So I decided to do NaNoWriMo this year after all, as I mentioned here. But, as I also mentioned at that linked page, the actual launch of the event this year was, for me, marred by the fact that our house was the target of repeated vandalism just hours before. With the kids upset and with me on high alert for any additional trouble from the local morons, thoughts about writing a novel were on a distant back shelf.

I'd really like to take the NaNoWriMo challenge again this year. It was fun when I did it in 2006, and I ended up with a solid start on a novel that I really like -- I like the story and I like the potential that I think it has for sales. Despite my temptation, though, I'm not going to do NaNoWriMo this year, because I still haven't finished that novel I started in 2006. Maybe I should fork over $20 for Finish Your Novel, eh?

OK, I know that I sit at my desk too much and am out of shape in the normal sense, but I found out yesterday that I'm also "out of shape" for writing the way I once did -- with a ballpoint pen in a spiral notebook. As I was helping a family member yesterday, taking her to doctor visits following an accident, I knew that I would be spending a fair amount of time in waiting rooms. Instead of bringing reading material, I decided to bring along novel #6 to work on, since it's been pretty neglected in recent months.

I've found another fun site where it's really easy to create dynamic pages that engage readers and present all sorts of fun features. Like another site I mentioned awhile back, but (hopefully!) without the attitude problems. This one is called Squidoo, and if you enjoy writing or just building fun Web pages, I recommend joining. You can also use it to earn money, for yourself or for charity or both.

My past participation in NaNoWriMo exposes me to a few related things, including Script Frenzy, which is a project to write a 100-page screenplay within one month. I don't have the time to tackle such a project this year, but I did at least take a peek at the information about it, since I've been "sitting on" a couple screenplay projects (one short, one feature length).

I'm starting to make some good progress on the eBook. In fact, I've already started working on building up a little bit of a marketing machine to help promote it (using an affiliate model, of course, so that those who promote it will earn money from it). The eBook has a tentative price tag of $7, as that is a common price for this type of item which encourages "impulse" buys and allows enough margin to give a decent amount to affiliates. I may increase the price before it's released, though.

By chance I stumbled upon an eBook that describes how to write eBooks. I decided to buy a sample (yet useful) eBook, but the wrong product was delivered, and it turned out to be an eBook about writing eBooks. So, in addition to seeing it as an example, the information in it looks very helpful. That's not to say that it's a very good product, in fact I wouldn't recommend it, but mainly because it's poorly written. The concepts seem pretty sound.

In recent years I've been interested in exploring ways to sell electronic books ("ebooks"), either directly through my site or through a third-party site that handles all of the details of sales while taking a cut of each sale. The link above will take you to ClickBank, which is a site that you can use to sell your electronic products for immediate download, but it's not the only site that offers this capability.

Maybe I should write a story called The Wrong Tree. Perhaps it should be my autobiography...

As I mentioned in my older blog, I recently read out loud the third draft of novel #5 to my kids, who seemed quite pleased to have it read to them. After I reached the end of that novel, it didn't take them long to request that I read another of my novels to them. So, we agreed to tackle novel #6, even though I warned them that the first draft was not yet finished. One of them decided not to listen in, since she wanted to read the completed work, but I still have two in my audience.