(On impulse I shaved my head for the opening plenary on Dec 3rd)

The morning after the opening plenary, the Parliament of World Religions convened in Melbourne. This event happens every five years, in a different international city each time.

On the first day, I attended a morning dual Catholic-Buddhist meditation focused on the concept of breath in either religion, then a panel on Paganism as the lost indigenous traditions of Europe (and thus the true ancestral spirituality of caucasians). I followed this with an excellent panel discussion on Middle-East conflict resolution, with both Palestine and Israel represented, and ended the day attending a talk on the history of the growing global Interfaith Movement.

This represented about 5% of the programs being offered on that day alone.

There were thousands upon thousands of participants from every religion you've ever heard of, and some you probably haven't.

I was very quickly realized I was in over my head...

"Victory on the Other Side of the Earth"

Crossed the 50,000 word threshold in Melbourne this afternoon 3 hours before the deadline of midnight Pacific Time. That it is technically late afternoon the following day here in Australia doesn't affect the 30 day deadline, although it does contribute to a great feeling of disorientation, as I type this on the first day of Summer, here on our planet's southern hemisphere.

I had intended to finish Sunday afternoon before getting on the plane, but instead finished packing only to learn my sister Kate's passport was missing. The rest of the day was absorbed in that unhappy drama, which culminated amazingly with the rest of us leaving her behind as we drove to the airport, heavy hearts all around. (She will be joining us later this week).

So, off the 15 hour flight, an hour through customs, another hour to Uncle Bob's house in the suburbs, a meal resembling breakfast though it was lunchtime in Australia and dinner time in LA, and then with no time to spare I shut myself away and began typing, determined to cross the finish line before the clock struck midnight on the far side of the Pacific.

I am glad at having done what I said I would do, and thrilled and curious and dubious about the sprawling saga that has spilled out of my fingers over the last 30 days ... I may have met the official deadline, but this story is far from over. Now at last a little time can be taken to gestate - to get a firm handle on the trajectory of the story, it's characters and themes. My first novel "Tale of the Tribe" was about 60,000 words and took about 14 months to generate a first draft ... this process has been, in a word, different.

Still I wouldn't trade it. discovering the world of this story and meeting Anka, Trevor, and Tamreh is something that never would have happened without the unique parameters of this process. One must surrender control to some degree in order to do something like this, and it is fascinating to find what storytelling lies behind the unfiltered mind. Just as reading a good novel, as Ursula Leguin puts it, "leaves us a little changed" - writing a novel is an inevitable catalyst for change.

The Parliament of World Religions holds its opening ceremonies in two days. Now that I'm here and getting some sense of the scope of the event, I am feeling a little overwhelmed.

And, now that the pressure is off, I hope the writing keeps coming, and all the richer, if perhaps not quite so fast.

My utmost gratitude for everyone's support along the way.

total word count: 50,055
Words to go: only time will tell...

(Self-Portrait in Newport on November 9th)

"Eyes of the Octopus"


1000 miles driven in 36 hours!

Back in LA ... haven't written a word in two days, with six days to finish.

Sunday was the "Oregon All-State Write-In" held at the Oregon Coast Aquarium ... a beautiful establishment which is, coincidentally, only a five minute drive from the house. The day was spent surrounded by five dozen other novelists - and seals, sea lions, otters, sea-birds, many many fish, and the most pro-active and metamorphosey octopus ever to cross my path.

Our writing room sported an enormous window into the shark tank, and taking this motif a step further many of us went and wrote in the glass "shark encounter" tunnel as the hours wore on (it was here that I introduced politics to the story). Long stretches of time were spent peering at puffins, interacting with an adorable otter who seemed to be in love with me (only later seeing the sign declaring that the otters were very hormonal this time of year and should not be interacted with through the glass), and also meeting the aforementioned pacific giant octopus - which defied the hiding-in-the-corner tendency of her brethren by dancing about the enclosure, changing shape, color and texture, and gazing at me as though she held some inscrutable message from beyond.

I wrote almost exactly 2,500 words ... far below my goal for the event, but still more than enough to feel proud of. It was a pretty spectacular day.

Alas, when I got back to the house gravity beckoned, and I started cleaning ... the place had to be hotel-sterilized prior to departure because we have a family renting it for Thanksgiving. This took many, many hours. Early the following morning I departed Oregon, heading south for Berkeley, with a heart both saddened and renewed.

