#airbrushed brows

[celebritycloseup]

isabela moner

[nanowrimo]

Farewell, Werewolf Truckers

One of the great things about never knowing what I'm going to write for NaNoWriMo is the pleasing sense of possibility that comes from pondering all the books I might end up writing. A terrorist-filled thriller set at a mini-golf course? Could be! A comedy of manners starring a family of long-distance truck-driving werewolves? You never know!

My autumn life is swoony with potential, and then I read the Book, and everything changes. The Book is the random novel that the universe seems to send me every October to serve as my spirit guide for that year's NaNoWriMo. I read it, I fall in love with it, and I come away from it thinking: "Forget the werewolves! I need to write something like that."

I just finished this year's Book. It's called One Day, and it's by a British author named David Nicholls. I'm only allowed to like it for another three minutes because People Magazine has also said nice things about it, and a big studio is making a movie based on it and pretty soon I'll have to start championing Nicholls' less-read earlier novels as his true works of genius.

For now, though, I can openly admit that I love this book and really want to write something like it next month. Casual prose. Music. Popular culture. Funny bits. Sad bids. Great observations about relationships. Insights on celebrity. Intermittent showers of true love. And a lot of thoughts about growing up and getting older, and how those two are not always the same thing.

What about you? Have you stumbled on a great Book that you're going to use as a model or inspiration for this year's NaNo?