8th year...

Well, here I go again... my eighth turn of the Nano wheel. Sorry, that's an inside joke for Buddhists (turn of the Dharma wheel.) I'll be combining those two endeavors this time. Spinning the wheel, praying for words. I call this project "Disparate Pieces", a mish-mash of some final work on the GodForce Guidebook, my Vision book and a health booklet. yeah, all are non-fiction. Wanna fight about it? I'm a proud Nano Rebel and I'll do as I please this cycle (every cycle, actually.)

It's not too late to join: National Novel Writing Month or as I call mine -- National Write Whatever You Want Month (NWWYWM) ;)

an End Point...

Everything needs an end point. A period. A way to indicate this thought has ended, and a new sentence, thought, or phase is beginning. For me, the novel-writing and editing phase of AKS had to end. It was done, over due. Yes, I could have tweaked for another week, but I had a feeling that seven days later I would still feel as unfinished as my story of Unfinished Business. I would feel worse, missing yet another deadline -- another unmet Equinox release.

I wanted the book to be done in the Spring, released on March 20. The disclaimer says Vernal, not Autumnal, Equinox. I left it as a reminder of time passing. I hope to have a final book in my hand come 9:09 pm, September 22. If a batch is printed early this coming week, it's still possible. If I had waited, kept tweaking, another milestone would have passed.

Oh, I can hear those critics now. "But isn't it more important for it to be right?" NO, actually it's more important to finish something. How many people are walking around with books in their head that will NEVER see the page? How many people say "some day" I'm going to write that novel, take that trip, stop smoking, quit drinking, whatever. I am here to tell you perfectionism and procrastination are worse than a few missing punctuation marks. I truly believe that. If there are too many remaining errors in the book, I'll quietly upload a text revision in six weeks, and few people will know or realize it even happened. If I had waited, missed another major milestone, my spirit would have been crushed. That is not so easily repaired.

So on this emergency 911 date, nine years have passed since the terror attack that continues to haunt everyone. My work, on A Kindred Spirit, began on a September day a few years before that. I will not be haunted. I am letting go, moving on. The TIME IS NOW for me to release this book. It's a point in time. What I was able to say and write at this point. Hopefully in the future I can write a better book. This one, however, is done.

ersatz errata

That could be a good blog name, IMHO! In no particular order and without rhyme nor reason, here are things clogging up my brain that are keeping me from novel writing this morning.
The Grammy's. Good grief! I watched all 3.5 hours of it last night. It was like a car wreck from which I could not divert my eyes (is that the proper English, gals?) Anyway, that silly off-key teen twit who took Album of the year... I am so tired of her. And to have her on stage ruining a performance by a legend like Stevie Nicks, I needed a barf bag. What does anyone see in her? Please, post a comment if you can explain that. I'm baffled. Now, on the opposing view of many, I actually enjoyed Pink's wild ass aerial antics. I was out of the room when it started and couldn't believe what I was seeing. So, thanks to DVR, I rewound and watched all of it. Then, I liked it so much I recorded it to DVD and watched it again. It improves with each viewing. What a bod and voice. I like her! And, I know the song she sang "Glitter in the Air" from her Funhouse CD. Lady GaGa, on the other hand, was a disappointment. I have enjoyed her flamboyance in the past, but dirty versions of her and Sir Elton (I mean dirty, literally-- streaked with coal dust or whatever that was) on their glitter didn't cut it for me. Too bad, and I didn't even know she won awards for best dance and trance records, both cuts off her famous "Fame" album. (yikes I started this mid morning, and realized late afternoon that I never posted.) OK, wrapping this up, Leon Russell, what a hoot to see him. I used to love him! That guy in the Zac Brown Band could sing. And, finally the tear-jerking comments from Prince Michael about his dad (MJ's) Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 3D "Earth Song" tribute to MJ was really why I watched.
Other Errata: Good grief, I'm simply horrified over the never-ending details emerging about John Edwards (sex tape? endless lying, disturbing comments about "when Elizabeth is gone!") I was very, very wrong about him. And, now it's hard to listen to Dave Matthews sing "You and Me" with those horrible images in my mind. There was more stuff, but I'm tired of pontificating (imagine that!) and should be novel writing.
Finally, check out that fun Shelfari thing-- just scroll UP a bit and glance over to the right. Thanks Mo, got if off that link you sent! I can promote my own novel there!

