Odds and ends

1) I had breakfast with a friend from the Stewards of the Dells of the Wisconsin River this morning and was wearing my "Normal People Scare Me" t-shirt. I told him what I really need is a t-shirt that says, "People Who Think They Are Normal Scare Me."

No, seriously.

2) Later I had a fruitful meeting with the library director about the possibility of the library sponsoring a National Novel Writing Month pilot program in November. It will involve a commitment of about four hours a week for me that month and several hours each month between now and then. She was excited and I think it will be interesting. If you are not already familiar with NaNoWriMo, here is a link: NaNoWriMo. I have completed two books by drafting them with the encouragement of the program, which challenges you to write a 50,000-word first draft in thirty days. To put that in perspective, that is about the length of The Great Gatsby, Catcher in the Rye and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. If that is too unfamiliar, think your basic series romance novel or pulp science fiction. Not fat summer-beach-reading books. My Wicca in WhoVille originated in this way, although the final version is almost 95,000 words. The operative words for NaNoWriMo are first draft. Almost a year elapsed between the time I finished the NaNoWriMo draft of Wicca and the publication of the book itself.

3)The rest of today was a mix of ordinary things: half an hour on the treadmill at the health club, further walks outside to enjoy a pleasant day, writing, a bit of shopping during which I ran into a couple of friends and had a chance to catch up, reading and relaxing. Tomorrow morning I see the dental hygienist. Yay!