This Just In

I'm actually working on chapter nine. Kate inspires me, as always, to not give up. The mantra is going through my head: evenifitscrap, evenifitscrap, evenifitscrap...

Week Before

This is a really stressful week every year, with last minute shit going on. For some reason it doesn't seem to be bothering me much, though, so I feel pretty calm.

My desk here doesn't show that, though. Got a lot of work to do.

AND I have to decide when I'm going to go see I am Legend. Fuckers could have advertised the theater was closed, or maybe PUT UP A SIGN.

A New Day

Okay, that's better. Except for missing going down to the house this weekend (drat *g*) due to an expected 3-6 inches of snow, I'm feeling less stressed. Looking forward QUITE a bit to getting back to writing the BOOK. Argh! I've been stuck in chapter nine for so long!

My final didn't start last night till 7:15, so Birdie did some last minute shopping stuff, like returning the tools that I got her for Christmas. (Hey, she SAID she wanted them.) She went to K-Mart, where I bought them, got the money and drove across the street to Sears (where I wouldn't have gone in anyway) and bought MORE tools than I gave her for LESS money. Huh. Damn, she's good. She gave me back the receipt and told me to return one of the tools because she found a better set for less at Sears. *grin* Then she was waiting in the hall when I finished, doing her Christmas cards.

Tomorrow she leaves Indy at about a quarter to 9, which is way better than the typical 6:30 flights. Bleh. So, I'll probably be back to town around noon, where I'll have to stock up on bird food, beer and white bread (shhhh, don't tell her). Then I'll go see I Am Legend and come home. It's supposed to start snowing overnight Friday, so it'll be a winter wonderland Saturday, and there I'll be, STUCK with beer and cats and a woodstove and DVDs and nowhere to go. If the electricity goes out? I'll stick batteries in the mini tv, and watch only ONE movie in my new portable DVD player. (Till the battery runs out. *g*)

This is actually one of the (many) reasons I was stressed yesterday. I always feel guilty about enjoying my time alone, and I'm both dreading Birdie leaving and anxiously awaiting some quality alone time. Most of the time she's gone I'll be really busy, but there are a few days I'll have for my own, and I *will* make the most of it.

Tis The Season

I hate Christmas. Every year I look forward to it, thinking, pathetically, that THIS year I will do better. I'll get Birdie better gifts and make the season festive for her. Funny how that never happens. Then I get to spend the day with my ever-more-estranged family (the five people that are left) after waking up Christmas morning by myself. This is a season to endure, not enjoy.

No writing yesterday except to jot down two lines of a short short I'll probably never write. Vampires, or rather a vampire this time, and I think I came up with a story to go with the lines.

That Day Sucked

Monday, that is. I'm exceedingly glad it's over. Almost no work done on the book - Carol was in 296, which means I didn't get any quiet time. Birdie did some last minute Christmas shopping, and then to home.

Tonight is the departmental Christmas party, then we'll go home and have our own party and open presents. Tomorrow is the final, so we won't get home till after 9:30, then Thursday she'll be packing to leave way before dawn Friday morning. Like every year, I worry about her travelling. It just makes me nervous.

Yeah, Right

Like I'm going to get time on the weekend. Sheesh. Well, at least for writing.

It rained all weekend, at times quite hard, but Birdie was out all day yesterday putting up the rest of the Christmas light. Yeah, she was playing with electricity in the rain. She only has a few more days till she leaves and she considers it one of my major Christmas presents.

Saturday we dragged ourselves to town to visit Santa (and forgot to bring the picture this morning - duh!) for our yearly photo opportunity. He was so excited to see us that he was waving and calling to us while we were still upstairs. *grin* Then we drove home, and worked all day and all the next day. Next Sunday I'm not getting up except to go to the bathroom. ;-)

MMMM...Cheese

I love leftovers, especially at work when I forgot (again!) to eat breakfast.

Only a little writing yesterday, long hand, upstairs, before I got busy. Hmph. There's not supposed to be any work upstairs.

