Today’s Word Count: 2,042
Total Word Count: 2,042
Words to Go: 47,958

Today’s blog post was supposed to be about how today was the first day of NaNoWriMo 2022 and why I was using it to finish Crystal Blade (Paladins of Crystal 2). Mainly, it’s a good excuse to nail my ass to  a chair long enough to finish a book, especially one that already has about 20,000 words. And I’m proud of my word count for the day—didn’t make the 3K I was aiming for but I’m also taking time out to make dinner and write this entry so I still may add another K once all that’s done.

But then I read about Julie Powell. For those of you who aren’t familiar with her, she was the brash, hilarious writer who started a blog called The Julie/Julia Project in 2002, with the goal of cooking all the dishes in the first volume of Julia Child’s Mastering the Fine Art of French Cooking. And in a tiny apartment in Long Island with the assistance of her husband Eric, she did just that, blogging about her efforts at Salon.

Much to Powell’s surprise the blog went viral, spawned a book, and later became the basis for the movie Julie & Julia (Nora Ephron’s last film) starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. All of this allowed Powell to quit her job as a secretary in Manhattan and become a full time writer. Her second book, Cleaving, followed her desire to train as a butcher offset with the ups and downs of her marriage. It wasn’t as popular as Julie & Julia but I thought it was the better book.

Today I found out she died on October 26 from cardiac arrest. She was 49, an age that seems impossibly young and wrong for that kind of death. And while my heart goes out to her husband, family and friends, I’m also a little (well, more than a little) freaked out that someone of my generation and with a similar background and occupation died so young. It’s a cold reminder that tomorrow isn’t promised to anyone, and you need to tell the people in your life that you love them and work on making your dreams come true now instead of thinking, “Well, someday…”

So I’m going to work on this book because it’s part of my dreams. And I think I’ll dedicate it to Julie, another sarcastic secretary who made good.