Thursday, December 28, 2006

Thursday Thirteen #13

Thirteen characters from my story Making Rag Doll Babies and Million Dollar Maybes which is part of my Fruits of the Spirit story-world, a multi-novel project:

1. Jubilee Faith Fairchild aka Faye Gardner. The POV character of this story which, though it can stand alone, is one chapter in the 'Faith' novel. A music teacher in her fifties. Has a habit of taking in strays. First it was cats--lots and lots of cats. Then it was people in crisis. Absent-minded and often anxious she wears on the nerves of her twin Julia. She is married to Inny.

2. Julia Love Fairchild. A physical therapist who once worked in a war zone and now is a high-school phys-ed teacher. She is strong-minded and often sarcastic with little patience for incompetence or hypocrisy. She glories in playing pranks. She bickers continuously with Wilma. (Julia has her own story in the 'Love' novel in the Fruits of the Spirit world.)

3. Wilma Grace Gardner. A high-school English teacher. She is a grammar cop in and out of the classroom. She a stickler for law and order. She seems hard as the steel color of her hair until witnessed in the presence of her twin Inny--especially after his 'bad trip'. (Wilma, too, has her own story in the 'Grace' novel)

4. Workman Innocence Gardner aka Inny. He was once a high-school shop teacher and an elder and teacher at a church until he was poisoned by an apple injected with an hallucinatory drug left on his desk by a student. He went on a bad trip that culminated in a years-long coma. Upon waking he spoke only in Biblical quotations. It was years more before Faye realized that the quotes were relevant to the moment and thus attempts to communicate. (Inny has his own story too. In the 'Innocence' novel.)

5. Mae Beatrice "Mae Bea" Morgan. A woman in her forties who has been making custom-designed rag dolls for decades. She also loves to play bingo and dreams of winning the lottery. She became the mother of Fancy at age fifteen.

6. Francine "Fancy" Morgan. A woman entering her thirties with a career as a country-western singer just taking off. She became the mother of Breezy at age fourteen but leaves most of the raising of her to Mae Bea. Her first hit, Making Rag Doll Babies and Million Dollar Maybes, based on their life, was co-written with her daughter.

7. Briana "Breezy" Morgan. Just fifteen and already the mother of Brandy. She is angry and rebellious, flaunting authority. The father of her baby is a mysterious figure on a motorcycle dressed in black leather with a visored helmet who never shows his face when in public with her. Her hair is multi-colored and multi-lengthed with tinsel and beads braided into it. Faye discovered her extraordinary singing voice when she was five and became her voice teacher as well as mentor.

8. Cassandra Cosgrove. Childhood friend of Fancy. They once won a teen singing contest as a duo named The Rag Dolls. Now she is a highway patrol person who often brings people in crisis to Faye's attention. She often has dreams that seam to forecast the future but are given little credence by anyone--even herself.

9. Estelle Star. The stage-name of a woman who wanders in and out of Faye's and Julia's lives. She once acted in Shakespeare plays but now appears to be homeless. She appears ancient and communicates only through Shakespearean quotes. (I know her real name but giving it here would be a spoiler until I've written her story)

10. Mama Cat. She is the mistress of the house Faye is living in as caretaker. She takes in stray cats and finds them good homes--hence the nickname. Faye is also entrusted with the care and adoption of the cats while Mama Cat is on a mysterious quest. She pops in now and then (but actually not in this story where she is just mentioned in passing) and leaves with a litter of just-weaned kittens. (Again, giving her real name here would be a spoiler before I've written her story.)

11. Lawson "Brick" Travis. A policeman and scoutmaster who trains his scouts in search and rescue. He and his boys are instrumental in the rescue of five-year-old Breezy when she is stuck up a tree on a limb over a river with a kitten she attempted to rescue. (Brick is a major figure in the 'Love.' novel.)

12. Jerrica Holmes. A college journalist major who was doing an interview with The Rag Dolls when Breezy went missing. She stayed with the teen mother until the child was found and rescued.

