Saturday 29 October 2005

Pic of the day: New series of supernatural romance by Margit Sandemo. She is a shining example for all NaNoWriMo participants: She writes the books through from beginning to end without editing, then sell them like hotcakes. ^^

Heating up for NaNoWriMo

It is Saturday and once again I walked to the shop for essential groceries. The darkness and the rain of the past week has made its mark: I think I only walked once since last weekend (not counting going to work and back, which is in itself around 50 minutes of brisk walking). Today my pulse is back at its healthy minimum. It is a good day for walking.

For the casual reader: I don't do these 1-hour walks in hilly terrain to lose weight. I am fine with my current body mass index, which is less than what 83% of American men my age carry around. No, my doctor ordered this for my wrist. It seems a crazy connection to make: Even I don't have wrists on my feet, nor do I walk on my hands. (Now THAT would be exercise!) But the idea is that the increased blood flow and body heat would help loosen up muscles that have been knotted for many years.

It does work, too. This fall my wrists have been their best in years. There has been some setback due to a project at work, but still this is probably the best shape my wrist has ever met a NaNoWriMo. Not that I believe that it will last, but at least the first day may be good. ^_^

The mind is another matter, as it were. In past years I had more plot points and knew my characters better at this point. Now, I only know the love interest of the main character, and only from a couple chapters in an earlier book attempts. I have only the vaguest outline of a story. I do have an original concept, which is bound to cause curiosity in a lot of potential readers: "How do you compete against an invisible girlfriend?" That's really what I have going for me. The rest is in the November fog.

So today I bought, in addition to lots of yogurt, a supernatural romance novel by Margit Sandemo. Yes, evidently she has returned to her greatest success genre, at an age of around 80 or so, with a new series. I didn't even know whether she was still alive, although I suppose someone as famous would not pass away without some mention even in mainstream media. Be that as it may, the new series is quite interesting. It is set in the middle ages, and is full of magic and mysterious forces as usual. And romance, lots and lots of it, although the pace is so slow that nothing untoward happens in the first book, not even a real declaration of love. The reader can see all the signs, of course, but the main characters can not. Still, a good read and cheap.

And on a related note: Expect very few worthwhile entries for the next month. My wrist, throat and brain will largely be reserved for the novel writing. I am probably going to write placeholder entries at least, but possibly not too many others.