greyduck.net

Stop me before I NaNo again!

I did it last year, and to prove it wasn’t a fluke I’m going to do it again this year.
That’s right, November is National Novel Writing Month and once again I’m stepping up to the plate. What’s different this time around? For starters, I intend to actually have the key plot elements figured out in advance.
I’ll pause while you recover from the shock.
Producing 50,000 words in 30 days isn’t easy, but it’s also not impossible. The tricky parts will be coming up with a good (enough) story, managing it during the month of OryCon, and improving my ability to convey a sense of environment. That’s right, I’m viewing this year’s effort as part of a learning process instead of a simple challenge to pile words upon more words. Go, me!
Wish me luck, friends. I suspect I’m going to need it.
(By the way, does anyone else think that this year’s Participant Icon

is vastly inferior to last year’s?

Ah well.)
NaNoWriMo

2 October, 2003
How true, oh how true.

Pisceans tend to get the shaft when the fine folks at The Onion throw together their weekly horoscopes. This week, however, I couldn’t be more amused by my fortune:

You’re not the kind of man who can limit himself to just one woman bringing him pancakes.

To be honest, I suppose I should point out that I prefer french toast…

1 October, 2003
Information about Karel, my namesake.

I was expounding to Dawn this evening about where my “unique” name comes from, and on a whim decided to do some websurfing. It is with pleasant surprise I give you the following link… though I freely admit this is more for my own records than for any sort of amusement or educational value that it might hold for anyone who isn’t Me, or doesn’t share my first name.

Karel ÄŒapek

29 September, 2003
The Whole Mood Playground

Has this ever happened to you?
I’m sitting here on a quiet Saturday afternoon, puttering around (after putting away a pedestrian Potter publication) and it hits me. Wave after wave of the blackest, most overwhelming despair wells up from out of the inky depths of what passes for my soul. There’s no real reason for it, other than perhaps hunger and fatigue and a bit of loneliness… but not enough of either or all to warrant such a horrendous outpouring of inner turmoil and self-loathing.
Wow.
A couple handsful of oyster crackers (the last thereof, sadly) and an hour’s nap was enough to bring me back to something resembling sanity, or at least normalcy. Yes, I’m feeling much better now.
Here’s what I think: I think I’m starting to get better, starting to really look forward to the future (even if the good parts are too damned far away yet!) and therefore starting to loosen my ironclad grip on the pain I’ve been burying inside all my life.
This is a good thing, right?
Yeah, except when the pain rises up and demands its share of my time. Talk about “double-plus ungood,” baby. Mood swings? How about mood merry-go-rounds? Mood slides? Mood see-saws? I’ve got ’em all.
Unfortunately I managed to fire off a really horrid piece of writing during the depths of today’s episode, and I’d just like to let those few who saw it know that I’m really perfectly okay, if a bit rattled. I could use a hug, but that’s about all I need right now.
That, and a decent meal. Yes indeed. Hunger is not our friend. But that’s a rant for another day, or another venue.

27 September, 2003
Deep Cosmic Ponderings

Not that I’m into the astrology, mind you, but:
If you go down on someone who has the same sign as you, does that count as cosmic cannibalism?
(It’s a day late, but I used the phrase of the day in a sentence. Go, me!)

26 September, 2003
Happy Birthday, sweetie.

Has it been ten years already? Apparently it has. What started out as the “baby girl whose time had come” has grown into a precocious, pretty, caring girl who today celebrates one full decade among us.

Of course, now we’re coming up on the really fun part of her childhood.
(And by “fun” I mean, of course, “intensely scary and challenging.” Whee!)
Happy Birthday, Erica. You are the sunshine in all our lives.

26 September, 2003