13. Troll. Very tall--over 6 1/2 feet-- and mostly silent, he is Jerrica's cameraman. He filmed the rescue of Breezy and kitten. (I once knew his real name but lost it when I lost my note file on the Fruits of the Spirit stories. I'll have to rename him when I tell the story of Jerrica and 'Troll' who become a couple and travel the world making independent documentary films.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1. Tink 2. Rashenbo 3. Candy Minx 4. Chickadee 5. Jamie 6. Teena 7. Marcia

(leave your link in comments, I'll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It's easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!


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Friday, December 22, 2006

Nurlo!

Echidne introduced me to Weffriddles in a recent post I just found Tuesday and now my brain is full of weird chants: Alf, I bet. The answer is waiting in the dark. 16 + 1. Google Eyes...

Weffriddles is not a typical riddle or maze game. Answers to the riddles advance you through the maze. But the maze is the website and the idividutal pages are the riddles. The answer to each riddle provides the url to the next level.

There is something about puzzle-solving that is so addictive. I love puzzles and riddles and puns and braintwisters. Partly because they usualy make me feel smart. You know, that rush that comes when the answer lights up your brain. I thought I was smart but now I feel stupid.


Echidne implied she was barely fazed before Batch 3! I was off to a roaring start when i solved Level 1 and 2 of Batch 1 in, like, 30 seconds. But then I was stuck on Level 3 for more than 4 hours!

So maybe I am stupid. I must be. My head feels like a brick it just knocked out of the wall!

Knock Knock. Who's there?  404.

And this after just two days. Well, just 16 straight hours. I haven't dared to go back since I ripped myself away Wednesday afternoon having reached Level 16 whose clues are in the form of mathematical equations of the sort that glaze my eyes and raise the hackles on my neck as though I am feeling the piercing gazes of three dozen classmates fixed on it as we all wait for that inevitable moment when the teacher, voice oozing with contempt or pity, commands me to hand the chalk over to someone who has been paying attention.

Maybe the math formulas are red herrings and the real clues are something else, somewhere else in the make-up of the page. In the text, in the title, in the text formatting, in the colors....

I can hope!

But how likely is it seeing how the creator claims to be an engineering student. And only 19!!  Yeah, he's probably the son of that kid in my sixth-grade math class whose hand was always threatening to wipe the light fixtures off the cieling like so many cobwebs as he vied for the honor of grabbing that chalk out of my sweaty hand.

Arrrrgh!

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Thursday, December 21, 2006

Fireflies in the Cloud: The top 10 most ridiculous products for babies

This is a must-see for about-to-be-parents. Especially first timers. But anybody who knows or has ever known a baby will be just as tickled.

Be prepared to laugh til the tears flow. And other stuff too.

This guy is funny. Check out the rest of his blog. I just blogged this post because it gave me the first rollocking belly-laugh I've had in a long time. I snorted!! and I don't snort. No, really, I don't.

I'm so glad I was alone in my room with the door closed and only my two cats to witness it. I'm sure it was that unattractive. It would have traumatized my mother to see.

HT to Rashenbo at Writing Aspirations for sending me to the site.

I think I may have finaly got a grip on the holiday spirit. I got to play Santa this morning with my Thursday Thirteen list. And now I'm doing a pretty good jolly. I'm the right shape. But I don't have a red suit. Will a red T-shirt do?

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Thursday Thirteen #12

Thirteen Web Gems I've gathered for you.
From useful to fun. Either free or with a free trial.
Merry Christmas!

1. Chaos Manager 2 Besides To Do lists and other jottings, I use the notebook function as a clipboard for shuffling info between applications. Indispensable! Not to mention free!

2. Open Office Suite six gifts in one. Free and open source. Write is a powerful word processor and desktop publisher that can save in HTML and PDF. Impress with presentations and side shows. Draw and edit graphics including photos. Base excels at organizing data and generating reports. Calc manages money, time and tasks with spreadsheets, analysis and calculations. Math allows you to create and edit scientific and mathematical formulas. I can't use this yet but would like to learn.

3. WhizNote Organizer I used this for NaNoWriMo the last two years. It is ideal for organizing large projects like novels. This older version is free but it will probably make you want the upgrade. I know I do.

