When the story first came out that the best golfer on the planet wrecked his vehicle in the middle of the night, I thought, “Hmm, probably some family squable of some kind. Bet he’s having an affair. Hope the media leaves his poor family alone.”

For the past several days, the newspaper, the web, the radio, the news and even Jay Leno has crammed this story down our throats. And then Mr. Goldstein has the audacity to call us busybodies because every American on the planet wants to know more. Sorry, Pat, but your logic is faulty and unfair. I’ve already lived with enough family drama of my own. I could care less about some billionaire golf pro who can’t keep his zipper up. No one I’ve talked with lately has even brought this non-story up in conversation. The small city I live in already has a rich, powerful man cheating on his wife headline–U of L basketball coach, Rick Pitino. And the Lord knows we’re sick of that local fiasco.

The media is the busybody. They’re the ones going after stupid celebrity stories when all I want to know is why we’re still fighting a shameful war in the Middle East with thousands of American men and women losing their lives. The media is a whore for busybody news and Pat G. is one of its many pimps. I agree with his point that we need to leave the personal lives of celebrities alone. I couldn’t agree more and I know many more Americans who agree with me. He simply does not have the right to conclude that Americans are busybodies for this slop.

It’s like dangling some candy in front of a small child, giving it to her, then yelling at her for eating something that will rot her teeth out. It’s like taking a funnel, shoving it down the throat of a recovering alcoholic and then chastising him for falling off the wagon. Someone who works for the media is nothing but a self-righteous hypocrite when he or she blames Americans for being interested in celebrity busybody stories. That’s all the media offers these days. Look at busybody reporter April Ryan who kept asking White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs questions about those attention sluts who crashed some state dinner. This is another non-story that just won’t shut up. President Obama is sending thousands of more people to Afganistan and she’s asking questions about that? I think I’ve proved my point.

In my opinion, the media creates these stories to get the brainless masses to watch. It’s all about profit. Journalism has degrated itself to People Magazine status all across the board. Whored itself out. I challenge every newscast and newspaper (the sinking ships of journalism) to avoid at all costs, stories about Brittany Spears shaving her head, Michael Jackson being a hero and prophet (please), and who is going to be in the next big movie. No one will miss it. Trust me.

So far the story has two main characters and a few minor ones. The chapter that I am finishing this weekend will introduce some new characters. Actually I forgot that I introduced another major player in my story in the previous chapter. The scenes I will write over the next few days will be a turning point for all the characters.

A typical novel has between 80,000-100,000 words. I am not sure how long my rough draft will be, I have a feeling it will be closer to 100,000.

I am at 15,500 words. I need to be at 25,000, but still not worried. My goal is to have another 10,000 words by next weekend. Then I’ll have the whole week of Thanksgiving off to finish.

By the way, got a new computer. Love it. It does everything my old computer does, but doesn’t weigh two tons.

I don’t think I’m going to get it fixed. Instead I’m looking at a netbook. They’re much smaller and that appeals to me because as much as I loved my Acer Aspire 5920, it was a heavy rascal. A netbook doesn’t have as much memory, but that’s okay. I just need to use it for typing and getting on the internet. Geez, that ‘s all I want.

Meanwhile, I’m still having fun with my nanowrimo novel. I’m at 7400 words. At this point I should be at around 14000, but I’m not at all worried. I’m having so much fun. When I last left my protagonist, he was on another planet drinking an exotic alcoholic beverage. He’s about to find out how his new alien friend found earth.

Stay tuned. There’s more.

I continued working on my other computer. I got about four thousand words done this weekend. I need to be a little bit farther along in my word count, but I have confidence that I will catch up.

I’ll be taking my laptop to John at work who works on computers as a side business at a reasonable price. If  you’re in Louisville and want a trustworthy guy who knows what he’s doing, let me know and I’ll forward his contact info to you.

Excerpt: Conjuring Coincidence

“That’s just great, Paula.” He saw some of his employees in the hallway beginning to look their way. “I’m so glad that when you destroyed our marriage, you can brag to your friends about what a great experience it’s been. I wouldn’t want you to feel guilty or anything.”

