Well, here it is: my new logo for The Short Review, which celebrated its 2nd birthday today with the publication of the November issue: short story news, reviews and author interviews.

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My word count for today and to celebrate, I decided to create a Wordle. [Below].

If you want to create your own Wordle, that’s the link (left). This is mine:

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Had another splurge – boosted my word count for today and stopped before I hit the wall. By concentrating on one character a day I seem to be able to get into their heads better with links to the other characters I can develop later. Still not thinking too much about it … want to keep my writing fresh and let the ideas come tumbling out.

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Fourth day in and I didn’t begin today until thirty minutes ago but am already 472 words up on yesterday with a total so far of 6060, on target for finishing 28 November. I’ve approached the whole thing in a much more laid back way – last year, my first – I’d no idea if I’d have the stamina or the words even to write 50,000. As it was, I wrote far more and in only three weeks, though once I stopped, that was it, finished.

This time I’m doing other things besides NaNo. Lots of people doing it have full time jobs, children – I don’t have those responsibilities now, so can afford to limit the time I spend writing and do other things like the monthly preparation of reviews and author interviews for The Short Review. Today I’ve prepared three author interviews, Richard Lange, Regi Claire and Ellis Sharp – make really interesting reading, oh … and changed the bed, done two lots of washing … umm, set up digibox with OH (it’s digital switchover day in Granada TV land) so we can watch all the programmes we’ve not been able to watch while we only had terrestrial TV. What has this all got to do with NaNo? Not a lot – but it’s so easy to use up time doing even minor domestic things. OK, now I really am going to stop and find out what my character is going to get up to next …

… Day one of thirty fiction-packed November days in which I aim to reach my target of writing (at least) 50 thousand words.

According to my progress spreadsheet (sad geek that I am) I’ve completed 3% today – 1733 words of (for me who usually goes literary) surprisingly entertaining stuff.

I decided to list my genre – even though I hate defining fiction by genre – as mainstream. Thought it might free me up mentally, and it has. Thought I had no plot, plan or even character as such, and I didn’t, but within the space of 1000 words, I’ve put the MC in hospital, with a lycra-clad politician (he was a NaNo dare btw, not the sort of character I’d normally feel compelled to include), and a narrative of sorts emerging.

I’ve put a Write or Die progress bar (widget) in my sidebar because the official NaNo ones aren’t working as yet, so thanks to Dr Wicked for doing it! Good luck to everyone who’s doing NaNo too.

Not plugging Starb*cks – but loved this image. Going to set up one for NaNo, which starts in twelve or so days time. Might brew my own heady concoction instead, a mix of High Mountain and Podocarpus …

This is the  header image on my new site, it’s from one of a series of photographs I took in Leeds a few years ago before work started on transformation of the notorious Dark Arches, brick caverns that allow the river Aire to flow under the city. It is, or rather, was an eerie place.

According to The Architects Journal, the scheme:

… developed with Arup Acoustics, Berlin-based artist Hans Peter Kuhn and local graphic designer Andy Edwards, includes widening the footpaths, adding sound-absorbing wall-panels and installing a vandal-proof lighting scheme featuring thousands of LEDs

which sounds interesting, and safer, but will most likely, make it not as intriguing a place to photograph or visit … hmm.

Been feeling rather fragmented over the last few days – not me per se, but my online presence, which is composed of several blogs, Twitter plus links to all the stuff I write and do …

So, I’ve spent today creating (another) new site, but this time it has links to everything from one page. Hopefully it will keep my head in check and give me more time to do what I like to do best, which is – writing.

I’m going to keep this blog – I’ve been writing it for a year now – but I’m going to take it in a new direction (probably) – either for a writing project or for posting more random links and comments on things that inspire me, to be honest, I haven’t decided yet.

The new site is http://dianebeckerwrites.wordpress.com if you want to check it out or even bookmark it.

So … another year, another NaNo and the new web badges for 2009’s participants have gone up on the site today.

This time I’m actually going to try to write a novel. Last year it was an exercise in stamina building. Having bound and gagged my inner editor I wrote 61k pure stream of consciousness drivel in three weeks. No, I couldn’t possibly have edited it into shape, but I did learn how to write snappy dialogue, I learned how to let go and found myself with a creative resource that I’ve drawn on for short stories during the year.

In the run-up to 1 November I’ve decided I’m not writing anything – apart from ideas in my notebook – a bit like going on a diet then being able to splurge when it’s finished (not that I do that but you know what I mean). I have a title for my ‘novel’ – it’s Bending Daisies. As I’ve no idea what I’m writing yet, I’ve no idea what genre it will be either so I’ve filed it under ‘Other Genres’. Warning, it may be speculative. It will be quirky. It could be weird but it will be fun. If you fancy joining me on the NaNo site, I’m there as dotseven. Counting down …

See Bloomsbury are putting out John Irving’s new book Last Night in Twisted River in October. The World According to Garp is one of my favourite books. I bought a copy when it first came out in paperback, but lent it to someone … This afternoon I got round to replacing it with the Weidenfeld & Nicolson special limited edition (published July 2009), one of a series of nine classic books published to celebrate the publisher’s 60th anniversary. Can’t wait to read it again …

Afterword: I don’t usually go for ’special limited edition’ anything, but liked the die-cut cover (exposing the endpapers), designed by Karl Grandin. More on the series design in Creative Review.