National Novel Writing and Podcast Posting Month 2021
Welcome friend to Create Art Podcast where I help you tame your inner critic and create more than we consume. I am Timothy Kimo Brien your thankful head instigator with over 20 years in arts and education. How I accomplish this is by providing you with commentary, interviews, discussions, and projects that will inspire you to create art. This month I will be podcasting daily and writing a novel in 30 days. I am participating in NaPodPoMo and NaNoWriMo again this year as I did last year and you can hear those episodes here. You will be able to listen and read along to what I wrote for the day. I like to practice what I preach when it comes to art so I am challenging myself to write and having you come along for the ride. It is my hope this inspires you to accomplish your goals with your art and if you would like to share what you are doing email me at timothy@createartpodcast.com
History of NaNoWriMo and NaPodPoMo
NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month began in 1999 as a daunting but straightforward challenge: to write 50,000 words of a novel in thirty days. Now, each year on November 1, hundreds of thousands of people around the world begin to write, determined to end the month with 50,000 words of a brand new novel. They enter the month as elementary school teachers, mechanics, or stay-at-home parents. They leave novelists.
NaPodPoMo: NaPodPoMo* is a month-long event along the same vein as National Novel Writing Month aka NaNoWriMo. The difference? Well, instead of writing a 50,000-word novel, you podcast every day for 30 days from November 1st-30th. Use any platform you desire. From full production studio to iPhone app and just about anything in between. The goal is to use the challenge of podcasting daily as a form of podcasting boot camp.
The Writing So Far
15 Nov 2021 daily count 1745 cumulative count 23011
Carl went to the living room and sat down with Cheryl and turned on the television and put on some jazz. They both said aloud “No Grover Brecht dammit,” and the music came on. They sat on the couch and just held hands for some time. It felt nice to Carl to just hold hands with someone again and Cheryl put her head on his shoulder. They stayed that way until almost midnight when Cheryl got up and motioned for Carl to come to bed. He turned off the television and followed her to bed. Once in the bedroom Cheryl turned on the light and disrobed and climbed into bed. Carl stood there and looked at her.
“You should probably get into your pajamas and come to bed,” said Cheryl. Carl took off his clothes until he got down to his underwear and put his phone on the charger and turned on some soft music again. “No jazz, maybe something light like classical would be nice. I know you like to listen to music when you sleep. It won’t bother me I’m too tired to let it disturb me.” He climbed into ned with her and set the alarm for 6 AM.
“I have to go to work early tomorrow, I promise to be quiet,” said Carl but Cheryl was already asleep. He turned out the light and fell into a sound sleep. The night passed without any fanfare, his snoring didn’t wake Cheryl and when the alarm went off, he quickly turned it off. He got up in the dark and went to the bathroom to shower and get ready for work. Once the water hit his face, he felt refreshed and ready to tackle whatever the day brought him. Once done with the shower he shaved his face and felt truly clean. The worries from the weekend passed away. Usually, he would have music on at this time, but he didn’t want to disturb Cheryl, so he got ready in silence. He walked to the closet and picked out his clothes for the day. Once dressed he went back to the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror. He inspected his clothes to make sure everything was where it needed to be and turned out the light. When he entered the room again Cheryl was sitting up in bed and looking through her phone.
“How did you sleep,” Carl asked?
“You don’t snore as bad as you think you do. I slept just fine. It was nice having someone next to me. I was worried I’d miss you but when you got up, I woke up and figured I’d wait to you were done in the bathroom. This is going to work; Myra and I will have a fun time at Carmine’s, and you will come get Myra at the shop. We aren’t leaving, I am in this for the long haul, and I know you are too,” said Cheryl. Carl came to her side of the bed and kissed her for the first time since this whole thing started. It felt good to do that and she welcomed the kiss. “Now grab your coffee and get to work, I’ll text you if anything happens.”