It occured to me only yesterday - DUH - that Kelsey and Parker are FROM Skyview. Why aren't they seeing people they know? *sigh* I'm thinking it would make more sense for Parker to become zombie-killing-averse if the zombie he plows down with the garbage truck is, say, someone he dated once.

Yeah. I'm slow.

Quickie

I'm a typing fool today, and yesterday and tomorrow and ...

It's evaluation time and I get to type all 157 sections. (I'm only guessing about the 157. *g* It is a paper box full, though.)

Last night was the last class. YEA! That was a lot of work, BUT, I got a lot of writing done that I wouldn't have otherwise. Last night I uncrimped a spot that had gotten all bolluxed up and boring and nothing really going on. Not that chapter nine is a rollicking roller coaster, but at one point I had scratched out a half page of writing and noted on the side, "This is boring!" When I'm not chastising myself for being a hack writer, I tell myself it's one of those brilliant lulls that James Cameron uses so well. *BIG wink*

I expect to get a LOT of writing done the next few weeks. It's so frustrating to know how the damned thing is going to finish and not have the time to just put down the words. I want to finish it so Kate can rip it to shreds and make something decent out of it. *nuther big wink*

Bee Day

As in busy. These last few years (except the one my dad was dying) I've looked forward to vacation a little too much. Typing typing typing, and never on my poor novel. But I DID write a few hundred words waiting for class to start last night, and hopefully everyone will leave after the party that starts in twenty minutes.

Tonight is the viewing. We're not looking forward to it. Bev loves Birdie like a sister, but her kids are not real bright and redneck to boot. I wouldn't be surprised if someone raises a stink about the queers being at the funeral home.

Tomorrow is my last class. It's been really educational, but a lot of fun. Got an A on my paper, and he accepted a late submission on the last homework assignment - which I turned in and he lost. Pays to be a good student. Faculty know you're probably not lying to them. ;-)

Not A Good Day

The husband of a friend died last night. Gary was only 57 and was, essentially, killed by the wonderfully inept medical "care" he received. Between that and mold allergies flaring up, and my instructor losing a paper I turned in last week (giving me now a C for the course), I feel crappy today. The only good thing is how well my mom took it when I told her Saturday that we're only going to work on the house every OTHER week from now on. That should raise the stress level some.

I couldn't sleep last night, between getting the news about Gary at midnight, then Birdie turning to me and say, "Don't die, okay?"

The book was worked on. Again, pitifully slow, but still going. I feel the story is bogged down in inactivity right now, but it's just a feeling steming from how slowly I'm getting it done. Yesterday I got no writing done at all...even on the paper that's due tonight. Right now I'm thinking why the fuck even bother. Anyway Kelsey has decided to be more proactive and learn how to kill zombies. First, though, she has to go to the bathroom. *g* I'm hoping that this novel is a little different than most, because people don't seem to get just how radically life would change, and how that would affect stuff that never gets written about.

Friday night was dinner and a game, so we got home late, then Saturday morning we had to stop at the battery shop to drop off the truck battery that is dead, dead, dead. We took the canna bulbs down to the house because it SHOULD be a constant 50 degrees in the house, except when we're there. Birdie won't be until next year, but I'll be there for Christmas and maybe one other time. We did precious little work, then drove up to Bedford to do the Christmas parade, which was fun as hell as usual and, as usual, fucking COLD. Worth it, though. Yesterday I cleaned house and ironed shirts while she put up lights in the yard - Santa is back! She wasn't finished, though, when torrential rain started to fall. It rained most of the night and the wind is horrible.

Last Night

Good class, but I noticed I answered one of the reading questions completely wrong. Crap.

He did a class debate last night, and it was incredible to actually see people saying out loud, in front of other people, that the US was in Iraq for "humanitarian reasons", and that the US does that "all over the world".

*boggle*

Oooooookay. They're young. Just keep repeating that. It's NICE, and QUAINT to see they still think we're the good guys.

On the plus side, I got more writing done last night before class, so I'll type that today if I ever get a fucking minute. I'm trying to type envelopes and the printer refuses to cooperate. I even deleted EVERY FUCKING ONE of the envelopes EXCEPT the one I wanted, and it still printed a different envelope.

