I'd Like to Buy a Word

There are defeats more triumphant than victories.

Michel de Montaigne

I need to buy about 25,000 words. As of this writing, there is still one hour and 28 minutes left of Nanowrimo 2009 - 50,000 words in a month. I won't make it.

I did accomplish all these other things this month though. Can I transfer that into words?

Read five books.
Washed the kitchen floor.
Kept the whip on my #3 son to get out his college applications, essays, transcripts, resumes and also write up his Eagle project.
Made two really awful pumpkin pies.
Explored an idea for a non-fiction book proposal and wrote over 30 pages of notes.
Submitted two essays for publication.
Dusted my dresser.
Finished knitting a prayer shawl.
Moved my main character out of the middle of a field. Figured out her route all the way to the end of her quest.
Cleaned the toilets.
Watched John Adams, Six Feet Under Season 4, Citizen Kane, and Slumdog Millionaire
Changed the bag on the vacuum.
Spent a delinquent weekend with my friends.
Substitute taught middle and high school - many days.
Cleared the stacks of paper and junk in my office - spread it out all over the house.

Intended to succeed. Does that count?

Meanwhile 11:20pm. Surely someone has words for sale on Ebay.

Holiday Tipoff in the Hill Country

While the spirit of neighborliness was important on the frontier because neighbors were so few, it is even more important now because our neighbors are so many.

Lady Bird Johnson

I'm finishing up my Nanowrimo, such as it is, and will report later this week. I thank you for your comments on my last post and will respond to each of you as soon as possible. Life, life, life. Gets in the way of my blogging.

Just a note, take a gander at the Dr. Phil TV show on Tuesday, December 1. My friend, Jen will be featured along with her book on mothers and stepmothers working together, No One's the Bitch. If you are in that situation, you may find this helpful.

Another friend, Bernadette Noll, had a mention in Time magazine this past week on her project Slow Living. You can check out her blog on raising young families here.

Meantime, please welcome the holiday season through some photos from the Texas Hill Country this past Saturday night. Johnson City, childhood home of Lyndon B, pop. @1200, had a celebration in the town square. Courthouse all lit up. Food vendor alley - one of those where you wander around and try to decide where you want to fill up. Could be beef fajitas from the Masons, baked potatoes from the 4H Club, baked goods from the Women's Library Auxiliary, turkey legs from the high school band, hamburgers from the Lions. The longest line? Funnel cakes smothered in powered sugar. "Like going to heaven," my almost daughter-in-law's little cousin declared.

At dark, all gathered on the streets surrounding the city square for the parade. Santa hitched a ride on the last fire truck. The parade announcer invited all to join Santa in City Park, right behind the jailhouse. Americana at its best. Perfect ingredient to tip off the Christmas season.

My choice of food? Fajitas and cotton candy. Pictures aren't the best, but so it goes. Enjoy!

The Sunrise Beach LawnChair Band

The Electric Company

The Court House
Even the trucks had lights.
All the homes and businesses around the square shone.

Onward!

Monday, Monday

Your hair may be brushed, but your mind's untidy. You've had about seven hours of sleep since Friday. No wonder you feel that lost sensation. You're sunk from a riot of relaxation.

Ogden Nash

Our vocabulary word for this weekend - undulate.
Sex scenes worded by bunco bitches for my Nanowrimo?
Unprintable.
And, now, back to work.

The Weekend Arrives

Your hair may be brushed, but your mind's untidy. You've had about seven hours of sleep since Friday. No wonder you feel that lost sensation. You're sunk from a riot of relaxation.

Ogden Nash

Tis no better day than Friday, I say. Unless you're a substitute teacher in the final hour of the school day. One can breathe the anticipation building throughout the day. By eighth period? Kids antsy. Unruly. Me? Ready to fly away.

But one thing about subbing, I don't take papers or lesson plans home. (My pay reflects that also.) I walk out the door, free as a bird. Will especially do that this weekend. Time for the annual Bunco weekend of overindulgence and relaxation. My group of 14 women has been together for over 20 years. We all met at the park, new stay at home moms, 8am and pushing our kids in the swings as we struggled to get used to a world without a paycheck, annual reviews, and a certain schedule.

An eclectic bunch -- artists, teachers, an enigma, a physician, hygienist, nurse, pilot, accountant, computer guru, saleswoman, writer, dog trainer, curriculum leader, and unlimited other talents -- we have met the second Tuesday of the month since 1989. Haven't played bunco in over ten years, but meet for the food, comfort, and talk. Lots of changes in our lives since way back then - children born, graduated, married. Deaths, divorces, cancers, depressions, a return to the workforce -- all those things life brings have bound us further. Even though many of us only see or talk to one another once in that month, we are a relaxed group when in company. I am blessed to have these bunco bitches, which is how we refer to ourselves. (There is another group in our neighborhood called the Bunco Babes. We don't belong to that one.)

