . . I doubt I’ll have the luxury of dashing off quite so much silliness in the weeks to come!

I’m still not sharing this story with anyone but Hanna (maybe I should put: “For British Eyes Only” on the top of every page?) but I’ll give you a feel random details to make of what you will.

1) I’m setting the story in Chicago, and a crucial scene takes place at the Field Museum; I chalk this up to early childhood readings of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

2) I’ve appropriated a plot element from “The Stackhouse Filibuster” from Season 2 of The West Wing; those of you who are devotees can have fun guessing which one. (And can I say one more time that I miss that show so damn much?!)

3) So far, I’ve figured out how to get in references to Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and Dr. Who . . . I’m undecided as to whether having opened the door I’ll need to work in specific episodes of DW, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures just to be clear I’m not playing favorites.

Until next week — wish me continued verbosity. And for those of you who are also participating, hope you’re having loads of fun!

Welcome to NaNoWriMo

01 Sunday Nov 2009

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With a story from The Onion.

SAN FRANCISCO—After gently unfastening the elastic strap keeping his dearest musings safe from prying eyes, little literary artiste Evan Stansky penned a few more darling thoughts into his clothbound Moleskine notebook Wednesday. “These are much higher quality than the notebooks you find at CVS,” lilted the auteur, who couldn’t be bothered to use—dare it be said—a journal of lesser craftsmanship or pedigree, or one not famously used by such legendary artists as van Gogh and Hemingway. “They’re a little more expensive, but I try to write on both sides so I don’t go through them as quickly.” At press time, the princely scribe was seen finishing his apricot jasmine tea, asking a mere mortal sitting nearby to watch his literary accoutrements, and then prancing off to the Starbucks powder room, light as a feather.

You will most likely not get to read a single word I produce for National Novel Writing Month this year, since now I have woken up to the fact that my possession of dozens of moleskin notebooks means I am vulnerable to satiric lampooning at the slightest whim. But wish me and all the other thousands of participants luck as we forge ahead! I shall report back when it’s all over.

0545010225

20 Friday Jul 2007

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is being released to the general public at 12:01am midnight, 21 July 2007 (in case any of you have been living in the back of beyond for the last year . . . and I’ve taken so many orders for the book at Barnes & Noble that I had the ISBN number memorized (or at least, my fingers did) weeks ago. In spite of being a congenital non-joiner, I can’t help being pleased: there’s something insanely wonderful about the world getting so excited over a book.

At the little old Barnes & Noble in Holland, we’re having a midnight party, like most bookstores. We’ll be open until the last customer leaves in the wee small hours of the morning, and then return to do it all again starting at 8am Saturday. The only disappointment is that we aren’t allowed to serve wine to the patrons as they wait in line.

I’m going to wear my grandfather’s Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry collegiate sweatshirt, which until his death this spring he wore to every Hope-Calvin Basketball game with pride. On Saturday, once I’ve woken from my Harry Potter hangover, I’ll be driving Grandma’s copy of The Deathly Hallows out to South Shore personally. I’m sorry Grandpa won’t be with us in person to see how the story comes to a close.

Pictures will be coming soon!