Yeah, I'm a little short on temper this morning, so I don't need that shit from the piece of shit printers we have here.

AHHHHHHHH!

I'm going bug shit crazy around here! What happened to the nice quiet days?

!!!

Today I'll get to go upstairs, and hopefully it'll be quiet. Jesus!

Speaking of which, I had dinner last night in a church banquet hall with Birdie and the Monroe County Master Gardeners, of which she is one. She got her bronze badge last night, which was cool, and she insisted that I work on my paper (due in four hours) during the flower arranging demonstration. (That was excellent. The woman is IU faculty, so she lectures well, and does beautiful arrangements.) I got most of it done, and there were cookies near my table every time I faltered and needed a pick-me-up. ;-)

Today in 296 I will have time to work on chapter 9 instead of frantically trying to finish the paper.

If I live that long.

[later]

Well sure nuff, I got upstairs into the quiet, finished my paper and started typing the notes for chapter nine - only I ended up writing rather than note taking, and yet AGAIN, it took a pleasant spin away from the more mundane path I had foreseen. Not a huge difference, but more interesting to read than what I had been about to write.

Yea! More words!

Wow, That's Cool

I was reading some chapter nine notes I jotted down more than a few days ago, thinking how great it'll be when I get a chance to do some serious writing (today!) and was kinda blown away. Cool ideas. Now I need to get my butt moving on putting down the words.

Two-fer

Have I ever had two posts in a day? Eh, whatever. I'm overwhelmed at work and need a break.

To that end, I played with google and came up with an interesting thing. The Massai believe that when they see a comet bad things will happen. The medicine man says, "If we see another comet, people who are green in color will come out of the water and visit our country. Should they be killed, caul-fat instead of blood will see issuing from their bodies."

I wonder if I could get obscure with the title and call it Caul Fat Bodies. Or maybe Comet Death.

See how bored I am? ;-)

Back to work! (Because I really am busy.)

Life Of Ease

At least when I'm not at home working my ass off for most of the long vacation weekend. Sheesh! Last Tuesday was no hot shower day, so Wednesday, the first day of vacation and the day we had chosen to see Roman Art of the Louvre at the Indianapolis Museum of Art was filled with big, huge trucks in our drive (we got a new tank of gas - $1200 - but they didn't re-set it so it could still fall over any minute, blow up and destroy the house - we're undecided as to whether this would be a good thing...and the furnace guy was there for hours fixing the parts he broke last week, just in time for the cold snap) and a guy going in and out of our house. Sometimes he wiped his feet, and the cats were freaked for days.

I dug the canna bulbs out, about ninety feet worth. Yeah, it damn near killed me, but it was supposed to get cold and wet the next day so there you go. Thursday was house cleaning and dinner eating (no, I did manage not to get in Birdie's way in our tiny kitchen). I celebrated having hot water again by doing huge loads of laundry.

Friday we finally got around to fixing the back door. She of course expected to be in and out and then we'd fix the woodstove, but it took nearly all day. I stayed out of her way as much as I could, doing other chores. We worked ALL day on it and fell asleep really early.

Saturday we finally got up to the museum and spent three pleasant hours looking at statuary nearly two thousand years old. Cool.

And DIDN'T it just get cold that day. Brrr! Winter has hit, so yesterday, instead of finally taking a day off, we got the stove going, which meant closing off the rest of the house and firing it up till the stove black I had applied burned off. Seems like we did a better job of putting the thing together than last year. Burns well, and looks a lot better with the new blacking.

Writing? It is to laugh. I didn't even do my homework.

Slogging

Still pushing ahead, almost always at work, though more and more lately I'll manage to get some writing done at home. There's no privacy there, and way too many distractions, like, you know, WORK.

Last night I handwrote a page on chapter nine while in class, after typing a few hundred words in 296. Today I'll pretty it up (aka put in the right place on my flash drive) and do some more words. Pretty quiet here today.

This is a bad day...at least for me. For my acquaintance Kelly Pfaffenburger, it's a great day because the local PBS station told her officially today that it's a go on the tv show she pitched to them last spring, ironically when she was at a very low point after quitting a beloved job after running into her own private Terry.