4. Literary Machine Similar to WhizNote in some ways but very different in others. You can store info in a less formal manner that almost seems disorganized but as the cross-linking among the data matures you will find patterns that inspire. It works with a creative mind instead of making it conform to a formulaic application. I was going to do NaNoWriMo with it this year but did not learn my way around it in time. This version is free but there is an upgrade that I already drool over.

5. Windows Live Writer Free. Can't imagine blogging without it. It lets me create hover messages for links. Be sure to check them out on all thirteen items here.

6. The Psychedelic Screen Saver Free trial. Have to see it to believe it.

7. Gnod. The Global Network of Dreams Free hangout with other music, movie and book lovers. Find out what else is liked by others who like what you like and you might find something new to like. Is that clear? No? Spend an hour or so on the maps and it will come clear. I, of course was especially fond of the literary map: Gnod Books

8. My Way Games No banners. No pop-ups. No kidding. Play most of your favs online for free. (Hint: For those on dial-up, some of the games will continue to play after you disconnect if you don't close the game window)

9. Pretty Good Solitaire Free trial. So many games! Multiple player profiles under which you can personalize backgrounds, card backs and favorites lists. You can also use a wizard to create your own games.

10. Moraff Games graphics are always candyland for the eyes! There are both freeware and free trials on this page. I am most familiar with, and thus wholeheartedly recommend, the mahjongg games--some of which are free.

11. Sokoban Free. You can push but you can't pull so watch out for those walls.

12. Jigsaw Puzzle Lite Free. Sure they want you to buy packs of stunning digital photos to turn into jigsaw puzzles and I would if I had the discretionary income for it. Meanwhile it allows me to input pictures from my own files.

13. Weffriddles. Free online riddle maze. Each page is a riddle the web site is the maze. Don't leave your mind behind. I just discovered this Tuesday HT to Echidne one of the blogs I haunt. Warning: highly addictive for anyone who is into puzzle solving. Um. I meant the game, not Echidne. Tho, come to think of it, if the puzzles you are into solving are sociological in nature, then yeah, Echidne is addictive too.

Finally, I feel as though I have done something in the Holiday Spirit. It didn't cost me anything but time but if any one of you finds half as much value in any one of these web gems as I have then I have given gifts that will keep on giving. If you fall in love with anything you find here, pass it on.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1. Chickadee 2. Caylynn 3. Cindy 4. Tink 5. Candy Minx 6. Rashenbo 7. Jamie

(leave your link in comments, I'll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It's easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!


Read more...

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Save the Internet!

Why should net neutrality matter to you?

What if the rules of the road changed such that stop signs were manned by bribe-takers? Or the freeways were only for the rich or big corporations? Or there was a toll at every intersection and on/off ramp?

Still don't get it? Watch the video!

I spent the last ten days contemplating being locked out of my public library in 2007! It seems some are arguing I should be locked our of the Internet too!!!

If you are not someone who can afford significant fees to insure that your emails download in seconds rather than minutes, this must matter to you too.

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Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Blah Crumb Blog

Tis the season to be:

weary
leery
bleary
teary

anything but cheery.

I'm having a harder time than usual finding a holiday spirit this year. Could be because I've been sick since the evening of the 3rd. As has my husband since several days before that. We have two 30 minute windows of opportunity to speak to each other each day--just before he leaves for work about 6am and right after he walks in the door, whenever that is. In spite of feeling miserable and occasionally fevered, he hasn't missed a single day. And those days are ten to twelve hours long. Not counting the commute. And today is the sixteenth* of a planned 19 in a row. The good part is that puts him on overtime by sometime on Wednesday each of the three weeks. The bad part is that we can't do any Christmas shopping until the Saturday morning before Christmas and the beginning of the family's celebration starts that evening in deference to members who have other family commitments on Sunday and Monday.

This has essentially been the pattern each year since he got this job on the shipping docks of this major, seasonally-driven, national specialty-gift company six years ago. One of the perks is that we can shop in the company store with his employee discount that knocks off a significant percentage of the original 80% mark-up. Somehow this has always felt a little bit tacky to me. Maybe because the products are mostly of the kind that time-harassed executives pay assistants to select and buy in bulk to present to clients, colleagues, customers and secretaries as tokens of appreciation that may or may not, in fact, exist. Maybe its because I know too much about the actual contempt held between ranks, departments, divisions, and plants.