Since I'll be bringing my laptop to further this Nanowrimo pursuit to move my novel forward, I'm going to let them help me write a sex scene in my book. I can only imagine how twisted that will turn out. (I'm only about 15,000 words behind the 25,000 I should have by this point.)

For some great reading, head on over to 128 Sticks of Butter. See how that friend of mine has shed her pounds and looks fabulous. (I really don't like her.) Or check out Old, Who, Me? to find a lovely tribute to our veterans. To The Smitten Image for a tribute to Canadian service men and women. Perhaps to the thirdstorey window for a little poetry. Or to Wander to the Wayside for a story of adoption. Turquoise Diaries for a quick trip to Sri Lanka or visit the Lazy Writer at A Walk in My Shoes for a lesson on adding tension to your writing. (Not your life - your writing.)

While I'm touting the greatness of others, let me also promote the new book of a very dear friend, Sorayya Khan. We go way back to college days - actually her husband and I do (I met him a few years before they became an item.) Sorayya's new book, Five Queen's Road, has just arrived via the mail. I can't wait to read it. Her previous book, Noor, is a favorite of mine. Sorayya is a most lovely woman. You will enjoy her writing.

And now, to the weekend where I'll take a break from the thoughts of midlife jobhunting and reflect on the gratitude I hold for a world filled with the diverse gifts of others. The picture at the beginning of my post is, I'm sure, the last bloom of my hibiscus plant for the year, so I'm sharing.
May you all enjoy your weekend in the waning days of Autumn -- before the burgeoning schedule of the holidays overtakes us.

How To Waste TIme When the Words Don't Flow

I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.

Douglas Adams

This weekend, while hiding from my computer and the thousands of words not yet written in my Nanowrimo quest, I buried myself in the quiet of my hammock. A book, filled with words from one more studious and dedicated than yours truly, aided my escape.

Movement caught my eye. Something fell into the water, just beyond the edge of the dock. I looked up to spy an osprey, perched on the top of the rope swing. A fish clamped in the talons of its thick legs. Lunch.



The fish appeared quite unconcerned. (Perhaps its demise occurring before the arrival at my house.) I watched with curiosity, unsure if the unpleasant butcher of a poor crappie might force me inside to my computer. But the osprey matched my silence and proved a most patient eater taking delicate bites of his prey as though enjoying the view while he lunched at the lake. Quite particular about which morsels to eat, he dropped the unwanted into the water below. No doubt another in that food chain gathered nourishment from there.

I forgot about him after a while, engrossed in the pages I read, only glancing now and again to see how much longer he might be. Seemed in no hurry. Just like me - getting back to my novel-in-progress, somewhere in the word count.

My own bird chirped from up on the porch, my husband having put him out on the table to enjoy the day.



As to my Nanowrimo progress? My main character is no longer wandering in the middle of a prairie. She is further along the road to trouble. The tension grows. The road goes on with frequent detours.

I'm very good at distracting myself with any number of fascinating projects, including keeping time with your average, every day neighborhood osprey. Incredible sight.

Hope he does the dishes when he's done.
(sorry for that one.)

How goes the battle for the rest of you?

Somewhere Out There Nanowrimo Calls

In skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tis the time of year once again for Nanowrimo. What could this be? Some weird holiday? A wrestling match.

Wrestling match indeed. A match of mind over matter. A commitment to the writing you often say you want to accomplish. That book you are going to write - some day.

Nanowrimo is the yearly Write a 50,000-Word Novel in a Month project. Sort of like driving cross country without stopping to pee. Excellent way to begin a new novel or further one you've already begun. Or use it to write that non-fiction book proposal floating in your head. Modify as needed.

Anyone out there care to join me?

If this is your first time at this venture, I suggest a little reading material. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. From her book you can learn about the "shitty first draft" and not get stuck on revisions while you're pounding out your story. Your book will need tremendous work when you're done because it will be complete shit. And that's okay. Maniac writing sometimes get us where we need to go, just like timed writings do on a much smaller scale.

I also recommend practicing with Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. Natalie teaches us to park our butts and write, write, write. Go find a coffee house with a table in a dark corner. Write with your back to the crowd.

In my unfinished novel, my character has been stuck in the middle of a prairie in South Dakota since last Nanowrimo. I think she has suffered enough. So have I with the guilt of stranding her. Lily, come November 1, you shall be set free. (Or at least hitch a ride on an Airstream that will take you in even thicker.)

Please check out the website Nanowrimo Often local groups will gather in cities throughout the US to write/discuss progress together. Great opportunity.

A note of encouragement - some days it flows and some days it plugs up, a lot. But there are always plungers to clear the muck.

Take a step. And another. Don't be scared. Good luck.

P.S. Really good things happening over at my friend's site No One's the Bitch.
Something to do with Dr. Phil ...