It's about that time again...

Well, I've signed up to participate in National Novel Writing Month, for the third year in a row.

You can check on my progress, beginning November 1, here:

I make no promises about my commitment level to the competition, though. I finished in 2005, but sloughed off last year. (Imagine a professor assigning term papers during NaNoWriMo!)

I've got a few ideas for a story floating around, but I haven't decided on anything yet. It might be "literary fiction" like my profile says, but it's just as likely to be a romance, historical, or parody.

Amusing story about my latest TOTK draft

Here's why my latest draft of TOTK isn't quite ready for prime time...

As I told you before, I had the draft professionally printed and bound for convenience, as well as so my family could get their first look at this project I've been talking to them about for years and haven't let them read.

So far, both my grandmother and mother have told me it's a great story, but that I could use an editor. In fact, I was embarrassed to discover my mother laughing over a certain scene where Pierre leans down to pet Tiny - a chapter after Tiny's emotional deathbed scene. (This is what happens when you cut and paste too much while writing on computer, I guess.)

Really, I'm glad she pointed it out while I still have time to fix the gaffe. This is why I wanted a new printout. I would have never caught that error onscreen.

Banned Books Week

Here's some food for thought...



It always amazes me that people still try to ban books. Their attempts almost always fail - and they wind up giving free publicity to the very thing their trying to censor!

(Word to the wise: If you find a particular book offensive, "anti-family", or any of the other things mentioned in this video, shut up about it and maybe it will go away on it's own. You certainly don't have to read it, or let your own children read it, if you don't want to, but when you start messing around trying to tell other people's children what you can't read - well, then you just wind up with the entire country wondering what is it about this book that's so bad - and the next thing you know it's a bestseller. As this video proves, book banning is counter-productive.)