I attended the all-night write-in at a restaurant with a large number (surprisingly about 30 people showed up during that night!) of other WriMotaurs – as we’re known in Calgary, because a minotaur looks like a cow and we’ve got of lot of ‘em in old Albertie - and I managed to eke out another 8,000 words on the novel. I also planned out a whole lot more action in the two chapters between the “lead up” and “when all hell breaks loose” parts of the story, so that felt very good.

But the interesting part of the whole night, and I was there from 6 p.m. on Friday until 4 a.m. Saturday morning (just couldn’t sit for those last two hours and have been trying to catch up on lost sleep ever since) was there were times when all 10-15 of us were totally silent and concentrating, the only noise being the tapping of fingers on keyboards, and the drunks who came in at 2:30 for something to eat. We were jam-packed into booths and at tables, side-by-each, but eveyone was busy, working towards the same goal of finishing their 50,000 words. The energy that spun off all this creativity was palpable – I think we were all plugged into each other’s creativity as well as to the several power/surge protector bars scattered around the floor.

It was a group of varied ages, too, from one girl of nine who had been allowed to stay for two hours, and a couple of teenage girls who received signed permission from their parents to stay the entire night (and I hate all of them because they’ve already completed their 50,000 words, with the nine-year-old well into her second novel since the 10th of November…) right up to the eldest… well, me! Let’s just say I was the only one attending that evening who qualified for the restaurant’s 55-plus senior’s discount.