Halfway House

National Novel Writing Month continues. Yesterday, the 15th, I posted on Facebook the following cryptic (but obvious) status update: “Linda M. Au is halfway.” A friend commented underneath: “They make houses for people like that, you know.”

Everybody’s a comedian. And I hate playing straight-man.

Ignoring snide, sarcastic, rude comments from otherwise loving, caring, nurturing friends, I have forged ahead into the second half of the murky waters of National Novel Writing Month. The novel is progressing nicely. Characters are divulging secrets to each other. Some are finding dead animals in the trash. One completely disappeared into thin air. Yet another made a second pot of coffee.

Yessir, things are really flying now. I can’t wait to see what happens in the second half of the month. Why, some of them might accidentally order a steak medium-well, or forget to add fabric softener to the rinse cycle! The mind reels with possibilities! No wonder I look forward to November each year—when the creative juices are flowing like, well, like sludge. Yes, that’s it: glacial floes of marvelous literary sludge, direct from my over-caffeinated brain into my fingertips and out the keyboard of choice for the day.

The good news is that Café Kolache gets more business from me during November than they do the whole rest of the year. So, that’s good news for them, at least.

On a Side Note: I’m writing in the afternoons this year, and saving late evenings for reading instead. I was chugging along steadily reading through Diana Gabaldon’s newest in the Outlander series, An Echo in the Bone: A Novel (Outlander), taking my time because, well, it’ll be halfway into the next decade by the time we see another book in the series. Then, last Friday, Amazon delivered Stephen King’s newest novel, Under the Dome: A Novel. I was curious, so that evening, I thought I’d take a peek at it before diving back into Gabaldon’s book. More than 125 pages later, I looked at the clock: 2 A.M. Ever since then, I’ve been using sheer force of will not to throw caution (and laundry and grocery shopping and personal hygiene) to the wind in favor of reading this marvelously gargantuan tome. I suppose, in its own way, that’s as succinct a review as you’re going to get.

What are you reading? I have an idea: Instead of giving me recommendations for reading material (I have plenty to read!), give me recommendations of books to AVOID. That way, I won’t waste my precious reading time.

And Now, Back to Our Originally Scheduled Program, Already in Progress:  I may be behind on my personal word count goals, but I am doing just fine by NaNoWriMo standards. (Over 27,000 words.)