Happy Butt Wiggles All Around
by Lynn Daniels on Sunday, November 30, 2008 at 9:24 pm
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I DID IT! I DID IT! I DID IT! I crossed the 50,000 word threshold just moments ago, and am now a NaNoWriMo winner! The sense of accomplishment I’m feeling at this moment is almost comical, considering the story I’m writing is not one I ever intend to submit for publication. I chose this story because I thought it would be fun, because I felt I could let my imagination run wild with it, and because I thought it would be the ticket to making writing fun for me again.
It was all those things. And now I’m a National Novel Writing Month winner!
GO ME!
Thank you, Chester the duck with the smart blue felt fedora and Rube the giant purple dinosaur, for being so willing to put up with all the crazy things I’ve thrown at you. And I promise you that even though we reached our word count goal, I will see this story through to the end and I will make sure you foil the nefarious plans of the evil Centipig and his army of pigapede minions.
Thank you.
P.S. In case you’re curious, the song playing in my headphones when the You Won! NaNoWriMo image came up was “Let Me Let You Go” by Pride of Lions.
No Saturday Shot
by Lynn Daniels on Saturday, November 29, 2008 at 10:45 pm
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Sorry, there won’t be a Saturday Shot this week. I’ve realized that if I write my little butt off, I can actually finish NaNoWriMo! At this very second, I’m at 42,753 words. Just over 7,000 words away from calling myself a winner. I’m hoping to get another 2,000 words in tonight. If I can do that, despite having to take my mother to the airport tomorrow, I’m fairly confident I could get the last 5,000 words in before midnight and call myself a NaNoWriMo winner. 
Please keep your fingers crossed for me. I’ll return to regular posts on Monday.
Or tomorrow, if I finish my 50,000 words early enough. 
Eat, Drink, & Be Merry
by Lynn Daniels on Thursday, November 27, 2008 at 9:26 am
Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends!
And to those of you who don’t celebrate Turkey Day, happy Thursday!
WordPress Upgrade
by Lynn Daniels on Wednesday, November 26, 2008 at 3:46 pm
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I’ve just upgraded WordPress to the latest release, version 2.6.5, across my entire website. Please let me know if you come across anything that’s not displaying properly.
Thanks!
Candygram My Big Purple Foot
by Lynn Daniels on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 at 12:50 pm
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NaNoWriMo Day 25
It’s not looking good for me. Five days left, and I’m not even halfway done. And with my mother in town, my writing time during the day (also known as my alone time) has been drastically cut. But I never say never, and I’m still plugging away. Keep your fingers crossed for me, would you?
In the meantime, Chester and Rube were caught in a tornado but managed to find shelter with a number of other animals in a cave. And I don’t know why I did it, but one of the creatures in that cave turned out to be a landshark, although it’s never actually said.
Very slowly, a figure began to emerge from the dark recesses of the cave. An odd sort of creature, the likes of which Rube had never seen before. His eyes were flat and black and on the sides of his head. His mouth huge, teeth pointed and sharp. His body was long, ending at the point of his nose.
Rube leaned forward. He grabbed Chelsey from the top of his head and put her back on the floor. Setting his jaw, he stepped toward the strange creature. “What are you?” he asked.
“Plumber, ma’am,” the strange creature replied.
“I’m not a ma’am,” Rube said. “And you don’t much look like a plumber.”
“Candygram,” said the strange creature.
“Candygram my big purple foot,” Rube said, his voice hardening with frustration. “Now, what are you?”
“I’m only a dolphin,” the creature said. His head was turned, and he kept one flat black eye fixed on Rube.
Rube the dinosaur was going to contradict yet another answer he was sure was a lie, but the sound of the wind outside the cave stopped him. It howled. It roared. It sounded like it was going to try and tear the cave apart.
I love that I can do strange things with this story and it doesn’t matter.
Now I’m going to see if I can’t sneak in some more writing time and get those loveable critters to the Land of the Larrys.
This Time Chester is Giant
by Lynn Daniels on Monday, November 24, 2008 at 7:11 am
This is so cool! I’ve played with word cloud creators before, but not one the creates in color. Created at Wordle using Chester and Rube as it sits right now:
click to enlarge, opens in a new window
Playtime is over. Back to work.
11:54am ETA: What would talking animals call a tornado if they didn’t know the word tornado?
Give Me Back My Arm!
by Lynn Daniels on Sunday, November 23, 2008 at 1:20 pm
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NaNoWriMo Day 23
Yesterday was a good writing day. Today’s been a good one so far, too. Chester and Rube are 2/3 of the way to the Land of the Larrys, and they’ve just been caught in a massive storm. A tornado is heading their way, and they’re fighting to get into the safe haven of a cave in Hallowed Hills nearly 30 yards away. And the wind is more of an impenetrable wall than a wind. And it’s raining. And there are frozen balls falling from the sky.
Oh no! 
What ever will they do?
Right now, I’m doing laundry, watching Scrubs, and getting ready to eat some chicken soup that I hope will calm my tummy (LittleDude yelled at me earlier for saying tummy — he called it baby talk 
). Then I’m hoping to get some more writing in. If not now, then later tonight after everybody’s gone to sleep.