Mid Nano Update

I'm moving my November NanoWrimo Update section here. No other blogging this month... just updates on novel writing. See Word Count Widget: (look right and down)

Week One goal 12K DONE
Week Two goal 25K (Sunday, Nov 15)DONE!
Week Three - 35K (Sunday, Nov 22) 35076 DONE!!!
Week Four - 48K (Sunday, Nov 29) barely at 44K (i'm melting...) Major 24 HR push!
Nano Final - 50K (Monday, Nov 30) I WON! 50,054

To Finish the novel, editing will continue into December! (and FOR SURE into 2010!)
The goal is a Spring 2010 release! Watch for A Kindred Spirit!

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!

A Real Shocker!

It's Paul Williams' birthday (May 19.) As I always clarify, not the chubby songster, but the rock critic. The guy who was Literary Executor for Philip K Dick's estate and founded Crawdaddy! -- the first U.S. rock magazine.
I want to say happy birthday -- email, call him, but I can't. He's suffering terribly, I'm told, with dementia. This is what I learned Sunday night:

The 1995 bicycle injury (and subsequent brain injury) likely triggered an early onset of Alzheimer’s disease; some symptoms were immediate, while others revealed themselves in tragic slow motion: fading powers of memory, then of comprehension and speech. In 2008, unable to continue caring for Paul while also taking care of their eight year-old son, Cindy began to arrange for Paul to live in managed care outside the home.

Managed Care!! His voice is silenced? His family is pleading for donations since Paul has no insurance. He was always a free lancer -- a FREE man. His 45 year writing career was supported by sales and patrons. When I first learned of this, two nights ago (and after getting over the immediate shock), I thought, "thank god he wrote and published." At least the world has all his amazing insights about music, other writers (like Phil and Theodore Sturgeon), his own thoughts on Eastern philosophy, and the 20th Century's "Greatest Hits." That book was not just about music, but art and everything important, in Paul's eyes. His eyes. Are they cloudy now? Not the bright, intuitive flashing eyes I saw? Would he know me? Probably not. Does he still know his 8 yr old son? I hope so. He had the boy (with Cindy) after I left Encinitas -- sometime in 2001. Here is the famous Moonlight Beach and in the upper right corner, one of those buildings is his house.

I remember a phone call in 2002. By then I had Izzi (my dog), was engaged, and he just had a son. We laughed and I told him he had a bigger job raising a human. OMG! That was probably the last phone call. He said to call him when I "set the date" for the wedding (of course, I broke the engagement in 2003.) We've had a few emails since then.

He finished one more Dylan book -- "Mind Out of Time" (a play on the Grammy winning "Time Out of Mind" blues-ish CD/album by Dylan.) After coming here (to ABQ) for the July 2000 Dylan concert and seeing all my Madonnas, Paul added the Introduction/Chapter Zero -- "Visions of Madonna." The book was published in 2004. After that he sent a couple of clippings and articles about PKD -- one where he was interviewed again.

I knew he had brain damage, but contrary to what the site says, he did quite a bit of writing after that accident. He wrote the 20th Century's Greatest Hits (which I reviewed on Amazon, and it's still posted there) and the final Dylan book, did an extensive interview for a San Diego newspaper (which he signed and sent to me) and was in continuous contact with international film crews and fans about Phil's movies and books. He was still very productive and writing at least into 2005. So this incredible turn for the worse must have happened in the last couple of years.

