Henrik Lantz

There is a pseudo-competition going on via the Internet; the NaNoWriMo - the National Novel Writing Month. This is an initiative started by a guy called Chris Baty and it’s been running for a few years now. Basically, the brief is that you are supposed to write a 50.000-word novel in 30 days - starting November 1st.

The purpose of this activity is to stimulate people to write, write, write that novel you have inside you. I call it a pseudo-competition since there are no prices or anything; anyone that finishes their novel and meets the criteria will be considered a winner. No one will check your novel or anything, you simply upload a text version of your manuscript to a web page and they have a script that counts the words in it - and then the file is destroyed. There are no literary agents connected to the competition or anything, it’s just a kick up the backside for the budding authors in the world; “Don’t get it right, get it written” - you have all your life to edit and rewrite your story, as long as you just get it down on paper to start with.

This year the organizing committee hope for 40.000 participants and up to 5.000 of those to be winners. I participated (and won) two years ago with a novel called Emerging Patterns, a script that I haven’t actually read since I finished it. I remember there being a huge plot hole in it, so I’ve been reluctant to, but I think I’ll give it a shot after this year’s attempt is done. This year, my story is calledDivine Intervention and it’s just past 11.500 words to date. I am roughly one day behind schedule, but there’s still plenty of time to catch up.

For an example of what might become of a NaNoWriMo novel, I invite you all to buy Freddie’s 2002 novel, The Fry Who Loved Me. This year, she’s writing Casa Mirana, in Swedish.

My NaNoWriMo Journal (in English)
Freddie’s NaNo blog (in Swedish)

Dutch movie director Theo van Gogh was killed this morning at 09.45 on the Linnaeusstraat in the eastern parts of Amsterdam. Van Gogh’s life had been threatened earlier this year after the TV screening of his short film “Submission", which deals with the discrimination against women in the Koran; although the link between this threat and the actual murder is not officially established yet.

The police have taken the suspected assasin into custody after chasing him through Oosterpark onto the Mauritzkade. The 26 year old Amsterdam man, with both Dutch and Moroccan citizenship, supposedly stapped van Gogh and shot after him and killed him when he tried to escape from the scene, also wounding a bystander. The man then left a note with van Gogh, indicating that this was indeed a premeditated action, before trying to escape the scene. Van Gogh died immediately, the assailant is now in hospital.

The Mayor of Amsterdam, Job Cohen, has after discussion with van Gogh’s family and friends decided not to arrange a minute of silence for the deceased, but rather for as many people as possible to gather on Dam square tonight, to make as much noise as possible to indicate that Free Speech cannot be silenced.

You may think what you want about van Gogh as a person and as a director, but being shot down for expressing yourself (if indeed that was what happened) is never acceptable.