The Invisible Library

Another National Novel Writing Month has come and gone and, alas, I have little to show for it. I wasn’t even able to finish the novel that I have been working on for the past ten months– but I did get a lot of work done on it and have only about 7-8 thousand words left to go. With a little more work and maybe a sleepless night or two, I should have it finished in two more weeks.

The book I’ve been working on is called The Lives of Perfect Creatures. The title comes from a quote by Russian Mathematician and futurist, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, who figured out the equation for escape velocity, making him, arguably the father of Space Exploration. Astronomy and the early Russian Space Program figure heavily in the story, but more in a metaphorical and symbolic way, rather than having anything to do with the plot, which is fairly thin.

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November is National Novel Writing Month.  Since I’ve been working on my novel since January, it would be a bit dishonest of me to jump in now, seeing as how I already have 37K words written. However! I’m going to try and finish the first draft this month, in solidarity with my novel writing brothers and sisters.

So far, I’ve received very positive feedback and encouragement regarding my finished novel, The Machine of the World. The only real criticism I’ve heard so far is that it many people thought there would be illustrations. Well, there are, they just aren’t finished yet. Finishing them will be my winter project, once the first draft of the new novel is done. Then I’ll post a new version of Machine with illustrations (and typos corrected!)

As for the current novel project, I’ll have periodic updates throughout the month. I encourage all Wrimos to likewise keep us informed in comments as to their progress.

Man your typewriters!*

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* And by typewriters, I of course mean open source word processing software, such as Open Office, or NeoOffice for those, like me who write on Macs and don’t want to sully our electronic words by having them mediated by Bill Gates’ crappy software. Does anyone use a typewriter anymore? I know there’s a quaint bit of mythologizing about how Real Writers only use analog mechanical typewriters, despite the fact that none have been manufactured for about twenty five years. That would drive me mad, though, given how much revising I do on the fly. That and I’d spend all my free time scouring second hand shops for ribbons and correcting fluid.