I stayed up til 3 am (Monday morning) reading "Pushing Upward" (one of Paul's early books.) It was before he even met Phil (PKD, but he discusses Phil as a writer. Paul not only published about 30 books of his own, and many issues of Crawdaddy! and the PKD Society Newsletter, but he published one of Phil's mainstream novels (Crap Artist) -- a book no one else would publish at the time, and he offered to publish my novel. I just couldn't get it ready for his extreme scrutiny. Now, if this is true (which I'm still in denial) he never will see it, or realize he has.

Live every day like it's your last. And, if you can spare a few dollars, please donate for Paul's health care.

A Game of Make-Believe

Before I move off the writing topic (actually, I may never move off -- it's my future), I've been thinking about what makes the "Best Fiction." A book that Mo and I looked at this weekend is called Novel 100. It ranks the "greatest Novels of all time." The fact they are novels rules out shorter works and other types of fiction. And, by the author's so-called rules, fantasy was not included. ha! So, I made my own list of what I consider the Best Fiction. My criteria is memorableness, impact (aka, transcendental power) and immersive quality. What's that? Not so much the famed "willing suspension of disbelief" as how "drawn in" I am. Total Immersion would be a 5-star for me. Here's what quickly came to mind, without exhaustive analysis or thought, for my Top Ten;

1. Don Quixote - Cervantes
2. A Christmas Carol - Dickens
3. Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco
4. "the Raven" - Edgar Allan Poe *
5. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (aka Charles Dodgson)
6. the "Divine Comedy" - Dante
7. the Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (aka Blade Runner) - Philip k Dick
9. the Teachings of Don Juan - Carlos Castaneda
10. Frankestein - Mary Shelley
    * example of Poe's own Principle of Composition

Honorable mentions go to Anne Rice for "Interview with a Vampire"; Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" series; HG Well's "Time Machine"; CyberPunk daddy William Gibson's "Neuromancer" and punkish protege Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash" and last but definitely not least, Oscar Wilde's "Picture of Dorian Gray" (long time personal fav on immortality and I hear a movie is coming in 2009!) Kafka and Kerouac must be mentioned! And, I only "suggested" that make-believe was essential.

I'm shocked that my list is so heavily male dominated. Therefore, I pledge to spend time with the 100 Best Works by Women Writers in retirement! Please add your own list or favs below (by comment.) After all, what's a blog for if not to share thoughts!)

Shhhh... I'm Noveling Now

Yep, I'm doing it!
Every year I swear I can't possibly do NaNoWriMo again. Yet, here I go again. Why? Why would anyone in their "write" mind even consider writing 50,000 words in a month? Why would anyone run a marathon? or climb Mt Everest? For the Challenge. To proclaim oneself successful, and like a marathon... just to cross the Finish Line.

But, I want to post this for ALL to see. I really only "have" to make 30K words, because I'm really trying to write a new middle section for my novel. Going all out for the 50K (which I did last year), means messy, stupid writing. And, that's wonderful -- actually a great way to write first draft stuff. Last year we would write anything during "all nighters" on weekend "write nights" to pump up the word count. It was a blast and some really creative stuff emerged. But, I can't do that this year. I'm on a deadline to finish this one, and I simply can't create another word pile. (but notice how many words I'm wasting on blog entries, updating the AKS site, and private Nanograms within the Nano site.) STOP the madness -- close the blog and start novel writing. NOW!

C ountdown to NANO (October 25)

November is National Novel Writing Month (hence the acronym.) How can I not do it, especially this year when I'm on a Mission to finish AKS. One of the few NaNo rules is to start a new project each time. Ha! this will be the third time I've violated that and worse, admitted it on the forums. Here is this year's early confession. I posted in the Roswell section to be funny and sneaky.

So, I have tonight, five more days and Halloween, which for me is NaNo Eve, to edit my existing material. Because the one thing that is important about NaNo is it's writing time -- NOT editing. Those are two entirely different activities that use different parts of the brain. And, since my brain is very bad these days, I can't possibly confuse it further mixing those modes. No Way!

And, for now, the most important thing is to get back to editing. YIKES! The clock is ticking.