November is fast approaching, and you've decided to embark on a glorious exploration of your creative skills and personal determination by hammering out a 50,000-word novel in a month. Good on you!

But if your enthusiasm begins to flag -- as it surely will, because National Novel Writing Month is the kind of harsh mistress who sweeps back into your life once a year to fog your mind with passionate promises, systematically drain you of your creativity, energy and health and leave you a mindless husk with carpal tunnel, whimpering over proper subjective tenses and waiting breathlessly for when she comes back again -- be aware that there are significant benefits to being a novelist. Even a bad novelist.

First, there's the social cache. Novelists are widely regarded as the most desirable of people, welcome at any gathering: parties, raves, nightclubs or prison riots. Witty and urbane, wryly amusing, sexually attractive and possessing of a knowing glance that sees into the very soul, novelists are the must-haves of the social world. Honest.

Novelists can also be intimidating. You know about people, you know what makes them tick, so by extension you know just by looking exactly what depraved thing your boss did over the weekend and all about the wicked deed the members of your bridge club committed 27 years ago in the dead of night. Use that fear for free drinks, promotions and random hookups.

After 25 years, Bon Jovi is at a pretty good point in their career.

Jon Bon Jovi and band members Richie Sambora (guitar), David Bryan (keyboards), and Tico Torres (drums) have enjoyed a remarkably successful run. Just in the last year alone, Jon and Richie were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the band's last album, "Lost Highway," debuted at #1 on Billboard's Top 200. The original 10-concert promotional tour for that album kept growing by popular demand until it ultimately became the top grossing concert tour in 2008, ending with two sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden and a massive free concert in Central Park in New York City. Not too shabby for a bar band from Jersey.

To help commemorate those milestones -- and to accompany their newest album, "The Circle," due out in a few weeks  -- Bon Jovi is premiering a documentary called "When We Were Beautiful" on Showtime this Saturday. And it may not be what you expect.

If you channel surfed over to "How I Met Your Mother" last night you probably thought it was funny when Lily and Marshall, as usual, went completely overboard courting Barney and Robin to come to their couples' night, culminating in a bizarre photo montage and song from Marshall at itwasthebestnightever.com.

But if you watch the show regularly, you immediately rushed to your computer, because if HIMYM mentions a website that means there's something there to see. Previous sites have included a one-woman hate site against Ted, Barney's video resume, and more. This one has a great music video featuring Marshall (Jason Segel) singing his song from the show, accompanied by Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt in a great parody of "More Than Words."

Gotta love a show that adds complementary material, which is why you should also bookmark Barney's Blog as obligatory reading. Entries after every show provide a look into his thoughts (may not be work safe) (may not be life safe). The latest entry includes the pics you saw from the disastrous double date and Barney's advice on avoiding such atrocities.

Monday Eliza Dushku gave a rollicking interview to members of the media on a conference call, and there's quite a bit of information about the upcoming episodes of Dollhouse packed in there. The entire transcript is posted after the jump, but here's some less-spoilery highlights:

The tone: 'It's a little darker all around.  We'll explore sort of some of the things, you know, the origins of some of the other dolls and the other characters.  And then bringing in a bunch of guest stars and fabulous people coming in, so there's a lot of exciting stuff happening with those things as well."

On coming on after a comedy: "Well, I think they realized last year that people who want to find the show did, and obviously there's been a lot of talk about DVR and Tivo and how we really are alive for a second season because of that in a major way.  And so I can see how they would say the people that found - people found the show last year, and so we're just going to leave it where it is, and hope that that continues."

On plot suggestions from fans: "I know that Joss and I, we've always paid attention to the fan love, and we love the fans right back, absolutely.  I don't know how much he takes tips from storylines from the fans.  I mean, on the contrary, from what I've seen, when he sees someone falling in love with a character, he's known to assassinate them or, you know, or do something terrible."

On roles that were hard to get into: "Yes, trying to breastfeed someone else's baby is difficult. [...]  I'll just leave it at that."

On Echo's development: "But she really is becoming an entirely different character in many ways because she is getting sort of farther away from Caroline, even though Caroline is still the initial, her original self.  So Caroline is in there, but I think she starts to realize there are things about Caroline that she's discovering are not - are unsavory or that are not Echo. 

"The development of the character of Echo now has just been so exciting and so fascinating because when the way our writers and the way Joss can pick pieces from each of her experiences and weave them into this new character is just fascinating.  So you'll absolutely see a whole new Echo this season."

Also revealed: there will be new episodes of Dollhouse the next two weeks but it will be pre-empted Oct. 16 for Major League Baseball. And -- big surprise from this Boston girl -- she's rooting for the Red Sox.

Complete transcript after the jump:

A few years ago it might have seemed odd to root for a serial killer, but Dexter has a certain way about him. A disturbingly entertaining way.

