I have my life back and I Won!!!

Yipppeee!! Wrote over 50,000 words (50,205 to be precise) in 30 days again! And the novel isn't finished. I think I need another 10,000 words to wrap it up. Gosh. This is so much fun. Will someone pay me to write, please?

Now I'm going to take a break and do something sane like watch a movie.

I love this life!!

I Was Not There

I was nowhere near the earthquake that is called "Thriller." I was in Saudi Arabia and then Lebanon. When I got back to the states my brother had to describe break dancing to me. I still have trouble understanding the excitement. It's just an album.

Stop! No more!

Perhaps you're familiar with the spaghetti scene in "Magical Mystery Tour." It's the one with the fat woman sitting at a table with a huge plate of spaghetti in front of her and a big grin on her face. She sits there with the napkin tucked under her chin and the fork and knife poised over her plate. She eats all the spaghetti and as soon as she's done they bring her more. She eats all that and they bring her more. They keep bringing it until she falls behind and the entire table is overwhelmed with spaghetti and the woman is about ready to throw up. That's sort of how I feel now.

Writing is fun and I really like it but having to write 5,000 words a day today, tomorrow and the next day is killing it for me. Enough! Stop! No more! 1600 words a day is quite comfortable and pleasant. However, I did sign up for this so I'm going to keep writing until I win (50,000 words by midnight Friday).

:::sigh::::

Feel sorry for me? Or enjoying my misery? Why not donate to the non-profit organization that made this possible: The Office of Letters and Light. I've got a page all set up on First Giving for you. Donate now! And thank you for furthering literacy and encouraging me to stay in this cell until I reach 50,000 words.

Channeling the Big Bands

Here's A Taste of Nate doing a low key cool impression of Louis Armstrong although the band prefers Duke Ellington and I can see that, too. Go back to the lush 40s and hear what it was all about with the 40s Oldies Channel on AOL Radio. Why be chronologically challenged?

flibberty gibbet

Current Fads
Listening. Bad Business Robert B. Parker and sunday morning (iTunes playlist); sussurations of little heaters
Watching. the inside of my head
Activity. writing the first draft (rough sketch) of a novel
Gadget. Palm Zire 31
News Source. the news feeds in Safari
Reading. Das Leben ist herzzerreißend: Vierundreißig Erzählungen - Ursula Köhler (edited by); Waiting for You - Elaine Greywalker; The Seed Catalog 2008 - Thompson & Morgan; Mensa Bulletin; Script (Yes, I really am reading them all right now—even though I'm writing a novel)

Fabulous Virginia Fall

This time right now, including yesterday and the previous couple of days and probably tomorrow and the day after, is the time to be here in Richmond. It's warm enough to eat outside in the sun while enjoying a view of riotous fall color. And listening to kids screaming and birds and squirrels carrying the news. It's really not fair to be inside writing a novel however far behind I am (about 10,000 words).

My greenleaf maple has finally, after four years, decided to become as advertised – edged in red in the fall. I really like the way the inside of the plant stays green while the outer edges get red. It hasn't done this before. It used to just drop its leaves.

And here I am inside not writing a novel and I'm really far behind. I will not stay home on Thanksgiving and catch up by writing 6,000 words in one day. I'm glad I got through it last year but it nearly took all the fun out of writing. The plan this year is to catch up by writing a little extra every day. Especially since Mom is making dinner on Thanksgiving and she's a great cook.

Too bad her great cooking talent didn't rub off on me or creep in by osmosis. Although I have managed to concoct a nice breakfast fritatta that's done all in the pan with eggs, cream, goat cheese and fresh spinach. I have it nearly every day.

Well, I have come far enough from the intent of this post and spent a long enough time not writing my novel. I must get back to it. If only I could justify spending $50 to get a legal copy of Documents to Go so I could write outside. Damn. I might do it anyway. Although, wouldn't that just take more time?

I think it's about forgiveness ...

This morning I awoke from a dream that big bad Chuck (aka Randy) wanted to be friends. I've written about him here and here (the man I lived with for 14 years). Only he wasn't big or bad. He was just friendly in the nicest possible way. Except that I couldn't be friends. I woke up thinking of a song, "... I think it's about forgiveness, even if you don't love me anymore." Another thing I can't do is believe he doesn't love me anymore. When you love someone, you love them forever no matter what. So, I have to believe that he never loved me. How else could he believe a lie? (Which brings up another song, "You Don't Know Me.")

Possessed by the song and the thoughts I tried to find the tune at the Apple Music Store. Not knowing who sang it, I tried "Satellite" but it wasn't Dave Matthews. Then I tried searching for "You Don't Love Me" and "Even If" and finally got a hit with "Heart of the Matter." There is one track available (unless I purchase the entire album directly from Don Henley). I bought it. It's live acoustic and not bad but also not the version that played on the radio for years until I wanted to tear the car radio out and throw it over an interstate bridge. This morning I can't get enough of it. Today it makes sense.

Finding the song led me to the Eagles which were one of Chuck's favorites, together with Metallica. Go figure.

It's hard to forgive someone I love so much who, apparently, doesn't love me anymore and quite possibly never did. I know I have to do it. Forgiveness is sweet and will let me get on with my life and do amazing things like finish my novel and that screenplay. And maybe even make my short stories better. And me happier.

