National Novel Writing Month starts November 1. The commitment: write fifty-thousand words in thirty days. The insanity for which one should be committed: agreeing to write fifty-thousand words in thirty days.

Last year’s tale, You Jane, is coming down from this site’s NaNoWriMo Story page on Sunday, October 23. The great empty space that will be transformed into this year’s saga will take its place, ready to be filled in so you can read along as the month wears on.

Here’s the kernel of the idea that will germinate into (dare I tempt fate by writing it again?) fifty-thousand words by November 30. Bonus points to anyone who hunts down the story of Saint Guinefort and shares it as a comment for this post!

The Life and Death of Saint Guinefort

Guinefort – known as Guinn – finds herself responsible for the death of a child. Ready to do herself in as penance, she is offered a deal: Take over for Death, who is pining for an early retirement, and leave the world without risking the eternal damnation that follows suicide. Guinn agrees, believing her life is over; then, in carrying out her Deathly duties, she falls in love. With a human man. She can’t touch him, or he’ll die. Guinn has to figure out how to love him in a way that allows him to live. Meanwhile, it turns out he’s the only human who can see her; and his relationship with Death will change his Life.