Christmas reading

During the Holiday season, you hear and see much about Christmas television specials. (There's a new one this year -- I think on ABC Family -- about a dog who saves Christmas. That in itself is insipid enough but it also has the voices of Mario Lopez and -- gag me with a spoon -- Paris Hilton. UGH!!!!!)

Don't get me wrong. There are loads of great holiday movies and TV specials. Some of my favorites include: Holiday Inn (I watch this while wrapping gifts), It's a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, How the Grinch Stole Christmas {TV version}, A Charlie Brown Christmas, The Santa Clause, and The Holiday (I watched that last night) ... to name a few.

But there is also good reading. Though my children are older now, before we go to bed on Christmas Eve I always read them The Night Before Christmas.

Of all the holiday-themed books, there is one book I read every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It is not a classic, if only because it's not that old -- less than a decade, actually. But for me, it is a very enjoyable read. And I looked forward to sitting down and opening it this afternoon.

It is Skipping Christmas by John Grisham.

It's not a legal thriller. It's not a thriller of any sort and there are no lawyers or judges in it.

It's about an accountant named Luther Krank and his wife Nora. The Krank's 20-something daughter is off to Peru for the Peace Crops, leaving them along for Christmas for the first time. And Luther comes up with the brilliant idea to TOTALLY skip the trappings of Christmas for one year, thus saving $6,000 on everything from stamps for Christmas cards to the electricity he won't use to light a large Frosty the Snowman on his roof. He's not really a Scrooge because he plans to spend $3,000 of the savings on a cruise with Nora starting on Christmas Day.

They barely weather an intense storm of anger and criticism from friends, colleagues and (in particular) neighbors when they receive a call on Dec. 24, from their daughter Blair who will be home in six hours and is looking forward to sharing a traditional Krank Family Christmas with her new fiance.

I love it. It's funny because it is written with a lot of wit. And the end is touching.

So, between all the turkey and stuffing, and the cookies, pies and cakes, and between watching football games and television specials, find a favorite book and enjoy it as if it's the first time you are reading it and not the Nth time. And if you can't think of one, pick up Skipping Christmas.

Have a good Holiday season and thanks for reading.

I WON!!!

I won this morning at 2. My National Novel Writing Month novel, THE TONTINE, hit 50,251 words. I rushed the last part in order to finish. There are more holes in this story that you'd find in Swiss cheese.

But I got the novel done and it reached 50,000 words.

Now I'd like to sit back and just read and enjoy the story. And maybe next year, if I still think the story is worth the effort, I will decide to definitely make it my 2011 writing project.

But for now, it's done. I am happy it's done and can sleep some.

Thanks for reading.

40,000 words

I hit 40,000 words this afternoon on my NaNoWriMo novel, THE TONTINE, and have more writing to do today. I am well behind lasat year's pace with no hope of catching up. But I am well on my way to finishing long before the Nov. 30 deadline. Much will depend on how much I can squeeze in today -- my wife has a boatload of chores to complete -- and tomorrow morning.

I will be busy all tomorrow afternoon and probably won't get anymore writing done until Tuesday morning. Then I guess I will spend Tuesday knocking out the rest.

It has been fun -- or as much fun as NaNoWriMo can be. But I fear my characters are too two-dimensional and the plot too neat. During the week, I should have time to read it in its entirety and get a better handle on it all. Right now, I am in the middle of it and can't get that much perspective.

It is short, of course, and will clock in at around 50,000. I imagine I will spend all of 2011 fleshing out the characters and plot, and smoothing out the rough places, of which I imagine there are many. In the end, it is probably a novel that will end up with 75,000 to 80,000 words.

But I am getting there. 40K. That's 80 percent. Just 10,000 more words to go.

Thanks for reading.

NaNoWriMo, Day 8

Last night, I closed out Day 8 of National Novel Writing Month with 25,025 words, which is half the distance. Plus, I am only 100 words off the pace I had last year when I reached 50,000 words on Nov. 15, and finished the novel at 54,000 words four days later.

It's harder this year. The story is harder and is taking more concentration because I am not as familiar with the material. Plus, I have a couple of major holes in the story I want to go back to address but I know it is best just to continue plowing forward. So that is what I am doing.

But I enjoy this story and its various aspects. I will have to change my strategy a little, starting today. I generally write in continuity, from start to finish. But I will reach a section later in today's writing that requires more research and some studied thought in order to have the story hang together.

So I am going to jump over it and continue on toward the end and come back to write it later. It is a crucial part and without it the rest of the story don't work.

It is, as you've guessed, some back story. I plan to write it in its entirety but I haven't decided how it will finally appear in the novel. In later drafts, I may disperse it throughout. But for now, I think it best to have it in one big chunk.

Well, that's it for now. I have a freelance assignment to work on today before I concentrate on NaNoWriMo. So I have to get with it.

Thanks for reading and don't give up.

Worry

I normally try not to write on a subject not directly related to writing. (Yes, I know I do sometimes but I try not to.) This is going to be one of those times because of something that happened last night that I know could have affected my writing for, perhaps, years. Maybe even forever.

When I learned last year that I had cancer I couldn't write fiction for several weeks. I have mentioned that in earlier posts. Today's topic is worry.

