"In a hole in the ground there lived a"—no, wait.

It's November 1st, and if you're not already aware that means it's the start of National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. Coming up are Pirate Comic Writing Month, Feminist Tome Writing Month, and Attic Ode Writing Month, aka PiCoWriMo, FemToWriMo, and AttOWriMo. (Last month, of course, was Miniature Crossword Writing Month, preceded by the extraordinarily taxing Military Library Writing Month. Whew—I'm gonna be feeling that one for a while.) I have my back up against NaNoWriMo for a number of reasons, but, never being one to miss a passing bandwagon, this seems as good a time as any to plunge back into the actual writing of The Slow Palace. I have no plans to finish it in a month—indeed, if it is finished in a month of months I will be well pleased—but, really, somebody needs to write it down, and I guess it's going to be me. Many nights this month I've been spotted scribbling in my Moleskine in a coffee shop, which is one of the early signs, but it's time to make there be words.

I'm going to try discussing the process here, having given up on my previous helpful theory that great art can only be created in the total absence of support, but I haven't yet decided what the privacy settings will be. If you want to be sure you're on whatever filter I wind up using, let me know.