As always:  Victorian dip pen in a Rhodia notebook.  The pictured pens are the new Noodlers that I just received!

De Atramentis Oriental Red

Noodler’s Green

Diamine Matador

De Atramentis Fir (Scented)

Rohrer & Klingner Verdura

I must have been really tired when I tried these colours.  I forgot to write ‘Fir’ and spelled at least one other colour wrong!  I didn’t have an ‘OMG favourite’ but I did like the greens, except ‘Fir’.  I’m not a fan of the scented inks.

“What were you doing at the mall?”  She asked, not looking up from the kitten.

“Actually… I forget.”

She ended up naming it spot, even though it did not have a spot on it, because she had been at work in her studio when the kitten decided to play in her paint tray and ended up tracking little spots of paint across the wooden floor. Lily couldn’t get angry at it, though, especially when it stopped to look at its paw and try and shake the paint from it. Instead, Lily had gotten down on the floor and played with it, getting paw prints all over her clothes in the process.

As I begin to write this, it’s 23:47 on 30 November.  Thirteen minutes left of the annual month of insanity that is NaNoWriMo.

Coming at the tail end of a year seemingly devoid of all creativity, I was not looking forward to the challenge this year.  I thought and thought and thought about what to write.  I pondered and pondered.  I was certain that, while I would dabble, I didn’t expect to win.  Even when I took two weeks off of work in the middle of the month and ended up not going away like I’d planned, I wasn’t expecting too much.  I decided to rebel.

Some of the photos for the short story collection taped to my wall, waiting to be used.

I thought I would try a collection of short stories.  These would be stories each based on a different photo.  I spent a couple of days going through my photos and chose 75 that were both ‘good’ and something I thought my spur a story idea.  The plan was to write stories for 60 of these, all just over 1000 words.  The final product will, in theory, be whittled down again to 52 stories of exactly 1000 words each and be called …A Thousand Words.  This was my main project.  I thought that if I finished all 60 stories and still had time left in the month I would work on finishing my 2010 and 2011 NaNoWriMo Projects.

A bunny shaped collage of the photos in the project

If you’re interested in some of the things I wrote, you can read it here on my blog.  I posted three excerpts of the stories here as part of the 6 Sentence Sunday challenge:

• “They Mystery” (working title)
• “The Bench“
• “The Cliff“

I hand write pretty much everything, and that’s exactly what I did for NaNoWriMo.  My tools of choice were a Clairefontaine notebook (until that ran out and then I used a cheap hilroy scribbler) and fountain pens.  I used a different pen and colour for each story (and when the stories were over, I used a different colour each day.)  If you’re interested, my favourite combination was my Noodler’s Ahab flex pen and Noodler’s Habanero ink.  If you’re interested in the company I’ve linked to it is the best source for fountain pens and ink around! (In my opinion)  I’ve always loved Fountain pens, but couldn’t fine a good play to buy them (without breaking the bank).  I found out about this company on the NaNoWriMo forums last year.  <3

I said I took a two week vacation this year.  I found writing at home too distracting.  I tried the new HUB that had just opened up, but it was too quiet.  I spent about a week and a half at my local T.A.N. Coffee Shop and loved it!

“So, this is fine and all,” I hear you saying.  ”But how’d you do?”

Despite my feelings at the beginning of the month, and not even starting until 22:00 on the first day, this was a recording breaking year for me!

I had my most productive NaNo day ever – 9 089 words – on November 2nd and I crossed the 50K winner’s line on 13 November – beating my previous record by one day!  I continued to write the short stories until they were finished – my only NaNoWriMo to produce a complete first draft.   After that, I switched over to my 2010 Project Death, Life and Eternity.  I doubt I’ve written more than 1000 words on this story all year.  I was completely stumped as to what to do next.  Well, I didn’t have time for that now!  I pantsed it.  I pantsed it for 32 000 words.  And I don’t think it completely sucked!  Final tally:  102 396 words.  By hand.

The last six sentences I wrote for NaNoWriMo 2012 will be posted here Sunday morning, if you’re interested… and like cats!  Check back on 2 December!