Carl closed the bedroom door and went to the kitchen where is coffee was already brewed and ready to pour. He took out his travel mug and filled it, then he took out a cup and poured a bowl of cereal with milk and quietly ate. The sun was coming up little by little to start the day and he sat there in the dark of the kitchen and ate his food slowly. Looking at his watch he saw that he had a few minutes before he had to leave. He walked to Myra’s door and peered in to see that she was still asleep. Her breathing was slow and rhythmic. She had a slight smile on her face which made him smile. He felt good being a father, even if it meant he would die. He closed her door and walked back to the kitchen to put away the bowl and mug. He checked on the dishes in the dishwasher and the heat came out of the door and warmed his face. At that time, he was ready to go and left quietly and locked the door behind him. He made it to his car and turned it on. The radio was on the NPR station and the announcer was talking about the body found in the next town that he assumed was Harold. He turned off the radio and plugged in his phone to turn on a podcast. It was one that brought inanimate objects to life and interviewed those objects. This time it was a light post which had an Irish accent. He listened and started to laugh at the absurdity of the story. He put the car in drive and left the quiet apartment complex headed for work. When he got to work, he discovered that he forgot to make a lunch for himself, luckily there was a couple of fast-food establishments nearby where he could grab a quick bite to eat. None of them were healthy choices, but he figured he deserved to splurge today after the weekend he had.
When Carl got into work, he headed for his desk and was met by his boss Fred. “Carl, can you meet me in my office for a few minutes before you start work today?” They went to Fred’s office and Fred closed the door. “Okay I am not prying because you are one of my best employees and I like to think of you as a friend. Is everything okay, do you need to take some time off. Lord knows you barely take any time for yourself?”
“Things got weird this weekend. I will be taking some time off soon, about a week or two. This weekend was pretty nuts for me, and I am not at one hundred percent today, but I do want to get some work done and prep our clients for me being out,” replied Carl.
“Take the time, no worries, just let me know when you will be back. There is plenty of work here for everyone and I am sure we can get someone to cover your accounts while you are out. Is there anything I can do for you while you are out,” asked Fred?
“Not really, I have people helping me out now that are working on the issues, but I will need to talk with HR about adding two people on my insurance. I have a qualifying event,” said Carl.
“Of course, I can get you into HR anytime today, let’s say about 10 AM. Will that work,” asked Fred?
“Yeah, that should work. Thanks for being so understanding, just some weird stuff going on at home and well, I am adding to the household. Going to get married soon an adopt a child,” replied Carl.
“Well, that definitely is news. I don’t remember you talking about adopting before, you know we have a program that can help you out with that, and marriage, wow life is really turning around for you,” replied Fred.
“Can we keep that just to ourselves. I don’t want it getting around the office and don’t want anyone making a fuss,” said Carl.
“Definitely, I can keep it quiet. Is everything okay though, I mean is this something you wanted to happen,” asked Fred?
“It wasn’t on my ten-year plan but it just happened and so we are getting everything sorted out. I really appreciate you keeping quiet on this, you know me, I don’t even like telling people when my birthday is,” said Carl.
“Well, let me know what you need, I have your back and not just because you are such a great employee, you are a great person,” said Fred.
Carl went back to his desk and started up his terminal. He had about one hundred emails to answer and he needed to check on the status on a few projects he was working on. When he looked up next from his pile of emails it was close to ten o’clock. He needed to head over to HR like Fred said and get a packet from them to add Cheryl and Myra onto his insurance. He finished up the email he was working on and determined that he was not as far behind as he thought. Luckily, he always was ahead of his projects and workload so he could slide for a few days without any interruption in service for his clients. He went over to the HR office and signed in. He waited there about five minutes when someone he didn’t know called his name. He was directed to another office in the back and was sat in a small cubicle with the HR person.
“Carl, how can we help you today,” asked the woman behind the desk?
“Well, I am going to be getting married and adopting a child in the near future and naturally I need to get them on my insurance so I suppose I’ll need the paperwork for that and if you could tell me how quickly they can be added on that would be great to know,” replied Carl.
“That should be easy enough, so the insurance will need copies of their social security cards and birth certificates and the paperwork is pretty easy to fill out. Once you have those documents then just bring them back to me or you can email them to me, and we will get your wife and child set up on your insurance. Oh, and we will need a copy of your marriage license to add your wife on. How about your retirement, I see we have your ex-wife on the account, will you be dropping her from your retirement, if so, we would need a copy of the updated divorce decree showing that she is waiving her portion of your retirement,” said the HR woman.
“Wow I hadn’t thought about that, let’s just do the insurance for now and then we can tackle the retirement at a later date,” replied Carl.
“You have ninety days to make that declaration from the time you get remarried, you could leave her on and add your new wife onto the account to start and then work things out with your ex-wife,” said the HR lady.
Reaching Out
To reach out to me, email timothy@createartpodcast.com I would love to hear about your journey and what you are working on. If you would like to be on the show or have me discuss a topic that is giving you trouble write in and lets start that conversation.
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