October’s Random Thoughts

Readers, I briefly considered skipping my weekly post because I had my Pfizer booster yesterday and I am WORN OUT, which is exactly how I felt after the second dose. I was prepared both times to feel like absolute garbage, and instead I felt (and currently feel) tired and rundown. If the pattern holds, I’ll be my usual delightful self by tomorrow.

Plus, and as always, I couldn’t think of anything important enough to commit a whole post to, so today I will give you a collection of random things that I want to mention, but didn’t seem like enough for a post all their own.

---

WAIT, WHAT?

Y’all, it’s October. How it got to BE October is a mystery to me. I posted this same thought to the Book of Faces this week, and some of the responses were some variation of “Time marches on.” Yes, I understand that. I was a marching band nerd back in the day, and what time is doing is not marching. I’m pretty sure it’s sprinting. In fact, I’m fairly certain time is trying to break some sort of world speed record.

I’m sure some of you are pleased with the arrival of fall, for whatever reasons that make you happy–the proliferation of pumpkin spice…everything, the cooler weather, sweaters (and I’ll admit I do like my cold weather wardrobe much more than my hot weather wardrobe) and boots, and Halloween. I already regaled you with a post about my own favorite season (it’s spring). I’ve never cared much for Halloween, not even when I was a kid, and the arrival of fall means Christmas is just around the corner, which always seems to catch me by surprise, even though I know it’s coming. Every. Year.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, so at least fall brings that to look forward to. OH! And my husband and I have booked a child-free vacation in just a couple of weeks, our first one in more than ten years.

With the arrival of October comes the final push for NaNoWriMo prep. I’m still assembling meals, but beyond that, I think I’m well prepared. The outline is finished, but I can always add more if it occurs to me, and the playlist is ready (shoutout to my son’s friend, who has curated an awesome list of lyric-less classical pieces to keep me hearing the voices in my head and typing what they say all month long). What I’m still thinking about is what to do about this blog during NaNoWriMo. I could still post every week, but you might just get a paragraph about how well it’s going, or about how badly. Or an occasional post throughout the month when I get tired of screaming into the void. Or I’ll just take the entire month off, see you December 1. If you have any thoughts, please share them.

---

WHATEVER WILL BE UPDATE

Oh, yeah! I wrote a novel! It’s still on track to go to the proofreader before November 1 (eight more chapters to polish). This week I was able to have a lovely conversation with a lawyer friend who works in copyright law and got all my questions in that area answered. Some of you are asking yourselves, “Didn’t she say somewhere that she’s a lawyer?” Yes, it’s true. I went to law school and passed the bar exam in our neighboring state of California. But law school teaches you the law (and only in sort of a esoteric, generally applicable way), not how to be a lawyer. So, I had to call in the big guns.

All that leads me to the best news this week: I don’t have to change the damn title. I was really worried about this, most of all because titling is one of the things about writing that sucks. But, it’s fine. Everything’s fine. At the same time I give it to the proofreader, I will begin the process to register my copyright.

Being a real, published novelist gets more real every day. Thanks to all of you for being on this journey with me.