• 4:45 am: Got up and then laid down on the couch. Turned on my laptop and checked email, the weather, etc.
• 5:00 am: Went to Netflix.com and watched the movie “Jarhead.” I have to ask myself “Would I really have watched this morning if I wasn’t procrastinating?”
• 7:00 am: Cleaned up the living room and kitchen. Hey, I can’t write unless everything is in its place.
• 7:30 am: Started getting ready for church.
• 8:30 am: Arrived at the coffee house across the street from church and read a chapter from “No Plot, No Problem” as I munched down on a pecon glazed roll and a large vanilla coffee. This book is about Nanowrimo.
• 8:55 am: Met Phyllis and Dianna at church and head toward the first day of the new Bible study called “Crazy Love.” No it is not a Sunday school class for Christian singles. The class is being held in a large room with twenty tables. No one is in there. We go back to the information desk to make sure that Phyllis got the right time, day and room correct. She has. We go back and there are a few people trickling in.
• 11:00 am: Go to worship service. George Ross, the minister, preaches an awesome sermon.
• 12:30 pm: We walk over to Penn Station and chow down on sandwiches. I entertain Phyllis and Dianna with my story about how I accidentally shaved off my eyebrows recently.
• 2:30 pm: I arrive home. I take a nap since I’ve been up since 4:30.
• 4:30 pm: I wake up. I’m hungry. I go to Krogers to pick up a couple of items.
• 5:30 pm: I eat supper in front of the television.
• 6:00 pm: I finally pick up my laptop and start writing my novel for nanowrimo.
• 10:30 pm: It is 2917 words later. My goal was 1667 words. Wow, I actually greatly surpassed my goal.

I had so much fun from 6:00-10:30, I wish I had started earlier. My bad. Otherwise, I’m pretty happy about today.

It’s a contest in which thousands of people across the world participate. About ten percent of them actually win or finish the 50,000 word project. Last year I did it and completed it. (Yipee!) The novel I wrote last year was silly, filled with plot holes, unrealistic, and didn’t make sense at some parts. But, boy did I have fun writing it.

The idea behind nanowrimo is to write as fast as you can just to get the rough draft done. As with all writing, the writer is suppose to go back after the contest is over and rewrite it. Many participants have gone on to become published writers. Sara Gruen, who wrote Water for Elephants for nanowrimo, is one such person.

I decided not to revisit my nanowrimo projectg from last year. It was a milestone for me, but I really had no intention of pursuing its publication. This year is different. My nanowrimo project is a science fiction thriller. I have it all outlined and have the characters planned out.

Wish me luck. I will be using this blog in November to update my progress. Will you be my cheerleader?

• It’s relaxing–I don’t have to fight the rush hour traffic. Bad drivers are more afraid of the bus than my car.
• It’s  built in reading time–I love to read. Even so, sometimes I get so busy I dont’ have time. By taking the bus, I’m multi-tasking: getting to work and reading
• I meet interesting people–I’ve met several people over the years who are regular bus riders like me. Some have become good friends.
• Saves wear and tear on my car.
• Security system–I leave my car in my driveway and it looks like someone is home during the day.
• It’s good for the environment–less cars on the road means less pollution
• I see things I don’t notice when I’m driving. I’ve spotted new restaurants and stores and other things that I don’t see when I’m concentrating on the road.

I wish more people would take the bus, but I understand why they don’t. Certain obligations force people to drive their car so they can be somewhere at a certain time. I have the option of driving to work when I teach evening classes at the college. Otherwise, it’s  abus day for me. For those who have the opportunity to take the bus on occassion, I highly recommend it.

Have you ever had a pile of books you’ve read just sitting in a stack or on the shelf, taking up room? That has happened to me. I have solved the problem in different ways:

• throw them away. I hate doing this because somebody else might want to read them.
• donate to the library. They will use them in book sales to raise money, but sometimes they are too picky and won’t take some books.
• give to a friend, but then your friend may not really want them or have time to read them.
• give them to stores like the Salvation Army or St. Paul de Vincents.
• turn them into a used book store and get some cash back–usually not much cash
• trade them away online.

The last method listed is kind of fun. I give and receive books online with other book nerds like me. I only get what I am interested in reading and I feel like I’m giving a book to someone who really wants it.

Here’s how it works: you list books you want to trade away on a website for booktrading. You get points for every book in your inventory that someone wants. You mail it to them to get the points. You use your points to request book from other people who have their list on the website.

These websites are free touse, but you must pay for the postage. When you mail a book, it is usually cheapest to send it media mail. I know it seems silly to pay to get a book when the library has them for free, but I look at it like this: I buy a new book, trade it away for another book, trade that away for another book, and so on and so on. I get several books out of just from the first one I bought new.

Here are some booktrading sites I use:

• Paperback Swap
• Bookmooch

It’s also a great way to find new authors and book series.