it begins...

The scariest time of the year is approaching -- the Midnight Hour of October 31. This year there's even a full moon. No, not Halloween. No, not All Saints Day. Where are the dang spooky sound effects when you need them? (Muahaha haha -- evil laughter) Silly rabbit, it's NaNoWriMo time! Why so scary, you ask. Cause we're committing to write 50,000 words in a month! Give that a whirl! (Word Count updates to the right, and below!)

There's a Midnight Kickoff party here in ABQ for National Novel Writing Month. But, for a couple of reasons, I'm not going. I'm there in Spirit, though and so apropos for this night ;) (waxing poetic, too!) Here's a silly NaNo Rebel forum post (can non-Nanos see that? If they can will they answer? ) Only one response to my last question, therefore you people are punished (or blessed) cause I'm not posting during Nano (nanny nanny boo boo, stick your head in doo doo) I am totally wacked tonight -- must be the extra sugar high! Mo and me and the NaNos (tee hee!)

For the month of November, I will expend all my writing energy on my novel. It begins at the stroke of midnight! You can track me here: (look to your right at the Word Count Widget, which is working now. ) Yay!!

Update Info:
Edited nearly 12,000 words Sunday, Nov 8!! Current Goal - edit 100 pages by Nov 13!
(I know it's WriMo, not EdMo, but I'm a Cheetah and Rebel ;)

19K (Wednesday eve) That's 55 pages. I don't think I can double that by Friday. I will exceed the 25K goal, though. This is hard work!

35K (Sunday, Nov 22) Ok, that first estimate was too optimistic. I still have 1800 words to edit to complete the first 102 pages. Good Grief. There's another 228 pages of novel after that! Who thought of writing this frickin' thing anyway ;)

Why blog?

I'm pretty sure I asked this once before, but now I'm really going to delve into this. I hope some of you (who I know read ;) will take a moment to ponder and comment. For years we locked our diaries and never considered letting anyone peek at our private thoughts. Now, everyone is blogging and often extremely personal info. Why? As a friend of mine asked, "Why on earth would you post stuff for perfect strangers to read?" More to the point, exposing oneself (often literally, as teens do) or even like this blog for someone to delve into and "find me" if they really wanted to. Why??

Yeah, kids do it 1) cause they're naive 2) desperate for interaction. The exposed pics, well that's just ridiculous. But, adults. Thinking, sane folks like us -- why are we blogging? Some folks post their art, political commentaries, travel blogs are really helpful, community service or fund-raising, and some just "because." Initially my Zen Blog (the old one) was to promote Zen/Taoist philosophy but devolved into my rants. And posts of my Grand Canyon trip where I crunched a rock formation in my hand ;)

I know we try to stay anonymous, but that's a joke. I just tried searching myself on google and it's amazing (and scary) what all can be found. I remember Jeff, my "bro" refusing to use a credit card to avoid a paper trail. Now, we get online and basically "let it all hang out." Of course, I've lived online since the 1980's (the BBS days, various forums, web sites, blogs and now twitter.)

Another point is why waste time on this when I should put ALL my writing energy into the money-making book publication process. Does a book blog make sense? A place to promote and sell the book? I think so, but that also means really revealing your identity (unless you publish with a pseudonym.) Well, that will come soon enough. For now, I kind of view this as escape, but how dangerous is it? Come on out of your hidey holes now and COMMENT!!! It truly is a curious phenomenon.

Rebel with a Cause!

I just love this! I'm a Wrimo Rebel! No idea what I'm talking about? Just head on over to the NaNoWriMo dot ORG. I've been a Wrimo Rebel since my first year when I joined late and helped forge the Cheetah Club. hee hee. Still too cryptic? (like a Dan Brown novel?)

