End of November: Is it Soup Yet?

We Are the Champions, My Friends!

Check it out, one of the two heroes of the end-of-the-world movie 2012 is a novelist.. and an underrepresented one at that. Yay us!

National Novel Writing Month 2009

NaNoWriMo is all but over in the Pacific Time Zone. I finished! I reach my 50,000 somewhere around November 20th, then switched my goal to finishing the first draft of my novel. I did that today, with a total count of 78,307 words! The novel itself, the story of a woman who goes to the Crusade of 1101 disguised her late twin brother, will no doubt be around 100,000 to 115,000 when the second draft is done. I plan to seek a publisher for the book this time.

The most important part of participating in NaNoWriMo for me this year is that it broke me out of whatever block or slump or miasma or whatever was stopping me from getting writing again. On the theory I once heard that anything you do, or don't do, for 21 days becomes a habit, it worked for me. Llike most if not all of you, writing gets my endorphens spouting.. and I am happily addicted again.

Interesting New Blogs

Fictional Appearance By.. Real people in Historical Fiction will cover a topic I find intriguing, obviously what real people have been fictionalized in historical fiction. There are several articles posted already, about many of the historical figures we all love to follow like paparazzi follow movie stars. Go take a look and see who is there.

Fans of History and Women will be glad to know that while the original blog has been retired, a replacement popped up almost immediately. The New History and Women blog has a selection of the biographies drawn from the old blog and will continue in the same tradition, with authors Maggie Anton, Greta Marlow, Anne Gilbert, Brandy Purdy, and me as the remaining editors. Gemini Sasson has stepped away to finish two manuscripts, and Mirella Patzer, the woman responsible for the history and Women blog and all its awards, is focusing on other projects of her own, including her own fourth novel.

Speaking of Brandy

If you are looking for Brandy Purdy's upcoming release of The Boleyn Wife in the UK, look instead for The Tudor Wife by Emily Purdy. It's the same book, same author, just amde up to sound more British, I guess. Youo can find out more and read the great reviews at www.brandypurdy.com .

Holiday Music, Celtic Style

'Tis the winter holiday season, so it is, and i am after invitin' ye all to partake of a Celtic celebration on Radio Dé Danaan. I am looking for, and finding, winter holiday music from not only Ireland, Scotland and Wales, but also Cornwall, the Isle of Man, the Orkneys and the Hebrides, Brittany, Astirias and Dalicia, and Cape Breton in Canada. This will largely be Christmas music, but believe it or not I have found CVeltic music for Hanukkah as well, and needless to say some Yule music for our Pagan fans, and that most famous Scottish song of all, Auld Lang Syne. So tune in soon for an increasing saturation of holiday music on Radio Dé Dnaan, Music of the Pan-Celtic World.

Now.. to get back to all my back emails....