The Rodent Who Came to Dinner Part One

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I wasn’t feeling my best Thanksgiving Day, but the kid was determined to start decorating for Christmas. So, I dragged my wretched body out the storage shed and hauled in two boxes and what I thought was the tree. I put them in the kitchen, left them alone and then declared myself done with the whole ordeal. I calmly went back to the couch and continued feeling miserable.

Cut to a scene ten minutes later. The wife (D) opens the largest box and pulls out the tree skirt. She notices it has holes in it, but nothing prepares us for what happens next: the rodent who charged out of the box, ran across my wife’s foot and disappeared. There were yells, screams, I won’t say I saw my wife push our nine year old daughter (E) out of the way and hurdle the back of the couch, but I have vague memories of that. I ran and grabbed the broom. All miserable feelings were instantly replaced with a desire to rid the house of the rodent. The broom soon becomes a croquet mallet E had used for Halloween when she went as Harley (the DC Comic Girls Harley) because I’ve read The Shining and we didn’t have a roque mallet.

We ended up running to Wal-Mart and getting every type of rat catching device they had. The yorkie and I placed them all around the house. We went to bed that night, all of us in one bed, two adults, the 9 yo, two shih tsus and the yorkie. I had to work the real job the next day of course and D and E had tickets to show and went. I made it home first and was disappointed that I did not find a dead rodent in one of our ingeniously placed traps.

So I went on the hunt for it. The yorkie had it cornered, or so we thought. D and E get home and we decide to go to bed after a futile hunt that destroyed the kitchen.

Here ends part one. Part two will be posted soon.

I survived and finished #Nanowrimo2017

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I successful completed the National Novel Writing Month challenge for 2017.  Already I look forward to next year. It was a great experience.

So far what I have is a 50,177 word first draft that is not finished, not pretty and not like anything else I’ve written.  Of course, it has the lesbian element.  I can’t see writing a book that does not. There’s a little relationship thing, romantic that is.  There’s an element of mystery as well, and as always here lies sarcasm.  Here’s an except from it as it stands now:

The facts as I know them are pretty simple. I went on a boat with five of my closest friends. At some point there was a storm. The boat sank or maybe capsized. I really do not know which. Three of us were found on the island, sunburned and dehydrated. Two of us were found in the water, in much worse conditions. One of us was never found.

My name is Claire Susan Evans and I am a survivor. I just wish I knew what exactly I had survived.

Thanks everyone.  Have a good one.

Halfway through

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Day 15 of Nanowrimo.  I am more than halfway through my draft at almost 32k. I’ve hit the hard part. The middle of the story. The flow is not as quick or strong.  Now it’s just pushing through until I get back to the fun stuff, the climax and denouement.

It’s fun so far.  Very different from my usual stuff. I think so anyway.  I cannot wait to finish the first draft and then go back and read it.  I’m making a conscious effort not to read it until after I type the last words.  Part of Nanowrimo is to turn off your inner editor.  It’s not easy.

Day Six

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They say a good strategy for Nanowrimo is banking words in the word count to get through days where it might be more difficult to write.  So far I’m almost a day ahead on the total word count.  I have passed the 10k mark and I’m almost at 11k.  It feels good.

With Divide by X, this most recent project, I’ve done several things differently.  I have a notebook full of research, character descriptions and random conversations.  I also have a full plotted spreadsheet thing, though I did not use excel I used paper, a ruler and a pencil.  So far it’s working.  I’ve been doing something I did not know I was capable of doing:  writing linearly.  I started at Chapter One and I’m currently wrapping up Chapter Five.  It’s pretty amazing.

Day Two

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There’s ten minutes left in Day Two of Nanowrimo and I’ve got 4288 words done so far.  This planning a story out thing seems to be paying off so far.  Of course, I do reserve the right to cuss it out in a few days when the initial rush of the new story wears off.

It’s time

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I watched all of the new season of Stranger Things over two days.  It was amazing and a good way to let my new project percolate in the back of my mind.  Since it’s now officially the 1st of November, I can finally start writing my Nanowrimo project.

I’m excited about this project.  It’s going to be different than anything I’ve written before.  I’ve outlined it, plotted it and carried around a notebook devoted to research for it.  Usually I just fly by the seat of my pants.  That’s probably why I’ve either tried to do too much in a story or lost the stopping point.

But, the way forward is to mature and practice.  I have to keep writing and grow as a writer to make better stories.  That’s my goal with this book.  I want it to be challenging and rewarding.  I don’t want to stay at the same level.  Hopefully, committing to something as intense as National Novel Writing Month will do that.

Anyway, the tentative title is Divide by X.  No, it’s not math related.  More to come on it soon.  I’ve got 1,667 words to type today.  Ciao.

November Approaches

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NaNoWriMo starts in just a few days now. Halloween is Tuesday. The new Star Wars movie is next month. This year is flying fast.

It’s been a entertaining ride, but it’s not over yet. I have a few things to do before the end of the year and getting a few short stories out and submitting another novel. That doesn’t include all the personal stuff like birthdays and Christmas.