OK, here's what it means. Honest, rule-abiding participants pledge to write a novel -- 50,000 fresh fictional words during the month of NOvember. Thus, NaNoWriMo -- National Novel Writing Month, AKA "30 days (and nights) of literary abandon!" (if you really want to know why someone would write so much so fast, then you'll have to go on over to the link and snoop around. Chris Baty, the founder, has been trying to explain that for years ;)

Back to the rebel concept. I loved the idea of thousands of (now over 100 thousand)folks all feverishly writing away at the same time, challenging each other to write more and commiserating with each other over the ecstasy and agony of creative writing. But I was already working on a novel. Why should I have to stop my project and start a new fresh novel just to join in the fun? Muahaha haha (evil laughter) I didn't. I found others, like me, that were "cheating" and we founded the NanoWrimo Cheetah's Club. We aren't without morals, us Cheetahs. No sir, Mr. Baty. We have principles. We still had to write new words and hopefully 50K of them. We just didn't start from scratch.

Anyway, this year I discovered a new NaNo segment -- the Rebels. There are poets, folks who want to journal 50K, write non-fiction (gasp!), create 'zines, and like me "the Finishers" who insist we must complete a work-in-progress. I like this crowd of pirates and artists -- I fit with the misfits. And best of all, one of the Rebels (Pax) made a badge just for us! digg it!

Riding the Rim

I'm back and I did it -- I rode my new eBike on the rim of the Grand Canyon! This was a personal achievement for me because 3 months ago I could barely ride down the city paved block in front of my house. I had not ridden a bicycle for FORTY years!

First I had to get used to bike seats (that's a killer), then get my knees back in business. I suffer a lot of knee pain from a torn meniscus under my knee cap on my left and old skating injuries to my right knee. So, I wasn't sure I could ride at all. Amazingly, my knees don't hurt so much peddling. My eBike is not a scooter -- I must peddle. It's power assist, not a motorized ride like my motorcycle. It's work!! And, if the battery dies, I have to peddle with my own power.

So, I loaded the new eBike on the back of my RV Van, tossed the dog and half my belongings (or so it seemed) inside and took off on Sept 24. The first night I boondocked at the Arizona travel center. Then spent three fabulous nights in the Ponderosa pines (above) under the dark skies of Flagstaff at Woody Mountain park. (definitely the place for RVers. Black Bart's is old and dilapidated and others are too commercial. These folks are great! Tell Jim and Bruce HI! ) The dark sky policy of Flagstaff is wonderful for stargazing. A quiet paved road next to Woody Mt is a road to the Arboretum, a surprisingly beautiful nature spot. I rode the 3.5 miles, rested and enjoyed the wild flowers, then back to Woody's for a 7 mile round trip. That was my second ride of about that length (one in ABQ before leaving.) I felt confident I could ride along the Canyon rim -- at least a few miles.

Happy nowadays is the tourist, with earth's wonders, new and old, spread invitingly open before him, and a host of able workers as his slaves making everything easy, padding plush about him, grading roads for him, boring tunnels, moving hills out of his way... spiritualizing travel... abolishing space and time and almost everything else.
tender, pulpy people, as well as storm-seasoned explorers, may now go almost everywhere in smooth comfort... dragged by steel horses, go up high mountains, riding gloriously beneath starry showers of sparks, ascending like Elijah in a whirlwind and chariot of fire. -- John Muir, Naturalist of the 1800's

Yes, it's true. I'm one of those "tender, pulpy" people, but one trying to be healthier and more fit. I ran into a man who had bicycled from Flagstaff to the Canyon -- over 75 miles. I told him I could barely make it 15 miles. He made me feel better when he said, "at least you're doing that. There are people who never leave their cars here."
So, here I am... in my modest moment of glory after biking over 15 miles, three of those were nearly straight up. Yes, I had "peddle assist" but on a 10% incline, very little. It was a small accomplishment, but a Ranger also told me to feel proud -- that I was in the 1% who actually hike or bike at all. That did make me feel proud!
So for now, here's a glimpse of Izzi and me "on the edge" -- I was worried she might push me right over (really!!) Believe me, it's 5 thousand miles straight down from that rim! Below is a widget from PBS where I marked National Parks I've visited. I'll be adding more next Spring!

THE NATIONAL PARKS: My Parks