Getting the Worm

I am proud to announce the official launch of the new website and blog for Killer Year, the Class of 2007. The new looks are fantastic. There's a veritable plethora of information on the website (www.killeryear.com), and a great introduction by International Thriller Writer Marketing Committee Chair M.J. Rose on the blog. Awesome stuff from my Literary Siblings - Brett Battles, JT Ellison and Sandra Ruttan - as well as KY cofounder Jason Pinter (all of whom have been interviewed here at the Lunch Room - check the archives).

I am also tickled to announce that the Killer Year inaugural class has asked me to do interviews and write profiles for several of the members, which will appear in upcoming issues of Spinetingler Magazine, a terrific crime fiction publication spearheaded by Sister Sandra and her husband. The first set of interviews will appear in the Winter 2006 issue, with more to follow in the Spring, Summer and Fall issues next year. I'm so honored to be part of the marketing and promotion campaign for this phenomenally talented group of writers. Start saving your pennies - the Killer Year is almost here.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled Monday morning ...

Read over your compositions, and wherever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.
-- Samuel Johnson, from Boswell's Life of Johnson
English author, critic, & lexicographer (1709 - 1784)

I took a little break from writing this weekend. The weather was a little unnerving here on Saturday. Fortunately, we didn't get the really nasty stuff like the upper Midwest had, but it still rained. A lot. Reports out of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, just an hour northwest of us, recorded nearly 12 inches of rain for the area. Now, my nephew will pipe up and say that's nothing - as he informed me not long ago, there were areas of Hawaii that saw something like 9 feet of rain at one time. Can you imagine?

Here's something I borrowed (okay, stole) from my buddies over at The Writing Playground. It's a word meter - something to keep track of my word count as I'm working on the WIP. Several of the Playfriends are working on novels, and they use this really cool little tracker to post their progress. So, I'm stealing their idea. What I found out was that it's from Zokutou, which is a group of writers who met doing NaNoWriMo. I was a NaNoWriMo winner last year, and I'm seriously considering doing it again. What's cool is that the Zokutou group has created what they call The Zokutou Clause, which states that if you are a previous NaNoWriMo winner, you can build on your previous 50,000 words and finish the novel you started without having to start a new novel from scratch. So, if I do decide to do NaNo this year, I shall invoke the Clause and finish that book I started, which hasn't been touched since November 30, 2005. It would be good for me to get it done.

As for the present, however, finishing the current WIP is my #1 priority. To that end, here is my word meter to date:

73,102 / 90,000 (81.2%)

The 90,000 is a rough goal. When the story's done, it's done, and I'll update the final word count then.

McCartney has been getting up at 6 a.m. recently. The time change is coming up soon, and if he doesn't adjust with the clocks it will be 5 in the morning when the McCartney alarm goes off. In which case the mutt and I will need to have a chat. I don't get up that early to go fishing. Yes, the early bird and all that, but still. If the sun's not up? Are you kidding me? 6:30 is plenty early, thank you.

I'm off to dig for worms now. I have a book to finish.

Music of the Moment: Rockin' Into the Night (38 Special), courtesy of John Boy & Billy

That's enough to get me "cruisin' down the motorway ..."

=) JB