Long Long UN-Romantic Weekend

I truly suck. I don't know why Birdie lets me stay.

Enough of dwelling on that. How about I dwell on getting a B (!!!) on my midterm. I don't GET that kind of grade. Doesn't happen. I take great notes, then TYPE them. I do all the reading. I've only got ONE FREAKIN CLASS, so it's not like I've got six bazillian class things to deal with, AND I test well. This has been eating at me all day, making me wonder if my mental decline - the one everyone in my family deals with eventually - has begun.

Chapter nine if finally started, anyway. I had to begin again when the stuff I wrote last week just wasn't right. What I had done was go back to when they were screaming at each other and pick it up from Kelsey's viewpoint. Pretentious. Unwieldy. Eh, I just started on the porch in the early, early morning with, "It was a beautiful night." Heh heh heh. Well it is, except for the dead people wandering around.

I still feel like this book is a load of crap, but I'm going to at least finish it.

Long Long UN-Romantic Weekend

Holiday Blahs

Last week I was hot to get going and this week I'm having trouble writing. This sucks!

This is the I'm Tired Of Waiting period I've always run into before, that's what it is, and I WILL not let it stop me. (I hope.)

[later]

OHMYGOD...I was just trying to make small talk with one of the dance faculty, Laura, and asked her what she thought of the title "Comet Zombie." She BURST out laughing and trying to talk. I finally figured out I had said "Common Zombie" and thought it was pretty funny.

What a great title for a zombie spoof!

Kate and Susan and I should write a spoof! Or maybe a radio play. ;-)

[later still]

Then she came up with the title Amazombia. I figured it could be the sequel.

Mold Alert

I'm SO stoned right now. Why does this never happen when I'm at home to enjoy it? Hmph.

Last night was my midterm. Well done test that took me nearly an hour to finish. If I can get my head working, I'm going to get into chapter nine today - but I'm having a hard time even keeping my head up off my desk.

Say WHAT?

NEXT week is Thanksgiving? How'd that happen? I only have to work 2 days next week!!! WHOO HOO!!!

Ahem. Maybe I can get some work done on chapters nine and ten. I haven't done more than outline in the last few days because I haven't had much free time - not super busy, just, no free time. Today I'll be upstairs in 296 for an extra hour and a half, but tonight's my midterm so I'll have to study instead.

Nuther Backup

Well, it's happened again. I was a few hundred words into chapter nine when I realized it wasn't working, so I had to change the time it started by a few hours. I'm going so slowly already that having do overs is very frustrating...

Kinda like posting on Blogger and getting an error message.

Backward Cat

We have two backward cats, who bring mice into the house so they can play with them. This morning we had TWO running around - I noticed the first one when I was studying for my midterm and saw a rodent running around the middle of the living room floor.

I'm at a bit of an ebb right now with interest in writing. That's bound to change this afternoon when I get upstairs, but I tried working on chapter nine and kinda bounced off of it. Knowing chapter eight (as it exists now) is weak was a factor. I'm going back to Kelsey's POV for this chapter, which I hoped to use to further show what the world is like now, and to give her a bad emotional day.

[later]

Lunch was fairly productive. Birdie had to stay home today so I was in the (WAY TOO QUIET) staff lounge. Should have been studying for my mid term, but instead whipped out my bowling pencil and worked on Kelsey's motivations. Wrote about a page and a half, and now I feel better - at least emotionally. Yeah, I don't feel good again. I think I may have developed an egg allergy, which really sucks because I need a flu shot, considering where I work.

Much Better

A quiet day, the furniture is here so those morons can't show up. The dance auditions are today, so there are 32 young people trying to get into the Dance major here. All the other secretaries are off on a retreat today, doing the girly thing. It's a standing joke here that I will ALWAYS be available to cover the office on this day. ;-)

Yesterday I rushed to the end of chapter eight, which will be improved on the re-write, but I wanted to keep with Kate's strategy of "get 'er dun". Then I sent it to her and ran out the door. Today I will work on chapter nine, in which Kelsey and Parker, in their first full day of End Of The World will explore that world a little more. It's basically going to be a series of vignettes, and Kelsey is going to suffer the emotional shock of finding out there's a good chance she's going to die of zombie infection anyway. It changes her perspective, to say the least.

