Mission Accomplished

Oh my god. I think I wrote a novel. Well, it's official. I got to the requisite 50,000 words (actually 51,173) and even managed to tie up all the loose ends in the plot. So I, along with our good friend the Left Reverend Lynn, are both official Nanowrimo 2008 winners!

Mine was in the light mystery genre with a senior apartment building, one that sounds suspiciously like the place where my mother lives, as the backdrop for murder. Publishing is highly unlikely given that I plan never to let anyone read it. Even all the people who insisted that I insert a character that happened to be just like them.....

Interesting process full of frustration, exhilaration, pain, fun and angst. I'm not quite sure why, but I'm actually already thinking about next year......

Aaaaahhhhhhh

No, my NaNoWriMo novel isn't so controversial that any one would burn it in protest. Neither will it set the publishing world on fire. But I have been tempted to hit the delete key--the electronic equivalent of burning the damned thing.

Nothing like losing your narrative arc when you don't even know what that is! I have always admired writers and knew that it took talent and hard work to write a good novel. But when I first embarked on writing my own novel for NaNoWriMo it never occurred to me how hard it would be to write a BAD one.

As noted below, the focus of this endeavor is on quantity not quality. Word count is everything. You know, this blog entry has over a hundred words already...I really can't afford to waste any more in a blog when I need them in the novel.......

Well, apparently I'm actually doing this. Let me tell ya, though: 1,666.7 words a day is a lot harder and more time consuming than one would think. To be honest, I did not plan on actually participating in national novel writing month when I wrote about it a few weeks ago. I just thought it was an interesting idea. Then I made the mistake of listening to the left reverend Lynn and my sister and my mother. So here I am. As of the end of day three: 7,003 words. 43,000 more words to go.

Making the task more difficult is that I'm writing in a genre that I haven't read much of in a while. What you might call "light" mysteries. There are the usual dead bodies but the books aren't full of gore or fear or suspense or true evil. They don't exactly keep you up at night. They're light and sometimes funny. Despite the corpses. My mother, does however, read a lot in that genre and so this one is for her. So, of course, I did have to base one of the main characters on her. No, not the corpse. And no, not the murderer, either.

Nanowrimo, along with reading for book club, and, oh yeah, working, have kept me busy. I did, however, take time out to vote. I was not first in line this morning, but in the top 10! It was quite exciting. So really, go vote if you haven't already.

NaNoWriMo

Well, National Novel Writing Month begins on November 1. As in, “write a 175 page (50,000 word) novel in a single month” month. Which translates to 1,666.7 words a day. The good news, if you’re inclined to give NaNoWrimo a try, is that the emphasis is purely on quantity, not quality. As the official web site states, “Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap.”

Even if you’ve never wanted to be a novelist, the forums on the site are fun to browse. They offer a place for writers to get help on character and plot, and on realism and accuracy. A few examples: I have a character who needs to get arrested. How do you make a suicide look like murder? What’s it like to be shorter than 5’2”? What’s the hardest dish to make? Would it be possible to escape prison by faking suicide? What are some good 16th century names? Good flammable household objects? How is a proper tea served? What difficulty setting would, say, a 30 year old bachelor who lives in his mom's basement have on Guitar Hero III? How do you swear in Icelandic? Hours of fun. Really.

In 2007, there were over 100,000 people who signed up on the web site—and 15,000 completed the task. So, will I be one of them in 2008? Not sure about that. I’ve never had an overwhelming desire to write a novel. Never thought I had that much to say…but maybe.

Oh, who am I kidding? 1,666.7 words a day? I can’t even keep up with posting on a blog.

Alt-Country First

As anticipated, the Rockbend Folk Festival in St. Peter was fantastic. The music was mostly what would be labeled folk, alt-country or Americana, but with some bluesy groups thrown in the mix as well. I will follow the Brass Kings anywhere they play. I see some road trips in the future. Another highlight was seeing John Elliot sit in with Chris Roth on the smaller stage. Elliot’s real name is John Mayer but for some reason he decided to use his grandmother's name instead. Go figure. At times he sounded a lot like Paul Simon, but with a much darker and more twisted side.

Minneopa State Park was a nice place to camp and only about 15 minutes from the festival. Although I don’t know why the two guys with the pop-up camper had to decide to camp at the site right next to ours—when just about every other site in the park was free. Oh well. At least they weren’t noisy drunks. Just two old guys talking about golf all the time.

Have to say it was a nice change to be at a gathering of thousands without seeing lines of riot police—or any police presence at all for that matter. If you haven't read it yet, Coleman (Nick, not Norm) has a nice piece about the convention in the Star Tribune today. Oh, and don't forget to vote in the primary.

Well, I didn’t get arrested….

Quite the swirl of activity and emotion this week with the RNC in town: walking with 10,000 others in the peace march on Monday; the sense of community that kind of participation fosters; and the feeling that democracy really does allow us all a voice. That combined with anger and annoyance at self-identified anarchists roaming around other parts of downtown breaking windows, setting fires and hijacking the word "protest".

I appreciate that the police officers who were there on Monday were doing their jobs and were trying to keep both themselves and us safe. But I have trouble reconciling that with the atmosphere of intimidation created when a completely peaceful march is faced with lines of officers in full riot gear holding clubs. How many people, out of fear, didn't march? What is the appropriate show of force to maintain public safety without so intimidating people that they stay home? At what point does a show of force inflame rather than deter violence? How do we reconcile the importance we say we give to a free press and the free flow of information with the arrest of journalists covering protests? How can they "accidentally" serve a search warrant at the wrong address? And why does freedom of the press sometimes only seem to apply to the mainstream press?

It's not that I've never thought about these questions before. But it has been odd to see them played out in my own town.

But mostly I'm just glad the convention is over and it's time for the both delegates and anarchist sto go home.

The Republicans are Coming....

The Republican National Convention will be hitting St. Paul soon and the city is getting ready for their arrival. Crews of volunteers are out planting flowers and picking up trash. Short term leases are allowing downtown St. Paul to fill up all the empty storefronts that have plagued the city for ages. New restaurants and boutiques are popping up.

At the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York, a survey of delegates showed that 58 percent had annual incomes of $75,000 or more, and 27 percent had a net worth of $1 million or more. So it's no surprise that Macy’s is apparently doing its part to cash in, er, I mean welcome, them. On my way to the bus the other day I walked through Macy’s and noticed that on the Wabasha street side (closest to the convention center) the sale racks and moderate sportswear aisles have given way to Jones of New York, other designer labels and displays of women's business suits.

Coincidence? Maybe. It did make me wonder, though, what changes they were making to stores in Denver for the Democrats….