Ghosts and goblins disappeared at midnight October 31st while my fingers hovered over computer keys to click the first words of National Novel in a Month Writers contest. Futuristic writers extracted spooks from closets with paranormal or sci-fi tales and waited alongside suspense and romance writers. Millions of new characters were born. Authors will nurture and propel them across the 50,000-word finish line by November 30. Then, like me, many of them will spend the next two years polishing those words into a print-ready novel.