Well, I didn’t expect to be returning to Calgary so soon, but I was invited for another book signing at the CrossIron Mills Indigo for their Christmas kickoff. The staff there are fantastic to work with; I’m really excited to be returning! Barring any major changes, the book signing will be on November 16th from 6:30 – 9:30 P.M.
View Larger Map – in case you’re wondering where it is. Google Maps got it right this time instead of telling me that the store was smack dab in the middle of Airdrie.
NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, for those of you who think I’m having keyboard problems) is starting up right after Halloween, and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who has ever considered writing a novel but isn’t sure how to begin. Personally I had more success writing a big chunk of words on a manuscript in the month of January with the now-defunct (but still all great friends!) community of Vicious Writers, but the process is the exact same. NaNoWriMo is really big now, drawing hundreds of thousands of novelist-hopefuls across the world, and they have a big community of support (and a great website, to boot!). It’s kind of like the slogan from Ratatouille:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JPOoFkrh94&feature=related
‘Anyone can cook’. Or, in this case, anyone can write. The point of NaNoWriMo isn’t to create a masterpiece in a month – the idea is to develop the habit of producing regular work. It could take you places. Crystal Promise started out as a fifty-thousand word manuscript for a novel-writing contest.
Speaking of writing contests, my good friend Jessica reminded me about CBC’s short story competition. The deadline is November 1st, so you still have a week to submit something! There’s a $6000 grand prize (including publication) if that’s any incentive. Plus, 1500 words is a lot less daunting than 50,000, I’d say.
Switching gears, I received my very first fan-art a while back, and I’m excited to share it with everyone. It might not seem like a big deal to some people, but for an ‘indie’ author, it’s quite the ego-boost. This is Racquela and Timori, drawn by the talented Amanda Myers:
A cute couple
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