NANOWRIMO 2009

Starting tomorrow, November 1, 2009, I along with thousands of others will be taking on the challenge of creating a 50,000 word novel in thirty days. NaNoWriMo has become an annual event for me. I've been doing it since 2001 and have completed the challenge four out of seven years. This year, I hope to make it number five.
My book will be an account of the search and finding of my brother, given up for adoption before I was born. With nothing to go on, I pursued him for 21 years and finally found him on Facebook 13 days ago. The similarities are striking and we both said that I had to write about it because you really can't make this stuff up! I know I've got 50,000 words in me.
This year's for us, Blaine.

Stay tuned...

September #6 - FEAR THE WORST

Title: Fear the worst

Author: Linwood Barclay

Publisher: Bantam Books

Copyright: 2009

ISBN: 978-0-553-80716-5

Series or stand-alone: Stand-alone

Setting: Milford, CT

1st Sentence:

Prologue
The morning of the day I lost her, my daughter asked me to scramble her some eggs.

Comments:

Tim is just a regular guy who sells cars to get by. One day his daughter just vanishes. At the hotel where she works, no one has ever heard of her. No one has seen her and with every passing day, Tim becomes more frantic. How does he find her, when nothing is as it seems? This was a really good suspense story that had me guessing up to the end. Barclay has moved to my 'must-read' list.

September #5 - CHASING THE DEVIL

Title: Chasing the devil: My twenty-year quest to capture the Green River Killer

Author: Sheriff David Reichert

Publisher: Little, Brown and Co.

Copyright: 2004

ISBN: 0-316-15632-9

Series or stand-alone: True Crime

Setting: King County, Seattle and Tacoma, Washington

1st Sentence:

Prologue
The River
The Green River's source is one mile high in the Snoqualmie National Forest and just south of a spot on the map called Stampede Pass.

Comments:

The non-fiction account written by the man who was lead detective and later became sheriff, of the Green River Killer taskforce. Dave Reichert was on the case from when he received the first call about bodies on August 15, 1982 until a conviction was brought on November 5, 2003. This book is a very compelling albeit sad account of the Green River killings but a fine story of sticktoitiveness.

September #4 - PROJECT 17

Title: Project 17

Author: Laurie Faria Stolarz

Publisher: Disney * Hyperion Books

Copyright: 2007

ISBN: 978-15231-2124-4

Series or stand-alone: Stand alone

Setting: Danvers State Hospital, Danvers, MA, near Boston

1st Sentence:

We each went to Danvers State Hospital, the old abandoned asylum on the hill, with the intention of spending one night before the place got torn down.

Comments:

Derik decides to make a film, REAL WORLD style, using the asylum as the backdrop and many interesting things happen during the night. The book is written from the POV of several characters and is in first-person present tense although I didn't notice it much. I thought it might be off-putting but I didn't have any problems. This would be a good read for the 13+ crowd and great for Halloween displays. A spooky book for tweens and teens.

A Good Excuse

Okay, so this time I have a very good excuse.

If you've been reading my posts for awhile, you may have remembered that I wrote a post back in June of 2008 pertaining to the book THE GIRLS WHO WENT AWAY and my own story about my search for a brother who was given up for adoption before I was born.

After 21 years of looking, I found him last week! It has been a crazy roller coaster of a ride! We are just starting to connect with each other and trying to catch up on nearly 40 years of missed experiences.

I am fortunate that my story turned out beautifully as there are so many adoption reunions that go horribly wrong. Laws need to be changed. There's no other way around it. And they need to be changed sooner rather than later. All you have to do is check an adoption registry to see how many people are searching for those affected by adoption.

I am of course keeping track of the books that I am reading (although they've been very few and far between over the past week!) and I will return to blogging shortly. Right after I learn everything there is to learn about the brother that I have found. Kidding! I'll be back soon.