Only a little over a month left until National Novel Writing Month. Dear Zuzu introduced me to the event last year and I was thrilled to have logged more than 20,000 words (which for me was and is a world record) in the attempt. I fell far short of the required 50,000 words but that doesn�t matter. The victory is in the attempt and I will make the attempt again this year. I fully intend on �cheating�. By this I mean that I will pick up where I left off on the story I have worked on for such a long time in my head and began to flesh out on paper last year. Before you cluck your tongue let me defend myself. The prize for the competition is bragging rights. That�s right, you can tell people you wrote a novel in November. How much appreciation this will garner from friends and family is varies dependent on how obnoxiously you parade around with your manuscript. I myself don�t care much for bragging. I have found that people never appreciate the wonder that is you no matter how many times you insist on your unparalleled genius or talent. (See Calvin)

Calvin: "I sure am great! I'm one of the greatest people who ever lived! How lucky people are to know someone as great as me! I'm great in so many great ways! In fact, I'm so great that my greatness is..."

Susie: "You're not great! You're one of the most conceited blowhards I've ever met!"

Calvin: "When you're great, people often mistake candor for bragging."

On a slight side track (one created by my google search for the Calvin quote above) everything I need to know can be found in a Calvin and Hobbs cartoon. Bill Watterson is on my list of �People I would like to meet� and also concurrently on my list of �People I am afraid to meet because they might not live up to my expectations and what a disappointment that would be.� I experienced such a let down at my first (and only) Prince concert, after spending several years appreciating his musical genius and interesting philosophical bent I found him in concert to be arrogant and smug deigning to perform for the pitiful masses. Thus I chickened out of venturing into geek central (the Comicon in San Diego) to meet the man, the myth (the geek?) that is Bill Watterson. *Sigh* maybe some other time.

Oooh here are some of my other favorite Calvinisms:

Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.

History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction. That's why events are always reinterpreted when values change. We need new versions of history to allow for our current prejudices.

People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world.

I'M SIGNIFICANT!...screamed the dust speck.

Back from the Calvinesque detour I also ran across this quote in my search for appreciation of greatness:

""Greatness is never appreciated in youth, called pride in midlife, dismissed in old age, and reconsidered in death. Because we cannot tolerate greatness in our midst, we do all we can do destroy it."

~ J. Michael Straczinski

So as I have clearly demonstrated there is, in fact, a historical precedent for the under-appreciation of greatness such as mine. Be that as it may I shall persevere in my literary challenge and hopefully fulfill my destiny.

611 words (if I count quotes of other authors) not bad for a lunch hour. Now at 600 words a lunch hour over 30 days (30 x 600 = 12,000) and that�s just lunch. Oh I am so gonna do it this year. I think I need to do some warm up exercises so don�t be surprised if you get to finding some fiction in this space over the next month. You will of course continue to receive the whining and sniveling that often fills this space at intervals and tidbits as to my life and times for your �I knew her when� stories but you may also have the pleasure of my literary prowess.

I wish you Peace

~alison~

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