November = Novel

Tomorrow is November 1st, the first day of National Novel Writing Month! In case you missed the announcement, I am one of the crazies who have committed to the goal of writing a 50,000 word novel between tomorrow and November 30th. Impossible? There are thousands of people who have done it. Though I signed up on a whim, (Okay, I admit I've been thinking about it since last year) I have gotten pretty psyched. I am definitely intimidated by the challenge, but I've spent some quality time thinking about a plot and characters to spend the month creating. Other than that, I don't have a whole lot of extra preparation. With the econ paper, my house cleaning, and Season 3 of "24" finished as of this weekend (it was quite the weekend, let me tell you), I guess I'm ready. I can't tell you what this project is likely to do to my sanity or my blog but since I have to write 1667 words a day (average) to meet the 50,000 word goal its safe to say I will be on my computer a lot. I could use some cheerleaders, for sure, so please stay tuned!!

The following is a rough (I repeat: ROUGH) summary of the first 2/3rds of my story. I thought about posting the whole thing, but I don't want to give away the ending! Please tell me how interesting it sounds and how you want to read more, more, MORE! ;) Even if you don't really mean it (and I'm only sort of joking there). This is probably all you're going to get of the novel until its finished, so enjoy it (if that's possible. If not, I'm sorry!). Last note: there are character sketches that I'm not including here, but in case you can't guess: Jenna's the main-est main character, a white chick in Japan. Kumai and Sachiko are retired Japanese hikers. Ren is a young Japanese hiker. That's all you get.

Jenna sets off to hike all of Japan’s 100 famous mountains in the months she has remaining before returning to the States. Starting from her former host family’s home in Kobe she hikes north towards the Northern Alps. She hits bad weather in Kamikochi and finds herself only three-fourths of the way up Yarigatake when the cold rain hits. She’s exhausted and freezing but must make it to the top by night time. When she finally makes it she’s depressed, frustrated and on the verge of hypothermia. Out of sincere worry for her condition, Kumai offers to move into her tent for the night.

Jenna feels better in the morning and a day spent hiking with Kumai and his wife, Sachiko convinces her to continue her trek. Jenna and Kumai quickly find themselves mutually attracted and when they meet for a “final” drink in the restaurant of Kumai’s hotel, Jenna ends up sleeping with Kumai. When Sachiko realizes what has happened she’s appalled but takes several days to approach her husband. Jenna and Kumai’s relationship becomes tense- Jenna likes Kumai a lot but feels guilty for having an affair. Kumai primarily expects the relationship to be over quickly but then finds he respects Jenna and enjoys her company more than previous women he’s had affairs with. They try to part ways but Kumai changes his mind and decides to hike the same trail as Jenna. Jenna is slower and therefore is forced to continue hiking behind Kumai and Sachiko. She is torn between her attraction for Kumai, her embarrassment for her behavior, and desire to focus more on hiking and less on people she probably won’t see again once she returns home.

She begins spending more and more time with Ren, a Japanese hiker her age. Finally Kumai and his wife head back to Matsumoto and Jenna and he say a decisive “goodbye”. Ren and Jenna continue to hike together as a team....

What will happen? Stay tuned to find out! (ok, I'm a cheesy dork, apologies).