Halfway Home

Passed the 25k mark on my NaNo novel yesterday and feel pretty darned good about it. Some of my "buddies" are cranking along too, with several of them already past the 50k mark! That's impressive as you know they had to throw in some 3, 4, and 5k days to get that far that fast. My "2k a Day" goal is plenty for me. I can get it done in a couple of hours and not burn myself out -- helps me approach each day's writing with enthusiasm as I know my brain won't pucker and I'll have plenty of time to do other stuff. You know, have a life and what not. Definitely going all tortoise in the word count race.

On a side note, there's a woman who does NaNo every year who regularly posts totals of 750k - 900k by the end of the month. Seriously. Now assuming she's telling the truth (if you cheat on this challenge the only person you're cheating is your own moronic self), that would mean she has to average at least 25 - 30k -- every single day of November! I cannot even imagine how that is physically possible as just reaching her daily count took me two full weeks of writing. The cynic in me wonders if any of her stuff is remotely coherent but if it is -- damn! I'm triply impressed.

Here's where I stand at just a little over 25k:

• Very near the end of Chapter VII (c. 107 pages so far).
• No longer worried I'll come up short. Now worried I'll go too far past the standard word count for a middle-grade novel (50-60k). This is a great worry to have as things like "too much" can be fixed in the edit.
• Still pleasantly surprised with how smoothly it's going (more knocking on wooden head). I think having a fairly well thought out and detailed outline helped massively in this regard.
  

I'll touch base again at around 40k. See ya!

On Writers and Money

Author John Scalzi has a very interesting post on why writers seem to have a hard time managing their money and aren't all crazy rich.

10k, Olay!

Hit my first NaNo '09 milestone last night. At ten thousand words, here's where I am:

• Almost at the end of Chapter III (the novel template in Movie Magic Screenwriter 6 uses Roman numerals as the default).
• Almost at the end of an awesome space battle involving spacecraft, space weapons, and a black hole (in space).
• Pleasantly surprised that it's going as smoothly as it is (taps forehead with knuckle). Knock on wood.

My next personal milestone will be 25k so I'll give you an update on all things NaNo then. Oh, and as you can see, the super fancy word count widget is now working.

In Place

NaNo starts on Sunday 11/1 and I feel like I'm in a really good place to hit the ground running. Got my premise, my characters, and my outline (5 pages/20 chapters) -- and even an anti bad writing gargoyle in my garden (<--see pic). Maybe I should place him closer to my desktop as I'm not quite sure about his range. This year's book is a genre shift from the first two -- going from fantasy to sci fi. It's still middle grade. I feel comfortable working in mg and like the idea of writing books that entertain kids of that age -- probably because that's when the whole "hardcore reader" thing kicked in for me. I still recall my first mind expanding sci fi read, "Time of the Great Freeze" by Robert Silverberg (humans emerge from underground sanctuaries at the end of a future ice age). It was back in the 5th grade and got me hooked on the genre. To this day 99% of my pleasure reading is either sci fi or fantasy. But I digress.
My goal for November is 2k+ words a day which will put me at 50k on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving -- thus allowing me to gorge without guilt. My author page at NaNo is sillyroger. Check it out when you get a chance and feel free to add me as a buddy. I'll report back as I hit the significant milestones (every 10k or so). The NaNo word count widget on this blog should start functioning on Sunday.
I know this is all very book geeky but what can I say? I'm a book geek who really enjoys the challenge of cranking out a manuscript every November. Who knows, someday I might even sell one!

Gentlemen (and ladies), start your word processors!

Saturn's Children - Mini Review

Despite an off-putting cover that appears to have been designed with 14 year old boys in mind, Charlie Stross' "Saturn's Children" is an interesting read with a great premise -- once the human race dies off, what's to become of their androids?

In Stross' clever scenario, they continue on -- struggling to fulfill the aspirations of their extinct creators (space exploration, extraterrestrial colonies) while picking up a few of our less than noble traits too (slavery and murder to name a few).

The story centers on Freya Nakamichi-47, an obsolete pleasurebot (see book cover) who, like her identical sisters, has had to find other duties once human males ceased to exist. Most of her work has been mundane, but when she's hired to make a delivery to Mars things start to get interesting and extremely dangerous.

Hardcore intrigue, brutal assassinations, and heart-breaking betrayals easily place "Saturn's Children" in the category of a sci fi thriller (android noir, if you will) as Freya does her best to navigate through a deadly future where absolutely no one can be trusted -- including herself. Recommended.

Anathem - Mini Review

A richly detailed book coming in at roughly 900 pages (plus an extensive glossary and several "calcas" or lessons), Anathem by Neal Stephenson, is not a lightweight read in either the physical or mental sense of that phrase. This hefty book will challenge you.

Set in an alternate "cosmi" (universe), the world of Arbre is divided between secular powers and a complicated system of "concents" (monasteries) devoted to the study of scientific and philosophical truths. Although borrowing heavily from the milieu of medieval monasticism, the monks here are, for the most part, not religious. They're closer in attitude to the thinkers of ancient Greece than the more familiar devout who worshipped God and (as a bonus) preserved western thought and knowledge during our own dark ages.

I spent the first quarter of Anathem trying to sort out a myriad of monastic orders, exotic names, and philosophies of truth and science. There's a lot to keep track of and I didn't click into the book right away. But once I did, I found that I was in for a stimulating ride.

There is a basic and workable story at the heart of Anathem (visitors from another cosmi wreak social and military havoc on Arbre), but the real meat of the book comes from numerous and lengthy discussions of on the nature of existence.

This may not sound very action-packed (it isn't), but it is quite interesting and stimulating in that it makes you consider topics that you probably haven't thought about since staying up way too late in college.

If you're looking for the SF equivalent of a beach read, move on. If you want to be challenged and get your mental gears turning again, read Anathem.

R.I.P. Captain Lou

One of my very first writing jobs was as headwriter for the live-action portions of the infamous "Super Mario Brothers Super Show". It was something of a grueling "trial by fire" experience but also a lot of fun. We had great guest stars on each episode (Eve Plumb, Donna Douglas, Maurice LaMarche, and Cyndi Lauper, to name a few) but the real heart of the show, the man who made it fun, was Lou Albano.

Gregarious, lovable, self-deprecating and kind -- he was a hoot to be around and kept the mood up when we were struggling under crushing deadlines. He also (gasp!) actually appreciated the show's writers and that we were doing our best to give him funny things to say. I'll always think well of him for that.

Rest in peace, Captain Lou. You were a good guy and I salute you.