It’s nearing the end of October, and that means it’s almost November, which is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)!

To get further practice for my new career in fiction writing, I’m going to give it a go again. The idea is to write an entire novel in one month. I tried this last year, and failed. But hey, I called it, when I wrote this:

… I’ll have to write 2000 words or so a day. Yeah. Right. I’m destined to fail, but it’s the participation that matters more than success. Maybe I’ll work my way up to actually completing NaNoWriMo next year, but for now, I’ll just give myself an A for effort.

See how I set myself up to succeed even if I failed? That’s how to get ahead in life.

Perhaps I will post the aborted novel attempt here sometime later. I went back to read a bit of it recently, and the good news is that it sucks. That’s good because it means I’ve improved my writing in the last year to a point that I can recognize suckiness in my own past work.

Anyway, I was setting up my profile on the NaNoWriMo web site, and it asked what my favourite novel is. Hmm…never thought of that before.

Then I remembered what my favourite novel ever is. The problem is that I don’t remember who wrote it, what it is called, or what it is about. All I remember is that I was about 10 or 11 years old when I read it, and I couldn’t put it down; I stayed up all night reading it all in one sitting. I also remember that it scared the living shit out of me. I haven’t read a book like that since.

Actually, I do remember a few more details about it. Maybe you, worldwide internet, can identify my long lost love of a book (and subsequently crush my memories when I find out it’s actually crap). Here is what I remember:

• It took place in a forest.
• The front cover was dark – mostly black – with a photographic picture on it – but the title and author were in brightly coloured letters (yellow or orange).
• It was part of a series. The other books in the series had similar covers, with a photograph of something (usually objects, not people) overlaid with brightly coloured letters, all in the same font.
• It may or may not have taken place in Canada and/or been by a Canadian author.
• It was probably written for young people. It may or may not have been available in those Scholastic book fair things (do they still do those??).
• It may or may not have had a sasquatch in it.

Anyone?

Another memory from my childhood is coming back to me: seeing the movie below in the back horror room of Jumbo Video (which had a life size Freddy statue and was awesome) and being freaked out by it.

I think I always assumed it was a chick with the wolf head coming out; I guess I never looked long enough to notice the flat chest (or maybe it’s just proof that I’ve never been a boob man). I also never noticed Red Riding Hood in the background, because that wolf is so fucking scary.