Then there is the fact that we continue to live with my husband's family after five** years and I question whether we should be spending the holiday bonus and overtime money on Christmas. But on the other hand, how can we not buy gifts for those we know are buying for us?

I would rather be a giver than a receiver and have often been ashamed that the things we bought others (with too little money split too many ways) were cheap and/or poorly chosen. I tried to rectify this after 1990 by making needlework gifts for at least a few each year. I lost over a dozen such projects and all of the accumulated materials for dozens more when we lost our stored belongings in 2001. That was a huge demoralization and the holiday season serves to remind me of that.

But even these challenges to the holiday spirit are minor compared to the ambivalence toward them created by the indoctrination against them that was an integral part of my childhood. We were taught that all 'keeping of days' was pagan, including birthdays and modern remembrance days. Whenever such days afforded time off from work, our assemblies would assemble for Bible Conferences or Youth Camps. We didn't decorate or exchange gifts and we spoke with pity or scorn of those who did.

I married into a family who does celebrate the holidays. It was important to my husband and because the dictum that a wife submit to her husband was stronger than the one against 'keeping special days' I went along though my spirit always lagged. Shame and guilt would often plague the lead-up and let-down for each holiday. I consciously repudiated the teachings against holidays several years before I broke with the fundamentalist doctrines entirely. I gave my full blessing to having a Christmas tree and decorating for the holidays for the first time in 1992. Before that my husband had deferred to my sensibilities. Since then, I continue to struggle with the sense that the 'bad' things that happen are 'chastisements from the Lord' because I did not 'keep the faith'. Half the time I feel shame and guilt over it. The other half I feel angry that I feel that way. Either way, there isn't much room for the Holiday Spirit.

* I started writing this last week when it was the 'tenth' day.

** Updated to correct. August 2001 to present equals five not six years. Must have been a bad day when I wrote that line!

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Thursday, December 14, 2006

Thursday Thirteen #11

Thirteen Things I can do to compensate if Jackson County Library Services shuts its doors:

Read the books I own, neglected in favor of library book due dates:.

1. Of the backpack full of books that I managed to bring with me when we fled the Silicon Valley streets in August 2001, I have yet to finish at least 50% of those which are not primarily reference books.

2. There are a couple dozen books that I picked up cheap over the last six years or were given to me by those who took pity.. A few of them are even novels.

3. There is the 1999 World Book Encyclopedia set which I bought from the library at $1 per volume. Sure some info would be dated but not a very high percentage. I used to love to read encyclopedias and the World Book was my favorite from an early age. Which is why I bought this set in 2005 by dipping into the funds I was saving for my laptop. The drawback is that I always ever used encyclopedias as curiosity wetters, a jumping off place--anything that grabbed more than momentary attention sent me running to the library card catalog.

4. The creme de la creme is the Britannica Great Books set, also bought at $1 per volume from a library book sale. In this case it wasn't pre-owned by the library but donated by a patron who had never taken the shrink-wrap off more than ten of the volumes. We used to own the set and I got hooked on the Syntopicon which indexes the Great Ideas of several millennia of literature and allows you to follow the centuries-long dialog/debate on a great many topics. I bought this a week or two after the World Book set out of the same funds. The major justification was the use I had been making of them since 86 to inform a major fiction project (multi-volume) whose theme is the fruits of the Spirit.

Read the books loaned to me:

5. I borrowed a couple dozen books from my Dad's library after his passing last year. They are mostly from the fundamentalist/dispensational viewpoint. I wanted them for reference for the same Fruits of the Spirit fiction project which is concerned with contrasting dogma and piety with the actual behaviors of individuals rooted firmly in the fruits of the Spirit. I haven't looked at these books much since I brought them home. It has been too painful on too many levels. I'm still not sure I'm ready.

6. My niece loaned me the first 12 volumes of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events and Harry Potter and The Half-blood Prince last July and I've only read the first three Lemony Snicket's.

