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…you really have no idea what day it is and what’s worse, it really doesn’t matter. Tonight though, after I got home, got a message from a work friend wondering if I’d like to join them for Jurassic Park tomorrow night. sure thing! Time will be a little tight so I used Fandango to get my ticket and print it. Oh, modern technology.
So tonight I think I’m going to carve out some time for a bunch o’haiku. And maybe some reading. I need to get some progress in the Lost Tales… It’s slow going.
Right now I’m “listening” to a live chat with a published NaNoWriMo. It’s sort of freestyle chat-wise and people are excited to be asking their questions and sharing their NaNoWriMo experiences. Good times.
I think I’ve pretty much drawn a circle around my theme for NaPoWriMo this year. I found it helpful last year to have a theme. Sometimes the words went outside it too, but I tried to keep something within it each day. Last year the theme was related to my somewhat-stuck NaNoWriMo story and it did help me get a sense of a mindset and an idea for nudging it ahead. Hopefully, this year’s theme will be my personal nudge when prompts and things don’t light up my brain. As always, the secondary goal will be to share publicly each day and haiku will be scattered throughout as needed.
Lest you think that these are small pockets of people, keep your eyes open on the web and you’ll see hints and allegations that there are many people scribbling and typing away a month at a time. April is also the first round of Camp NaNoWriMo which is a little more free-form version of the November event. Here you can set your own genre, your own word count goal and still have the fun of beating the clock.
And on that note, I saw this from Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother and more:
doctorow: Here’s the four pieces of flash fiction I wrote in 5 mins. each at #Eastercon http://t.co/UqyUx652tr
this followed close behind from Paul Cornell:
Paul_Cornell: At noon I’ll be playing competitive flash fiction against @RozKaveney @EmApocalyptic and @Doctorow! Hoping to score a point. At some point.
and then:
Paul_Cornell: I scored a point at the flash fiction! First time ever! @EmApocalyptic won, the rest of us came second.
Which just goes to show you that sometimes word geeks just wanna have fun and do it doing what they love.
April is very close at hand which brings two things to the world. Like Brigadoon, they appear on a regular basis and then, like the mists, they vanish again.
And the best part of Camp is that you can choose to write in any genre, even poetry or that re-write (ahem) that you’ve been meaning to get to (ahem, ahem, cough, cough) and you can set your own goal for the month, large or small amounts of words. How cool is that?
I can pretty much assure you that there will be late night sessions, campfires, some smuggled in beverages and assorted snacks, some homesick letters and phone calls and a whole lot of fun going on. And if April is too crazy a month for you, they’ll set up the tents again in July. More black flies, but warmer…
If you want to know about the crazy thinking that makes people write anything for a month, here’s the esteemed ring-leader of NaPoWriMo to speak on the topic at the invitation of the NaNoWriMo folks.
The last couple weeks I’ve had my main male character on the brain. I kept wondering how we really felt before the opening events and when he reached the first decision point in the story. I took it that a) this meant I needed to know and tell that part of the story and b) it might be time to really start the rewrite.
So today I squirreled myself away in a secret location and stared at the screen for awhile and then I started typing. I started on a blank page whose title included the word rewrite. My goal was to get to the point where the new page started to join in with the beginning of the story as I knew it.
1206 words later I closed the laptop and felt pretty darn good about it. I think it’s a better intro to him and to the story. It’s a much better reason for him to take the first steps into the story.
I might have no idea what I’m doing but I had a good time doing it.
So all in all a good day. A bit of errands, a splash of shopping and a bottle of this:
It’s apparently also available in older vintages. It’s so good I wouldn’t mind stashing a few bottles for a few years…
I’ve mentioned here the Four Treasures of the Tuatha Dé Danann:
- Stone of Fál: Stone of Destiny which reveals the rightful king of Ireland
- Spear of Lugh, an invincible weapon
- Sword of Núadu, a great magical sword called Freagarthach: the “Answerer”
- Cauldron of the Dagda: which could feed everyone in Ireland without emptying
So tonight while noodling about on the web looking up things related to St. David’s Day in Wales, I happened upon The Thirteen Treasures of the Island of Britain.
- Dyrnwyn, the Sword of Rhydderch Hael
- The Hamper of Gwyddno Garanhir
- The Horn of Brân Galed
- The Chariot of Morgan Mwynfawr
- The Halter of Clydno Eiddyn
- The Knife of Llawfrodedd the Horseman
- The Cauldron of Dyrnwch the Giant
- The Whetstone of Tudwal Tudglyd
- The Coat of Padarn Beisrudd
- The Crock and Dish of Rhygenydd Ysgolhaig
- Chessboard of Gwenddoleu ap Ceidio
- The Mantle of Arthur in Cornwall
- The Mantle of Tegau Gold-Breast
- The Stone and Ring of Eluned the Fortunate
I thought the purposes within the thirteen were interesting.
The first, the Sword of Rhydderch Hael, was said to glow in the hands of a well-born man. “Would you like to hold my sword? It will glow if you’re well-born!” “Umm gee thanks, most kind, most generous really but I must go re-shoe my horse now.”
The Whetstone, the Coat of Padarn Beisrudd and the Cauldron of Dyrnwch the Giant, indicate if someone is cowardly or not.
The Hamper, The Horn, The Knife, The Crock and the Dish all supplied ample food and drink to those present. The Halter would provide a horse. The Chariot would get you where you wanted to go and quickly. I imagine all of these were most useful for epic battling.
The Chessboard: impressive gold and silver which if set up correctly would play by itself.
The Mantle of Arthur in Cornwall: whoever was under it could not be seen, and he could see everyone. (shades of the Cloak of Invisibility!)
This list appear in Welsh texts from the 15th and 16th century.
you may take my sword:
it gleams, held by a well-born;
I’ll re-sheathe it then.
The Thirteen Treasures:
Those which provide and protect
or judge cowardice.
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