A Novel Lapse in Posting

One might well ask why there has been a lapse in posting to the Religion, Politics, and Sex site over the past two months, especially when one considers how much happened during that period. Among other things, former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain's sex scandal broke, ballooned, and then disappeared -- along with his chances of being a contender for the White House in 2012. And yet, there has not been a word about it or anything else here, so it seemed appropriate to offer an explanation.

The short answer is "National Novel Writing Month," an annual creative writing project that challenges participants to write a 50,000 word story between November 1 and November 30 that I decided to participate in this year. So, hard on the heels of the book tour for my latest title, Texas Confidential: Sex, Scandal, Murder, and Mayhem in the Lone Star State, I spent a month striving to complete a readable fantasy novel -- and am pleased to report that I succeeded in doing so. Between weekly signing events around Texas in October and November and completing that novel, a lot slipped through the cracks in November, and staying on top of my obligations to this site was one of them.

Although I am the author or co-author of 10 non-fiction books, I have never really been keen on events like this one for a variety of reasons, but a number of things prompted me to accept the challenge of this most recent NaNoWriMo. A major incentive for me was that one of the eleven New Year's resolutions I made for 2011 was to finish a novel by the end of the year and, not being on track to do that, I figured that if I was not going to get one done by the end of November that I sure as hell was not going to get one done in December.

Swords of Kos: Necropolis is a swords-and-sorcery novel and, in that it does not cross over much into the issues covered on this site, I will not say any more about it other than it is on track for publication and that the first 10,000-or-so words of it appear on my NaNoWriMo page, for anyone who might be interested in reading it.

But, now that our projects are done and out of the way, the Religion, Politics, and Sex staff are back! And just in time for the upcoming national election ...