Words to date: 43,037
words to go (?): 6,963
days until Australia: 5

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 19th 2009 - Newport

So obviously I've made a decision to back off the blog a bit. I created it on impulse, imagining that doing all this publicly would create a wave of shared excitement, support, and accountability which would energize the process. The reality of it, on the psychic level, is that it's a bit of a drain. Like leaving your front door open to the busy street when you're trying to focus and get something done. It also feels a little exploitative - writing is such a personal process, it's an odd thing to just indiscriminately invite everyone in at once. Too often, writing about writing the novel starts to muscle in on actually writing the novel.

It can be such a thrilling journey of discovery, writing a story - and I want to bring everyone with me. But, the truth is, the only way to do that really is to have you all read it from beginning to end, not my running commentary and random soundbytes.

I will admit, that ever since taking sick in Seattle (and I'm still not completely recovered) - I have run into a bit of writers-block-crisis. As usual, it comes from me taking the book, and everything, too seriously. There is literally a part of me that thinks if this isn't going to be Lord of the Rings, it isn't worth writing. Those who are aware of this element of my personality probably hate me for it. But the truth is, it's really a curse and a sickness. I have a monstrous super-ego which demands nothing less than total, utter brilliance in my artistic works. There is no way to be truly creative under that kind of pressure and the whole process quickly devolves into a slave-driver mentality. The thirty-day time limit on this particular project has really flushed that devil out. This "facing the devil" is something I might think about being grateful for - if I can find a way to overcome it and not just stop dead in my tracks, another sad case of ego swallowing art.

Wish me luck.


Word count: 33,110
Words to finish (?): 16,890

8:30 AM

Hard to say how bad it is, because I'm so doped up on thera-flu, but I spent the last 12 hours in bed and there is definitely still some junk in my lungs. Alas, Seattle, I will have to take a rain check...

3:19 PM

Five and a half hours and over 300 miles from Seattle to Newport under cover of rain storm. When I got in the door I was so light headed I had to lie down. I am sick, sick sick.

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 15th 2009 - SEATTLE

5:45 PM

I'm afraid I might be getting sick. I got into Seattle a little past 11 AM and as soon as I got out of the car I could tell something wasn't quite right. It was neither the cold nor the wet, but their combination.

I went to the big "Seattle mid-way write-in" and it just completely rubbed me the wrong way. I wasn't into the vibe at all - it was totally crowded and I didn't feel like the general approach to writing in the room had much in common with my own. Also, there was an unbelievable amount of talking - in fact there was a podium and a microphone which was used frequently, punctuated by ten minute writing "sprints" during which there was a general competition to see who could produce the most words before the ten minutes was up, and the talking commenced again. I am a fan of just letting the writing flow, but for me, ten minutes is barely time to get warmed up.

by 3:30, I was beginning to feel seriously ill - not sure if it was the vibe, the icey-wet outside, the lack of sleep, or all of the above, but visions of swine flu were dancing in my head, so I headed for my hostel, checked in, and crashed into bed. Hopefully with some good rest I will nip this in the bud...

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 14th, 2009 - PORTLAND

9 PM -

Sitting in a 24 hour coffee shop in Southeast Portland, at the biggest write-in I've come across yet. There must be at least 30 people here, typing away, trying to hit 50,000 words by the 30th. It's a little weird. "It rains a lot here and we have to do something," said the woman sitting next to me.

Yesterday was the first day since starting that I didn't write a single word (or, for that matter, post to this blog) - there are many reasons for this, including having to clean out the Newport house for renters coming in, the drive to Portland, and an encounter with a small amount of Absinthe the night before, which despite being small nevertheless somewhat knocked the wind out of my sails.

But also, I might have just needed a break. If I am somehow making this look easy, I'm sorry to say, I've got you fooled. It's because of experiences like this that I know what the word "angst" means.

Word count is still very healthy at about 28,000, but somehow I still have not finished Ch. V "Wasteland" yet - it just keeps expanding - to the point where I've had to divide it into sub-chapters (which I also did for the ultra-long Ch. IV "Tribe"). I endeavor now to finish this chapter in the hours ahead...

11:35 PM

At last, "Wasteland" is done, and with it, book one. It ends exactly as I've been planning to end it for over a week, with the introduction of the time-traveller Karillion.

I balk somewhat at my own audacity in introducing time travel 29,000 words in. But, the story wants what it wants, I suppose. It will be an interesting struggle to incorporate this somewhat fantastic sounding new tangent and still maintain the serious and sophisticated tone of the piece under which I have thus far labored.

Who knows! All I know is this is a lot of work. And, during the actual writing, a lot of fun. However, for some reason I continue to have trouble not angsting-out in-between writing sessions. I wish my therapist were here.

Tomorrow morning I'm driving to Seattle.