Me. Back. Vacation. Ugh.

Hola! I returned from my Mexican vacation in body if not spirit and promptly became a hibernating creature: eating too much, sleeping too much, and covering my beautiful tan in layers of wool clothing.

Whine. Whine. Yes, you know me, I always fall into a funk after vacation when I must deal with the mundane details of life after losing myself in adventure, or, in this case, sitting on a beach, snorkeling, sleeping, drinking margaritas, and eating deliciously spicy moles and salsas that makes our food here seem so blah and band and pale (which is why in my post-vacation-face-stuffing-phase, I am eating the spiciest foods I can get my hands on: Indian, Thai, and of course, more Mexican).

I am also about to enter what is certain to be a most busy and creative and financially remunerative time: unemployment. Oh yes, I have many projects in mind, such as getting two-pack abs, creating a filing system for my home (ha ha), cleaning out my storage locker (ha ha ha), and revising the 50,000-word federal disaster zone that is my is my Nanowrimo novel.

Meanwhile, as my current tenure at Geeksoft comes to an end, I look around its sterile hallways and long - slightly - for the security I once had there. The money that flowed in, the ESPP plan, the health benefits handed down directly from God.

I look at the Geeksoft job listings and think: Maybe. Maybe I could do it again. But it is like a port in a storm that I must pass by as I complete my lonely voyage to God-knows-where.

Alas. That is the idealistic view. I'll probably be back. If not as a full-time-employee with the handcuffs of gold then as a contractor with manacles of silver. 'Cause that place is like the Hotel F*cking California. Let's sing it all together now: You can check out any time you like but...

Amazon Ranking Through the Roof! Sort of.

Well! I am happy to report that my novel has catapulted from its 700,000-something ranking on Amazon to --- ok, are you sitting down? -- to the 100,000's. Whoohoo! I'm raising my empty grande latte glass as we speak (which inspired yet another unpleasant episode at the coffee shop this morning but never mind about that!)

This, I'm deducing is all thanks to my inclusion in the National Novel Writing Month FAQ - in particular the question - "Has anyone had their novel published?

And there, shining like a brass ring for all those thousands of hungry would-be novelists, is the name of my book and a link to Amazon. (I am by no means the most glamorous example of a published NaNoWriMo author - Sara Gruen wrote a first draft of the wonderful and bestselling "Water for Elephants" during National Novel Writing Month).

Now I'm laboring away at yet another crappy first draft, full of gaping plot holes thousands of feet deep, shadowy corners where once-lively characters and plot lines die an obscure death, and questions that refused to be answered, like what does my main character want anyway?

But NaNoWriMo is all about not looking back. And my greatest challenge lies ahead, anyway, when I go to Mexico for five days next week and must continue to write every day -- under a palapa with a Corona in hand and bathtub-warm water only feet away!

So Many Blogs, So Little Time

I'm up to my ears in freelance assignments and Nanowrimo but I have posted over on my author blog today!

xo,
Rebecca

What Do Mermaids Eat?

If your life as a regular old human being working a 9-5 job for the man is getting you down, the "Character and Plot Realism Q&A" forum on the National Novel Writing Month Web might cheer you up. This the place where writers who are frantically working away on their novels this month can ask questions of other writers and self-proclaimed "experts" for advice about how to make their own stories more realistic. Recent threads include:

• Things (other than arson) that could set fire to a house?
• What would make a god want to have a child?
• Reason for having two different eye-colors?
• If you drop something down a grate on an NYC street, how do you get it out?
• Mistakes a time-travelling Japanese American would make in feudal Japan?
• Bounty hunters - how does it work?
• Is this band name too emo?
• What do you do with a dead dog?
• Private detective's choice in cigarettes?
• What do mermaids eat?