November 01, 2004
Tonight I pack up the trusty laptop and a bag of snacks and venture over to the library for a little Nano Kick-off gathering of the Salem area participants. A granfalloon if there’s ever been one. What should I bring for snack? I’m thinking a bottle of helium. We’ll pass it around, taking hits, and entertaining one another with our witty, squeaky elf voices. The fantasy writers are sure to be inspired!
I’ve gone out for morning coffee, even though it’s already lunch. I need a story line. I need a character. I need some movement, some conflicts, and some resolutions. I guess I need just about everything.
I do like that we’re meeting on election night, and in the library. I’m going to pretend that we’re recreating the movie The Day After. We’ll lock ourselves in our room with all of our chips and bottles of soda. Quick! Grab some books! Someone start a fire! Did anyone see that movie? I didn’t understand how you could outrun a killer cold front, watching the air itself freeze, but end up protected just by jumping behind a thick set of library doors. That doesn’t make any sense. I can’t even walk around barefoot in my house the floors are so cold in winter, and it’s only 30 degrees outside! But I wouldn’t have had to worry about that. I would have been the guy who died by falling through the skylights of a mall buried under a mountain of snow.
Man I hate malls. I just know they’d be out to get me.
Am I imagining things or did all your readers disappear off the face of the earth? I have an excuse. My computer crashed. Literally crashed. To the floor of the airplane. It woke up with amnesia. I am now in the process of discovering what sort of things one doesn’t have backed up. Favorites listing of blogs among other things.
That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.
P.S. I’d like to be a character in your story. I’ll get right on telling you about me. You can expect a 175 page email late in the month summarizing the critical parts.
Just joking, I think.
Good luck, break a leg, etc.
I don’t think anyone has disappeared, as much as they are hiding, afraid that I may force a character on them. It’s known in certain circles as blog rape. A person frequents a blog, thinks that they know the blog, can trust it. But it only takes letting your guard down for one second and . . . OH NO . . . you end up cast as a character in a poorly constructed, speed written short story that, heaven help us, is calling itself a novel.
Sorry about your laptop. I’m assuming laptop, anyway. If you had a full desktop computer on an airplane, then I’m inclined to not be as sympathetic. Matter of fact, if you were sitting next to me on a plane and pulled out a desktop machine, complete with monitor and printer, I’m pretty sure I’d accidently bump it to the floor myself.
“Sorry. Turbulence.”
I may cast you anyway. Maybe make you the hitchhiker. No one ever knows anything about the hitchhiker.
Damn. Now I’ve brainstormed my way into a corner. There wasn’t going to be any hitchhiker.
oooh! oooh! I want to be the hooker with a heart of gold! Either that or the mad scientist with a penchant for dressing as Marilyn Monroe on his off hours. Or really, any character that the directors will someday cast Ernest Borgnine. But I still want to be a woman. Okay?
I’m sorry. I always thought that Ernest Borgnine was a woman. Not a particularly attractive one, I admit, but I try not to judge.
My husband watches that movie EVERY time it is on. Very tiresome. I hate TV so I just grab a book and ignore it.
I didn’t dissappear, just been on a little computer free vacation. I want to be a character too please!!
Good luck!