NaNoWriMo again...

November looms on the horizon.  I can see its silhouette against the rising moon, a wiggle-toothed bandersnatch looking to tangle.

For many writers, November is National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo to those participating.  The idea is to start writing on November 1st and to have a 50,000 word novel completed by the end of the last day of the month.  Yeah, everybody's fully aware that the word count is a good 30 or 40 thousand words short of publishable novel length but the word count is adjusted to account for "lost days" such as Thanksgiving and just plain life getting in the way.  "But any month can be novel writing month," someone once said to me.  Sure.  But during NaNoWriMo, I have the support of other writers around the nation who are all doing the same thing.  Plus, it's an imposed deadline which all us "ethereal" types of writers need.

As October begins, I usually have at least one good idea of what I will write about for the month.  My current baby is a controversial account of the second coming of Christ.  I say controversial because based on the New Testament, fundies and Teabaggers might find Him a bit too "socialist" for their tastes.  Will it be science fiction?  Sort of, maybe just by virtue of my writing style. Plus, the writing of a book like this would be impossible without including the supermodern, the omnipresence of the Internet, cellphone cameras, WiFi, social media, et. al.

Then it happens.  The germ of another idea forces its way through the cracks in the mind's pavement into my noggin.  The two nascent novels begin to duke it out for the November title.  This new one has no discernible plot nor does it yet have developed characters.  I just know that it is set during one of my favorite eras, World War II.  Err...just after World War II.  Maybe 1948 or so.
The Communist specter is making its way across Europe.  The United States and Britain are finding spies within their midst.  That's ok, though.  They've got plenty of their own spies operating behind the Iron Curtain...and those agents are finding disturbing things.

Towards the end of the war, the Nazis had developed several wunderwaffens, superweapons constructed with advanced technology.

The Soviets now have these weapons in their possession.  What's more, the situation may involve Nazis escaped to Antarctica, maybe even the Moon.  Nah, too Iron Sky.  I could, however, easily include UFOs and aliens as there are theorists who allege that Nazi high command was in contact with such entities.  Add in a healthy dash of dieselpunk and I think I could be on to a winner.

Oh who am I kidding?  I'm going with the "Jesus" story.  If for no other reason than I have most of the research already done and the book marginally plotted with characters.  Should the Cold War notion intrigue you, don't despair.  I can guarantee it will live to write another day.
 

Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets