Friday, November 5, 2010

"Fantastic Fridays," News, and My Star Trek NaNo Experience

I was asked to join a group called the Fantastic Friday Writers. Rather than taking turns posting on our group blog, we are posting every other Friday starting today! The five of us will blog on a topic pertaining to fantasy and science fiction, with links to one anther’s blogs.

I invite your to check out my Fantastic Friday Writers partners - Elizabeth Mueller, Anastasia V. Pergakis, J. D. Brown, and Deirdra Eden Coppel.

And if you’re visiting from one of these ladies’ blogs, welcome! I’m a movie lover, tech geek, and author of the just released CassaStar. I’m Alex the Blogging Ninja!

NEWS

Ellie Garratt is hosting a blogfest - Top Ten Films They Should Have Made! On the 9th November tell us all about your top ten alternate actors and actresses, and the films you wanted to see them in and why.
You know I can’t pass up a movie blogfest!

Jessica at The Alliterative Allimorph is holding a 400 Followers Giveaway – Amazon gift cards! Visit her site to enter and tell her congratulations.

NANO

And I’ve been keeping track of my NaNo progress on Twitter. Since I’ve apparently amused a few of you with my updates, here’s the week so far:

Stardate #nanowrimo Day 2 One page in 1 &1/2 hours. 2168 words now. Damn I type slow. The crew's going to lose faith and revolt...

Stardate #nanowrimo Day 2.5 - 3179 words achieved, just shy of the mark. Worf has restored order - no mutiny of the crew in sight...

Stardate #nanowrimo Day 3.3 - 4003 words, but I've been captured by Romulans and forced to endure meetings. Word count stalled until rescued

Stardate #nanowrimo 3.7 - Escaped Romulan torture meetings unscathed. Okay, a few minor boredom scars. Able to write once more!

Stardate #nanowrimo 4.2 Evil Romulan boss wants me to do real work. Where's Spock? Someone put the Vulcan grip on this guy!

Stardate #nanowrimo 4.5 Klingons demanded head of evil Romulan boss. The decision was not difficult. Permission to write again!

Stardate #nanowrimo 4.7 Have achieved warp speed - 5783 and still writing! Number One, you have the Bridge.

Oh, and I finished last night at 6428 words - close to target. Of course, one of my buddies is almost to 50,000. Overachiever.

54 comments:

Ellie Garratt said...

Thank you for mentioning my blogfest, Alex. For anyone wishing to take part I'll be re-posting the linkey on the 9th November.

NaNoWriMo turned Star Trek? I bow down at your superior intellect! Number One is a capable officer and I'm sure the Enterprise will be safe until you return. Just make sure you avoid those pesky Ferengis - they'll probably try to sell you some fake words.

Cruella Collett said...

Tee hee, your Stardate NaNo updates made me giggle. Good luck! And someone already is closing up on 50K? That is INSANE! I'm not sure whether I should turn to awe or disbelief (a mix of the two seems appropriate).

Gail said...

Words are just falling out, even with your "slow" typing!

Keep up the good word, that second book will be on the shelf before the year is out!

Matthew MacNish said...

I follow you on twitter, but I'm so rarely on there ... I can't believe I missed those! Good stuff Alex.

Jessica Bell said...

Thanks for the pimp, hon! :o) And wow! You're doing some great NaNo-ing there! PS: still waiting patiently for you book to arrive ...

Jemi Fraser said...

Love your nano updates. I'm moving about the same speed. I was so impressed (and a little terrified) when I saw that buddy's totals too!

Vicki Rocho said...

Does anyone else think Mork from Mork & Mindy with all this Nano talk?

Anyway...if it makes you feel better this unofficial sideline participant only has about 1700 words this month, but I'm okay with that.

RHYTHM AND RHYME said...

A great informative post Alex. Will pop over to the links you mentioned.
Have finished your excellent book, my son saw me reading it whilst staying with him and he can't wait to get his hands on it.

Thanks for the visit and kind comment.

Have a good day.
Yvonne.

Lydia Kang said...

So many great links! Going to check them out, thanks!

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Ellie, I'll avoid those Ferengis!

Cruella, makes you sick, doesn't it?

Thanks, Matthew!

Jessica, hope it's there soon.

Jemi, then you know who it is! Maybe she's on No-Doze and Jolt cola...

Vicki, yes I do. And if you're okay with it, that's all that matters.

Yvonne, so glad you enjoyed it! Wow, you read it fast.

Old Kitty said...

Yay!!!! I've been to one of the Fantastic Friday Bloggers - the lovely Elizabeth Mueller!!! Yay! My Fridays are brighter and more sparkly now!! Thank you!!!

Yay!! Nearly 7000 words and not yet day 6! GO on!! OUT this fellow writer who is neary their 50,000 nano novel!!!!!! LOL!

So we could stare at him or her in AWE!!!

Take care
x

PK HREZO said...

LOL! Love it! Darn, wish I had thought of the stardate thing. So flippin' clever, Alex.

Make it so, Number One.

Kelly Polark said...

Ha! Love the tweet updates!

Michelle Gregory said...

i love it. what a great way to do your nano updates (fellow Trek fan here).

Summer Ross said...

Awesome! This ones my fav so far- "Stardate #nanowrimo 3.7 - Escaped Romulan torture meetings unscathed. Okay, a few minor boredom scars. Able to write once more!"

Unknown said...

Love your Nano updates and love the your new blogging concept. I'll check out the other blogs.CD

Charles Gramlich said...

Wow, good progress man.

DEZMOND said...

That's a very difficult blogfest.

Sarah Ahiers said...

AWWW! That blogfest sounds awesome! Normally i'd be all over that, but i'm just not going to have the time to compile anything by tuesday. BOO-urns

Budd said...

I have finished my post for the blogfest and have of course put a site relative twist on it. I am looking forward to the creativity in this one.

Jules said...

Love the Twitter updates, how inventive you are :) Sorry busted wing simple comments for now :(
Jules @ Trying To Get Over The Rainbow

Elizabeth Mueller said...

LOL! Alex, surely you are the Blogging Ninja! ;) SO proud of your progress!

Btw, where do you find all the time to blog, twitter and write? We should post about that!

Happy Friday! WOOOT! :)

N. R. Williams said...

That's funny Alex...I will visit the other bloggers. More giveaways and contest on my site.
Nancy
N. R. Williams, fantasy author

Elizabeth Mueller said...

Alex, I read your confession over at PK Hrezo's blog. Ryan Renolds? Really? Naw... You're fine the way you are.

Really. :)

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Glad I could make your day, Kitty!

Summer, I'm still recovering from those boredome scars, too.

Elizabeth, I've really cut back with NaNo. Guess I'm lucky I can do some from work - when evil Romulan boss isn't around. And would still like Reynolds' ripped abs.

Glad everyone likes the Twitter updates. They shall continue. I'll make it so!

Anastasia V. Pergakis said...

I LOVE the Stardate tweets. I have fallen in love just for that! *wants to watch old Star Trek episodes now...*

I'm glad you joined us with our new blogging venture Alex! It's going to be great fun I'm sure and can't wait what sci-fi knowledge you can share with me - as I have a few ideas I want to work on next year.

Southpaw said...

Overachiever! LOL That was great.

Anonymous said...

Wow, yeah, Romulans are so hard to work for. I'm glad you got a nice start to Nano! :D

Anonymous said...

PS--Romulans make some pretty good ale, though. Could be a redeeming quality???

Hart Johnson said...

Don't you mean Alex the NAKED Blogging Ninja? *shifty* (I'll wear you down)

You have a friend almost to 50K? Holy CRAP, does that person have no life? They can't possibly have eaten or bathed.

You're doing great, Alex, and it's the weekend--time to catch up!

Carol Kilgore said...

What great updates. And congrats on your new blogging assignment. You'll sail through at warp speed :)

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Anastasia, thanks for inviting me!

LB, only if I can find his hidden stash!

Hart, the bathing thing crossed my mind as well. And no one wants to see me naked.

Thanks, everyone! I'll keep up the updates.

RoodNverse said...

awesome blog you got here looking forward to more like this =0

M Pax said...

Anything turned Star Trek is good. :D Yay on hitting your nano target.

Unknown said...

Whoa now. Hold on just one minute.

Guess I must set the record straight - now that it seems my eating, bathing, and all around habits have been questioned with this over 50K for NaNo, assuming I'm the one you speak of.

