Shades of Luz, The Little Engine That Could

I woke up this morning and Shades of Luz had risen 2000 spots and right now it's ranked #263 on Amazon. It's nerve-racking the higher it climbs. I keep wondering when it will finally stop. Is it just teasing me. I see it trundling along to #101 and then a slow slip back into midlist and then into oblivion.

It's hard to imagine my novel went into print a little over two months ago. I think I've mentioned the mix of emotion I felt both joyous and spent. This is why I was happy to see NaNo come on November first as it always does. Indeed, it is something to look forward too. But, of course I can hardly concentrate on it until my novel place is settled. Best Seller, no-seller, or some-seller, which is it going to be.

I've never taken it much to heart because I never dreamed it would be possible. A Pushcart maybe. I still would like one of those. If I wasn't addicted to the internet before with Tweeting, blogging, and perusing the latest scoop from the over abundance of web content then I must be hyper-addicted, uber-addicted.

Surprisingly though I have been pretty cool about drinking coffee. In fact, I've only had a cup in the past three days combined. Something's up.

Hopefully all of this will be settled one way or not by tomorrow.

If it's going to be then it going to be.

Fingers crossed.

NANO Kickoff Big Success

Went to the NANO Kickoff last night at No Idea Bar. Great stuff. For those of you not familiar with NANO and National Novel Writing Month it is the shiznit, it's awesome! Chris Baty some years back made the writing marathon into a colossal community experience. You have 30 days to write a 50,000 word novel that's the whole kit and caboodle. It's all run on the honor system so don't think about cutting and pasting stuff into the system. Big brother is keeping his eye on you.

I participated and won back in 2006. I'm making my second appearance and I'm way psyched. I met a lot of cool people yesterday who are planning on writing all different kinds of novels running the gamut from dead-on-balls literary to retro zombie, swords and dragon fantasy sci-fi romance and futuristic cowboy.

Shades of Luz didn't come out of my 2006 NANOfest, but I think I will craft something snazzy this time around. Keep tuning in to my posts. I will have some NANO writers on Paper Cut soon, including 3-time NANO champ Katherine Gilraine, author of The Index Series.

Off to the Behind the Book charity event tonight. Paparazzi welcome.

The Week Ahead

Wild week lined up. On Tuesday I will be at the NANO NYC kickoff party. Wednesday afternoon I am being interviewed by Shalla Magazine. Wednesday night I'm attending the Behind the Book Benefit at the William Bennett Gallery. Shades of Luz will be at the Dirty Laundry Reading Series and Opium's Literary Death Math on Thursday at the Bowery Poetry Club.

I think I'll bring along my Luke Skywalker light saber for added protection at the Literary Death Match.

Still have a few more days to pick an outfit for Halloween. Not going to go as Dorian Gray as I did last year.

Trumpet Fiction

I will be doing a Shades of Luz reading at the Trumpet Reading Series at KGB Bar in February thanks to Jonathan Kravetz.

It seems like each day there's a new reading lined up, but I'm mainly interested now in getting some blog radio going. I have an interview with Shalla from Blog with Shalla coming up. She has a large presence on the net. I'm really forward to that.

NANO is coming up too. There kickoff will be in less than two weeks and I'm slated to give some pep talks as I'm a 2006 Winner.

Dirty Laundry reading is set for the end of the month. I'm going to make sure I bring the liquid Tide this time.