It's NOVEMBER 1 and You Know What That Means, Right?

November is National Novel Writing Month, and, as I have for the past three years, I'm taking part in the NaNoWriMo challenge. What's that, you ask?

The challenge, for those brave (or crazy) enough to accept it, is to write a 50,000 word novel during the 30 days of November. Not really any other rules, except it should be a fresh fictional project, begun at the stroke of 12:01 a.m. on November 1 and ended at 11:59 p.m. on November 30. Not one word of the novel itself should be written before November 1, but you can outline, plot, research, do character studies, etc. before then. Or not. (I'm one of the "or-nots," which makes for some pretty hair-raising moments when I run out of ideas halfway through the NaNovel I'm writing.)

At some point (one hopes before 11:59 p.m. on 11/30), you upload your novel (straight or scrambled, it doesn't matter, since no one except you and those with whom you choose to share) for verification of word count, and, if it is at or over 50k, YOU WIN!

And the prize? Ah, the prize! A beautiful, sparkly purple bar under your NaNo name and the rights to brag about it for the next 12 months. Cool, huh?

So, all these words (practicing for NaNo?) just to say one thing: I won't be around much during November to blog or read everyone else's blogs (or to Twitter, or on Facebook, or on LibraryThing, or to read novels, or to get much sleep), so please forgive me for disappearing for a month and please come back on December 1 when I pick up where I left off on my OTHER life that is not NaNoWriMo.

I will be tweeting during November as @Novelst, so, if you are on Twitter, please feel free to follow me (tho I probably won't follow you back because @Novelst is strictly for NaNoWriMo and writing in general), and plan to blog about my NaNo experience on LiveJournal (where I am Storeetllr), in case you are interested in how I'm doing with my NaNovel.

Okay, then, this is it till December. I'm leaving. Now. *poof*

NaNoWriMo Rules November!

Hi, Fellow Readers and Bloggers ~ For those who have not yet heard of it, November is NaNoWriMo month. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and NaNoWriMo is a website dedicated to the thousands of people who take on the challenge of writing a 50,000 word novel during the thirty days of November. This year will be my third year of doing NaNo, and I won both previous years (2006 and 2007).What does one win? you might well ask. Well, you win a virtual purple bar and the right to print a out a fancy certificate that says you are a NaNoWriMo winner. No publishing deal, no money, no prizes. Just the aforesaid purple bar, a .JPG of a winners' certificate, and the immense and priceless satisfaction that comes from having actually managed to write a 50,000+ word novel in one month.Now, the reason I bring this up is two-fold. Firstly, I am, as I mentioned, doing NaNo again this November. Therefore, during every free moment of the entire month, I will be frenziedly typing my NaNoNovel on my lovely little AlphaSmart Dana word processor. Ergo, I will have no time to blog, much less read any novels about which to blog. Neither reading nor blogging for an entire month is a real hardship, and I will miss it, but participating in NaNoWriMo is worth the pain.Secondly, I will be doing a bit of writing about the NaNo experience at my Musings from the Dark Side blog, and I invite you to visit me there during November if you'd like to read about all the crazy and wonderful experiences of doing NaNo this year. When in December I emerge bleary-eyed and stiff-fingered from my novel-writing frenzy, assuming I make it through NaNo alive (haha, just joking), I plan to resume blogging here at Just One More Page, with a review of my favorite mystery author Carol O'Connell's soon-to-be-released new novel "Bone by Bone." (I am sooo excited to have been given an ARC of it to read and review! It just arrived today, in fact, and it is going to be very very difficult to resist reading it until after November.)So, to everyone in the U.S., if I don't have a chance to blog here for awhile, don't forget to vote on Tuesday, be sure to honor our Veterans on November 11, and have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving! And to everyone here and in other parts of this great world, have a great month and please come back in December.