I'm tired of being angry and tired of this aching hole. I know I'm on the road to forgiveness and right beside me are Don Henley and the Eagles.

... and when I'm ready, you'll be there at the end of the road where it branches into a new country. I do it for you. For me. For love. To clear the planet of yet another angry, bitter person. To learn. To be me.

Jackon Pollock widget - fun!

Here's a widget that can make art like Jackson Pollock. Thin streams are made by moving the cursor really fast. Click for a new random color. Use the space bar to reset.

Here's the way it goes ...

All week I've been thinking about how much writing I'm going to get done over the long weekend. Yesterday I got lucky and I also pushed myself to get over 11.5K. Today I thought I would write in the morning before my interview and then come back and write more in the afternoon.

Yesterday was such a lovely day that I had to work outside for awhile. Most of the morning I was either at Mom's or on the way home. I actually didn't sit down to write until early evening.

Got up early (7 a.m.) and pulled out the old portfolio thinking I would just slip in the new stuff. Well, screw me. I haven't brought the new stuff home or if I did I've hidden it really good. So, scratch morning plans and race around like an idjit having breakfast and getting dressed while watching snippets of High Fidelity and wondering where the heck my samples are. I get to the office and find the samples easily. They fit well into my portfolio. I use the table in the conference room so I can spread everything out. Great.

I get into my car and see that I have nearly 45 minutes until interview time. Well, I need to find a place to park. I find one in five minutes and sit listening in the car to an audio book (disc 7) until 20 minutes before the interview. I get to the elevator and look at my phone and remember that the car clock is very slow ever since I changed the battery and forgot to reset it. Fortunately is it only 10:31 so I'm not late, really.

Around 1:45 p.m. I stagger out of the interview building, drained, tired and hungry. By the time I finish lunch it's 2:45 (more High Fidelity – this time to the end). The day has warmed up and even though it's been sunny all day it is now amazingly beautiful outside. But it's too late to walk the dog along the river and I suddenly remember I have a class tonight I'm unprepared for and from which I will return around 8:45 which will be too late to start anything and I'll probably be tired.

Gone are all the many hours of writing I was going to do today. Oh. And then there's the time I spent writing this. Still. There is some time left. It is early in the month. I can still achieve 50K words by the 30th. But not if I keep getting sabotaged by all the things I have to do around here.

Not like it's my fault or anything.

By the way, High Fidelity has jumped into my top five movies of all time.

Hello

I'm still here, in case you were wondering or even if you weren't. Having a bit of a mini-vacation at Mom's. Saw the musical "Man of La Mancha" last night. The creative director gave it a very interesting treatment. Fortunately he prepared us for it before the show. I thought at first, "Ugh! Modern dance." It was nothing like that. I actually enjoyed it. The way the story was told it was sort of dark. Mom didn't really care for that. It's a really excellent production. I recommend you see it if you can. Today is the last performance. Hie thee to the beach!

I also have made progress on the novel nearly every single day. Starting off as a mystical fantasy it has morphed into a romantic comedy. Well, the important thing is that I'm writing and having fun. The only way to learn how to write a novel is to write one. Just sit down and do it. I've read lots of books on writing and had more than one English class and survived a couple of writing intensive college-level Psychology classes. Novel writing is nothing like any of that. You just have to write. I remember Kurt Vonnegut saying something like that in the video portion of an online class I took. "Yeah, right." I thought. It can't be that simple. Well, it is. If you want to write, just do it.

The editing, clean up and making it ready to print. Well, that's another story.

NaNoWriMo Update

I think the site is seriously overloaded or something. I was going to update my word count to 3,397 and the site wouldn't load. I'll just have to live with the 3,100 odd I admitted to earlier today. Spent a lot of time not writing. Some of it justified. I like having a big project that I'm working on. It gives my life meaning, gives me something to think about as I wander the aisles of Barnes and Noble, and helps me to parcel out the rest of my time. Yep. Just like last time.

I tried to do some mulching and to re-attack the leak in the north wall of the living room but some how it was all just too much.

I did write my quota for today but I'm still a day behind. There's a write-in tomorrow, which will help and be motivational (if it's anything like last year). I am ready with PDA, keyboard and borrowed software (ty DataViz).

Sucky, really, to be here by myself some times. Not often, though.

Listening: Neighborhood – Jan Garbarek, Manu Katché, Marcin Wasilewski, Slavomir Kurkiewicz & Tomasz Stanko
Watching: The Science of Sleep; Who Framed Roger Rabbit; Numb3rs (10/19)
Reading: The Telling – Ursula K. LeGuin

It's here! It's here!

I can't believe I woke up shortly after midnight. Well, that part I can believe. What I can't believe is that I got up and started writing! Woo hoo! I'm sure I'll pay for it during the day at the job. Right now I'm thrilled about my flying start of 2,139 words. If I do this everyday I'll be done early.

I'm also doing a personal Write-A-Thon to raise money for Office of Letters and Light, the people who make my novel writing possible and inspire me. Wish I'd thought of that last week when Chris asked for sound bites. Oh well. You can find out more about my charity and even contribute by going to my home page and clicking on the widget in the upper right corner.

This is definitely the weirdest story I've ever written. But then it 's still a draft.