Make better use of the Internet:

7. Read the free e-books I have downloaded and go after more. A lot of classical fiction is available this way.

8. Explore the web for more free resources. College and University sites are one good jumping-off point. I've been collecting them in my favs for years but not making much use of them. It is the personal pages of professors that are often a goldmine.

9. Use the free resources I've found online to study HTML and Webmistressing--design, managing and promotion--and turn Joystory, Joywrite and Joyread into the awesome sites they were in my first dreaming of them. All three currently fall seriously short of my aspirations.

Write more:

10. Write more stories. (the fiction in my collection--not counting that in the Great Books set--won't last more than three months so I would have to write my own stories to get my fiction fixes)

11. Post more regularly to Joystory, Joywrite and Joyread.

12. Return to the serious journaling and writing exercises that were often the source of insight and fodder for my more formal writing--fiction, personal essays and poetry.

Misc.:

13. Get more balance by increasing activities unrelated to reading and writing: fine needlework; meditation--a creativity stimulant among other things; daydreaming--the wellspring of my stories which must be primed months if not years before a word is committed to paper or screen; mentally stimulating games; listening to music--another creativity stimulant; walking--something will have to replace my weekly trek to the library if I'm not to become bed-bug fodder!

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1. Tink 2. Rashenbo 3. JohnH985 4. Gattina 5. dawn 6. Jamie 7. amy

(leave your link in comments, I'll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It's easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!


Read more...

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Shocked, Stunned. Undone?

I am still reeling some fifteen hours after receiving news that ranks right up there with the major losses in my life: learning I was loosing my sight; learning I would not be able to return for my final year of college; learning that I was infertile; learning my manuscripts, research notes and personal library were unrecoverable along with all our other belongings after payments on our storage unit fell behind; learning I could no longer acquiesce to the belief system of my childhood and loosing the pure fellowship of that faith community; learning that the building that was once the Bible Chapel in which I went to Sunday School and later taught Sunday School and later yet was married in had been burnt to the ground as a training exercise for firemen; learning that the high-tech company my husband worked for was closing shop instead of going public just weeks after his stock options had vested; learning we were being evicted from the first nice house we ever lived in and then five months later from the motel room we'd exchanged it for onto the street.  And yes, this ranks right up there with learning that my Dad was loosing his battle with cancer--tho not with the actual moment of his loss.

What could be so dire?  Our public library system lost it's funding and will most likely be shutting its doors next month.

I had already been awake for 24 hours at the moment I learned this about two yesterday and I have yet to sleep.  I think I've been in a full-blown anxiety attack ever since.  I developed a migraine about six hour ago.  This has prevented me from writing the thoughtful explanatory piece I had planned.  But if I don't post something about this event, I'm afraid I will never post again.

Understand, it is not just that this story addict is loosing access to her regular fixes.  Everything I have planned for Joystory, Joyread and Joywrite is dependent on free access to good resources.  I have dozens of projects in various stages of unreadiness that cannot be completed without access to the resources.

How many times can the reincarnation of my hopes and dreams be kicked in the teeth before they stop rising from the ashes altogether?

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Thursday, December 07, 2006

Thursday Thirteen #10

Thirteen Things about the past week
(this is more story than list for which you can thank my NaNoWriMo trained fingers)

1. NaNoWriMo ended last Thursday at midnight and I rewarded myself by watching four Gray's Anatomy episodes in a row on abc.com. Followed by two Ugly Betty episodes. The beginning of the story binge I'd been promising myself.

2. On Friday, I finished the short novel, Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote and read the three short-stories bundled with it.

3. Having encountered other TTs last week who confessed to addictions to the game Zuma, I had to try it out. Played fifteen games between Friday and Sunday morning. I can see why it would be addictive but it is too frustrating for me with my RP as the field of play is too large and I often can't differentiate between two similar colors--like yellow and gold or green and aqua.

4. Saturday was my 28th wedding anniversary but we didn't do anything special as my husband had to work and didn't get home until after nine. Tis that season. Began the novel, Slaughter-house Five by Kurt Vonnegut Saturday evening.

