So about this challenge I’m in:
The StickK website has my credit card information. On April 25 they’ll e-mail me a certificate asking me if I’ve honored the resolution I launched a couple weeks ago, i.e., whether I wrote the first draft of a new novel in 100 days. If I report to them no, they’ll deduct $100 from my credit card and donate it to a national anti-gay marriage organization (anonymously, thank God). If I report to them yes, they’ll deduct nothing.
Note that I said “report to them.” In other words, I could fail to complete the novel by April 25 and still report to them that I succeeded, and StickK would leave my credit card alone without their ever knowing I lied to them.
So how do I prove to my family, my friends, and my fans whether or not I’m telling the truth? The truth is, I can’t. All I can tell you is I’d sooner give money to the anti-marriage crowd than lie to you about this. And I’d sooner write a novel draft in 100 days — hell, I’d sooner jump into a vat of boiling oil — than give money to those people.
And this week’s controversy surrounding the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation, whose decades-in-the-making reputation appears to be suffering, perhaps fatally, due to a single act of dishonesty, has given me an idea about the $100 dollars the anti-marriage crowd won’t be getting once I complete my draft. I hereby declare that if I finish my first draft by April 25, I’ll donate my $100 to Planned Parenthood. And this is something I think I can prove to you. If I get some sort of written acknowledgment from them regarding the donation, I’ll post it here.
Enjoy your weekend, everybody! Go Pats!