Ea, the Clever Prince(?), was under oath with them
   so he repeated their talk to the reed house:
     'Reed hut, reed hut! Wall, wall!
O man of Shuruppak, son of Ubartutu:
  Tear down the house and build a boat!
                      - Gilgamesh, Tablet XI

Who can say of mankind and all of its creations?
Will all of these letters and words which become sentences and stories
become something greater? Or will the story change until it ceases to exist?

Editor's Note: I am pissed I can't find the cuneiform to make this a wholly more fascinating post.

NaNoWriMo Cometh

Coming in November is the mad scramble to write 50k words – that’s “write”, it’s National Novel Writing Month. Each year, thousands of people participate. It’s quite the fun madhouse.

In my writing group we’re all going to give it a go. Who else out there is going to do it? I’d like to add you to my list. Here’s my info so you can add me:

http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/411510

Feel free to post your information in a comment, or email it to me if you’re shy.

My Dear Tom

A friend of mine in my writing group recently passed away. Although we never met face to face, I considered Tom Stewart a friend and a comrade in arms, and his death came as a shock. Writing is more than a story. It's a battle, a challenge to not only write The Story but to make it comprehensible to a multitude of people.

I'll never forget when I first joined the Well. He was a submitting maniac with his novel, but Tom was always kind, a hard worker, and a helluva writer. He was also generous with his time and gave as good as he got. Although I will now sadly never get to meet him, I know that part of his writing passion lives on in me and others he's helped along the way, and I hope he knows that, even though he's gone.

Part of me still can't believe he's gone. I'm waiting to hear his latest thoughts as he finishes fine-tuning the novel and looking for a publicist. But as time goes on and the emails never come, I'm sure it'll hit home one day harder than I expect.

Rest in Peace, Tom. And Godspeed.

And we're moving into the editing phase

My first chapter is getting inspected and turned inside out by my fine writing group as we speak.

Oh boy.