Catching up

Okay, time for some updates on previous posts.

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)

I survived another NaNoWriMo, just barely breaking the 50,000 word mark.  I had a good start, a terrible middle and a great finish, including days 20-29 where I average 2450 words a day.  Was there a lot of garbage in my 50,000 words?  Yes.  Did one of my characters stop to write blog posts?  Yes.  Did I write the words "I am so tired," over and over again every once in a while?  Yes.  Is my novel finished?  No.  It is terrible?  Pretty much.  Am I going to let anyone read it?  Um, not quite yet.  Am I going to keep working on it? Yes.  Are there at least some short stories that will come out of it?  You bet.  Did any of you write 50,000 words in a month?  Then shut it.

Besides just being a place for me to show off my word count, NaNoWriMo also runs a young writer's program.  To learn more or to donate, please visit http://www.nanowrimo.org/.  Hopefully you all will be reading my first novel in the near future, as soon as I finish writing it.


Winter Beers

Since we last talk, I've tasted a handful of the winter beers now clogging the aisle at liquor stores everywhere (seriously, I was at Binny's today and there must have been at least two dozen winter seasonals in stock).  I'll admit that I'm enjoying the New Belgium Snow Day but there has been one major drawback.  Every time I have drank Snow Day, I woke up the next morning with a headache.  Mike, you say, you cannot drink that much anymore.  Slow down, you say.  But I did, I answer.  I had three the first time, then only two, then just a single Snow Day.  The next morning each time I had a headache.  So I like the Snow Day, though not nearly as much as 2 Below, and I have even bought more.  Next time I won't drink three shots of whiskey before I drink Snow Day.

For those that want to hear a bunch of guys talking about beer, give a listen to the Broadcast Basement, where we will be tasting beers every few episodes and talking about what we like.  Well, some of us will taste them (sorry, Wild Bill).  


Gobble, Gobble, Tech Support and a Fish

I'm back in cable hell.  After the first round failed to solve the problem long term, I again jumped on-line for support.  And again I talked to Pashtel.  He must be the busiest cable tech support rep out there, or there is more than one Pashtel in the world.  We ran through the basic steps again, and quickly scheduled another visit.  This time, the only misunderstanding was when we picked the time, and Pashet gave me the 12pm-4pm slot and told me the tech would call before his arrival and I said 10-4. He responded with "There is no 10-4 time slot."  Ha.  Ha, ha, ha.  I guess they don't have CBs in India.

The second tech was here for almost five hours.  Problem solved?  Well, no.  It's better, but let me tell you how funny watching a hockey game is when the picture and sound are out of sync.  At least when the sound is ahead of the picture, I can hear about the big hit then look up and see it.

Halloween Candy

There is a single bag of candy left in the break room of our office, right next to the coffee pot.  In the bag are about eight pieces of.... wait for it... that nasty peanut butter candy!  If they are still there at the end of the year, I will toss them.  Or stick them in a drawer and foist them on unsuspecting co-workers next Halloween.

Thanks for reading.

National Novel Writing Month

Monday night at Midnight, as Halloween night turns to the day of the dead, National Novel Writing Month begins.  Know colloquially as NaNoWriMo, the goal during the month is to write a draft of a novel - about 50,000 words - in one month.  To break it down, that's 1,667 words a day, or about five double spaced pages of writing a day.

I first heard of NaNoWriMo from a writer friend , Beth, in 2008, and eagerly signed up, not knowing what I was getting myself into.  After a rough start, include two days of no words in the first week (damn you, work travel) and an average of 3000 words the last four days, I crossed the finish line with my novel Four Corners. Is Four Corners good?  God, no.  Will I let you read it?  Hell, no.  I've barely made it all the way through myself.  Will I let you read a couple chapters that since NaNoWriMo have turned into short stories?  Yes.  Will this lead me to write the Great American Novel.  I hope so.

I've done NaNoWriMo every year since, and 2011 is no exception.  So far I have hit the 50,000 word goal each year, and have written more than the previous year each time as well, (50,188 last year).  The point isn't to have a perfectly written novel to shop around on December 1st, but to  stop making excuses, stop putting off writing and put your butt in the chair and write.  Each year my NaNoWriMo writing gets better, but there still are some pages with "I can't thing of anything to write" typed over and over.  More importantly, since I started doing this I've done a lot more writing during the other eleven months of the year.  Hell, one of my stories even got accepted for publication this year.  Hopefully someday it will come out.

So, to my point, forgive me if I ignore you this month.  For most of you, this won't be different from any other month.  Facebook?  I will be hiding from you, you giant time thief.  Fantasy football?  Sorry, not gonna spend a lot of time wondering whether I should start Dallas's defense over the Giants.  Work people?  I might be hard to find at lunch.  Wife and kids?  Of course I'll still pay attention to you, but if it looks like my mind is wandering, it's because I am trying to figure out what fires I'm going to throw at my main character to make him interesting.  If I come up with anything worth sharing as I furiously write in November, I'll share it here.  If you have any plot ideas, feel free to share them, even if they are terrible.  Desperate times usually set in around November 11th.

For more info on NaNoWriMo, please see their website at www.nanowrimo.org.  If you are interested, sign up or donate to their young writers program.

Thank you all and see you in December.