Over the summer I was asked to write up a little something for Murder by 4, an amazing little blog set up by four authors – Aaron Paul Lazar, Kim Smith, Marta Stephens and S. W. Vaughn. I may or may not have read something by all of these folks, but I know I’ve read S.W. Vaughn’s work and I enjoy it thoroughly. Anyhoo, I agreed to guest blog, and then as the days passed into weeks, and weeks into nearly two months, my brain refused to cooperate. I was beginning to hope S.W. would send some of her characters after me. Not that I would complain, mind you. *winkwinknudgenudge*

Apparently the dastardly duo (fornit and muse) were refusing to work not only on fiction, but non-fiction as well. I stopped feeding them, only to wake up to furious tappings from the Royal in the middle of the night. Damn them, they know how to get into my mind and … You’re not falling for any of this, are you? Didn’t think so.

All right, fine. I was putting it off, because suddenly it felt like I was supposed to know what I’m talking about. Throwing stuff out off the cuff is one thing, but actually having to *know* what’s coming out the other end of the keyboard? HA! Not me, surely. By September long weekend, and I still didn’t have a solid idea, although I’d run through about a zillion “how to piss of an editor” rants that would have been biting, witty and fun. But was it the right thing for a writer’s blog? Argh. Not really, not for one as classy and fun – and informative – as Mx4. Last week came, and I was still puttering around with subjects (first I had none, then a thousand, then none..) and it wasn’t until I received my NaNo membership update/news/blather from Chris Baty that I felt the gel solidify.

NaNoWriMo. That’s the ticket! Using NaNo to break the block (I hear the munits snickering) and for those stalwart authors who actually don’t run from their NaNovels and go on to finish/edit/polish/submit – an offer to peruse the novels via submissions to LBF next summer.

I’m pretty happy with what I wrote, and I hope it didn’t require too much editing on their end. I can not edit my own work. Obviously.

Now then, blather over, here it is: I’ll be at Murder by 4 on Friday, September 26th!

Thank you to the Murder by 4 folks, and ‘specially to S.W. for thinking of me. It was fun!