There were days where the words flowed out easily, days where each word was a struggle, and then there were days where no words were typed at all. The last one happened way too much in the early part of November, but I ended up pushing through and coming back.

That’s right, I finished NaNo this year.

A lot of the time I didn’t have any idea on where the plot was going, but I was able to have a lot of fun with character development. The funny thing to me was finally experiencing what many writers have spoken about; their characters doing things that weren’t expected. I never understood that before. I mean, I created them. I am writing their background, their personality, what they say, and so on, so why would they do something that wasn’t what I wanted? How it happened to me was when I would be writing out a scene that I had planned in my head. Nothing too detailed, just a basic idea of what I wanted the characters to do. But the character didn’t end up doing that. She ended up doing something different as I was writing out her actions. Even though I was the one driving her personality, she ended up having control over what she would do or wouldn’t do. I have to admit, it was kind of cool and interesting to experience.

So I’ll bet you’re curious what my story was about. I started with an idea that I saw over at i09. They were listing some creatures that deserved a shot at big success, like what vampires and werewolves are currently having. This one stuck out with me, especially the part I bolded.

Lich

Where you’ve see it: Dungeons & Dragons, World of Warcraft, The Elder Scrolls, Final Fantasy.

What it is: Sort of like zombies with brains (and not the eating kind), liches are undead creatures who retain their intellect but whose bodies keep on rotting. They’ve generally chosen this way of non-life as a sort of perverse immortality.

Why it deserves a shot at the big time: Liches have been a staple of high fantasy, and it’s time to drag them into the modern era. Egomaniacal scholars, wizards, and business men could all seek to preserve their consciousness for future generations, with terrifying (and fairly gross) results. There’s a definite supervillainous quality to liches; they may not jump out and shout “boo,” but they’re likely to have a horde of horrifying minions. And when you finally see their faces, liches can be pretty frightening themselves.

I ended up with a hodge podge of Mass Effect, Event Horizon, Dead Space inspired space horror, where rich clients could preserve their mind as a Lich. It had a huge corporation behind the technology that made it possible, and the same corporation provided a planet in their privately owned system where the Lich could develop their powers, intellect, or whatever else they wanted. My heroine was a bad ass soldier who was infiltrating the elite security forces to investigate what was going on, since the corporation was hiding the Lich and their technology from the government.

My story had everything. Action! Conspiracies! Rotting, powerful, immortal creatures! Violence! Sex!

They only thing is that I didn’t finish the story. While I did hit the 50K mark, the plot didn’t find an ending. I wasn’t sure how to tie it all together, so I just kept dragging out the characters doing stuff to get the count. I’d be interested to see how I could get it all together and finish it. I still think it’s an interesting story. What do you guys think?

And speaking of dragging out the word count, I admit to cheats. Oh the cheats! Like unnecessary chapter titles, or not using contractions, or using an ellipse to count as a word, or very detailed sex scenes. The worst cheat it did was have someone singing the ‘bottles of beer on the wall’ song for about a page of text. Except it wasn’t just a bottle of beer, it was a bottle of an alien drink that had two words in its name. It’s not a cheat I’m proud of, but when it comes to NaNo, sometimes you need something, anything, to bump up your word count for the day. Of course, it’s the cheats that are the first to go when editing.

Anyone else do well? Not do well? Or the most important question of all… Are we going to do it again next year?

It’s the time of year when many employees are asked to give donations to charities through the Combined Federal Campaign.

CFC is the world’s largest and most successful annual workplace charity campaign, with more than 300 CFC campaigns throughout the country and internationally to help to raise millions of dollars each year.

It’s been a great way for me to give, since it’s deducted from my paycheck throughout the year. One that is always on my list to give to is Planned Parenthood of Central Oklahoma, but this year I wanted to give to some kind of skeptical charity. Or at the very least one that helped promote science and critical thinking.

I started by doing a keyword search of the charities for “skeptic”, but was not happy when the one and only hit ended up being this:

Reasons to Believe www.reasons.org Ministry that uses emerging scientific discoveries as strategic resources to
engage skeptics and equip believers with a fact-based foundation for Christian faith and outreach

Oh, joy. In addition I could also donate to Answers in Genesis. Yes, the same one that built the Creation “Museum”. Of course, there are many, many different Christian charities that are available, like the well known Catholic Charities, but I don’t understand how those two can make the qualification and re-qualification required each year.

So if I couldn’t give to a skeptical organization, my quest began to find a good science based one. Don’t get me wrong, there are quite a few really good organizations. Domestic, children, and sexual violence charities, AIDS charities, homeless and community organizations, civil rights…just to name a few. I ended up deciding on Science Olympiad:

Encourages male/female/minority K-12 students to participate in academic events at tournaments designed to promote career interest in science/technology/engineering/math (STEM) education.

Yay for getting kids into science! I really wish there were at least a few skeptical organizations available. I mean if quite a few creationist and “the bible is true!” type organizations can get approved for CFC (and believe me, there were more than just the two I listed), how hard could it be to get the James Randi Educational Foundation or the Richard Dawkins Foundation added as an option? I know I can’t be the only one who would love to give to a skeptical organization through the CFC.

If there is anyone involved in a non-profit skeptical organization, please please please look into the application for CFC for the next donation period. I will definitely donate if you make it on the list.

It was great to have my first visit to London fall on November 5th.

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.

A very happy Bonfire/Guy Fawkes Night to all! Ah, to be able to visit London again on this night would be great. I was there during my honeymoon 7 years ago, watching the bonfires and hearing fireworks go off in the neighborhoods near our hotel.

In honor of the holiday, read or watch V for Vendetta. Me, I think I’m eyeing a Remember, Remember shirt.

People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.