The Lair of the Emerald Serpent

It’s that time of year again. The annual quiz which I have been doing for at least ten years now.

It is a miracle the stupid useless Big Mac is still around for the occasion. Mind you, it did take 20 minutes just to get into Scrivener without being endlessly pelted by spinning beach balls.

( 2022 )

It's that time of year again. Last October, for the first time I was not sure if I would be signing up for Nanowrimo or not. I had a major operation scheduled for the last week of the month and had no idea what to expect or how what state I would find myself in during November.

I half expected to be a brain dead bed ridden zombie for several weeks so did not want to commit myself to anything in that state. Things turned out to be the exact opposite. The docs and nurses did such a good job that I ended up in the Green Zone for nearly 2 months. That was completely and totally unexpected.

So I had 4 weeks with no work commitments while in inspired serpent mode. So with all the stars aligned, it would have been crazy not to Nano.

At this stage I am signing up for the month of craziness simply because it has now become an ingrained habit. The default setting for November. It would simply feel strange not to be squiggling next month.

For the first few years I planned a bunch of plot points more as a safety net than anything. Usually using randomly drawn Tarot cards to create them. Trying to link each card to the next was usually sufficient to create some sort of storyline. Of course the map is not the territory and once I started writing, I would often end up down some random rabbit hole that had more potential than the next destination on the original map.
But since 2018 I have been unable to write proper tales with a beginning, middle and sometimes an end. I still keep writing anyway in the hope that the spark will come back.

I still need to choose a tarot deck for when I get stuck. I haven't even got the bones of a plot yet. Normally I have all of that sorted by the middle of October.
The main idea I have so far has been inspired by the strange Australian trait of claiming that even the cutest and cuddliest of the famous Oz creatures are actually vicious killers.

We don't have just the weirdos of Wolf Creek lying in wait for unsuspecting backpackers to walk into their house of horrors. We also have an army of animals ready to unleash their venom on every single visitor to this wide brown land.

Awesome Australian Animals

But while our fabulous fauna gets all the attention, the flora is sadly neglected.
It's time to fix that. So after the last few months of planting pretty little critters, I think it's the perfect time to create the Oz Floranomicon.

I've got a handy plant catalogue from one of the nurseries at the Garden Festival yesterday. Also after working a while in a native plant nursery, I notice that I am able to recognize a lot of local plants. I always use the botanical names since they are unambiguous. A habit I learnt when studying Herbology in Germany which has proved to be very useful.

I even got a voucher for a free seedling for being able to spot the 12 weeds from a photo collection of 18 plants. I even knew the names of 9 of them.
(I had already bought 10 leaf babies from the stall accepting the vouchers)

Of course a Book of Evil Weeds is just a plot device in search of a plot. I guess I am hoping that picking the right tarot deck might provide some inspiration for plot creation.

Along with the fascinating book I am currently reading "Mr Penumbra's 24 Hour Book Store"
There's always Dan Brown if I ever get desperate for plot points.