I do in fact bathe, regularly, and during writing I bathe more (bath time is added inspiration). I have eaten, and if you must know I still have been forced to work my 40 hours this week (I know, it's not right, I've argued by they stand by their choice.)

I just type fast. Really fast. Lightning speed. You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man. Like that fast.

Awesome NaNo tweeting... those are some awesome skillz you have.

Colene Murphy said...

Incredible Nano!! Congratulations! Even tap tap typing you are making great progress.

Laura Eno said...

Awesome NaNo updates! I just hope you aren't assimulated...although the Borg might possess superior typing skills.

Jeff Beesler said...

Someone just about already made it to 50,000 words in five days? That's about 10,000 words a day. Yikes. I might be able to pull that off if I didn't have things distracting me like day job and such.

Melissa said...

HAHA, this is excellent! Your twitter updates were hilarious! It almost makes me want to jump on the twitter bandwagon just to have frequent smiles.

Great job on NaNo.

J. D. Brown said...

Alex, you seem like someone I'd hang out with in real life. :D I can't wait to see your take on the forth-coming Fantastic Friday Writes topics!

Sheila Deeth said...

Congrats on keeping close to target. Hard to imagine how anyone's reached 50,000 already. And I loved those twitter updates.

Bossy Betty said...

I'm thinking you might be an overachiever too!!!

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

M Pax, Trek rules!

Jen, then I am really impressed. Must be over 100 words a minute.

Laura, so far no skirmishes with the Borg, but it's still early!

Jeffrey, Jen just stated that she's still working forty hours a week.

Betty, only with the updates. Hunt and peck isn't topping anyone's total!

Thanks, guys! I'll post more Twitter updates next week.

Unknown said...

You would be right. Thanks to the job of entering data in the computer all day I've become quite the speed demon, well over 100 wpm... gotta make each minute count!

Anonymous said...

Awesome blog today! Good Lord Almighty I despised those mind numbing paralysis by analysis meetings. Glad you escaped relatively unscathed.

RaShelle Workman said...

Alex - Holy freakin crap! How can he almost be to 50K? What has he been doing the past 5 days? Apparently nothing BUT writing. Dang, he is an overachiever.

I like your Stardate status updates. LOL. You really do rock, dude!!!

Now if only I can keep my ass at the computer long enough to write.

Jamie Gibbs said...

Those who have reached 50K are either cheaters or inhuman; my guess is they've got Cthulu like tentacles or Doc Ock appendages that type while they sleep. Damn them *shakes fist*

Hope you enjoy posting on Fantastic Fridays, it sounds pretty awesome :)

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Stephen, those meetings are numbing!

Thanks, RaShelle!

Jamie, we knew the Great Old Ones wanted to take over the earth!

Arlee Bird said...

Anyone who is almost at 50,000 words already must have had went into the month with a lot of words, must be cranking out incomprehensible crap, or must have amazing organization and super writer powers if any of what they've written makes any sense.

I haven't really planned anything and I'm just making it up as I go and I'm struggling to get 2000 words per day. Of course I'm still blogging and reading some book called CassaStar at the same time.

Lee
Tossing It Out

About Me said...

"Star Trek" in the title got my attention (can't you tell I'm a fan!) Good luck with your Nano project.

The Words Crafter said...

Loving the Star Trek updates-I love TNG!

Tap a Romulan for a cloaking device and install it in your hard drive!

Good luck with nano! I think it's a blast!

Abby Minard said...

Love the twitter updates! And, yes, Ms Jen up there has surpassed 50k by today...I'm just flabbergasted. Especially since she said she's still working her 40 hr weeks! I wonder how much she'll get to by the end of November? Glad to see your word count going up too- it's nice to have everyone as buddies to push us to write.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Lee, I don't know about anyone else, but I forgive you for reading! And I'm hitting 1400-1500 average, so no records set here.

Words Crafter, I will do that!

Abby, I just keep plodding forward. Thanks for the encouragement!

Stephanie Lorée said...

Here I felt horrible because I'm behind on my word count. I can't understand how all these people have 20k+ words already! I mean, am I the only one who writes slowly?

Thank you Alex, for making me feel it's OK to be human. :)