A pigeon hat

I walked out of the warehouse toward my little office space and paused to "sniff the air" as we ex-bikers tend to do.
I spied a pigeon perched on one of the trucks; it'd been hanging about all day. When I stopped and looked at it, it turned its head, eyeing me as though I was either an old friend or I was food.
A quick 'coo' and a flutter of wings and the stupid thing landed on my head! I felt its little toes digging into my scalp, and as I turned back to see if anyone was watching, I felt its beak peck onto my head.
I admit I was surprised. I put out my arms, palms up, unconsciously mimicing the pose on my grandmother's statue of St. Francis.
When my boss stopped laughing, he scooped the silly thing off my head and returned it to the bed of the truck (where he had apparently been offering it bird seed all morning).
Was this a fitting end to a strange year, or an omen for the year to come?
Time will tell.

Gaming again

At last, I've made time to do some wargaming.
I've put up a new blog, NovaAlbion, to record the games. I'm interested in a sort of SteamPunk version of California, a place where Professor Hollister McAllister can sell his snake oil, hire indians for his army, and arm Sasquatch with Radium rifles in his attempt to conquer the world!
Of course, the British control/own New Albion, sometimes referred to as the Crown Colony of California.
Imagine: California Lancers and Redcoats against Mexicans, against rebellious American immigrants, against indians and sasquatch and steam mechano-men!
What could be better?

Oh, the joy

Oh, the joy of having actually written a draft of a novel in such a short time! For me, it was 16 days (37 hours of keyboard time).
But the work is just beginning. I've decided that the story doesn't seem to contain enough threat to the main character (MC) and he doesn't seem to be under enough stress at the end.
So I've begun adding a second thread, a subplot, that I had always intended to put in but never found the easy links to include. Now's the time for that.
As I'd learned in High School English, I made an outline (but, as in HSE, after I'd written the first draft; sorry, Mrs. Bagnal).
Now I'm happily adding 3x5 cards of plot points and filling in the MC background to make the events the worst possible things for him. I get to devise his history, so why not?
The happy bit is that I'm still having fun with this, and now I actually feel I could make it into a salable book. I mean, it's done, right? Now I'm just editing the internal bits.
So if you've never joined NaNoWriMo, consider it for next year.
It's kind of too late for this year; tomorrow is the last day.
Man, writing is so much more fun than any other hobby!

Too much celebration

Well, to celebrate hitting the 50,000 words in the NaNoWriMo challenge, I bought a triple-chocolate cake and some chocolate ice cream. Sunday AND Monday, I had ice cream and cake for desert, with extra chocolate sauce.
Before you ask, I am not normally a chocolate person.
Tuesday morning, my toes felt like they had rug burns. I'm told this is a warning to diabetics that they have strayed too far from the proper diet.
Like I needed a reminder? Well, it seems I did. That's the trouble with things that don't hit you over the head with reminders: you forget, or decide you are OK now. 
I'm not.
So back to extremely little alcohol, no sugar snacks, slow-digesting starches, etc.
Maybe I'll remember this time.

I did it!

Day sixteen of NaNoWriMo and I finished my book, as well as making the 50,000 word target handily. With the epilog and hook for the next book, I got to 51,200 words, 200+ pages. 
According to the program I use, (CopyWrite) that was 36 hours of edit time. I am very pleased.
In fact, I am happier with the story, the arc of it, the characters and plot resolution than I am of anything I've ever written.
And it started out as a dare.
So don't be chicken, take a dare once in a while.
And props to the Everett, Washington writing group and to the co-MLs (Metropolitan Liaison) for spurring me on.
Go writers!

Nearing the finish line

This morning I start on the last 6,000 words of the 50,000 target. I'm pretty happy to be there on the 15th of the month.
I had vowed to "get out there" more than in the past; that's how I got suckered into this NaNoWriMo.org novel month. That's worked out extremely well for me, BTW. I've figured out what (one of) my problems has been all these years.
So I'm going to meet some other writers from the area in a couple of hours. My stomach is trying to rebel at the thought of voluntarily meeting new people, but I'll drown it in good Ghirardelli coffee and see what happens.
There's a thought forming in the back of my head that maybe 2009 is the year I also sign up for the Whidbey Island Writer's Conference in some capacity or other.
I'm not sure there's that much coffee, even in Washington!
I'll keep you posted.

Writing hard

I'm still crashing away at the NaNoWriMo.org challenge. It's day 13, I'm at almost 39,000 words, the most productive run in my entire life.
I once finished six chapters in 5 weeks, but that was a long time ago, maybe in 2002. That was about the last serious fiction writing I've done.

I've now done 165 pages in 13 days.
What could happen if I made even half of this productive rate a regular thing? Why, I might finish a story! I've only ever finished one book and three stories.
Hmm.
Maybe this sitting in the chair and just getting the words down without regard to "fixing things" is the way to go. I can edit next month, right?
Time will tell.