NaNoWriMo 2008 - I Did It!

With approximately thirteen hours to spare I have met the NaNoWriMo 2008 challenge and written 50,083 words of my second novel, a crime thriller based at a private golf club in the suburbs of Detroit.

This is a short synopsis of my novel: Christian Tyler, a famous Hollywood actor, is murdered at a Country Club where he is filming his first motion picture. A number of characters are instant suspects but the actual perpetrator is none of them. Brenda Taglioni, the locker room attendant of the Country Club and a first year student of a PI course, discovers his body in one of the showers. While she is concerned about the perpetrator of this dreadful event Brenda has her life wrapped around a threat more close to home...rampant cocaine use in her home town that she blames for her younger brother's overdose.

The story line of my novel is about 85% complete. In order to amass the 50,000 words for this national challenge I raced to the finish without stopping to smell the roses. I plan to finish the story then return to the beginning to nourish it so that its fragrance, texture and fruit can be enjoyed.

Might even have time to spend with this blog as well!

Buy Books this Holiday...From an Independant

Looking for a holiday gift idea that keeps on giving and has a reasonable price tag?

How about a book?

If you are looking for some great book suggestions link on to the blog, http://buymorebooks.blogspot.com/.
Many of the members of Backspace, an interactive website for writers, publishers and agents, are making their recommendations, including some of my own.

Then seriously consider supporting the independant book dealer. We are all hurting this season, but they are all running the risk of losing their businesses entirely and they are just folk like the rest of us.

Then, when you buy any books for the holidays, enter the titles you purchased under the comment section to help us reach our goal of 1 million books!

NaNoWriMo 2008

I am now 25,000 words into my NaNoWriMo 2008 challenge. NaNoWriMo is a national writer's personal challenge to write 50,000 words of a new novel during the month of November.

It was good timing for me because my current WIP (work in progress) needs a break from me and I need a break from it!

So for a change of pace I decided to write a Janet Evanovich style murder mystery for fun. About a week into it I realized I am not a Janet Evanovice style writer...but did like the story so continued in my Jacqui Carney style which might be slightly more meditative. I found myself upping the ante of my protagonist, a locker room attendant at a fancy country club who discovers a murder in one of her showers. She is at the onset of pursuing a new career in police work as a private detective to earn a better living and to investigate the sudden increase in heroin use in her home town.

I expect the two endeavors will come together at the end and may actually result in resolving the murder as well. It's fun and now that I have stuck my neck out I am learning a lot about the plague of heroin in Detroit.

Laura Kasischke

I read today in the Detroit Free Press that Michigan author Laura Kasischke was one of 50 artists awarded a prestigious USA Fellowship grant yesterday. This is the third year of the USA Fellows program which awards funds directly to working artists in a wide range of media from architecture to visual arts. Laura has published seven books of poetry, four novels and two young adult novels. Her novel, "The Life Before Her Eyes" was made into a film starring Uma Thurman that released last April.

I met Laura at the Bear River Writer's Conference in northern Michigan last Spring. She is an inspiring mentor, gracious individual and bewitching lyricist. One more feather in a cap with many.

Congrats Laura!

Andre Dubus III

I have really enjoyed discovering blogs by other people who enjoy reading and authors. There are about a million of 'em out there so this new found distractions should get me through what looks like a long, grueling Winter. Anyway, I am intrigued by one that encourages persons to write about the author they are currently reading...research facts about them and then present it in their own blog.

So, I am reading 'The Bluesman' by Andre Dubus III. I selected it for several reasons.
1. It is about music in the 60's and 70's which ties into the book I am writing.
2. It is by a highly regarded writer whose works are known for a skillful and sensitive use of language and subject matter.
3. Andre Dubus III also wrote 'House of Sand and Fog' a National Book Award finalist in 1999 and 2003 movie, which I have not read yet but surely will after finishing 'The Bluesman.' I LOVE this writer!

4. Andre Dubus III has a new work just released titled, 'Garden of Last Days,' which I will also read ASAP.

Looks like I am going to be into Andre for a while and loving every minute of it. His style reminds me somewhat of David Wroblewski whose debut novel, 'The Story of Edgar Sawtelle,' is also a great read.

Anyway, some facts from Random House's website and Wikipedia.

Andre Dubus III is the son of Andre Dubus (small wonders never cease!), an extremely talented man of words as well. He was born in 1959 in California. His other works include 'The Cage Keeper and Other Stories' (1959).

He attended Bradford College in Massachusetts where his father was a professor, University of Texas (for sociology) and University of Wisconsin-Madison. He abandoned his Ph.D. pursuit there to tend to a number of odd jobs before becoming a fiction writer. Those odd jobs find lots of places in his writing. He now lives in Newbury Massachusetts with his wife, a dancer, and their children. He also currently teaches at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.

There is a great interview of Andre at the following link written after the release of 'House of Sand and Fog.' It was published online in Random House's review blog 'Bold Type' which was evidently discontinued in 2003.

http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/0300/dubus/interview.html

Excerpts quoting Mr. Dubus in that piece follow:

"As a matter of writing philosophy, if there is one, I try not to ever plot a story. I try to write it from the character's point of view and see where it goes."

"I try not to ever make a point with my writing, and if I do it kills the fiction. I try to just capture the texture, because I don't have the answers."

"I do believe that what's so exciting and terrifying about the writing process is that it really is an act of exploration and discovery. With all of us, not just writers, there is a sort of knowledge of the other. We have a lot more in common than we realize, and I think writing is really a sustained act of empathy."

"I try not to ever make a point with my writing, and if I do it kills the fiction. I try to just capture the texture, because I don't have the answers."

"There's that great line from Flannery O'Connor, where she said, 'Our beliefs are not what we see, but the light by which we see.'"

'Bluesman', written in 1993, is a story about 18 year old Leo Struther growing up in the '70's and his struggles with understanding and expressing his emerging virility and musical genius to his father, his girlfriend Allie or himself.

Which Is Mightier?

As for our wonderful new president the Times had at least two articles about how good this will be for our international relations. So many people are talking about how his election speaks to the success of democracy and that this truly is a land of opportunity. What a better way to influence other governments than pouring dollars, soldiers and weapons into their wars. Wouldn't it be nice if we could start to show by example than by force?

The Journey

Read a new poem the other day and it is short so I thought I'd post it here for anyone who needs encourgement in a new endeavor. It is called "The Journey" by a contemporary poet, Mary Oliver.

The Journey

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life that you could save.

I LOVE this poem! It speaks to me especially now as I begin what I think I've wanted to do when I grow up.
But it can be applied to anything we do that is a little bit outside our traditional confines. And, to know that it is okay to let those little voices (some from our outside world and some from our mind) fade into the background for awhile is so reassuring.

Big day today... Huge day for our country I think. Both candidates should be inspirations for us, surely their houses have trembled in the past two years.

And, while 'it is already late enough' for our country to be electing either a 'senior citizen' or a black man, it is not too late.

GO VOTE!