And I'm feeling the urge to go back and re-read what I've written again, but I don't know if I need to. We'll see. I haven't decided if I'm losing sight of the whole picture or not.

Shoulda Been

A slow day here, but the fucking office furniture guys turned up unannounced AGAIN, so now I have to stuff all my desk stuff into a box AGAIN and stop working while I rearrange and of course I have rush jobs and of course I wanted to finish chapter 8. And yeah, it PISSES ME OFF that the other ladies here (buncha wimpy straight girls) think I'm being "mean" for being irritated at this.

Assholes.

How about this for a title: Comet Zombie

My goal today - since I'm getting an unexpected trip to 296 this afternoon - is to finish chapter 8. I think I can do it, and I hope it happens because I'm looking forward to 9 and 10. Nine will be very short but fun, I hope.

The End

My vision of where this book is going is getting clearer all the time. This is so exciting. Too bad I can't just walk down the hall and start typing instead of having to wait. Holy Frustration, Batman!

So I've got the end in sight and know what I'm working toward, and I know how chapter eight will end and what chapters nine and ten will look like, and this morning the path toward the end brightened just a bit and I wrote that all down (the ideas that is). The climactic end is still kinda murky but I know essentially what's going to happen. (And hey, it changed once before, who's to say it won't change again!) It's not entirely changed from the original ending, but it hits different points and has different meanings.

Kelsey is going to find out (today, if I can get some writing time) that Parker thinks she's going to die and come back because of the zombie injury and of course this freaks her out. It makes her resolve to kill zombies even stronger, especially the finding out how to kill them rather than simply incapacitating them. He tells her that they need to try shooting them in the head, but then they have to get a gun. That's not as easy as it sounds, of course, and they don't actually find a gun till chapter ten and then they have to figure out how to get their hands on it. Hopefully this will be a gross and funny scene. She is emphatic about learning if they can be killed and how so she can possibly help Parker live through the whole thing. Not that she likes him that much, but he's a live human.

My thought this morning is, am I a good enough writer to keep that suspense going - will it work? (shooting them in the head) - and never really give away the answer? Stay tuned.... ;-)

p.s.

OH! And writing down that made me think of another way to enhance the ending. This is so FUN!

Waiting for the Whine

It still amazes me I'm going along putting down the words. I really expected to be whining about not getting it done here. Oh hell, let's tell the truth. I expected this blog to die out in no time as well.

Chapter eight starts with a dream sequence - we'll see how that works - then goes into some conversation and more exploration of the Kelsey/Parker dynamic. I think it may end up being a shorter chapter than the others, because it feels like I'm near the end of it already and I'm only at 1700 words.

Still looking forward to writing it, still excited to see where it's going. Yeah, I have an outline of the next two chapters and I know how it'll end, but between here and there it's still just an idea. Normally that would be scary, but I have enough confidence now to know it's not going to stop me.

Now if only someone will buy the movie rights and let me retire early so I can write more. ;-)

Ah HA

While walking to the car Friday night it suddenly occured to me how the book is going to end. It makes sense and is a nice ending scene. Having a point to write toward again is feeling pretty nice.

That day I had gotten about 700 words done, working on the beginning of chapter eight, having already done a good bit of the middle. *g* It starts with a dream sequence, which may or may not work, but I'm going to leave it in for now to see how I like it later. I took Parker inside of the gas station out of chapter seven and was going to just do away with it, but I think he's going to have a bad dream about it that night instead.

Working on the house again after taking October off. We got there with a certain plan and lots of energy, but I broke two tools and didn't measure twice to cut once and ruined my faux brick panelling. Hmph.

