Tuesday, November 01, 2005

It's That Time Again

What is November? Brightly colored leaves, dull grey skies, pumpkin pie, the end of college football season, Thanksgiving, the unofficial beginning of winter.

Oh yeah, and National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for word-shortening hipsters.

Last year, I clawed my way across the finish line with 50,000 words of the novel that's been percolating inside of me for the past several years. This year, I'm going to "cheat" and continue that same novel, attempting to add another 50,000 words, or at least finish up a first draft, whichever comes first. For the record, I highly doubt I'll write anything like 50,000 words, considering I'm not feeling especially motivated this year. However, I'm still going to see about taking some time off of work to write this month, so we'll see what happens.

I'm also re-christening the book "Hurricane Season," since Katrina may factor into my setting of New Orleans in some fashion. The overall thrust of the book will be the same. Not that it matters, since whenever I go back to rewrite this turd, it will likely become something totally different than what it is now. Jeez, it had better be.

I'll download the snazzy new "participant" icon and stuff later. As for blogging the book, to the extent I do any of that, I'll just post it here instead of the old 2004 blog.

Anyway, wish me luck. In the meantime, here's a taste:

"Get out of here."

"It's true," I said.

I was on the phone with Kevin, who had reached me on his third try. It wasn't that I didn't want to talk to him; I just could never muster the wherewithal to call him back.

"You're actually dating her?" His boisterous voice came across the miles.

"I'm seeing her."

"What's the difference?"

I had no answer to his question, save that one does not date a married woman. But I wasn't about to bring that fact to light.