WE’VE NOT HERETOFORE discussed the Lord of the Rings movies, except to bemoan that their merchandising rights are controlled (and have been humongously exploited) by John Fogerty’s least-favorite record mogul Saul Zaentz. But the current New Yorker has a fond but not fawning essay comparing the films, not unfavorably, both to Tolkien’s original books and to Richard Wagner’s Ring cycle operas. Along the way, the essay gives particular praise to the one member of the films’ creative team with the closest New York connection, composer (and original Saturday Night Live bandleader) Howard Shore.

AS OF TWO MINUTES AGO, I finally finished the last chapter of my novel The Myrtle of Venus that I hadn’t finished in November. (Because I wrote it out of sequence, that last piece I wrote isn’t the last part of the book.)

Anyway, here’s the first of four previously un-uploaded chapters. And, as usual, the whole thing starts at this link.

The thrilling conclusion will be up on the site in the next day or two. Look for it.

MY RAPID WRITING PACE has slowed this week, but I’ve still got two more new chapters of my beautiful new novel The Myrtle of Venus. As usual, you can catch up to the onset of the story at this link.

IT’S BEEN FOUR WHOLE DAYS, but we’ve got a hot and hilarious spankin’ new chapter of my beautiful new novel The Myrtle of Venus. As usual, you can catch up to the onset of the story at this link.

EVEN THOUGH NOBODY’S yet told me they’ve read any of it, I’m goin’ ahead and posting seven five more chapters to my comedy adventure novel The Myrtle of Venus to this site. As usual, the story commences at this point. The new stuff starts at this link.

Eight more chapters remain to be cleaned up and posted. They should be up within a week.

After that, the whole ruff draft will remain up until I have a revised version ready. That one will be a sales item.

THOSE OF YOU who live in easy proximity to downtown Seattle may read the newest incarnation of the print MISC, a column in the monthly Belltown Messenger tabloid. It’s free to pick up at the Two Bells bar, BBC Studio/Ola Wyola Boutique, and several other dropoff points. That column was compiled from items that appeared on this site in the past month or so; any future installments with original material will be posted here.

WITH ONE DAY TO GO in National Novel Writing Month, I’ve posted five more chapters to my successful entry The Myrtle of Venus to this site. As usual, the story starts at this link. The just-posted scenes start at this link.

The final sixteen chapters will be available here sometime within the next week.

No, not just sort of. Real, honest-to-Godot VICTORY!!!

Yes, I have indeed made the 50,000-word mark on my National Novel Writing Month exercise The Myrtle of Venus. Nine or ten (non-consecutive) scenes still exist only in rough outline form; I’ll try to flesh them out over the long weekend to have a finished rough draft within NaNoWriMo’s 30-day time frame. When I get them done, I’ll post them (and the already finished scenes interspersed with them) to this site.

STILL HAVEN’T HIT the 50,000-word mark yet today, but I have added two more chapters of The Myrtle of Venus to this site. As usual, the story starts at this link. The new parts start at this link.

I FULLY EXPECT to write the 50,000th word of The Myrtle of Venus today (Wednesday). Currently at 48,001.

SIX BIG NEW CHAPTERS from my formative novel The Myrtle of Venus are now up. The whole thing starts at this link. The additional material begins at this link.

As of this morning, my novel-in-gestation The Myrtle of Venus is up to a whoppin’ 45,026 words. But several major scenes still need to be embellished from rough form into full prose, so the final thing’ll likely be longer than the NaNoWriMo minimum of 50,000.

Some of you have asked how many printed pages that will mean. Trade books can have as many as 500 or as few as 200 words per page, so no accurate comparison can be made. A 50,000-word text could fill between 100 and 250 book pages; even more if you add blank pages between chapters or scatter pictures through the thang.

…from my novel-in-formation The Myrtle of Venus are now up. The whole thing starts at this link. The newly-added stuff begins at this link.

Current total word count, including scenes not yet posted to this site: 41,234.

BEEN A BUSY BEE TODAY. Now up for your pleasure are five more chapters from my novel project The Myrtle of Venus. The whole thing starts at this link. The just-now-posted stuff begins at this link.

Am closing in on 40,000 words, and fully plan to break that mark tonite.

JUST TO MAKE IT UP TO YOU ALL, I’ve posted not three but a whopping six new chapters of my novel in progress The Myrtle of Venus. The story’s beginning is still at this link. The first of today’s just-added installments is at this link.

So sue me. Instead of formatting chapters to upload to this site, I spent today writing more chapters. So now I’m up to 38,166 words; with 11,384 to add over the next nine days.