Ooof.

So, I won at NaNoWriMo this year! Here is my word meter:

50196 / 50000 words. 100% done!

That doesn't give you a very good insight into the last few days, however. Instead, check out this graph:



Why yes, I did write the last 20,000 words in the final three days of November, roughly according to my last-ditch schedule, which called for 10,000 words on Sunday, 5,000 words on Monday and 5,000 more words on Tuesday. That was ... not even as fun as it sounds. In retrospect, the craziest part was that I was actually awake and chipper enough on Tuesday to make the final push that evening, whereas today/Wednesday I was so braindead that it's a minor miracle that I managed to sleepwalk through work, much less do anything else.

The last two times I won NaNo, I offered copies around to anyone who wanted to read them (or, alternatively, not read them), but while this year's effort does, in fact, contain in excess of 50,000 words, it does not actually have an ending. It barely even has a beginning of an ending, and that is on the last (written) page. When I say 'beginning of an ending', I mean that this is the first time in which the premise that I started from at the beginning of the book (post-apocalyptic Baptist missionaries from China who are re-converting the North American continent with the aid of water-borne mind-altering parasites) is even explicitly touched upon. So the text as it stands is kind of boring (since whenever I didn't know what was supposed to happen next I just overwrote the part I had in mind, for wordcount purposes) and pointless.

Still, I'm batting .500 at NaNo! I decided to put in the effort to win this year, even though it involved a terminal effort of crippling optimism, because hey, I already have plenty of things to fail at. Good times.

Ooof.

So, I won at NaNoWriMo this year! Here is my word meter:

50196 / 50000 words. 100% done!

That doesn't give you a very good insight into the last few days, however. Instead, check out this graph:



Why yes, I did write the last 20,000 words in the final three days of November, roughly according to my last-ditch schedule, which called for 10,000 words on Sunday, 5,000 words on Monday and 5,000 more words on Tuesday. That was ... not even as fun as it sounds. In retrospect, the craziest part was that I was actually awake and chipper enough on Tuesday to make the final push that evening, whereas today/Wednesday I was so braindead that it's a minor miracle that I managed to sleepwalk through work, much less do anything else.

The last two times I won NaNo, I offered copies around to anyone who wanted to read them (or, alternatively, not read them), but while this year's effort does, in fact, contain in excess of 50,000 words, it does not actually have an ending. It barely even has a beginning of an ending, and that is on the last (written) page. When I say 'beginning of an ending', I mean that this is the first time in which the premise that I started from at the beginning of the book (post-apocalyptic Baptist missionaries from China who are re-converting the North American continent with the aid of water-borne mind-altering parasites) is even explicitly touched upon. So the text as it stands is kind of boring (since whenever I didn't know what was supposed to happen next I just overwrote the part I had in mind, for wordcount purposes) and pointless.

Still, I'm batting .500 at NaNo! I decided to put in the effort to win this year, even though it involved a terminal effort of crippling optimism, because hey, I already have plenty of things to fail at. Good times.

a story and a rec: Virgil/Dante

In May I visited the amazing Minneapolis Arts Institute with my father and brother, the latter of whom was getting ready to leave the Twin Cities after graduation and doing a last hurrah tour as well as entertaining his out-of-town family.

While we were wandering around, perpetually gobsmacked by gallery upon gallery awesome, I suddenly squeaked and darted in the direction of one painting in particular, which turned out to be separated from me by an atrium that necessitated a severe course correction before I found myself standing in front of a familiar canvas: Six Tuscan Poets.

Not familiar enough, however. Upon reading the placard, I realized that, in my initial Google images search, I had been too readily seduced by the appealing composition and sexy hand-porn, and my Virgil/Dante icon turns out to be more of a Guido Cavalcanti/Dante icon, and oh, man, I'm not saying I wouldn't read it, hot young Italian love poets in sweet new love, but talk about your rairpairs.

So I should probably get around to making a new Virgil/Dante icon, but I haven't done so yet. This one is going to have to do for posting about Thrice Purified, virgofolkie's Virgil/Dante set in the same continuum as mine.

I loved the idea when virgofolkie floated it, and now that it exists, I love it even more. A sweet, sensual sexual interlude in Canto I of Purgatorio, with lovely crisp metaphors, poetical banter and philosophical musings, and further sequelae to come!

If you're a Divine Comedy slasher, you should totally check it out.

a story and a rec: Virgil/Dante

In May I visited the amazing Minneapolis Arts Institute with my father and brother, the latter of whom was getting ready to leave the Twin Cities after graduation and doing a last hurrah tour as well as entertaining his out-of-town family.

While we were wandering around, perpetually gobsmacked by gallery upon gallery awesome, I suddenly squeaked and darted in the direction of one painting in particular, which turned out to be separated from me by an atrium that necessitated a severe course correction before I found myself standing in front of a familiar canvas: Six Tuscan Poets.

Not familiar enough, however. Upon reading the placard, I realized that, in my initial Google images search, I had been too readily seduced by the appealing composition and sexy hand-porn, and my Virgil/Dante icon turns out to be more of a Guido Cavalcanti/Dante icon, and oh, man, I'm not saying I wouldn't read it, hot young Italian love poets in sweet new love, but talk about your rairpairs.

So I should probably get around to making a new Virgil/Dante icon, but I haven't done so yet. This one is going to have to do for posting about Thrice Purified, virgofolkie's Virgil/Dante set in the same continuum as mine.

I loved the idea when virgofolkie floated it, and now that it exists, I love it even more. A sweet, sensual sexual interlude in Canto I of Purgatorio, with lovely crisp metaphors, poetical banter and philosophical musings, and further sequelae to come!

If you're a Divine Comedy slasher, you should totally check it out.