The thing that annoys me – and with the accomplishments I had this year, nothing should annoy me – is this last week.  I could have reached 110k easy – maybe even 120k! – my the last words I wrote were written on the 27th.  (And only 500 words).  A plot hole presented itself at the same time I started back to work.  Now I’m just brain dead!  I actually figured out the plot hole today and thought I’d write a few thousand words more, but decided I should really just start cleaning my neglected apartment.  In the end I just vegged until my brain woke up enough to write this post!

So, like I said, I really have nothing to complain about… but I really hate the plateau at the end of my bar graph!

Now it’s off to bed… but no sleeping in!  We have our region’s “Thank God It’s Over” party tomorrow!  Our region wrote over 1.5 Million words this month!  You all rock!

Doris Willoughway was crazy: certifiably, effing, no one could deny it, crazy.  I mean, what else can you think when all she does all day, everyday, is walk up and down the street – and, you gotta realize, it’s a short damn street.  Up and down; north and south; back and forth from eight in the morning to five at night.  But then, you gotta admit, she’s getting her exercise

People in town say she was perfectly normal once and then one day – BAM! – crazy – no slow descent into the loony bin, just zero to crazy overnight.

What’s even more weird – yeah, it gets weirder – is that, everyday, from exactly 2:46 to 2:49, she stops and rattles off a bunch of numbers, non-stop, until she starts walking again.

Answer: 3

Water for hydration; some hot tea to warm the hands and innards; adult beverage for… ‘inspiration’?

“How do you think the clouds move like that?”

“That’s easy,” she said, jumping off the bench and flopping down beside him, shoving his legs out of the way.  ”God blows on them.  Everyone knows that!”

“Yeah, I guess, but isn’t He kind of busy for that?”

“He only does it when he’s bored, dummy, that’s why they’re not always moving.”

Turning away from the happy tourists making their way back to the car with the Massachusetts license plates – probably to continue on to the next snapshot, the next Kodak moment – she picked up an apple that sat closest to her. It was definitely not edible and anyone else would not have even picked it up. It was too soft, too shriveled, turning black. It would not take much pressure to crush the rotten fruit and have its juice run down her arm. A worm, disturbed by the sudden movement of its home and meal, slithered out of a hole in the apple and wriggled through her fingers to escape to the ground below. She continued to hold it; to stare at it.

Finally caught up!  This month, the Ink Drop focused on a new ink company (Scribal Work Shop) and their “Cryptid” line of inks.  I have to say, I can often get ‘sold’ on an ink based on the name or the story behind the name/colour.  I get caught up on that and hope and pray I like to write with the ink.  I got a kick out of these names and wanted to looove them! :)  Unfortunately I got to ‘meh’.  The ones I liked were close enough to other colours that none of these ended up on my wishlist.

Krakken Black

Nessie

Leviathan

Zhulong Red

Siren Blue

This is September’s Ink Drop – Goulet Staff Picks.  I have to say, I wasn’t a fan of any of these inks.  I’ve been using the El Lawrence for a bit now, actually – inked up my preppy with it.  While the sample above wrote nicely, I don’t like it in the pen (which annoys me, because I wanted to like it!).  Perhaps it’s an ink/pen combination?  I prefer “Dark Matter“.  Sandlewood feathered even in the Rhodia notebook.  Of course, I did this with my victorian dip pen.

Noodler’s Elysium

Noodler’s El Lawrence

De Atramentis Sandlewood (scented)

Diamine Apple Glory

De Atramentis Dianthus

I’ve continued getting my Ink Samples each month, but they stayed sitting on my desk until now.  I have to say that although this page looks a bit boring, I was quite pleased with several of these inks.  As usual, the inks were sampled with  my Victorian dip pen in my Rhodia notebook.

Noodler’s Kiowa Pecan

Diamine Ancient Copper

Noodler’s Habanero

De Atramentis Steel Blue

De Atramentis Robert Louis Stevenson

I like the ancient copper but in my (albeit small) trial use, it was really hard to see the orange; it was a bit dark.  Having said that, based on the ink swatch on the website, it’s still on my wishlist.  the Kiowa Pecan and Habanero got added to the list as well.  I really liked the R. L. Stevenson, but I already have so many blues on the list….