I'm Building a Hearse

It's fun but messy.

Our company has a scavenger hunt every year for halloween. My department chose as its team name the ICD-9 code for Dropped Dead. There really is one. Go find yourself a code book and look it up (or leave me a comment and I'll tell you what it is). I got volunteered to be team captain. Part of the requirements for the hunt is that you submit your items in a decorated box. In keeping with the whole death theme, we are submitting the few items we have in a hearse. We only have a few things because 2/3 of our team was out of town all week. The two of us who were left decided to have some fun. We were supposed to take a picture of all our teammates gathered at a particular bench not far from the office. Well, that's really hard to do when the whole team is out of town. So we got everyone pictures from the company directory, stuck them in a frame, and took a picture of them at the bench under a sign that said "In Loving Memory..." We were supposed to have a road map of Alaska, and we printed one off the internet and enlarged it so it is about 2 feet high by 2.5 feet long.

We may lose, but we had fun doing it.

So, do you want to hear the plot of my NaNovel? Well, congratulations, you're going to . Actually, I don't have much of a plot yet, but I have a pretty good concept.

The protagonist, Ella Shue, was someone who was pretty much the consummate follow or sidekick for most of her life. She did what other people wanted her to do because she was so desparate to fit in. She was manipulated by her friends, her family, even her teachers.

It wasn't until she went away to college, escaping all of those things, that she really discovered who she was, and that she was a very talented person, who did not necessarily have to follow to fit. She found her niche, and found happiness and success. This is all backstory that may or may not make it into the novel in some way, shape, or form.

Several years later, Ella is at the point in her career where she is hiring an assistant for the first time. A resume crosses her desk with a very familiar name - the person who was chiefly responsible for keeping her in the background in high school. It is a very common name, however, and she doesn't think any more of it until the day of the interview when she sees that it is the same person.

For some reason that I haven't determined yet, Ella ends up hiring her. The novel is about how Ella copes (or doesn't cope) with that change in roles.

I have some rather interesting plot points in my head. I just need to work out the details. This theme and the style I plan to use is somewhat of a departure for me - it is more popular and less literary. But I'm thinking I need a change to push me out of the funk I'm in. I feel confident that I can hit 50K this year.