I am a worrywart. I try not to be but I am, although worry is generally useless. If you worry, for example, about whether an event will happen, it won't affect whether it happens or not. If the event does happen, your worry didn't stop it. So it was useless. If it doesn't happen, again you worried for nothing.

Now to the point. One of my daugthers, whom told me she'd be home around 10 last night, didn't get home on time. At 10, I wasn't overly surprised. I planned to have a mild conversation about being late and let it go. At 11:30, when she wasn't home and hadn't called, I was seriously getting angry. She wasn't answering any calls or texts. This is odd because her cell phone is an extension of her arm. She is never without it.

At 2 in the morning, I drive by the house where I had dropped her off at 7 p.m. and, not unexpectedly, all the lights are out and everyone is apparently asleep. A call to the house went unanswered. So it's 2:30 in the morning and I don't know where my teenage child is. We called the police.

That's when I started to lose the battle with worry. All sorts of things started going through my head. Injury, death, kidnapping by a middle-easterner and sold into sexual slavery.

And that's when I knew that if something serious happened to either my children or my wife, I would be creatively crippled, and for quite a while. Just the thought of something wrong crippled me last night. I couldn't think. I was gripped with worry.

At 3:32 in the morning she calls home, irritated that I had the police wake everyone in the house when she TOLD me she'd be home at 10 IN THE MORNING after a sleepover with a bunch of girls. And I told her she NEVER mentioned that to me or her mother. Last night wasn't a good night for her to go to a sleepover. I would not have agreed if I knew. She said she was EMBARRASSED. I decided to wait until morning to tell her that a parent's worry trumps embarrassment.

I told the police it was okay for her to stay and then my wife and our other daughter, whom oddly enough is actually mature enough to understand our point of view, went to a Perkin's restaurant and ate breakfast at 4 in the morning. The comfort of sleep didn't come until after 5.

My teenager has always been a good child. She still is. But I swear -- she is going to be the death of me, starting with the creative part of me. And I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't write.

Thanks for reading. Now get back to writing. It is the start of Day 6 of National Novel Writing Month and after five full days I have 16,751 words, which is higher than the 10-day goal of 16,670 words. I hope to reach more than 20,000 by this evening. It can only happen without worry.

Thanks again.

NaNoWriMo, Days 1 & 2

It's now the morning of Day 3 of National Novel Writing Month in 2010 and I am already tired but also excited with the prospect of writing. After two days of writing, I have 6,521 words, which is about 100 words MORE than I had last year at this point. And last year, as you may recalled, I reached 50,000 words in two weeks.

I was walking Pluto at midnight on Sunday/Monday and still working out in my head how the first scene should go. Then, as I was walking and noticed the blinking security light in a neighbor's car, it hit me. After setting up a folder in my memory stick and formatting my pages, I started writing, using my wife's laptop, at around 1 in the morning, though I was already tired and should have been in bed. I wrote until 3 and finished 1,100 words. Not a great pace but I was just getting settled in.

Now much opportunity to write again until 10 at night, again using my wife's computer. My pace improved some but not nearly what I needed, given that I don't have reliable access to a reliable computer. By midnight, I had 2,404 words for the day, which was 50 percent more than I needed as a daily goal but also 50 percent less than on Day 1 last year.

I was satisified with what I wrote but a little discouraged, nevertheless. I wished I had written more.

Tuesday morning saw me venture to the public library. First, I cleaned out my e-mail account at Yahoo, updated Facebook and then settled into writing as little children sang "Ittsy-Bitsy spider" in the background. Good totals after two hours of work.

The afternoon saw me at my brother's house to use his computer but I won't do that again. Too many distractions. Home again on Angie's laptop in the evening after dinner, finishing up at 11:30. (I tried using the borrowed laptop of a friend but it is slow and it re-formatted my pages. Took my an hour to correct it all.)

Pace was very good and I had more than 4,000 words, which was more than I ever expected. I was hoping for at least another 2,400-word day but I went well beyond that. (Also wish I could have got to a NaNo writing session at a local coffee store.)

Plus, there are hills and valleys in writing a book, moments of heightened drama and then the build-up to the next dramatic moment. I finished at the conclusion of my first big dramatic moment where I surprise the reader. I loved it.

I wasn't sure what scene should follow next. What I had in my outline seemed insufficient. I got a little worried. But Pluto -- or walking Pluto, which is more to the point -- provided the answer. I would add another scene with the antagonist to start ramping up the tension again.

So this morning, I have a good place to start and I am looking forward to some interesting action.

I will probably just rely on a computer in the library during the day, when I have the time, and on my wife's laptop in the evening. Not sure if that will be enough for me to reach more than 2,000 words a day but I will try. And if I want to keep pace with last year, I will have to do 3,500 words today.

Not sure that's going to happen, either.

But we are off and running. It's fun. Not totally sure about the story yet but we will see.

That's where I'm at. You undoubtedly find all this boring but I wanted to get it all down mostly as a reminder to myself. I will try to be more interesting next time. I promise not to constantly only go on about NaNoWriMo.

But for now, thanks for reading and keep writing. It really is worth it, even if you are the only one who thinks so.