NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

It is once again November and that means it is time for  NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, or as I prefer to call it  # ChaNoWriMo  or Chamoru Novel Writing Month. For those brave enough to try their typing or writing hands at NaNoWriMo, the challenge is to write 50,000 words of your prospective novel by the end of the month. 30 days for 50,000 words.  I've been doing this for several years now writing a number of different stories and novels, some of  which have made their way into the many things I've published through The Guam Bus. Most of these November novels have been focused on my alternate history for Guam referred to as "The Legend of the Chamurai." In it, there were pre-Spanish contacts between the Japanese and Chamorus and in the early 17th century, a group of samurai assist the Chamorus in fighting off the Spanish. In these stories, I've tried to give life to a number of legendary figures such as Chaife, Fu'una and Puntan, Ukudu and othe

This November I am once again participating in ChaNoWriMo or as its known elsewhere as NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month or Chamorro Novel Writing Month. This means that this blog sadly will not be receiving much attention. During this month, the challenge is to write 50,000 words of your novel. For me, I am continuing my long-standing story titled "The Legend of the Chamurai." I first started it in 2011 and I've been writing parts of it every November since then. The story so far has spanned over 500 years and a host of characters. It has spanned from the world of the dead, to Okinawa and Taiwan, to the Caroline Islands and to the northern islands of the Marianas. At present, I am writing sections of a great challenge that involves a unique or mysterious task on each of the Marianas Islands. Three champions sailing up the island chain, fighting monsters or finding artifacts on each island. Very fun, getting to use different aspects of the islands to come up w

I'll be at the Sukicon this weekend at the Phoenix Center at Father Duenas school in Mangilao. I will have a bunch of interesting things to display and even some stuff to sell. Sukicon is a gathering or cosplayers, gaming nerds, anime/manga nerds and even comic book geeks. There is an artist alley and different booths by exhibitors. For me, I'll be displaying/selling the following things: 1. I'll be displaying some of my grandfather's tools. I have a nice complete set of the seven traditional tools that I'll put out, as well as some examples of the 150 year history of Chamorro blacksmithing in my family, most notably a machete that is more than 100 years old, and made by my great-grandfather Mariano Leon Guerrero Lujan (Bittot). I also have some tools that my grandfather made and one or two that I helped him make more recently. This will be interesting as I'm sure most of the people attending Sukicon think of "culture" a bit differently, as usually

At the start of the month I was interviewed by the Marianas Variety on the topic of NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month. I have participated in this since 2012 and it is the highlight of the later part of the year for  me. The goal is to make it to 50,000 words from November 1st to November 30th. I've done it for the past two years, and I'm struggling to make it this time as well. I lost several days due to curriculum writing (I've already written about 50,000 words in terms of curriculum writing this month). I'm supposed to be at 25,000 words by now, but I'm only at 22,000. I will complete my goal however as the story "The Legend of the Chamurai" that I have been working on for the past three years has to be written and it is exciting to see it take shape each year.  Here is my interview below. ***************** 1. How many years have you participated in NaNoWriMo? This is my third year, I hit the 50,000 mark in

Si Yu'us Ma'ase to Mar-Vic Cagurangan for her mention of my column "When the Moon Waxes" and NaNoWriMo in her column earlier this month in The Marianas Variety. For those who want to know more about NaNoWriMo from a Chamorro perspective or ChaNoWriMo, please check out the Chamorro Studies Facebook page.  ********************** Stranger than Fiction Mar-Vic Cagurangan 11/8/13 The Marianas Variety THE hardest part of writing is coming up with the opening sentence. With every new piece, you are a virgin – even if you have had this job all your adult life. You embark on the process with nothing but a blank screen and frequent but unnecessary trips to the bathroom, hoping for the first atom of an idea to emerge. Writer’s block can be crippling. For news writers, the challenge is to write a catchy lead with an interesting angle, coupled with the difficulty of digesting a 100-page document, a one-hour interview or a two-hour forum into a 500-word (

In the writing world, November is a special month, although a generally crazy month. It is known as NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month. During this month all of those who have a passion for writing are encouraged to cast caution into the wind and blitz out the novel they have always dreamed of writing. It is something anyone, from any walk of life can participate in. All it takes is commitment and time management. The link for the website where you can sign up is (nanowrimo.org). For those who take on the NaNoWriMo challenge, the number 50,000 signifies both a hated overseer and a inspiring target. As this process is about getting those who want to write, to write, everyone is given a target, 50,000 words, that they are to reach by the end of the month. Over the course of November you are to type out 50,000 words of your chosen story. Since the target is all that matters you are not encouraged to edit and rewrite as you write, but simply charge forward unt

I haven't been posting as much on my blog this month because so much of my writing energy has been going into NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. I reached the halfpoint point of my novel of 50,000 words two days ago and so I feel glad to have made it that far, but bad that I haven't been giving much word love to my blog. This month, I am pushing a variation of NaNoWriMo called ChaNoWriMo, or Chamorro Novel Writing Month, I'll be writing more about it later, although I did mention it in my Marianas Variety column a few weeks back. For those who want to know more about NaNoWriMo or want to participate check out www.nanowrimo.org and sign up. Come and join the rest of us writers in Elsewhere: Micronesia if you are looking for a small but dedicated community to write with. As part of NaNoWriMo, each region gets a municipal liaison. It is her job to give people info, keep them motivated and organize write-ins. Below is a message about reaching the halfway point from

I feel like I haven't been posting much and I'm not sure how true this is.  I feel like I've been neglecting several things this month because of work and also because I'm participating in NaNoWriMo. The goal of National Novel Writing Month is to write 50,000 words of your novel before the end of the month. Right now, with five days left to go I am at 35,000 words. I am pretty certain I can make it, but with all my other obligations as well, I'm starting to feel the crunch.  I wanted to share an early part of my novel. It is titled "The Legend of the Chamurai" and tells the store of how Samurai and Chamorro warriors end up defeating a Spanish invasion of Guam in 1616. This story takes place over 600 years with different makahna or Chamorros with magical and superhuman abilities try to keep hope alive of defeating a mysterious force that will come to obliterate them. Part of the fun of this story is that I get to bring into a

  In my continuing efforts to ensure that I destroy myself I have started up yet another blog. This blog on the website Team Liquid, which is the largest community site for things related to the game Starcraft, will be naturally dedicated to things dealing with the limited amount of time I get to spend gaming every week. This blog will join the scattered and rag tag band of social online media that I try to run. I have this blog that I do not update as frequently as I used to. I have 3 tumblrs. A Twitter account I don't use much anymore. I have a Chamorro email sentence list I send out every day or so. I also have a weekly column in the Marianas Variety. In addition to all of this I am also doing National Novel Writing Month this month and although I already have 3000 words, I feel like I am behind. The title of my Starcraft blog is " The Bamboo Spear. " I love writing about nerd-related things because I like to combine that aspect of my life, with my love fo

The past few months have been difficult in terms of writing. I still write quite a bit, but I just don't find as much time as usual. I am currently the program coordinator for the Chamorro Studies program at UOG and in addition to this I have two kids and teach five classes and so down time where I can type or scratch out my thoughts feels about as rare as seeing a sihek in my backyard. But since November is National Novel Writing Month, I've decided to set aside time each day to work on a novel. Gof magof yu' put este, ya gof excited yu' para i mamaila na mes. My idea is one I've been thinking about for years and I've written about a few times on this blog. I call it "The Legend of the Chamurai." It is a story about how prior to the Spanish colonization of Guam in 1668, an event took place that has almost been completely lost in Guam History. This is the period where the Spanish interacted with Chamorros and visited Guam, but did not settle ther