"October, October - the summer is over!"

There's a tree across the street from our apartment that's caught my eye today.  The leaves have turned a brilliant gold, and every gust of wind sends them bursting up into the sky like a shower of sparks.   In a neighboring yard an apple tree's branches are bowed with heavy fruit.  Occasionally an apple will fall and bounce onto the sidewalk, to be squabbled over by the large black squirrels that occupy our neighborhood.

Halloween decorations are also starting to occupy the neighborhood.  The old Victorian houses on our street don't need much decoration to make them seem ominous at twilight, but a few of the owners are throwing themselves into the spirit of the season.  Yesterday I walked past a cherubic little girl in a bright pink jacket running around her yard, stabbing shrunken heads on pikes into the ground.  She seemed to be having a marvelous time.

Speaking of ominous, I went to a couple Word Fest events on Friday.  One was called 'International Intrigue' and featured F.G. Haghenbeck, Steven Heighton, and the "Queen of Victorian mysteries", Anne Perry.  Haghenbeck writes Mexican private eye novels that sound very fun and entertaining, written with the dry observational humor that characterizes many Mexican novels (he comes from a country with a stagering murder rate, he said, and you have to laugh or you go crazy).  Heighton read part of a short story from his book The Dead Are More Visible, and I think I may need to find a copy for myself.  It was the story of a Canadian in Japan, learning the language through a used Japanese/English primer.  It did a remarkable job of slowly building suspense until you come to realize, with rising horror, what actually happened.

Then there was Anne Perry.  The moderator of the evening was a huge fan, and didn't do as good a job at keeping her comments on point.  That was a bit unfortunate, but it was clear that Perry enjoys researching her topics, and feels strongly about the societal issues in each of her novels.  And then she read aloud from her latest William Monk mystery, A Sunless Sea.

I haven't read as much of her latest work because I do find them a little formulaic, but when she read aloud - wow!  It was as if all the air left the room. I don't think anyone even breathed.  She didn't speak loudly, but it carried.  Her characters, even Monk, had slightly different intonations and accents, and lent new weight to the words on the page.  I was impressed.  I still don't know if I want to read the latest Monk, but I have a new respect for her and her methods.

So that was Word Fest.  On Saturday Collin and I went to the wedding of friends of his.  It was at a church.

It's been years since I went to a wedding at a church.  My friends all tend to get married in the woods.  Collin and I were both confudled about the level of formality required (tie? Pantyhose?), but eventually managed to get ourselves there on time.  Actually, due to a calendar error (my bad) we arrived an hour and a half early.

The ceremony was short but lovely.  The bride was beautiful (and brave - she sang an impressive solo at her own wedding!), the groom was...himself.  After the bride shakily read the vows she'd written herself, he responded by saying, "Awesome!  Well!  That segueways well into what I wanted to say..."

I shouldn't give him too hard of a time, because I'm sure he was nervous.  Still, it was kind of funny.

Alas, Collin and I did not get a picture to prove how well we both clean up (I'm sure there are parties interested in seeing him in a tie, heh), but maybe we'll have to go out someplace fancy in the future to give those clothes an outing.  

Write. Sleep. Freeze.

The last two days have been gray and chilly here in Calgary.  It's the perfect weather for writing because I  don't feel like there's anywhere else I need to be.  Actually, in front of my laptop is the only place I ought to be right now.  I've decided to follow the National Novel Writing Month schedule and finish a draft of my novel by Dec. 1st (well, November 30th).  After spending a lot of time on false starts and research, I decided to give myself a hard deadline. Therefore, October is my last planning and plotting month.  And I have planned a way to plot!

A while back I bought Elizabeth George's (author of the Inspector Lynley series) Write Away.  Sadly, this book is one of a box that I couldn't afford to send up to AB, but I remember some key points.  One, George started out as a high school teacher, and finished her first Inspector Lynley novel during a summer.  The key was organizing herself and her information so when it was time to write the story, she was ready.  Second, George is probably a little OCD.  Part of her organization included doing character sheets and histories for each character that appears on her pages for any amount of time.  The final important thing I remember George mentioning is that she started with a crime in mind before she started thinking about characters or setting (unless they tied into the crime).  She would ask herself "what if?" questions about it until she came up with an interesting angle.

For the first time ever, I started with this third step.  I know the who, what, where, why, and whens of the crime (a violent poisoning death!).  I spent a lot of time researching what could drive a person to such desperate lengths (I'm trying to avoid the classic cozy mystery trope of, "Why, clearly he was temporarily insane!").  My internet search history is no doubt very alarming.

I've taken a lot of pointers from Story by Robert McKee, as well.  It's directed towards screenwriters, but I figure a good story is a good story in whatever medium you chose.  McKee has a lot of tips for keeping the momentum going, keeping people interested in the action, and ensuring cohesiveness in the plot.  Outlining the "turns" in the first act was easy enough.  Now I just need to figure out what happens during the majority of the story.

Well, I ended up rambling on about my book longer than I intended to.  It's what's been occupying my mind and time lately, and one reason why there's been a lack of blog entries.  My sister Allison just mentioned that she never hears from me, so I thought I should show I'm alive (again!).  Part of the charm of doing the NaNoWriMo challenge is that there are community events for writers to go to (Calgary seems to have a very active NaNo club - the WriMoSauruses) so I'll be able to socialize a bit more (and have more to report for the blog!).  Also, everyone should feel free to comment below - it's always nice to hear from people!  Let me know what you've been up to, or if you have any questions about things.

Moving along: the only really exciting news is that we got a new mattress Monday.   The IKEA bed and futon pad was just not cutting it (especially as more and more things seemed to collapse under it - why would anyone make a particle board bed frame?!).  After sleeping on the new mattress Monday night I woke up Tuesday feeling closer to my actual age, which was awesome.  Collin, who has terrible insomnia sometimes (and at the moment, another cold), went back to bed and slept most of the day.  I think this may actually be our most brilliant purchase to date.

Now our storage room is packed with pieces of wood from the old IKEA bed (except for the broken bits - they're on the balcony, and we're plotting ways to do a drop-n-dash in local dumpsters.  Actually, I'm plotting.  Collin is merely watching my increasingly stupid daring plans with bemusement.).  I had ideas to turn the scraps into a +15 for the cat, or make a side table.  Or make everyone kind of wobbly boxes for Christmas.  If only I'd listened to my father and brought my drill.... :)

The yellow leaves are starting to fade to brown, and snow is falling in soft flurries today.  It's not sticking, and the forecast says the clouds should start to roll back tomorrow.  It's a good day to make a pot of tea and get more writing done.  I think that's what I'll do.