National Novel Writing Month 2013

Okay. Okay. You guys talked me into it. I've decided I'm going to try to participate in National Novel Writing Month this year. I haven't officially signed up and I'm not going to. I highly doubt that I'm going to finish this novel in one month but I will try my darnedest to get 50,000 words out.

This NaNoWrMo just happens to work out well for me this year because I've just finished editing my novel for the umpteenth time and I really need a break from it. At the same time, I've had this other idea for a novel that I've been tossing around for more than a year now and I think now would be a great time for me to take a break from novel #1 and try to get a good start on novel #2.

The reason I have been so anti-NaNoWrMo in the past is because it took me 1 year to crank out my first novel and that was about 75,000 and I was really stressed during that year because every minute that I wasn't at work or sleeping, I was writing. If I wasn't doing any of those things I began to feel guilty and resentful of the time that I thought would be better spent writing.

So here's my pledge. I won't stress out about this. I write because I love writing. It's fun for me. If it stops being fun, that defeats the purpose. So, with that in mind, I know that there will be days that I will not make my word quota and that's fine. Hopefully I'll make up that time on the weekends but, again, if I don't, I won't stress over it. This is an experiment for me. We'll see how it goes.

I'll see you all in December.

The Paleo Manifesto

Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health

by John Durant

I'm not entirely sure what to think of this book. I was excited to read it and I'm definitely still excited to discuss it with some of my paleo buddies. All in all, though, it wasn't entirely what I was expecting.

The middle part of this book was definitely my favorite. The very beginning covered a lot of information about how the first hunter-gatherer societies lived (and how some modern hunter-gatherer societies live), much of which I already knew and all of which I was expecting. Then he got into some of the intricacies of what happened when we started building civilizations. Not least among these is religion and religious laws. While this was fascinating, and I certainly learned a lot in this section, my attention kept wandering as I wondered where he was going with this.

Then he brought it all together. While elaborating on things like barefoot running and exposure to extreme temperatures, he kept referring to Part 1 throughout the book, and it all made sense. At no point did it seem to be irrelevant or like he was going off on a random tangent. It was actually a very well-thought out, well-organized book.

As I said, the middle part of the book was my favorite and it has convinced me to do things I was otherwise unwilling to try. Running barefoot, for example, is something I've been wanting to do for awhile, but given peoples' tendency to injure themselves when they first start running barefoot, I was hesitant. Durant, on the other hand, gave very good tips for starting slow and how to get into the habit without injury. Now I just need to find myself a pair of Vibrams.

Cold showers were something I had heard other people tout as beneficial but I was unconvinced. Most of what I had heard was merely anecdotal evidence. Durant, however, links the practice to thousands of years worth of tradition in countries all over the world, from Russia to Rome, that regularly submit themselves to either extreme hot or extreme cold, and then immediately immerse themselves in the other extreme. The way Durant told it actually had me convinced to try cold showers, although when the moment of truth came this morning, I chickened out. Maybe tomorrow ...

The ending of the book was a very interesting analysis of where our food comes from and where our food should come from. Turns out, he's not worried about the environment, which I, personally, don't agree with. But he did have some very intriguing theories on balancing the whole local/organic movement with modern industrial food. He acknowledges the need for both in order to feed the world, which makes sense to me, given that I have never been entirely convinced by claims that eating organic is actually more sustainable than industrial food.

All in all, an excellent book with a lot of information and some great food for thought. It is all well-written and engaging and I definitely recommend it.

The Brothers Karamazov

by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

I have to admit, I really enjoyed this book. I wasn't sure I would, having read Anna Karenina, which I absolutely hated. That book bored me to tears. But I was assured that Dostoyevsky was much better than Tolstoy and I was hankering to get back into the 19th century so I went for it. I'm really glad I did because this was certainly much better than stupid Anna Karenina.

My copy of the book has a quote from Dostoyevsky on the back which says, "I'd die happy if I could finish this final novel, for I would have expressed myself completely." I can easily believe that because this book (at a mere 1045 pages) includes just about everything you can think of. It's part mystery thriller, part psychological thriller, part philosophical debate, with social commentary strewn throughout. There's even romance. Seriously, all he needs is some vampires and/or robots and he'll have all of the genres covered. But then that would have put him way ahead of his time and, as I said, at 1045 pages I think this book might just be long enough as it is already.

As much as I enjoyed this book, my favorite parts were probably the parts that didn't feel like what one typically thinks of 19th century literature. The book started off by describing one man's multiple marriages and his penchant for drinking and orgies. Later on this man competes for a woman with one of his sons. It's like Jerry Springer. Only it's Dostoyevsky so that makes it culture.

My only complaint about the book I think stems from the translation rather than Dostoevksy himself. For example, misusing the word "literally" I can sort of tolerate in modern writers (to an extent) but I know that trend had not yet started in the 19th century. There were also some modern-sounding phrases that took me out of the time period. It was minor things like that that I had hard time with, although I wouldn't say they affected my overall enjoyment of the book. 

No Tab Friendship

by Alison Ver Halen

"Jesus! Mary, you scared the crap out of me."

"Sorry," she shouted from the other side of the glass. "Can you let me in?"

Thoroughly grumpy now, Jane went to unlock her front door. As she opened it, she asked, "You couldn't have used the doorbell like a normal person? What were you doing in my bushes?"

"A car drove by. I thought it might be his so I ducked for the nearest cover. That's when your dog started barking. Hey, buddy." She bent down to pet the dog, who had stopped barking and was now wagging his tail, having recognized the intruder.

Jane let out a heavy sigh. "What is it now?"

"He found out."

Mary didn't extrapolate and Jane's sleep-addled brain couldn't decipher what she meant. "Found out about what?"

"About the money I've been stowing away."

"Christ! And you're still here to tell the tale?"

"So far." Mary snuck a peak around the curtain to look outside. "I can't stick around, though. I have to get out of town. Now. Jane, I hate to ask this of your, but could you possibly lend me some money? You know I'll find a way to pay you back as soon as I get on my feet."

"What happened to all that money you were saving up?"

"Like I said, he found it. He has all of it now. All of it."

"You hid it all in one place?"

"Of course not, but once he found one wad of bills he started tearing up the apartment looking for others. Each one he found made him madder than the last."

The gravity of the situation finally hit Jane. She was fully alert now and had gone from grumpy to concerned in an instant. "Of course I can help you out. Just wait here and I'll see how much cash I have." She disappeared into the back room while Mary checked the window again.

When Jane reappeared she asked Mary, "Do you need a ride? I can take you as far as the state line."

"Oh, Jane, I couldn't ask that of you. Just take me to the nearest bus stop."

"Nonsense. He'll find you there for sure. We at least have to get you out of the county."

"Thanks, Jane. I owe you for this."

Jane waved it off. "Don't mention it. I'll just put it on your tab." It was a long-running joke between the two of them. Jane was always getting Mary out of scrapes like this and Mary was always insisting she would find a way to pay Jane back, though she never did. Jane was too sensible to get herself into any kind of trouble and Mary's debt just kept mounting, though nobody actually kept track of it. True friendship doesn't come with a score sheet and Jane knew that.