Posted on
am reading, am writing

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.

Posted on Updated on
am writing

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.

Posted on Updated on
am writing

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.

Posted on
am writing

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.

Posted on
am writing

#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!

Posted on
am writing

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!

Posted on
am writing

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.

Posted on Updated on
am writing

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 …

Posted on
am writing

I Really Want To Work On My Novel

By Anne Kelly Leave a comment

I wanted to work on one of my novels after coming home from work today.

That was before the principal announced since there is no bus service for our students this Friday, 99% of our students will have no ride to school. “Can you give the exams scheduled for Friday on Wednesday?”

Sure, can do. Won’t be writing my novel. Must write exams.

People like my writing. They like it so much I’m now the secretary for the county Democratic Party and the county planning commission. I get many compliments for how thorough the minutes are now. This also means I spend my weekends typing up those minutes and before you know it the day is gone and it’s time to go to bed.

I would much rather work on my novel. Spring break is coming soon. A whole week of doing nothing but writing if I want. I hope the weather’s bad so I can’t spend time out of the house.

Scenes from my novel keep dancing through my head. If only I could stay awake when I get home from work.

Posted on
am writing

Tonight is a Special Night

By Anne Kelly Leave a comment

Not really, but it feels like it.

My seven month old kitten Cherubino went to the vet this afternoon. She’s getting spayed tomorrow morning. It’s eerie how quiet the house is without her scampering about, attacking my ankles while I sit here and write, and lay on my forearms when it’s time to pay attention to her.

I’m halfway through a paper for my literary critique class that’s due at midnight. You have no idea how giddy with joy I am. After I am done and submit it to my prof, I get to write whatever I want to write. Now watch the creativity dry up.

Give it a few days. There’s a plot in my brain that’s been wanting to get out for a while.