More Updates: NaNoWriMo 2009 and Knitting

NaNoWriMo 2009

I keep forgetting about this one.

I signed up for NaNoWriMo in October. It had certainly been successful for me in 2005–Mortal Touch started out as my 2005 NaNo “winner,” although I went on to write 120,000 more words and revise almost every paragraph of the initial 50K before the book was finished.

But I didn’t manage to finish this year–or even come close. I worked away at it doggedly, and posted my word count every day that there was one. But I just had too much on my plate with getting Cat the Vamp released, finishing the edits and layout for Krymsin Nocturnes, and doing Thanksgiving dinner with my dad. I managed to write 20,535 words and that was all I could do.

Still, I can’t call it a failure, not by any means. I decided to try and get some actual words down for All the Shadows of the Rainbow, the book that will be either Book 3 or Book 4 in the Vampires of New England Series. (It will be Book 4 if I get back to 99 Covenant Street first, and that’s a possibility because 99 Covenant Street is set in the present day and involves a lot less research. I won’t say no research, but not like All the Shadows of the Rainbow, which covers a period of time from 1955 to 1972 and is heavily tied into historical events of that era. My work table is groaning under stacks of books about the late 50s and 60s, and then there are all the documentaries and videos!) Up to this point, All the Shadows of the Rainbow had consisted of a vague cloud of scenes in my head and one hell of an ending. But once I really started working on it, things started to fall into place.

It definitely helped that I’d already done a 40K-word marathon in September and finished The Longer the Fall. I just picked right up from the ending of that book and ran with it. Almost immediately, I realized that the central antagonist in All the Shadows of the Rainbow is actually a character mentioned in passing in The Longer the Fall and already tightly connected to several characters in the story. That was one of those light bulb revelations–“Oh. Of course that’s who he is. Stupid me, why didn’t I see that before?” The second I realized that, of course, everything about this character and what happens to him and how that will affect other characters instantly became intensely charged, and he just burst into life. His whole personality was simply jumping out when I wrote his dialogue, I didn’t even have to think about it, he was just there, completely distinctive and unique, different from any other character in the series so far. Along with that, the whole flow of the storyline really solidified and started to take shape. It was as if the very act of writing, without even knowing where I was going to go with it, caused the entire book to coalesce automatically. But, it’s been percolating in my head for a pretty long time.

Knitting

I used to knit a lot years ago, and I was quite proficient at it. I taught myself all kinds of fancy patterns and stitches and techniques, and I used to go through these afghan-making frenzies where I would just have to knit an afghan. I did several of them, and a couple of sweaters. I also used to knit slippers for gifts and probably made a dozen or so pairs for various people. I have tons of knitting needles and accessories. But here’s the really stupid thing: I hate, hate, HATE acrylic and artificial fibers! I can’t stand to wear them, they make my skin crawl. So I’d buy cheap acrylic yarn, spend all that time knitting something out of it, and then when it was done, I didn’t want the finished item! I never wore the sweaters I made!

Well, obviously, you can get natural fiber yarns–and that’s a lot easier (and slightly less extravagant) now than it was, say, thirty years ago. But by the time that clicked with genius here, I’d gotten into other creative projects and knitting got pushed back to the 25th hour of the day along with so many other things I do well but don’t have time for.

Oh, I still thought about it. From time to time I brought home some interesting wool yarn, thinking I’d make myself socks. So I had this nice yarn but I never got to the point of using it.

But now, it seems, everyone is knitting. I know all these writers, in particular, who knit. I have men friends with knitting blogs. I go to conventions and people sitting next to me are knitting. Even worse, they’re knitting socks. I mean, there’s just so much of this I can take!

So, very suddenly, I hauled out my baskets of yarn and collections of knitting needles, sorted and reorganized what I had, and started knitting. I’m knitting a pair of socks. I mean that literally, because I’m knitting both socks at the same time. That way, when I’m done, I’ll have the whole pair rather than finish one and have to start all over from the beginning. It’s going to take me a while, because I’m a very practical knitter: I knit to have something I actually want to use, which means I’m knitting wool socks on teeny needles, and I only pick up the knitting at those rare times when I’m listening to something, like a podcast. Remember, I don’t watch TV! I’ve got enough wool, I think, for three pairs of socks. They might change colors unexpectedly, because I don’t really care what they look like. They’ll be inside my boots, and I just love wool socks. 🙂 I may make some sweaters, too, because I have so much trouble finding clothes that are small enough now.

I’m just too damned suggestible! All my friends jump off a cliff knitting, and there I go!

The socks so far–they’re knitted on four double-pointed needles, so I’m using nine needles simultaneously, size 3–and some of the nice wool yarn I’ve collected.