One of the contradictions of my Gemini personality is that while I crave constant adventure, variety, and excitement, I am also a big sucker for routine. Take, for example, the following:

National Novel Writing Month - which we are in the thick of as we speak! I love it that someone is telling me exactly how many words I must write every single day (1667!) and that I MUST make it happen or risk losing all sense of self-worth. (Or at least the chance to finish the draft of an exceedingly-crappy-yet-with-seeds-of-if-not-exactly-brilliance-then-not-so-crappy-stuff).

The gym. Now that I have established a routine whereby I go every single day at noon, nothing or no one can try to stop me or they risk getting hit in the head with my ancient blue Nike gym bag or even worse - being forced to smell the inside of it!

My morning routine. Every morning I go to Uptown Espresso to write and order an extra hot grande soy latte. Today, when a barista I’d never seen before put my coffee in a “tall” ceramic cup, instead of the “grande” glass which I *so* enjoy, things turned unpleasant.

“They always put it in the big glass,” I say sullenly, in pre-coffee, don’t-cross-me-motherf*cker mode.

“You ordered an extra-hot, right? This is what we put it in.” Now this is not true. Maybe it is true under whatever rock he crawled out from but it is not true for ME NOW HERE.

“THEY ALWAYS PUT IT IN THE BIG GLASS,” I say more loudly now, as in I AM ABOUT TO HAVE A TANTRUM.

Luckily for him he puts it in the big glass. Now I can proceed with the rest of my day, thank you very much: writing 1667 words, going to the gym at noon, reading a book before I go to sleep in utter silence, and waking up to my grande extra hot soy latte in the BIG GLASS all over again tomorrow.

National Novel Writing Month is here once again and this time I am determined to get a draft of a novel done!

The first time I did it was in 2003, when I wrote the first draft of my soon-to-be-bestselling-any-day-now-c’mon-people-and-just-buy-it-will-you novel, BreakupBabe. Oh did that first draft suck and I hardly used a word of it later on but just writing it was an important step - probably the most important step - in writing what would ultimately be my published book.

I won’t bore you with why I haven’t done it the last few years (I’ve tried) but it’s 2007 and I’m gonna make it work this year. I’M GOING TO, DAMN IT.

Meanwhile, I’m trying to think of any interesting writing-related tidbits to give you. I’m currently working on another freelance article for Seattle Metropolitan Magazine. This is the article I risked life and limb (and got soaking wet) for, and then, because that trip didn’t make for compelling copy, I went out and got soaking wet again trip (but at least I didn’t risk life and limb that time). Now I’m just procrastinating on the writing part because I’d rather daydream about the characters in my latest story - who may or may not surive after this first-draft-writing-process.

I’ve been writing a little more on SparklySparkly than here lately so check it out - if you want to read things about oh, my lack of sweaters, my impatience with people who abuse punctuation, and other such deep and profound things.