writing and other distractions from blogging

so sorry for the disappeary!

I know I keep doing it, but my life is in flux and I cain't get regular (and no, I'm not talking about my bowel movements!) Well, maybe I am talking about bowel movements of a sort, because, you see, I've started a new novel.

I'd been wanting to do National Novel Writing Month, which is in November, for years, but never managed. In fact, I'm not really doing it now, because you have to start on Nov. 1 and register and everything, and I didn't get it together in time. However, I thought, why not just do an Individual Novel Writing Month? Which means: I write a novel in a month, by hacking out (and I do mean "hack") 1500 to 2000 words a day for thirty days (for a total of 50,000 words, which in itself constitutes novel length.)

So as not to shoot myself in the foot, I chose a Young Adult fantasy novel idea to pursue in my crazy month's pursuit of publishy goodness. Being a YA fantasy, it involves a hero's journey, which is manifested in a literal journey across the fantasy landscape. Today is my fourth day writing (I already have ten thousand words and am on Chapter Four), and I'm already getting confused as to where we are, and whether we are traveling east or west ... or what.

So I drew myself a map (above). Yay! My first map! This will not be the definitive map. This is just by way of notetaking so that I can keep track of my landscape. Ain't it cool? No?

In other news, I have several posts coming up (they've been coming up for awhile) whenever I can find the time away from my 2000 words a day:

1. a review of Trevor Paglen and A.C. Thompson's Torture Taxi
2. a further omnibus posting about the class hierarchy of transit vehicle types
3. a final omnibus posting about how I was attacked on MUNI (yes! again!)

Don't hold your breath, though.