Tag: municipal liaison

  • The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

    National Novel Writing Month is my favorite time of the year. I see it as a month long holiday designed specifically for writers. A whole 30 days where we can justify putting our writing before pretty much anything else in our lives. A time when new friendships are formed, new worlds are created, and writers everywhere discover their limits – or lack thereof. A month of not enough sleep, way too much caffeine, and thousands of words (around 50,000 of them).

    This will be my eighth year participating, my fourth year as Municipal Liaison for the Lawrence Region, and hopefully my seventh win. It’s kind of fun to think about: winning National Novel Writing Month seven times will mean I’ll have written at least 350,000 words during my writing  career.

    So this November, as Municipal Liaison, I will be writing pep talks, hosting write-ins, spoiling my Wrimos with treats, cheering on those who are ahead and encouraging those who are behind, drinking way too much coffee, trying to fit in the homework assignments for my online class, and also probably finding new ways to procrastinate. (more…)

  • {Insert Clever Title Here}

    Wasn’t sure how to approach this week’s assignment, so I went for simple: here’s a brief history of my writing experience.

    Years ago during a drive back home from graduate school with my then girlfriend (and now wife) to visit my parents, I took some NoDoz. I’d never taken any kind of anti-drowsy medication before, and I was skeptical that it would work. I was known to chug Mountain Dew right before going to bed, with no ill effects. How could two little caffeine pills matter?

    About an hour into the drive, my eventual spouse turned to me and asked, “How are you doing?”

    “I’mdoinggreat!ButIhaveawholelotofthingsIwanttotalktoyouabout!”

    Yes, it was that frantic and fast. No, I’ve never taken NoDoz since that day. What did I need to talk about so frantically? My first idea for my own science fiction story. The best idea ever for a story.

    Yes, really.

    (more…)