Bad Writer. No dessert!

A writer deserves one day off, doesn't she?

"No!" you say.

You're absolutely right!

And you are in charge of not letting it happen again. If my word count doesn't climb tomorrow, you have my permission to write mean things in the comment section. (But not too mean.) Just help me stay focused and on track to reach my 50,000 word goal by the end of the month. Thanks!

But it wasn't exactly a day off. I did other writing-related work. Really. Don't look at me in that tone of voice.

One of the things I did was work on material for a conference I'll be speaking at this coming April -- the Erma Bombeck Writer's Workshop at the University of Dayton. This conference, inspired by the late, GREAT Erma Bombeck takes place only once every two years. I'm honored to be on the faculty for the upcoming conference.

If you're interested in attending, registration opens on December 1st and fills up fast. The last conference sold out in three days.

Here are the faculty bios and the workshop sessions.

Okay. Here are the embarrassing, pitiful, shameful numbers: (You might notice they look a lot like yesterday's numbers, except that one whole precious day is gone and there's a big goose egg for today's word count.)

Today's word count: 0
Total word count: 19,652
Goal: 50,000 words
Days remaining: 19

Today's Trivia Question: Which European country's national orchestra is larger than its army?

Answer to Yesterday's Trivia Question: The most common dog name is Lady, which just happens to be our dog's name.