NaNoWriMo Finished!

51,140 words. That is the final count for my attempt at this year's National Novel Writing Month. That counts as a win. It's not a finished novel and it will probably go sit in the bottom of a desk drawer, never to see the light of day every again. However there are a few good bits that I plan to pull out and hope to buff up in to some passable short stories for submission to publication.

I'll post an excerpt from the novel here in the near future. Time to take a short break and then get back to editing another piece I was working on before I started this year's project.

NaNoWriMo Update #2

It's now two thirds of the way through National Novel Writing Month and I'm happy to report that my word count is just shy of 45K. Validation at the website begins on the 25th and I hope to use our holiday road trip to Portland to round out the word count if not the actual word count.

Half Way There

National Novel Writing Month is hours away from the half way point and I just finished word #29,299. That means 20,701 words to go. The writing is a little easier this year, having do it once before, but it's still an effort.

King Holding Court

One of the perks of my current job is that Starbucks is on the book, music and speaker promo tour circuit. When an author, band or some other notable's publicist is booking their talent on various television shows, morning radio programs and other speaking engagements the corporate office for Starbucks is on the list. I'm sure that there are also forces at work within the company that place calls and send emails to make sure that the right people make a stop at our 9th floor commons.

Thanks to this little perk I've had the opportunity to meet the likes of Alton Brown. Ridley Pierson and (I swear I'm not making this up) Dave Berry. I also recently saw Carbon Leaf as the performed a CD release concert for us and U2's Bono is good friends with Howard Shultz so he is seen wandering the building from time to time. We also have had political figures like Tavis Smiley and Dino Rossi. But yesterday was one of the most exciting. Stephen King was in the house.

Mr. King was there to promote his new book, Lisey's Tale. I invited an acquaintance to come up and be my guest at the event knowing John was a big King fan and I'm glad to report that he was not disappointed. The arrangement of the venue is such that we were able to stand only 10 feet from Mr. King and all those people in front of us were sitting down so it was an unobstructed view.

As I'm sure that most of you are aware, King was hit by a van several years ago and it really messed up his body. He was broken in more places than I can count and spent lots of time in the hospital learning to breath again. To this day he still shows signs of the aches, pains and metal pins throughout his body. He walks like a man 30 years his senior and can only sit or stand for so long before he needs to change positions. But his mind is sharp. Perhaps sharper than it ever had been before based on his personal history from before the accident.

He was very witty, well spoken and warm with the crowd of about 500 people. He talked about where the idea for his latest book came from and offered a reading. I always find it interesting to hear an author read a bit of their own work. It usually lacks the flare and style that a professional voice talent will use like when recording an audio book but it has a certain extra bit of authenticity that comes through when the words read are their own.

After the reading he took several "I'm you're #1 fan" type questions from my fellow cube dwellers but was on a schedule and I was unable to get my own question on how he makes the sausage answered. Also due to his physical limitations he was only able to sign the first 100 books so I didn't get my come of On Writing signed this time; but who's to say there won't be another opportunity.