Pre-Novel Writing Month

November is National Novel Writing Month. "NaNoWriMo."  InCaUDiNo. (In case you didn't know.) Every year I lament the fact that I can't start anything new for NaNo because I'm still working on the same book  I started in 2007.

But this year I am going to do it. Which means I have to FINISH  The Golden Gryphon. I have set a deadline for myself of Sept. 30th to finish my revisions. Then I'm going to give it to a couple of beta readers, make a basket of reeds and send my baby out to sink or float on the great river of query slush.

Further bulletins as events warrant.

Are you planning to do NaNo this year? How are you preparing for it?

Show Your Villains Some Love

What makes a good villain?  Is it the clothes, the snarky dialogue, the diabolically evil plots? We all know they need motivation and depth. But how deep? How much motivation? Do you develop backstory for your villains as well as for your heros?

Do tell.

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The photo above is my favorite villain of all time, the fantastically tortured Brian de Bois-Gilbert of Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, portrayed to perfection by the incredibly sexy Ciaran Hinds. I love that man so much, I even recognized him as Aberforth Dumbledore in "The Deathly Hallows, Part II" under all that makeup. It made the movie that much sweeter, knowing he was in it. It's the eyes, oh my God, those eyes! And that slow, rich British cadence to his voice. And that he looks damn fine holding a sword, thank you very much.

Health is the first muse

Health is the first muse, and sleep is the condition to produce it.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

What is it about writers that we wear our lack of sleep like a badge?  We often write about such young, vigorous characters and yet we ourselves are models of poor health, myself included.

If only I had the energy to caper about as they do. I might if they didn't keep me up so late.