In Jeff Lindsay's original novels, Dexter Morgan is a blood spatter analyst for the Miami PD with a hobby: he hunts down serial killers, and then he serially kills them. His adopted sister Deborah (a police officer) is unaware of his darker urges but his late stepfather Harry, also a cop, realized Dexter's problem early on; no real emotions or empathy, missing neighborhood dogs, etc -- and he carefully, reluctantly trained Dexter how not to be caught and aimed him toward only those who deserve Dexter's diligent devotion.

The books, told from Dexter's point of view, make little attempt to make him a hero or a good guy. He freely admits that without the Harry Code he wouldn't really care whom he targeted (although he does seem to get especially motivated against child killers). What makes it work is that though he's learned, through Harry's careful teachings and through practice, to mimic correct behavior, his observations as to why people do what they do are often hilarious.  From the first book, "Darkly Dreaming Dexter":

I nosed my Whaler slowly out the canal, thinking nothing, a perfect Zen state, moving at idle speed past the large houses, all separated from each other by high hedges and chain-link fences. I threw an automatic big wave and bright smile to all the neighbors out in their yards that grew neatly up to the canal's seawall. Kids playing on the manicured grass. Mom and Dad barbecuing, or lounging, or polishing the barbed wire, hawkeyes on the kids. I waved to everybody. Some of them even waved back. They knew me, had seen me go by before, always cheerful, a big hello for everybody. He was such a nice man. Very friendly. I can't believe he did those horrible things . . .

I opened up the throttle when I cleared the canal, heading out the channel and then southeast, toward Cape Florida. The wind in my face and the taste of the salt spray helped clear my head, made me feel clean and a little fresher. I found it a great deal easier to think. Part of it was the calm and peace of the water. And another part was that in the best tradition of Miami watercraft, most of the other boaters seemed to be trying to kill me. I found that very relaxing. I was right at home. This is my country; these are my people.

The fourth book in the series, Dexter by Design, came out earlier this month and it's well worth picking up. Married and surprisingly comfortable with it, Dexter is ready to begin his new life of domestic bliss with the occasional homicidal boy's night out. But a serial killer with a flair for the grossly artistic puts Deb in the hospital and begins to hunt Dexter, and the chase is on.

Regular readers know I've been pimping and participating in National Novel Writing Month for several years now. You take the month of November and crank out 50,000 words of hopefully readable text. It's fun and exhilarating and crazy.

There's another, even older contest, however, that moves frenzied novel writing into the realm of the psychotic. The 3-Day Novel Contest demands you that create a finished novel, beginning to end, over the Labor Day weekend. Somehow.

There are many differences in tone and goals between the two contests besides the time period. NaNoWriMo doesn't charge for entry, doesn't care if you finish the book or not as long as you hit the 50k word goal, and it "awards" every winner with a free downloadable certificate. There's more of a community feel as well; with 119,301 participants and a massive, lively forum NaNoWriMo encourages group support. With NaNoWriMo, the goal is to make you sit down and write something, dammit.

The 3-Day Novel Contest, a Vancouver-based event that's been going on for over 30 years, charges a $50 entry fee, requests that you print and mail in your completed novel within a week, and awards the grand prize winner a publishing deal with the 1st and 2nd place winners get $500 and $100, respectively. (Last year 570 people from around the world entered, and 428 of them submitted novels.) Only one official discussion thread, not a lot of support group meetings; hey, you've only got 72 hours, there's no time for that. Here the goal is to complete a total book in a mad, unedited, nonstop torrent and hope for the best. It's a situation that encourages bizarre, introspective works.

Such as last year's winner, The Videographer by Jason Rapczynski, which follows a man who sets up cameras in rest-stop bathrooms on I-95 to possibly catch people engaged in sex acts so his boss can post them online. Rapczynski had spent years writing and revising and re-revising drafts of previous novel, but this one was completely different.

"It's like cramming for an exam in college," he told the New Haven Advocate. "You spend a bunch of time and energy working and then afterward, you can't remember what the experience was like."

The big buzz this morning is that news that Disney is planning to acquire Marvel Enterprises for $4 billion in cash and stock, bringing Spider-Man, the Hulk, and the X-Men to Disney's stable and taking one more step toward total world entertainment domination. But how will this change the beloved characters we belove so much?

Nothing to worry about, says official Disney public relations representative Jafar. "The synergy of these icons of pop culture will remain intact and just as vital and relevant as they ever were, with the added bonus of Disney's powerful distribution arm and other resources."

"Squawk! Other resources!" added Jafar's executive assistant Iago.

The deal must be approved by Marvel shareholders and anti-trust busybodies, but plans are already afoot to merge the two companies. A sneak peek at some early memos reveals several exciting projects:

Team-Up: Spider-Man and Mickey Mouse

This is the team-up you've been waiting for, if you've been smoking a lot of weed.  No plot hints have been released but it will involve Spider-Man being attacked by an infinite number of sentient brooms and Micky getting into a subway battle with Doctor Octopus.

