Since my NaNoWriMo* 'pep talk' manifestly went out several days ago** and today is the last day of the nationally novel-writing month of November, this seems to me a suitable day to hang the original long version here.  I assume the short version is or will be up on the site somewhere–I'm not sure when they hang the current year's–but this is what I originally wrote, before I had pointed out to me they only wanted 800 words.***

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As I write this less than twenty-four hours before...