Post Thanksgiving

Yesterday was the first day I didn't touch my novel since the start of November.  Felt weird not to go to the laptop, open the file, check for spelling errors, load the wordcount into the spreadsheet, the whole routine.  Not that I didn't go to the laptop at all, a comment spammer on a Comcast cable modem in Maryland was hitting the site several times a second for the last day and a half.  Mr. Spammer vastly inflated our log files so we got "quota exceeded" errors and I hope Comcast shuts down his account.

But we did go out into the post-Thanksgiving shopping frenzy, which had died down nicely by the afternoon unless you wanted to go to Trader Joe's.  They just opened in a part of town that already got horribly trafficated at rush hour.  Borders was just fine.  Read Stitch and Bitch Nation because my copy hasn't arrived yet, and decided to make the Hurry Up Spring Armwarmers.  This is because it's a chance to try Noro Kureyon and because my office is terminally cold in winter, autumn, and spring.  The chart corrections are here.

Thanksgiving was wonderful!  A quiet, lazy day with best friends and way too much food.

Picked up Natalie Goldberg's Thunder and Lightening as a reward for getting my novel validated and winning NaNoWriMo 2004.  Writing down the bones was the first writing book I ever got, and I still go back to it when I'm stuck.  Lightening is more of the same unstructured advice, but it has more focus on the actual production of something finished, instead of getting you into writing practice.  She says you should do two years of writing practice before attempting something finished.  My novel draft feels more finished than anything else I've done, probably because it's longer.  I'm pleased with it, but right now we need a little time apart before I go in red pen blazing.