National Novel Writing Month (NanoWrimo) begins today

Welcome to November, and National Novel Writing Month. You're encouraged to write that 50,000 word novel that has been bursting to come out lo these many years.

Our library is sponsoring two writing events to help inspire Wrimos to keep plugging away. There are other informal events in the Twin Cities, but our writer's group has a great hour and a half planned to help you get over any bits of discouragement or writer's block you may be experiencing.

I am trying this out myself in sympathy with our would be writers, wish me luck. I usually do National Blogging Month but after the rigors of last year, and getting so close to perfect then missing Thanksgiving Day, grr, I'm turning my efforts elsewhere for a year.

Sign up for NanoWrimo here.

Last Week's Cryptogram Answer

EVEN WITH THE WINDOWS CLOSED, THE SAND STILL MANAGED TO CREEP INTO THE RAILWAY CAR AND FIND ITS WAY INTO THE MOST INCONVENIENT PLACES.

LJLU CPME MEL CPUKBCQ ITBQLK, MEL QXUK QMPTT YXUXVLK MB IALLN PUMB MEL AXPTCXR IXA XUK SPUK PMQ CXR PUMB MEL YBQM PUIBUJLUPLUM NTXILQ.

Theodosia and the Last Pharaoh by R. L. LaFevers

Last Week's Rebus answer

Murder on Sisters' Row a Gaslight Mystery by Victoria Thompson

Halloween Wordsearch

Halloween Words!


A H C Q O T L O W Y M H B S S
Q S D O H C C R T F U W R T C
E O K G B T P R E G A N O A R
T F I C O W A A R F O C O E E
P R L B I P E A J R T O M R A
F U E O H R V B D Y T S S T M
D R M P W E T L S P Z T T Z T
C A L P S E U M A S K U I L S
W T M T K A R Y E M S M C L O
I O O U C I C E S A D E K E H
I N L K F P N A W P W G H B G
E Y E B A L L S P I Y W X R R
T A C K C A L B T E C G K O Q
R M A K E U P C T R P V J O R
E D I R Y A H Y D N A C A D P




BLACKCAT BROOMSTICK CANDY
CAPE CAULDRON COBWEB
COSTUME DOORBELL EYEBALLS
FRIGHT GHOST GRAVESTONE
GYPSY HAYRIDE MAKEUP
MASK OCTOBER PARTY
PUMPKIN SCREAM TREATS
TRICKS WEREWOLF WITCH


Just in case the puzzle got scrambled when I copied and pasted:

Whitinsville High School Band plays an arrangement of Skyrim's Main Theme

I think this high school band making and playing an arrangement from the upcoming game Skyrim is so cool. The music from the Elder Scrolls games is always beyond beautiful and having this small band honor it is such fun.

Once Upon a Time Premier

Once Upon a Time has an entire modern day town enchanted and full of unknowing fairy tale characters. The only people who know this secret are a boy named Henry, the wicked witch mayor of the town, and a doubting bail bondsman named Emma Swan.

The story wends back and forth between the modern day and fairy tale world, showing how things got to be so incredibly odd.

Standout characters are Emma, a tough girl who gave up a baby ten years ago; Snow White, a tragic but flawed princess; The Wicked Witch, who is scarier in her modern day politician's guise than in full witch regalia; and the nasty little character of Rumpelstiltskin, who is glowingly evil in the fairy tale past and in the modern day world.

In the opening, Henry shows up at Emma's door and asks her to come home to Storybrook with him. She obliges reluctantly but after a few rounds with Ms Witch, she decides to stay one week as Henry asks, just to see what things are really like in town.

In the fairy tale world, we see the wicked witch threatening a curse on all, which comes to fruition just as Emma is born to Snow White and Prince Charming.

Next week promises to show just what Snow White did to deserve such hatred from the witch.

The real stories behind the fairy tales will be told as the series plays out.

The weaving of old and new promises to be an interesting way of advancing the story. I am already rooting for Emma to be victorious in "the final battle". She's an underdog with a heroine just beneath the surface.

TVNotes Week of Oct 17

Dancing with the Stars

I was a little relieved to see someone with lesser dancing skills get sent home this week. Although Carson Cressley really worked hard on his dancing skills, he just didn't have what he needed to move forward dancing wise. As the judges are always saying, with ballroom dance, its the whole package that has to be there in order to be good.


Survivor



Silly to send home good competitor Mikayla over good egg Edna, but I think the teams may be getting merge-itis and they're altering their game a bit to take out individual threats who they think may not be loyal after a merge. I've seen it happen too many times where they do this though too early and cause their team to go into a losing streak. Let's hope Mikayla can at least unseat bratty Christine from Redemption Island. I don't think Mikayla will be so brooding and whiny and all around bleh as a Redemptioner.

Person of Interest

Nice episode for Reese who gets to be both a very sympathetic character and a bad ass.

He is always those things, but he was so determined to ease the suffering of the judge who he felt for, and yet he had that old drive the guy in your trunk around in circles to make him dizzy and get him to talk trick up his sleeve. Then he tosses another guy in with him like no problem. He's got subtle torture tricks we can only guess at in his repetoire.

I like how he keeps trying to get in under Finch's skin. The interplay between those two is fun.

Ye Eggs Benedict



Terra Nova

Another weak episode, and they only have 13 episodes and no renewal flag yet. They should have made much stronger storylines, it's just lazy that they did not.

The theme is a little girl from the Sixers comes out of nowhere and wants to join them, she has run away she says. She acts all feral and grubby, but as soon as she is cleaned up a bit she steals something from Mira's old house and tries to get out with it. She makes eyes at Shannon and says wah wah Mira made her do it and Mira would hurt her lil brother Sam...

Of course Shannon cruises right over to the Sixer's area (though nobody knows, wink, where they are) gets beat up, hears a sob story from Mira about the future holding her own daughter hostage (made up is my thought since they were looking a week ago to find a way to get at the new security chief).

Shannon goes back home with Sam and a sort of bond with Mira over family matters...Kinda weak sauce.

First Line Cryptogram for Sat Oct 22

LJLU CPME MEL CPUKBCQ ITBQLK, MEL QXUK QMPTT YXUXVLK MB IALLN PUMB MEL AXPTCXR IXA XUK SPUK PMQ CXR PUMB MEL YBQM PUIBUJLUPLUM NTXILQ.

Book Title Rebus for Saturday October 22

Last Week's Cryptogram Answer

THE WIND COULD BLOW DOWN A FULL-GROWN MAN, BUT IT WAS THE DUST THAT WAS THE WORST.


ZWP QOUC NXITC FTXQ CXQU V BITT-AJXQU GVU, FIZ OZ QVR ZWP CIRZ ZWVZ QVR ZWP QXJRZ.


All the earth, thrown to the sky by Joe R. Lansdale