Friday, November 20, 2009

The Light at the end of the tunnel

Dear Lucy,
As I come roaring in to the 40,000 word landmark (only 10,000 more to go) I am pleased that I set out on this zany novel writing adventure.
Writing the words hasn't been so hard as having to process the story in its entirety and live the summer again. It was a rough summer.
I have met a woman on line and we have become good friends, even spent an entire night in a hotel celebrating our friendship (wink, wink, nod, nod, know what I mean? Say no more).
The night before we met at the hotel I had a good cry and said goodbye to Anne in a different way. For the last year I have been saying goodbye because she left me. That night I said goodbye because in a way, I was leaving her. I felt guilty and scared and excited about leaving her and taking that first step as a single woman.
I finally took my wedding ring off and put it away.
I think, thank God, I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel...
--Kathy

Monday, November 16, 2009

Dear Lucy,


Sent from a friend, I had to put it on the blog. Oh and I hit 31,891 words today.










So after landing my new job as a Wal-Mart greeter,

a good find for many retirees,

I lasted less than a day........

About two hours into my first day on the job a very loud,

unattractive, mean-acting woman walked into the store with her two kids,

Yelling obscenities at
them all the way through the entrance.

As I had been instructed, I said
pleasantly, 'Good morning and welcome to Wal-Mart.

Nice children you have there. Are they twins?'

The ugly woman stopped yelling long enough
to say, 'Hell no, they ain't twins. The oldest one's 9, and the other
one's 7.

Why the hell would you think they're twins? Are you blind, or
just stupid?'

So I replied,

'I'm neither blind nor stupid,
Ma'am,

I just couldn't believe someone slept with you twice.

Have a good day and thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart.'

My supervisor said I probably wasn't cut out for this line of work..


--Kathy

Friday, November 13, 2009

Me Fingers R getting tired

Dear Lucy
Hit 30,008 words today! Me fingers R tired and me shoulders are starting to spasm. My brain is crying uncle and my teeth are turning brown from all the coffee.
20,000 more words to go!
--Kathy

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Writing Totem




Dear Lucy,


Some writers have a writing totem or favorite had that they wear when they write or a favorite pen or chair.


I found this guy at a yard sale. His eye patch flips up and you shake him and one of those dice things floats up with the answer to your question like the old Eight Balls we played with as kids.


He has said nothing particularly motivating yet...


At 25,948 words...


--Kathy

Monday, November 9, 2009

22,236 Words!



Dear Lucy,


It is week two of the novel and I seem to be right on track. According to the book, "No Plot? No Problem", written by the lunatic who started this crazy contest, by the second week writers are feeling like trashing their novel and starting over. The thrill of newness is gone and now the drudgery is setting in.


That's where I am right now. The editor in me is telling me that this is the worst writing I have ever done and am wasting my time. The plot stinks, the stories are dull, the insights hackneyed, oh I could go on.


I have learned over the years that when things get tough, you have to just "suit-up and show-up" and that is what I am doing. What a drag.


"The thrill is gone...the thrill is gone bayyyyybeeee..."


--Kathy

Friday, November 6, 2009

Dear Lucy,
The word count is now at 14,000, a staggering amount of writing for me. The story is hard to write but cathartic and who knows, maybe one day when I am long gone someone in the family will read it and get something out of it.
The air mattress is doing much better and I am getting good sleep.
I continue to apply for jobs as they show on the computer. So far I have applied at Signature Home Health and at St Joseph for several positions plus an inventory specialist position somewhere in Blaine near the border. I tell ya, I am getting closer and closer to moving to Canada {{{{shudder}}}}}.
Sooner or later, some one's gotta call for an interview. and in the meantime, I write. And hope the air mattress doesn't spring another leak!
--Kathy

Wednesday, November 4, 2009


Dear Lucy,
Hit 9,515 words today on the novel and tho it is hard to start writing every day, it is amazingly easy to do 1600 words once I get started.
I am amazed at how many people at Barne's and Nobel, where I come to do my writing to get away from distractions, suddenly want to talk to me.
Is there a sign on my head? Perhaps I should make one up to put on the table that says, "Please do not feed or talk to the writer".
My air mattress has become my worst enemy, going flat the last five nights. It is a double height mattress, easier to get in and out of but when I wake up in the middle of the night with my ass touching terafirma and my entire body covered in air mattress, I feel like the wiener in the bun!
Suzie and I have tried several times to patch the two holes we have found with patches for bike tires but I guess they just aren't the same. So I broke down (almost literally) and went to REI to buy air mattress patches. Wish me luck.
--Tired in Bellingham

Sunday, November 1, 2009

A Strange Way to Grieve


Dear Lucy,
The novel I am writing for the Nanowrimo contest is called, A Strange Way to Grieve. I had mentioned the possiblity of doing this a month or so ago.
Here is the opening paragraphs of the novel:




A Strange Way to Grieve
November 1, 2009

Be silent, and sit down for you are drunk,
and this is the edge of the roof. --Rumi

It had been a full 10 minutes since I last felt my legs.
At lease it seemed like 10 minutes. But then, who can tell when you are stoned?
I looked down and found that yes, they were still there, attached to my body and tapping away in time to the pounding rhythms of Phil Lesh and Bob Wier, remnants of the Grateful Dead playing a concert in Oakland, California.
It was September 18, 2009, 359 days after Anne, my partner of 16 years, had died suddenly of a heart attack. I had never attended a Grateful Dead concert. Never knew much about the Grateful Dead or their music aside from Terrapin and Touch of Gray, Touch of Gray being a number one hit and the only hit the band ever had in their 30 plus years together.
Anne had bought several of their CD and I started listening to them after she died becoming a late-comer fan.
As I looked around the crowded hall of the Ford Theater in Oakland, the pot smoke wafting from every tie dye clad person in every seat around me, 50 years old, stoned, paranoid from weed stronger than I remembered from my youth, alone, widowed, unemployed and nearly homeless, I thought to myself, isn’t this a strange way to grieve?


--Kathy

The Race is ON!


Dear Lucy,

Did you hear the starting bell at midnight last night? That was the sound of millions of writers all around the world starting on their novels.

Should I write every day, I would have to write 1,666 words per day. Oh baby.

I am dinking around right now while I wait for my laundry to dry then I am off to Barne's and Nobel so I don't get interrupted by phone, dog, or Dad hocking up phlegm.

I may write and keep you posted on the blog or I might drop off the face of the earth.

--Kathy