Update: On Monday, March 31, the interim executive director of the NaNoWriMo, Kilby Blades (a pen name; their real name is unknown) announced in a video update that the nonprofit is official shutting down due to financial strain and a “downward trend in participation.” Halloween night. A stream of costumed people enter the brightly lit […]
National Novel Writing Month
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘The Art of Brevity: Crafting the Very Short Story’ by Grant Faulkner
Readers may know Grant Faulkner for his work as director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) — a nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging aspiring writers to pen a whole novel in 30 days — but his newest book, The Art of Brevity: Crafting the Very Short Story, focuses on a different kind of literary challenge: […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
It’s NaNoWriMo, and if you’re not writing a novel, maybe you should be
“National Novel Writing Month is very open to zaniness and wild ideas and exploration. There’s not really a way to do it wrong, other than by not doing it.”
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Little Village vs. NaNoWriMo: Day 21
We only heard one side of the Dentist’s conversation but it was enough to discern where he and Rosso had planned to meet: some café on the pedestrian mall just adjacent to the same playground where Rosso and I had had our discussion just prior. Either he wanted a public space to avoid any drama […]
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Little Village vs. NaNoWriMo: Day 20
View all NaNoWriMo entries … I came to slowly, rocked in the passenger seat of a slow-moving car. Night had fallen; the windows were rolled up and the heat was on. It was cozy. I knew that I was in danger, but for now, this car was cradling me, and whoever was driving it—probably the […]
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Little Village vs. NaNoWriMo: Day 19
View all NaNoWriMo entries … I’d been crammed in this stuffy office for 20 minutes with no mention of a doctor when it occurred to me. “I really did have a heart attack, you know,” I said. “Heart attack?” the detective asked. His name was Michael Boever. The slow-talking suit had been grilling me after […]
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Ouch, So Many Words
Hello NaNoWriMo fans. You may not know who I am, given my horrible habit of not blogging about Little Village’s NaNoWriMo experience this month (this would be my first). Here’s a salute to our other authors who’ve been carrying my weight. That said, phew, we’ve been giving it hell, but it seems NaNoWriMo can dish […]
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Little Village vs. NaNoWriMo: Day 18
View all NaNoWriMo entries … “So this chick she walks into a bar and asks for a double entendre,” said Johnny, “and then, so the bartender, he gives it to her!” He leaned in with the punchline and Carl and Tony start laughing their fat, red, greasy faces off. Carl is gasping for air: “So […]
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Little Village starts to get its butt whooped by NaNoWriMo
I don’t know what our fearless leader was talking about when he said we’d recovered from the depression he began, but, from a numbers standpoint, the day he stuck his head under the covers appears to have begun a domino-effect of five heads ducking under covers, all of us becoming unclear whose turn it was, […]
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Little Village vs. NaNoWriMo: Day 17
View all NaNoWriMo entries … Sitting on the floor after Rosso left I started thinking about my life. Around me the rug was melted and burned from the fiery expression of my anger. Now, the anger was gone, Johnny was gone, and a few of the 200 animals weaved in 50 colors, including gold, that, […]
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Little Village vs. NaNoWriMo: Day 16
Sitting on the bench after Rosso left I started thinking about my life. Who was I, now, exactly? I truly didn’t know anymore.
I wasn’t one of the college boys ambling past me, unable or unwilling to lift their feet of the ground when the walked by – never had been. At that age I was already in my first year at the police academy back in Chicago, back when the minimum age to join was 19 and no college was required.
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Little Village vs. NaNoWriMo: Day 15
View all NaNoWriMo entries … There was Stan’s gun, of course, but Rosso’s got a way of making you feel disarmed just to think of him. I reached under my seat and retrieved Stan’s piece, which suddenly felt flimsy, like a toy, while I struggled with Rosso’s simple question. Where can we meet? I ought […]
