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NaNoWriMo is Dead to Me: Better Late Than Never

By Anne Kelly Leave a comment

This is the summer that I decided nothing would stop me from getting a new novel draft saved on the external hard drive. I have a great idea. I’ve accumulated lots of material. The perfect title even came to me.

Then, I went to NaNoWriMo’s website to prepare for Camp NaNo, and the website was dead.

No, it’s still live; you can update your account with a new project. It’s just dead—nobody is there talking about their latest projects. Very few people have been there since November 2023.

So, I started looking around for why the National Novel Writing Month website is a ghost of itself. After NaNoWriMo last fall, everyone who volunteered or worked for the organization quit or was sacked. The forums are there, but no one is posting or replying.

Finally, Twitter got my answer. There were tons of tweets about why people quit NaNoWriMo.

There was a grooming incident involving minors. The only way anyone found out about it was because they used the website last November to write a draft. Since then, NaNoWriMo has been tight-lipped, and the only way to find out what happened was to find other writers who participated in the annual event. Now I know why no one is there. NaNoWriMo is dead for many writers. Starting today, NaNoWriMo is dead to me, too.

I’m still going to work on my novel draft. I waited until today for Camp NaNo to begin, but I know how this works, and I have the tools without NaNoWriMo. I even found some tweets offering other websites that provide the same tools and none of the bullshit.

NaNoWriMo is dead to me.

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Ode to the eleven tom turkeys in my backyard eating everything and pooping everywhere

By Anne Kelly Leave a comment

My modest bird feeding station is visited by blackcap chickadees, nuthatches, cardinals, blue jays, mourning doves, juncos, the majestic tufted titmouse, and four species of woodpeckers. I also have squirrels and a bunny who comes early in the morning or at dusk.

And then …. there are the turkeys. Not a few hungry hens or a couple of toms like in the past, but a gang, a horde of toms. Eleven, to be exact.

Mid-morning they descend on my bird feeding station, pushing out every other bird by their massive size and appetite. When they’ve eradicated every speck of seed from the snow-covered ground, they move to other regions of my yard. I have even chased them out of my garage.

They fight in my yard. They chase each other in my yard. They only leave when I run outside just before dusk and scare them away. Sometimes I have to do it more than once.

I can see them up on the ridge behind my house. Usually, one pink-crested feathered head barely visible over the snow-crusted peak.

Watching.

Then, the lead turkey rises over the hill and runs to the feeding station, scattering the wildlife already there enjoying a morning meal. Not far behind, his ten brothers-in-beaks follow – a black oily river rushing down the hill over the snow.

They don’t fear me anymore. They’re used to me being outdoors. Sure, they run back up the hill to safety, but as soon as I am out of sight back down the hill they come. They’ve packed the snow in the forest to the point I can walk on it without sinking in.

Will they leave in the spring? Will the drive to create more turkeys (AAAAAAHHH!!!) be enough to abandon my yard in the pursuit of fertile hens?

Spring will be here soon. We’ll find out then.

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Wrong House

By Anne Kelly Leave a comment

About six weeks ago the county snow plow took out my mailbox. Not just a simple knocking it off the post so I could attach it again, but they completely snapped the pole so it needs replacement. With frozen ground and about 4 feet of snow on top of it, it will be May before I can have a mailbox of my own again.

I’m still getting mail, but I’m also getting stuff for my neighbor and it’s not good stuff. It’s certified mail from banks and people with cameras and the county sheriff’s deputy trying to put foreclosure signs on my house.

Last summer there was an incident across the road at the neighbor’s cabin that involved the county sheriff and an ambulance. The cabin’s been abandoned since then, including his car parked next to the cabin. His pick up truck disappeared however shortly afterward.

What’s happening is these people show up, see one mailbox and the house with the plowed driveway and think my house is the address they’re looking for. It’s not. Doesn’t stop them from trying to foreclose on my house. I have stood in my drive multiple times and told strangers they’re looking for the abandoned cabin across the road.

After talking to the sheriff’s deputy this week the mess might be over. Meanwhile, it’s given me inspiration for my writing project for Camp Nanowrimo starting next week.

Can’t wait to get my mailbox back.

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Where Were You The Night They Hexed Brett Kavanaugh

By Anne Kelly Leave a comment

Brooklyn bookstore Catland Books Plans on holding a Ritual to hex Brett Kavanaugh tomorrow night. The Facebook page currently has over 10,000 people planning to take part in some way. So many people want to attend the event in person a second hexing ritual has been planned for November 3rd.

It’s worth it to check out the discussion on the Facebook page. There’s Wiccans tsk tsking because law of threes and think about your karma, and of course the prayer warriors have come out casting their own spells and using very un-Christian like language to describe witches and women and even Dr. Ford. A Catholic priest plans on performing an exorcism at the same time the Witches in Brooklyn perform their ritual.

