It's National Novel Writing Month again, and once again, not satisfied with trying to whip out 50,000 words in 30 days, oversee our two homeschooling teenagers' education, keep up with other responsibilities (let us not say those bad words launder, clean, cook) and get a reasonable amount of sleep, I've decided to add making another Chris Baty doll to the list of things being finished this month.

Chris Baty, as you probably know, is the founder of National Novel Writing Month. Last year I designed a doll that (sort of) looked like him and sent it to NaNoWriMo's home office, thinking they might raffle it off or in some other way use it to raise money for the cause. The doll ended up putting in an appearance at NaNoWriMo's annual "Night of Writing Dangerously"--a six-hour-long writing marathon held in San Francisco, NaNoWriMo's home base, where I have since learned it was a big hit.

Nothing like a little recognition to get an artist going to ridiculous lengths to repeat such a success! When I was told, two or three weeks ago, that the doll had been referred to by Chris Baty himself as "topping [his] list of all-time surreal NaNoWriMo moments" (and I checked it out--these are almost his exact words: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/history#yearelevenleven) I immediately started work on the next edition of the Chris Baty Look-Alike Doll. Fortunately, I had saved the plaster cast I made of the original sculpture, so coming up with another one was just a bit simpler than the first time around. Unfortunately, my resculpting/painting skills being what they are, this one doesn't look quite like last year's edition. I gritted my teeth and finished him anyway, because, after all, last year's edition didn't look exactly like the real person either...

Because I started so late, this guy didn't get finished in time to make it to this year's Night of Writing Dangerously, which took place yesterday (21 November) but I was able to send pictures before the event to Lindsey Grant, NaNoWriMo's Program Director. "Little Chris" will probably be making the trip to San Francisco sometime this week, where, we hope, he'll be put to some use in helping to make the world more interesting for would-be novelists.