Wild goose chase (part one)

NaNoWriMo
Current word count: 26,153
Where I have to be by the end of the day: 26,672

Piece of cake. :)

This past Sunday (as in, not yesterday but the one before that) I attended the NB Writing Retreat - organized by Freddy Words - during which we wrote for eight-ish hours more or less nonstop. I managed to write almost 10k that day alone, and it's a darn good thing I did, because otherwise I'd be extremely behind right now. You see, quite a few... non-NaNoWriMo... things have been going down here lately.

I know.

The most important non-NaNo thing that's going on right now is school. I only have, like, not even three weeks left of this semester before final exams start, and I had two exams last week, so you can understand there have been a few days where I've not even been able to TOUCH the computer. I mean, even today, right after I finish this (because I hadn't updated since October, I figured it was probably a good idea to throw a post your way), I have to finish my statistics homework (blech - understand why I'm procrastinating?). Hectic-hectic!

Speaking of hectic, the Christmas season has started at work. -_- And yeah, they called me almost every day this past week to pick up shifts. I had to refuse a couple of them because of NaNo and school - because apparently, they don't realize a university student who's writing a novel can't work every freaking day - but I did take one on Thursday because I felt bad. So I ended up working four days in a row. And wanted to shoot myself.

Those are the major reasons I haven't been doing as much writing as I would have liked to this past week, but I guess it's to be expected from a university student working part-time. But thanks to the NB Writing Retreat, I seem to have it more-or-less under control. Which is really, really good - and quite unexpected. I thought for sure I would be behind by at least a couple days at this point in the month, but I'm not behind at all. Because I'm pretty sure I can cough up 500 words at some point today. :P

There is one other thing, besides school and work, which has been... I guess you could say, preoccupying me.

... Let me explain.

Now may be a good time to tell you that I am pretty much addicted to horror movies. They are pretty much the only thing, besides the comedy network, "Grey's Anatomy" and "Intervention", I ever watch on TV. They are, but for a few exceptions, the only movies I really like. Hannibal Lecter is my husband. Jason Voorhees = coolster. And though I'm almost convinced there is no movie I could ever love more than "Fatal Attraction", one series of movies in particular is pretty freaking high up there on my list of "Movies I Get Ridiculously Pumped About Watching" - and that is the almost hideously long "Halloween" series. Like, yesterday I actually went to my chain-smoking grandmother's teeny-tiny apartment (my chronic bronchitis and all) to dig out my eccentric aunt's entire storage cabinet in search of "Halloween" movies. I am not shitting you.

Where am I going with this, you ask?

Okay. Well, long story short, the other day I found out that there was a novelization of the first "Halloween" movie. I pretty much flipped my lid, because this is a big deal. Because the novel has a perfect rating record and allegedly follows the movie to a tee while expanding on the plot and backstory. So immediately, before even checking it out, I decided I HAD (HAD) to read this book. And I'm one of those people that once I get something into my head, it's almost IMPOSSIBLE to get it out until I achieve it.

Mistake number one.

So all happy, I headed on over to work to figure out just how quickly I could get this freaking book. However curiously, the thing was not even in our system. "What the hell"-like, I broke store rules and headed over to Amazon.com to figure out what on Earth the meaning of this nonsense was.

The good news is, I found the book on Amazon. The bad news is, it was published in 1979. Like most books, it stayed around for about ten years before it went out of print. So it's been out of print since, like, the late 1980s. As a result, this mass-market book is now classified as "extremely rare" and is worth approximately one hundred dollars (see for yourself - click the title of the post!).

I said, "NO!"

So because I am hugely stubborn, instead of just giving up hope on ever reading this awesome-sounding book, I have devised a few plans to find it.

Plan A: Call my eccentric aunt Linda and see if she owns it. (Which failed - Linda has all the movies, but has never read nor owned the book. Silly Linda.)
Plan B: Lurk used bookstores around Moncton in the vain hopes that perhaps, just perhaps, someone may have it, not be aware of its value, and sell it to me for like three dollars (which we are doing today).
Plan C: Sell 100$ worth of my crap on Ebay, thus "exchanging" it for the book. I seriously hope it doesn't come to this. XD

So my plan for today - lurking used bookstores, then returning home no later than seven o'clock to get at least my 1,667 words for the day done! Wish me luck on my wild goose chase!

First Post

This is the part where I introduce myself.

My name is N.L. LeBlanc. I'm 18 years old and live in New Brunswick, Canada. I graduated from high school in June and am attending University in September as a psychology student. After completing my bachelor's degree, I plan on going to medical school and pursuing a career in psychiatry.

My passion is writing. I am a published author (poetry) and have been working on my beloved novel since June 2008. Before I started writing Life in Black and White, I wrote the beginnings of two other novels (at ages 15 and 16), completed one previous novel (age 13) and two novellas (ages 11 and 12). None of my novels were published at those ages. The completed novel won't be, as it was the first of a series and I have no interest in continuing in. But I do plan on someday reworking the novellas and hopefully putting them out there.

If those novels were "happy relationships" while they lasted, then Life in Black and White is the love of my life. I've been working on it for a year and two months, and giving up has never been an option (although I am currently sifting through annoying filler... but it'll end soon enough :P). Basically my life's ambition is to get it published and for it to hopefully become a bestseller.

Which is why I am working on getting smaller things (poetry, short stories) published, so that I can have a nice list of previous publications to impress an agent with. :)


Why on Earth am I blogging instead of writing my novel?

Well, kids, sometimes a writer needs a break, you know? Take today, for example. I told my mother I would be able to give her chapters 33-39 by tomorrow night, so I spent basically the whole day working on chapters 36 and 37. Now I'm pooped.

Although I always tend to feel guilty when doing something other than writing my book, the truth is that blogging, to me, is basically a writer's therapy. I love talking about my book. I especially love talking about my characters, who have a mind of their own. Blogging, I hope, will give me a good outlet to do that, even when it feels like no one is listening.

And once I've made my daily (or at least regular) post, I can plunge back into my work a refreshed, motivated me.

Or at least that's what I tell myself.