It’s an odd time to perform a hex or binding. The moon’s waxing. Tomorrow night it will be in Pisces, a water sign that’s known for the aspects of grace and beauty. Venus is retrograde causing chaotic emotional flareups. Think it’s bad now? Wait until Wednesday during the Taurus full moon. With the moon in Pisces it may be a good idea to remember Neptune is also currently retrograde.

If you just have to join in and do something about Brett Kavanaugh tomorrow night, don’t make it too elaborate. The worst thing you could do to the sex pest is look at a picture of him and say, “I wish you on yourself.”

You can really make a difference for victims of sexual assault by acting in accord to the magic you peform tomorrow night. Consider working at a shelter for victims or donating to RAINN.

Happy hexing! SMB and BB

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Late to NaNo, and I’m not writing a new book this time.

By Anne Kelly Leave a comment

Decided this time around I am going to use NaNo to edit a draft I wrote years ago and haven’t really touched since I crossed the 50k threshhold with over 60,000 words. I have yet to write the beginning and the end of the novel.

After mulling for weeks over what to work on, I decided to pick up I, Benadante after waking up from a very bizarre dream that gave me the missing scene I needed to write the end. I still have to figure out how to get a pack of coyotes into the city of Kalamazoo.

I’m five days late getting started, but I figure a few hours every evening will help me start the process of making sense of a subject that fascinates me. I also had the rare opportunity to chat with someone who lives in Fruili, Italy, and they gave me lots of great information about what the region is like today.

Hopefully today, I’ll be able to jump into some word sprints.

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#CampNaNoWriMo Update: In the Home Stretch! Thanks @NaNoWordSprints

By Anne Kelly Leave a comment

I will be under 10,000 words by the end of the day today, and hope to wrap up my novel draft tomorrow. It’s been harder than I thought finding time to work on the novel. I kept having stuff come up! Very frustrating at times. What do you mean you want something to eat, cat? Can’t you see I’m writing here?

Okay, I also started reading a new book and got sucked right in. Yes, it was that good. I couldn’t put it down until the end. Fortunately I only lost two days.

Provided I finish on schedule, I will use the rest of Camp NaNoWriMo to edit one of my other novel drafts. The plan is to eventually start posting chapters here. What’s the point of writing a story if you never share it?

The wonderful people providing word sprints at the @NaNoWordSprints twitter account are the best. I’ve relied on them through the entire month to keep my word count inching up. They really inspired me to keep going. Thank you, everyone!

In August I will be busy getting ready for the classes I teach this fall. I will be teaching a new one, and I’m excited to select curriculum and activities for my students. Until then, you can find me on twitter and at my keyboard. Good luck to everyone out there working on their novels!

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Camp NaNoWriMo is going great so far

By Anne Kelly Leave a comment

I’m happily ahead on my word count and working hard today on the holiday because tomorrow I have stuff happening that will force me to leave the house. Booo!

Anyway, this is me on the Camp NaNo website. When @NaNoWordSprints on Twitter is active that’s where I’m at. If anyone knows of other places people are word sprinting, let me know!

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Camp NaNoWriMo

By Anne Kelly Leave a comment

National Novel Writing Month, the novel writing event that happens in November branched out to holding events in April and July. The work schedule doesn’t allow me to participate in the November event, so my best chance to write a novel is in July. This year, I’ll be attempting 50,000 words starting in a couple of days.

I have a story, characters, a basic plot line in my head. This is actually something I started working a year ago.

Looking forward to Saturday when I can begin working on it.

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The Summer Where I Got Nothing Done

By Anne Kelly Leave a comment

Labor Day is coming, and I look at this blog and want to weep.

The worst part of people finding out you’re a writer means they want you to spend time writing stuff you don’t want to write. I quit the freelancing racket over a year ago because I was back to being employed full-time and I wanted to focus on my novels, maybe even crank out a few short stories again.

Nope, not happening.

July came and went due to the county planning commission editing their bylaws, and me being the secretary means I can drop everything and hammer out twenty pages of rules, procedures and citing portions of state law that have silcrows (THIS THING -> § ) in them, right? It took me three weeks to get it done. A month later after I retyped this twenty page document, edited the bad grammar, improper punctuation and spent time looking up state law to make sure I did everything correctly, the County Commissioner liaison decided all of my work could be thrown out the window because she looked at the bylaws from another county and they only had four pages. Four pages is easier to read through than twenty. I could have told her that. Punctuate this with my mother needing cataract surgery, I was in and out of the doctor’s office, the optometrist’s office, and the cat managed to get sick.

And that was July.

August came, and I had to cram all of the work getting ready for the school year into a matter of weeks which means I once again had to put my creative writing aside and work.

It never ends. It’s a vicious cycle. I accomplished nothing I wanted to do this summer, and now the summer’s over. At least this fall I start work prepared, which means less time scrambling night and day putting my school day together. That’s something to be happy about, right? Nanowrimo’s coming up too.

Who am I kidding …