The Meet up

History:

NaNoWriMo is a global initiative to help writers get started by writing a 50,000 word novel in november, no easy task. They have a Malaysian chapter, which I am glad to say I went to a meeting this morning where I met a bunch of nice people who are passionate about their craft and have a great many interesting things to say.

Who the hell am I kidding. We're all loony nutwits, every single last one of us. The conversation move from plot twists to arguing about Garth Nix, discussing plot holes in Harry Potter to decrying the romance novel, the inability to talk about computer games to the advancements in Korean MMOs, debating the merits of short skirts to involving talking hamsters, and the inevitable, sex.

I suppose when you put a lot of people who've never met before but are enjoying each other's company very much, sex always comes up as a topic of reference.

Some quotes:
'I've heard the word 'jackhammer' being used [as a descriptive term].'
'The Worst Written Sex Scenes awards are in their fourth year.'
'Cue the tentacle hentai jokes.'
'That rice of yours looks a lot like a breast.'
'One of my characters seduced another character, and I'm trying to decide how smug to make him the morning after.'
'Draco/Hermione... mm...'

And of course, redheads came up.

I got a nice book (The Ragwitch, by Garth Nix, which I traded a fellow author for A Game of Thrones, by George R R Martin) and I bought a copy of Craig Thompson's Good Bye Chunky Rice, which I finished on the train home (it is a graphic novel, hence it is short and full of piktures) and it is an absolutely heartbreaking book.

I have to do actual work now (grrr) but I am glad I met these wonderful people, and to my mind this is already better than any novel I could possibly write this month.