Talk Talk Talk

Parker and Kelsey take some down time, eat, sleep and get to know each other better. That means there's a lot of talking in chapter eight. I know I shouldn't pile on the exposition, but I also know there needs to be some making-your-aquaintanc time. Eh, it'll all change in the re-write, right? ;-)

Class Is Good

I'm discovering that, even though this Political Science class is time consuming what with all the mind-numbingly boring reading about primary election statistics, I'm actually getting more work done on the book! I've got a few minutes after work and before class, then a few minutes sitting in the classroom waiting to start, then an intermission - it's a 2 hour and 15 min class TWICE a week - and I just scribble. The next day I type it up and of course add to it without effort.

Last night I blocked out the rest of chapter eight, came up with a cool idea for chapter nine, and THEN figured out how to get a gun for Kelsey and I think it's going to be a big laugh moment in the book. Disgusting, but funny. *g*

I haven't told Kate this yet, but I've completely left the outline and am just going with wherever the characters take me - mostly, not entirely. I know I still want them to meet Reverend Spevak, but I'm not going to describe his backstory, how he survives the comet (but, in a nutshell, he's doing a PR visit to a hospital, sees the same thing on tv that Parker sees, locks his goons out in the hallway and steals oxygen from a senior citizen), but he's not a nice guy and he's going to test Parker and Kelsey's trust in each other.

I made sure to read Kate's chapter six this morning and was completely mezmerized. Really good stuff, and I'm enjoying it enormously.

Funny Start

So, I woke to the faint sound of the phone in the kitchen beeping in protest of the power going out. It was dark, but I could see due to the full moon, so I got up, got my cell phone for light and let the cats out. Then I tried to call in the outage, but I couldn't remember my friggin home phone number. Totally gone from my brain. People here at work are enjoying my telling of it - it's more of an audio/visual story.

Last night's class was actually interesting, engaging, and educational. Maybe I won't drop it after all. The instructor bases 25% of the grade on group work, so there I was talking to seven other people, none of whom have voted in an election yet, and they found it hilarious when I suddenly interjected, "You guys have such an awesome first election! Mine was Carter."

Yesterday's writing was a treat. Every time I get in the groove and type in a quick nine hundred to a thousand words I get such a THRILL. I'm going to try thrilling myself again today. *g*

Oh, and I sent Kate chapter seven at about five o'clock, right before running out the door. Very raw, and I just sort of ended it because I couldn't decide where I wanted it to stop so I just...stopped.

There's Still Hope

It might take ten years to write this slim volume, but I am going to finish this damned thing if it kills me. It bugs the CRAP out of me to be going this slow.

I didn't get any writing done this weekend, but I ironed ten thousand shirts and got to watch an actual Colts game on something bigger than a four inch black and white screen. AND I had beer.

[later]

A good afternoon! I put about 920 words on the page and finished chapter seven.

Ahhhh, That's Better

Got some good work done today. Kelsey and Parker are FINALLY about to begin working together, though they still won't trust each other fully. That doesn't come till the end.

I was at my desk, goofing off, typing class notes instead of doing Kinesiology work (shhhhhhh), got that done and decided to AT LEAST type the stuff I hand wrote yesterday, and before I knew it, there were MORE WORDS added. *laugh* Man, that felt good.

Whatever Works

Seems like I'm doing much more work longhand than I am typing these days. But hey, whatever works, right? Yesterday up on 296, before my disasterous class over in Woodburn Hall, I penned (literally) about four hundred words before the students began showing up begging for a signature. This is the time of year all those morons who dropped a class because "it was hard" (whine) have to look for a second 8 wk class to keep a full load. Of course, all those classes are already full, and we get thirty reproachful looks a day from those kids. That really kills us, ya know? ;-)

Whew!

Man, it's busy around here. Still, I'm working on chapter seven today. It's going to be a wee shorter than the others, but I expect it will flesh out quite a bit on the re-write. Kelsey is going to be ALMOST nabbed by Mower Man, and they're going to literally run for it. Next chapter: "We need a plan."