War-E

Tony Stark's Iron Man technology represents the pinnacle of military infantry combat. But what about after the battle? Someone needs to clean up after the knockdown superhero fight in downtown New York or the mutant-dwarf war in Genosha, and that's where War-E comes in.

Made of a unique metal that combines adamantium and adorabulatium, War-E spends his lonely life picking up thrown cars and collapsed buildings. But when Obadiah Stane tries to grab him to reverse-engineer Stark's design, he's in for a surprise. And thirteen hundred rounds of tracer bullets in the face.

Frank Miller's The Dark Goof

It has been 25 years since Goofy has appeared in public as his super-powered alter-ego, Super Goof. But the years and his Super Goober addiction have taken their toll, and when the semi-retired Beagle Boys come out for one last haul they won't be expecting the dark, solitary violent figure violently enforcing hilarious justice on the streets of the Magic Kingdom.

"You don't think dropping a piano on your friend from 30 stories up was funny? 'Cuz I do," he whispered menacingly into the Beagle Boy's ear, with a humorless laugh. "Hyuk. Hyuk. Hyuk..."

The Punisher Family

After his wife and children were killed by the mob, Frank Castle became a murderous vigilante who is willing to do anything to stop crime. Feared by criminals and sought by police, the Punisher wages a one-man war on crime and won't stop until every last one is dead.

So imagine his surprise when he discovers three wacky nephews have moved into the battle van to turn Castle's life upside down! In the first issue, Castle has to choose between torturing a Jamaican Yardie crime boss for information about a white slavery ring, or attended Larry, Barry and Terry's school play. But those lovable scamps have their own plans...

Sex Toy Story

Pixar and Warren Ellis. That's all you really need to know.

X-Hannah

Miley Stewart's double life becomes even more complicated when her mutant powers manifest. How will she juggle her schoolwork, her pop career as Hannah Montana, and being a hated superpowered minority?  Early episodes will feature Stewart discovering her new powers, getting advice from her new opening act Dazzler (once a mutant disco superhero, now a whiskey-voiced lounge singer) and facing off against an army of Sentinels when they attack during the Sadie Hawkins Dance. Surprise recurring villain: Dr. Doom!

Ultimate Kingdom

The Magic Kingdom is rocked with scandal and turmoil as the darker sides of the characters emerge. One shocking surprise after another comes as the Little Mermaid eats Nemo, Winnie the Pooh goes feral, and Pluto begins stalking Main Street looking for easy prey. Written by Mark Millar.

The Fantastic Four vs The Incredibles

I guess if you watch for the costumes you can tell which is which, right?


Big things coming, folks! Check back next week when Disney airlifts Marvel Island out of the Universal Studios theme park.

For now, watch Twitter go insane with Disney/Marvel mashups (not all of them worksafe, or even good for your brain).

"--and then we'll get into why Adama feels so lonely and abandoned, and why he stalks crewmembers at night through the halls of the Battlestar."

"And we'll bring back the velour costumes?"

"Absolutely. And the robot dog, so he can die heroically in the end."

"Perfect! Get the nostalgia hook, the shocking twist, and we can sell plush toys! You're a genius!"

Crash!

"What the... Who are you people?"

"Hollywood PD, sir. Are you director Bryan Singer?"

"Yes. What's all this about?"

"We've heard reports that you plan to reboot the Battlestar Galactica franchise as a feature film. You're under arrest."

"What? On what charge?"

"Suspicion of persistent public idiocy and attempted story vandalism."

"What?"

"Bad enough to remake a franchise that's beloved by fans, sir, but this one was just rebooted very successfully in the last few years. Not only does it not need rebooting, an attempt this soon shows callous disregard to the current version and its creators. Might as well reboot Mad Men, or re-re-reboot Star Trek. Now if you had announced you were making a feature length Ron Moore Battlestar Galactica movie you'd be made a king, but starting over from scratch for a bigscreen paycheck will just aggravate the fanbase that made the franchise valuable in the first place. Also it gives the Internet fits. Please come along with us, sir."

"Hey, I'm clean, I learned my lesson from the X-Men movies. You gotta pay attention to what the geeks want, right?"

"You have to pay attention to what makes the story work instead of making changes to fit your vision, sir, and the fans respond to that. That's why Spider-Man, the new Batman, and Iron Man were hits. Which reminds me, we have an outstanding warrant out on you for Superman Returns."

"Why pick on me? I'm not the only one doing remakes."

"Unnecessary remakes, sir, remakes that insult the memory of the original, and we're doing our best. After this we'll be going around to pick up Robert Zemeckis before he can remake Yellow Submarine, Steven Spielberg is being held in an undisclosed location so he can't complete his version of Harvey, officers are gathering around MTV to close production on the revised Rocky Horror Picture Show, and right now police snipers are trying to take out Russell Brand before he can remake Arthur."

"You're trying to stop creativity!"

"No sir, we're hoping to encourage some. Sargeant, get the leg irons."