Nanowrigromomo

So, this November I will be participating in not one but TWO month-long challenges. The first of these is Movember.

During Movember I'll be growin a Mo. That's right I'm bringing the Mo back because I'm passionate about changing men's health and the fight against male depression and prostate cancer (and, uhm, growing a mo). Why:

* Depression affects 1 in 6 men. Most don't seek help. Untreated depression is a leading risk factor for suicide.
* Last year in Australia 18,700 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer and more than 2,900 died of prostate cancer.

To sponsor my Mo please go to http://www.movember.com/au/donate, enter my registration number which is 99383 and whatever amount you'd like to sponsor me (every little helps).

The money raised by Movember is donated to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and beyondblue - the national depression initiative, which will use the funds to create awareness, fund research and increase support networks for those men who suffer from prostate cancer and male depression. For those that have supported Movember in previous years you can be very proud of the impact it has had and can check out the detail at: Fundraising Outcomes.

Starting today, I will be posting semi-daily photos of the mo's progress across my face, so everyone can keep track of my promise to remain mo'd, and also judge me on the awesomeness of my mogrowing powers, and request the mo to be grown in different ways. Handlebars? Chops? You decide.

The second challenge, for the third year running, will be to write a 50,000 word novel before the end of the month. As per usual I will post the chapters here as I write them (starting on the 7th as I am out-of-country until then). I will be writing them on googledocs, so if anyone wants to be an editor, let me know and I can add you to the distribution list so you can directly edit my document while it is being written! Clever, huh?

Unlike previous years, I have only the very vaguest ideas about where the story is going to go, or indeed if there will be a story at all, so I need as much help as I can get. Everything will help. Want to know something? Tell me. Want the story to go somewhere? Tell me and I can go there. Don't like a character? I can kill them. I really don't know what is going to happen, I have a starting premise and that's it. So, like a choose-your-own-adventure novel, you can control the story. It may suck. I may not get past chapter three. You can help.

Regarding Penumbra, my uncompleted novel of last year: sorry it's not done yet. I do plan to finish it someday, and I think about it a lot. I really thought the first nine chapters were heading in a good direction, but I rushed the next two and will probably rewrite Kerron's journey as his own nine-chapter saga before they meet in the middle. I really am enthusiastic to finish the novel but unfortunately nanowrimo rules prevent me from continuing the story. I will finish it later, on my own time, I promise. The world is in my head, I just need to find the right time to get it out, and it will be all the better for it.

Regarding The Trusted Professions, my completed nanowrinovel from 05, I know a lot of folks want a hard-bound copy of this, but the cover just has not come together. The moment it does will be the moment the book is available for order- hopefully sometime soon. I'll let you know.

Right, I gotta do some writing...