Beautiful Days

The weather this last weekend was astoundingly perfect. Too bad we couldn't really enjoy it. Saturday we were on the road, hoping to see good tree-age during peak season. Saw some but not much. Had lunch with my mom, checked the house briefly and headed for home. Birdie surprised me by wanting to go to Fort Vallonia Days, not the parade but the flea market. We ended up spending about three hours. I found a couple of DVDs and a David Drake book. His style is so ROUGH, but very compelling. Unfortunately, we left Vallonia JUST too late to see the trees on 446. Pity. It's so pretty on that route - that we used to drive every day - that sometimes I would nearly run off the road from distraction.

Yesterday was even more beautiful, weather wise, but we were working on the house so damned hard we barely noticed. Birdie scared me yesterday. I have never seen her sitting on the ground trying to get over a dizzy spell before. We were both push mowing the yard and we both did too much, but Birdie did WAY too much. It's why I won't let her be alone at the house during mowing season.

I didn't get much writing done this weekend, but some. One of these days maybe I'll actually be able to reliably get a LOT of work done on a weekend. Right. ;-)

Tonight is my first class of the semester. Looking forward to it, despite the geek factor. It's a political science class "Election 2008".

Veeery Nice

Everyone in my acting class said this phrase constantly (as did Birdie occasionally) after seeing that Pinter play The Birthday Party.

But it also goes nicely with the work I did yesterday on Trouble and Ruin. My brain seemed to be connected to my body yesterday, so I got some words in on Kelsey battling Mower Guy, and closer outlining of the scenes following. I decided not to use the stuff I wrote last weekend. It was an interesting idea, but it just didn't fit.

[later]

Still getting back to bigger numbers every day. That's GOT to change. I have GOT TO put more words down every day if I'm ever going to get this sucker done. So far this afternoon only 350. Crap.

Cleared Up

My head is more clear than it was yesterday, so I should be able to get some writing done today. It was pretty funny, really, how I wrote a couple of paragraphs, then when I went back I had repeated verbs and written sentences that made no sense at all. Should I have been driving? Hell, no. *g*

Sick

Got a head cold. On drugs. Can't think. But I will be typing up some stuff from the weekend if I can remember what I'm doing from one moment to the next.

[later]

Heh heh heh. I tried to write, and I have to say, that was really amusing. I know what I wanted to say, but it came out pretty much gibberish. My bowling pencil is coming out. Maybe slowing down is what I need.

A Reason For My Bad Mood

You know, this three week menstral cycle has gotten SO OLD. *sigh* And of course we're driving to Tennessee tomorrow after work. I've been awake since 3:30 because of it today, and I'm so tired. Right after work, though, we'll be going back to Birdie's office to load packing peanuts on the truck for the trip tomorrow.

Yesterday I was up in 296, and got a couple of hundred words written. It was kinda weird... I had two sheets of paper and wrote for a while on Parker inside the gas station and then would switch over to Kelsey outside in the car. I felt really unfocused on both, which was probably a product of menstrual hormones.

Still, I sent chapter six to poor Kate, who is already overwhelmed with too much of her own stuff. Today I'm at about 500 words, and they're flying off my finger again.Kelsey is doing the athlete thing, preparing mentally for "battle", which is an overworked word in the sport world but completely apropos here. Hmmm...I should work that in.

I've been pretty happy with my progress for the most part. I haven't given up, and even though the beginning of the semester slowed that progress pretty dramatically, the word count inches ever higher. I'm in nose bleed territory. And I can't shake the feeling that it's the worst kind of crap and most people are going to turn their noses up at it. Sheesh. What a weinie.

Monday Happy Day

Yeah, Monday was great, writing-wise. I got completely focused up in 296, in the completely empty and quiet office. Parker makes up his mind to do the right thing and goes off to get ice for Kelsey. For the first time in weeks the words were just tumbling out and onto the page - 740 words actually.

Yesterday of course I expected more of the same, but it turned into one of those horrible days at work, with phone calls and constant interruptions - including an unexpected call from the furniture people who separated me from my desk for a half hour - that kept me TRYING to hammer away at the three rush jobs and innumerable little things. Bleh. All I managed was to jot down some notes.