Oh, and before I go, I blognapped this from Andrew:
Created by Bunk Beds.net
The lesson learned here is I should never ever put myself into a situation where I’d be chained to a bunk bad with a velociraptor. I guess admitting I would probably cry like a sissy when he bit my arm off wasn’t the right answer. 
Saturday Shot 22 NOV 2008
by Lynn Daniels on Saturday, November 22, 2008 at 11:42 am
For this week’s shot, we’re back in Yellowstone National Park, and back at Artist Point, and once again looking at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
From yellowstonepark.net:
The canyon is approximately 10,000 years old, 20 miles long, 1000 ft deep, and 2500 ft wide. Predominately made of Rhyolite, the canyon appears painted with deeps reds oranges and coppers. With the Yellowstone river, upper falls, and lower falls, it is not surprising that canyon is used by many artist as their inspiration.
It’s fascinating, picturesque, and the site of a few deaths. In fact, the week before we arrived, somebody stepped off the marked path in order to take pictures and ended up falling into the canyon to their death. Scary, yes? But it does stress the importance of paying attention to the signs the park posts everywhere showing where you can and can’t walk.
Follow the rules. 
And have a good weekend. 
Are You a Little Teapot?
by Lynn Daniels on Friday, November 21, 2008 at 5:55 pm
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NaNoWriMo Day 21
LittleDude stayed home from school yesterday with a tummy ache. And since he didn’t go to school, he didn’t go to TKD, either. And since he didn’t go to TKD, I didn’t get my during TKD writing time. I did manage to squeeze a little writing last night — Garry Goat was very distracted by dandelions, so Billy Bullfrog was the one to warn Chester and Rube of Centipig’s evil plan.
Remember the Hokey Pokey thing I posted about yesterday? Chester wasn’t allowed to Hokey Pokey in Rube’s arms any more. Well, after Rube feared Chester had died, Chester is now allowed to Hokey Pokey, be a little teapot, or do whatever else he might wish to do in Rube’s arms. See? I did get a little bit written.
Today I picked my mother up from the airport and she’s in for the holiday. Since she arrived, she’s kept the kids busy and I’ve managed to squeeze in a little writing. That’s a good thing. I’ve discovered that Chester the duck with the smart blue felt fedora is not a doctor, and Rube the dinosaur’s ankle was purple not because of broken blood vessels but because Rube himself is purple. Whooda thunk?
I’ve also learned of a cool tool through a couple of different sources: somebody (can’t remember who — sorry) tweeted it first, then I saw something about it on the NaNoWriMo forums. It’s Write or Die: Dr. Wicked’s Writing Lab, and I’ve added it under Writers Resources on my Links page.
From the Write or Die page:
Write or Die is a web application that encourages writing by punishing the tendency to avoid writing. Start typing in the box. As long as you keep typing, you’re fine, but once you stop typing, you have a grace period of a certain number of seconds and then there are consequences.
Many people find themselves unable to write consistently. I believe that this is because their reason to write is intangible. For instance, I want to write and finish a book because I want to be published and make a living as a writer. That goal is a long way away so I often find it difficult to sit down to the task of writing.
If you haven’t played with it yet, give it a try! Last night I used it to write 530 words in 11 minutes. I might have to go back and use the word count feature next time instead of the timer. Gotta up that word count!
Doin’ the Hokey Pokey
by Lynn Daniels on Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 7:41 am
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NaNoWriMo Day 20
Making progress. Proudly. WOO HOO!
Although LittleDude missed his TKD lesson because of an appointment with his allergy doctor, Master let him take class with MiniMe. With my iPod on, I got 45 minutes of uninterrupted writing time while they kicked and punched and blocked. Not as good as the 1-1/2 hours I normally get on Wednesdays, but certainly better than nothing. It was enough time to introduce Garry Goat and Billy Bullfrog, who have started to warn Chester and Rube about Centipig amassing his pigapede army. And I managed to work in Beverly Hillbillies and Star Wars references, to boot.That reminds me; do goats eat dandelions?
I’m currently in frenzied cleaning mode. It started yesterday and will last until tomorrow morning; my mother is flying tomorrow afternoon for the holiday. I’m not quite sure why I’m cleaning. Check that. I know why I’m cleaning; I just don’t know why I’m frenzied. Regardless of how well I clean, my mother will always re-clean. It’s what she does. One of these days, I’ll learn my lesson and just leave it for her. One of these days.
But not today.
Before signing off, I’ll leave you with this: imagine if you will a small white duck with orange polka dots on his belly and pointy green ears, wearing a blue felt fedora, trying to do the Hokey Pokey while being carried through a forest by a giant purple dinosaur. Got it? Congrats, you’ve just met Chester and Rube.
You put your right foot in
you put your right foot out
you put your right foot in and you shake it all about…
P.S. Happy 14th wedding anniversary to SoundGuy and me!
Random Photo
Twittering
NaNoWriMo
