Squid slash.  Or perhaps masturbation.  But males are getting inseminated, down there in the dark depths.

Carnivorous squirrels.

Caffeinated soap.  That, my friends, is brilliant.

Giant Spider Attacks Liverpool!  Film at 11!  No, wait…film now.

Virgin shark birth.  No, really.

Yeah, that’s enough for tonight.  NaNo planning proceeds, and my money flies away as fast as I can earn it.  Maybe faster.  Not sure yet.

But who wants to hear about that?

So, I leave you with…fainting goats.

For those who’ve been living under a rock, NaNo is NaNoWriMo–National Novel Writing Month, and if you think it’s a travesty go take your whinging somewhere else.

Still here?  Good.  ’cause I’m really excited and I want to babble.

Lots of people (apparently–I avoid ‘em all I can so I’m not sure “lots” is an accurate number) take NaNo way too seriously, or in the wrong way.  There are those who complain about the “glut” of novels that will be sent to everyone and their brother in the publishing industry in December.  Those who decry wordcount goals, who believe that over every word a writer should agonize for hours, to be sure it is the right one.

But I say industry pros can spot an amateur effort a mile away (NOT saying all NaNovels are such!), and that some people don’t see writing as an agony, and don’t want to do so.  That doesn’t make them bad writers!  (Really, it doesn’t.)

I’m in that second group.  I love to write.  I can’t wait to write.  And like many writers I know, I tend to procrastinate all over the place as soon as I sit down to write.

NaNo breaks me free of that.  NaNo brings in that joyous spirit of we’re all in this together, wtf did that muse just say, hey, wait, who took all the bavarian creme donuts, more caffeine, yes!  NaNo succeeds in that nearly impossible goal of making a competition that’s friendly enough I want to be part of it.  We’re not racing each other, you see–it’s all of us, going for a goal, and helping each other along the way.

Yes, help.  With the Trebuchet Club (work a Trebuchet into your novel, any way you can) and Dares (I dare you to write your main character snuggling a penguin!) and the procrastination threads (it’s not YOUR fault you didn’t finish–we distracted you!  Don’t feel bad), we help each other to the goal (or to not feel like a failure because Real Life, always a killer, interrupted) and care about each other and have an absolute blast with each other.  And believe it or not, there’s a Delete key that will get rid of all the foolishness once we’re done playing.

Do I need to hunt up some quotes about the relationship between playing and creating?

Many of us finish the month with 50,000 words of brand-new manuscript.  Since I write short first drafts anyway, that’s nearly a novel.  Odds are at that point, I’ll be close enough to the end for the flow to carry me to the end.

“Every first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist.”  ~~Jane Smiley, Pulitzer Prize winner

“The first draft of anything is shit.”  ~~Ernest Hemingway (do you NEED me to tell you who that is?)

“It is perfectly okay to write garbage–as long as you edit brilliantly.”  ~~CJ Cherryh (if you don’t know who she is, or the incredible depth and breadth of her work…)

So yeah.  Eleven months out of the year, I labor for the right word.  I edit, I plot, I plan.  I research and (reluctantly) deal with Real Life, and I whip my hurried first drafts into shape.

But in November…in November, I write.

Yaoi-Con was, as always, a great time.   I had a blast, hung out with friends, met an idol (teh awsum Wendy Pini, more later), got my hands (completely consensual!) on a bishie or two–and I wrote.

Yes, wrote.  On vacation.  On the plane I plotted; in the airports I scribbled.  In my hotel room I typed; in the lobby I designed character clothing.  I wasn’t in Tucson International Airport five minutes before my muses started bubbling, and the whole weekend was like that and I was so happy I went.

I’d thought it was gone, you see.  I told myself it was a slump; it was stress; every writer has slow periods.  It wasn’t completely gone–I was editing.  I was writing bits.  I just wasn’t excited.  That’s okay.  Life just isn’t always exciting–and if it is, you wish it wouldn’t be.

But you know how it is.  You can talk all day–your self doesn’t listen.

Anyway.  It’s back.  My brain is simmering with ideas for making Hiro a trilogy of deep and wonderful books (fantasy, and STILL no elves in sight, yay!) (you know I love elves.  But I don’t want every fantasy to contain them.)  I’ve got bunnies for when I need a break from Hiro, too, and another book in Eve’s galaxy wanting some plot-time…

It’s wonderful.

I’m BAAAACKKK!!!!!!

I’m sooooo looking forward to a lovely bit of insanity and a fantastic weekend of foolishness.

Pictures on my return!  Hopefully some catboys, a few vampires, a cross-dresser or three…

Deep-seated racial misgivings could cost Barack Obama the White House if the election is close, according to an AP-Yahoo News poll that found one-third of white Democrats harbor negative views toward blacks — many calling them “lazy,” “violent,” responsible for their own troubles.

Use your God-given brain, people!  If you think of blacks as “lazy,” and “violent,” then there is no way in hell you are giving a black person a fair chance at anything–and then when he fails you’ll figure he just didn’t try hard enough??  And then label him a complainer?

I’ll give y’all a hint–black people have the same flaws and shining qualities as we (speaking as a white woman) do.  Why?  Because they are people.  Humans.  No more different from whites than we are from each other.

Don’t believe me?  Try it for yourself.  Level the playing field, and see what happens.  Put your money where your mouth is.  If you’re right, you’ve got nothing to lose.  If you’re wrong–then we have everything to gain.

Let Barack Obama show you what he can do.  It’s time we got over this stupidity.  If you need someone to look down on to make you feel superior, I can give you a new target. They’re called bigots.  And whoo, boy, are they morons!