5. Sunday was to be the last day off for my husband until the Sunday before Christmas and I planned to spend it with him even if I had to give up sleep to do so. But he came home sick Saturday night and tho he got up at his usual pre-dawn hour, by eight o'clock he was crawling back in bed. I sat on the edge of the bed playing Zuma until I got sleepy. I was just drifting off about eleven when the phone rang. My husband recognized my sister's voice on the answering machine and went to try to catch her before she hung up. She and her son and my mother were about five miles from the Phoenix exit on their return to Longview, Washington from Gerber, California--delayed nearly a week by the snow and fog in the passes. I hadn't seen them since we had gone to my Mom's twin sister's funeral the week after Thanksgiving last year. We visited until after four when they hit the road again

6. I slept from eight Sunday night until four Monday morning and woke with a raging sore throat. I had the virus my husband brought home from work. Tis the season. I watched the DVD Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, after my husband left for work. It was among the items due at the library Monday. As was Slaughter-house Five which I was only half finished with.

7. Sat with my husband's grandmother Monday afternoon while my in-laws went grocery shopping for both households. My mother-in-law dropped me off at the library on the way home and waited for me to check out. The librarians were dressed as if ready for the ski lifts. The library's heater and given up the ghost. They were on the phone calling patrons with reservations on the computers that evening to let them know they were closing early

8. I hung on to Slaughter-house Five, hoping to finish it before morning so I could drop it off on the way back over to grandma's house, but I got caught up in the news reports of the Kim family that had been missing and feared stuck in the snow on the bad roads between Grant's Pass and Gold Beach just north of us. The same area another family had been lost last winter. I was hoping the Kim family's story would end as happily as that one and it seemed to be heading that way when news of the rescue of the mother and two young girls broke Monday afternoon. But the father was still missing, having attempted to walk out for help over the weekend.

9. Sat with grandma again Tuesday morning. Had not finished Slaughter-house Five in time to return it on the way over. Hoped to finish it in time to return it on the way home but still had about fifty pages to go when the time came. My mother-in-law suggested she drop me off and come back for me in an hour and a half. She had driven off before I remembered the broken heater. The sign on the door said Emergency Closure. Although chilly, it was blue-sky sunny and I was bundled warm so I sat on the raised brick flower-bed box next to the drop box and read.until my mother-in-law returned. She was five minutes early and I had two pages left. She waited for me.

10. Tuesday evening I again followed the story of the Kim family. It was not looking hopeful for the still missing father, James Kim. I wanted to cry for his wife and baby girls. I was too caught up in this local story to start another novel or movie or online TV episode or play games. At any rate my cold symptoms were escalating to the point my eyes weren't working very well. I was ready to have the light out when my husband was at eight.

11. Woke with my husband at four Wednesday morning and fixed coffee for us but had to go back to bed before he left for work. I slept until two in the afternoon. Discovered upon waking that James Kim's body had been found at noon. So sad.

12. Began the novel Trickster's Choice by Tamora Pierce Wednesday evening but read fewer than ten pages before fatigue overcame my eyes. Once again, I slept the same hours as my husband.

13. Woke with my husband at four Thursday morning and sat with him over coffee. As he checked his email and played Bejeweled 2 online, I started reading Trickster's Choice. I kept on reading after he left for work shortly after six and, interrupted only by a pesky cough, was still reading at nine when I suddenly remember TT...

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1. K T Cat

(leave your link in comments, I'll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It's easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!


Read more...

Saturday, December 02, 2006

NaNoWriMo Conclusion

My final word count, when I threw in the towel about eleven-thirty Thursday night, was 25,411. This is about double my results from last year, which were about double my results from the previous year, my first attempt. So I am 0 for 3 but I'm seeing an encouraging pattern here--if I double it again next year I will cross the finish line. Especially since I more than doubled my word count in the final five to seven days, which means that I had hit the stride in the final week that, if reached the first week and sustained throughout, is the one needed to make it to 50,000 in four weeks. I learned a lot about method and mindset that I can apply next year. I hope to muse about some of those here over the next couple of weeks.

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