Day 2 NaNoWriMo & NaBloPoMo

No words today on NaNo, so I'll have to double up tomorrow.  The Blog however is an easier write as it's just a conversation to whoever out there cares to listen.

Once a week I take Mom anywhere and everywhere she wants to go, hence no time to write. Today we started off with the Von Maur grand opening at Riverchase Galleria.  Gorgeous store - think Parisian's squared and then some.  

The president of Von Maur stores, while doing the ribbon cutting thought to endear himself to the Alabama crowd and ended his remarks with 'Roll Tide', to which several folks in the waiting crowd hollered out 'War Eagle'. He looked confused but said 'yeah that too' but turning to one of his assistants soto voce said, 'I have no idea what that means'.  Bless his heart. 

While Mom was in shoes, I stopped by to thank him for the roses, chocolates, etc. and to let him know that if he wanted to impress the crowd he had to give equal time to Auburn and Alabama.

We spent a good  2 hours in the store, then to Ruby Tuesdays for the appetizer platter and beer or two.  Several more stores followed, ending at Mom's by 6ish and I'm now home.  Beyond posting this Blog which I promised myself I would do every day in November, I am going to curl up on the couch with Jazmine (cat) , a glass of wine and a book, and maybe PBS in the background - the young inspector Morse is on and I've only missed 30 minutes.

Manana y'all. 

Day 1 NaNoWriMo & NaBloPoMo

As I do every year, I'm doing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), but I'm also going to attempt Blogher.com's NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) which they're running in tandem

with NaNoWriMo.  

Yep, I'm a glutton for punishment.  I should have scheduled last night's Blog to post today then I'd be ahead of this by one day. Sigh. What is it with the month of November, that everyone throws down these writing gauntlets at one of the busiest times of the year?

Looking at my calendar tells me I'm going to have to really punch it to reach 50,000 words and attend all the things I have scheduled.

I have a late Halloween party tonight at Daniel Day and Melody Musik's Gallery. Saturday, I have lunch and shopping with Mom  (it's a weekly all day and into evening thing that she @80 and I @64 both enjoy), so we will probably drop by the 11th Annual Dia de los Muertos Alabama later that day.  
I really want to go in remembrance of a few dead friends.  

The 7th, lunch with mom and later that evening the city of Homewood's holiday open house.  The 14th PepperPlace has it's holiday open house.  I so hope that Magic City Face Art is there again. Getting my face painted is a rare and childish pleasure I look forward to. I was so dissapointed when they were not there last year.

There's more, but the biggest is Thanksgiving of course, when the whole clan gathers at Mom's for 4 days of cooking, eating, catching up. We seat 13 to 14.

Well the manuscript beckons, but it has to be 5 o'clock somewhere, and I'm going to make a beer and/or wine and possibly Vodka  run. Maybe pick up some box food in case I forego the party tonight and decide to eat lean cuisine and get some more words on the page. 

Mañana

I'm Ready for NaNoWriMo

It's all Hallow's e'en; my altar's candle is lit; the aroma of incense mixes oddly with aroma of dinner in the oven and wafts through the apartment and out to the warm Fall evening air.

There's a moonless night beyond my aerie's window, and I've written the title of my Book on page one of my notebook. That's all I'm allowed to write before midnight by the rules for my NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writering Month).  

Yes, I write all my first drafts stream-of-consciousness by hand on a 5x8 black spiral notebook (the same kind I journal on). I have refills ready for my favorite gold PC pen.  Each notebook can hold roughly 28,000 words, so two should be sufficient (I have 4). 

I may actually begin writing tonight at midnight:01, then again I may begin early tomorrow after my 5 a.m. walk. 

I usually write early when the muse is fresh.  I transcribe later in the day into msword. I find this process adds an extra hundred words or so to my daily word count and effortlessly produces a better second draft.

For now, the kitchen timer is telling me my dinner is ready. I'll pour a glass of Cabernet and eat my dinner as I watch a rerun of Downton Abbey to get in an English mood for my NaNo Novel based in England.

More tomorrow as I'm also doing the odd spin off called NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) and I'll be posting a Blog a day.  Yep, glutton for punishment here.  

Night y'all.

Yes, You can Publish what you Journal

Well, I've finally launched my first eBook: How to Journal and How to publish from your journal.

  

Aside from my corporate writing, I’ve been publishing my personal writing since around 1990 in newspapers, magazines, literary journals, and anthologies: Book reviews, Essays, Personal Remembrances, Short Stories, and Poetry.

Last year at a writers group I joined for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo.org), I was asked how I got published.

I told them that most of what I’ve published came straight from the pages of my Journal.  I proceeded to explain how I journal everything and one day noticed that one of those journal entries had the makings of a personal essay.

I transcribed it into Word, edited it, polished it, rewrote it and submitted it to the Birmingham Arts Journal.  It was accepted and published.  I felt like I'd struck gold. I went back to my journals to look for more buried treasure, and I started journaling with an eye to what I was putting on the page.  I thought maybe others would like to know how to journal with an eye to publication. 

So here it is again, November looms and I find myself again at this year’s NaNoWriMo group.  The same question came up about how I managed to publish what I write in my journal.  This time I could not only tell them how, but that my eBook on the subject would be coming out on Amazon October 11, 2013.  

I made the deadline - Yay - I have lift off.