TEDWRD

Our friends over at Frankensteinia have launched their tribute to Boris Karloff today, and it runs through Nov 29. Just when you thought Halloween season was dead. BAH! Head on over there, and read up on the fine gentleman who inspired a generation of horror fans. There's a nice message from his daughter, Sara, too!

I wanted to say thank you very much for sponsoring me to the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) "Night of Writing Dangerously". It was a wonderful event, in a beautiful venue, and met a lot of really good people, including Chris Baty, the guy who started this whole thing. He wrote the book "No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days". He hung out at our table for a while and signed my book.

 Chris Baty, founder of NaNoWriMoI have a confession to make. Going into the event last night, I was very behind in my word count. The idea is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. That averages to 1667 words per day. If I kept up with writing that many words a day, I should have already written 35,007 before the event. I was a little over 28,000.

The theme for the night (which had nothing to do with your novel), was "Noir" (like Maltese Falcon or The Big Sleep), so I dressed up in khakis a dress shirt with my best art deco tie, and my trench coat. I looked like Indiana Jones doing his best Humphrey Bogart impression. It was at the Julia Morgan Ballroom in the Merchant Exchange building. I had an errand to run in San Francisco, and arrived to the event a half an hour late, which is to say at 5:30 PM. Not that big a deal, most people were just settling in, getting a drink from the bar, or finding a power strip to plug their laptop into. I found an empty chair at a table next to the podium, and set up to write.

They had a lot of food. There was a table in the middle of the room full of all sorts of candy, which I did my best to avoid. I've lost 19 pounds in 7 weeks and I want to keep it off. There was a coffee cart which I frequented several times, and they served dinner: a tortellini dish which I totally missed out on. There wasn't enough to go around so pizza was ordered. Later, they were catered by a donut company called Psycho Donuts which specializes in strange combinations. I had an apricot fritter, and brought home a green tea and dark chocolate.

There was a professional photographer on site taking your "author photo", the picture to put on the back of your novel. When that was announced I went there, and was in the front of the line. I thought I was smart, but everyone else went for the food. I should have known. I got pizza and was happy, so all's well.

There were a few contests during the evening, and a quick talk by Chris Baty, the founder. The held "word wars" which is a timed contest to see who writes the most words in the time allotted. The first was a 5 minute word war, then they went up to 10, 20, & finally 30 minutes. No one at our table won any of these. Then they had a contest for the table who wrote the most amount of words at the halfway point, and then at the end of the evening.

Our table won both.

In fact 3 people out of the five sitting at our table reached 50,000 during the evening a full week ahead of schedule.

So, "how did TEDWRD do?", you may be asking yourself. I was about 7,000 words behind when I got to the event. I ended up with a word count of 38,564 not only catching me up, but putting me ahead of schedule. I averaged over 2,000 words per hour in the 5 and half hours I was there. They may not be the best words Ive ever written, and this needs some serious editing when I'm done (that's a story for another day), but I'm very happy with my word count.

Some pics:

Here are some panaramas I took from Tiburon. It's a gorgeous coastal community in the North Bay.

Small Shed Flatbreads is an amazing local resteraunt whose specialty is Flatbread style pizza. All ingrediants are from local Marin County organic farms. The homemade pepperoni is to die for. Check them out at Small Shed Flatbreads: http://www.smallshed.com/

I wouldn't classify myself as a foodie (or fooder for the Trek Foodie purists out there), but I likes me some good eats. Our friend over at Hungry Passport has challenged herself to try a new type of cuisine every week of this year.

This week is Malaysian, and the Claypot Chicken Curry with Mango looks mighty tasty. If you're into new and different foods, give Hungry Passport a gander. They have awesome culinary tours of the world too!

Thank you everyone who has sponsored me. I just recieved confirmation that I will be able to attend.

As soon as the NaNoWriMo widgets are working I'll add it to the site, but for now I'll do it manually.

As of now, I'm at 4,947 words.

On November 22, the Office of Letters and Light will be bringing together the most mighty of endurance novelists for an event that will define our generation forever.

I'm speaking, of course, of National Novel Writing Month's Night of Writing Dangerously. It's a write-a-thon, and it will take place at the beautiful Julia Morgan Ballroom in downtown San Francisco. I will be there, writing my heart out and raising money for the Office of Letters and Light, NaNoWriMo's parent nonprofit.

Attendees like me must raise $200 to get in the door, and from there, a rich array of prizes, delicious food, and sumptuous writing time awaits. But this is not about me getting a treat-filled night of literary abandon. This is about children and adults getting the encouragement, structure, and inspiration they need to achieve their creative potential. Proceeds from the event will fund National Novel Writing Month's free creative writing programs in hundreds of schools and communities around the world.

The Office of Letters and Light does inspiration like nobody else (did I mention they're making me write an entire novel this November?). And on their behalf, I am asking you to donate. Thank you for supporting me in my novel-writing quest, and for helping the Office of Letters and Light create a more engaged and inspiring world.

You can click on this LINK to my sponsor page.

-TEDWRD-