I was also thinking about this blog, and how it's supposed to be all whiny, because I really EXPECTED to not be this far along, and there would have been a million whiny excuses...blahdee blahdee blah. I know the drill. How exciting that the title of the blog is misleading.
;-)

The Long Weekend

I didn't have as good a time as Kate had in Canada, obviously, but it was a good weekend until the end. We went up to visit Birdie's sister Linda and her husband Gust, one of several stinkin' rich couples we're friends with/related to. Their fridge was full of yummy Busch Lite beer, so I loaded up. *eg* (okay, that's cheezy even for me, but it was free and plentiful and I wasn't driving anywhere - much) Saturday night we went to The Princess Cafe in Beecher, IL, about a half hour drive toward Chicagoland. INCREDIBLE food, great service, prices out of my league. I had enough money to cover, but it would have tapped me pretty well if Linda hadn't grabbed the tab and run off. Like last year I had there Slab O Prime Rib that was Like Buttah and a couple of (cheap!) beers. Like a good restaurant for normal people, their beer choices ran the gamut from Miller Lite to Coors Lite. *g* The next day we had a strained breakfast (Linda and Gust don't eat much, often or with others for the most part) then went for a long walk on their very interesting wooded lot (about 20 acres), trying to id trees. The DOGS were in hog heaven. They have a couple of Australian Cattle Dogs named Parker and Zorro. Very sweet. VERY energetic. They fell in love with me as soon as I got there and Gust checked the car three times before we left to be sure they didn't sneak off with me. Then Linda and I climbed onto ATVs and tooled around the woods on their trails for only a few minutes - felt like that, anyway. When we got back they said we'd been riding most of an hour. What fun! We left late, due to the unexpected viewing of the Colts game, and so got stuck in the I-65 traffic from a fatal accident. Three hours to travel 7 miles. There are stretches of I-65 with no exits for thirty miles. We were on one of those. *sigh* We got home at midnight and are dragging ass today.

On the up side, I'm at the scene where Parker stops to get ice for Kelsey's injury, goes inside the gas station when he sees it's empty, and leaves her passed out in the car. She's going to make him hope she lives after he sees her handling the zombie that will come for her. Looking forward to finishing this! I did some writing Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, but not much considering the circumstances (dogs jumping on me, lots of beer, football on the tv, etc., etc., etc.).

The Long Long Week

But we're pretty much taking the month off working on the house. Tomorrow we're driving north to visit Birdie's sister Linda for a day. She doesn't look like the rest of the Nordstroms, being short and petite and red headed. (Of course, that last is probably, like, unnatural. ;-) She was the first person to welcome me to the family, decades ago, which is probably why I have a soft spot in my heart for her. She's the most intellectually inclined, too, though she never went to college. Well, she and Birdie would be tied in that way. They both read a lot and are interested in the larger world.

Writing is still going. I'm getting a few more words on the page every day, and I'm still excited to see this thing finished. I don't know if anyone else will enjoy it, or if I'll be blasted for my uncivilized use of extreme gore, but I just really want to both have a good time writing it, and FINISHING. I *want* to experience the whole book submission process. (Yeah, I know, I'm nuts.)

[addendum]

OH! And Birdie's sister called to let us know that they plan on taking us to a swank restaurant about an hour south of Chicago. Last time I was there I got a PERFECT prime rib about the size of a football. Yeah, expensive as hell. Nope, didn't pay for it. Nope again, I don't feel guilty about it because these people are LOADED. *big grin*

Oh. My. Gawd.

On the way to work this morning I saw a pimp driving through downtown Bloomington. Things have changed around here.

Yesterday I got some more edit work done, but that's all because it was one of those days where there wasn't a CONSTANT stream of people, just an interruption every time I got into something. So the best I could do is a minute here and a minute there, fixing stuff a little.

So Much For That

The whole not coming in to work thing. I'm here and so is my red clipboard (where I've been doing a lot of writing lately.

This is We're Not Working On The Freaking House month. We're both burned out, my back isn't up to it, and we're going to be visiting Birdie's family instead. This coming weekend I will attempt to resist sister Linda's attempts to keep me inebriated on cheap beer and - of course - get more writing done. *g*

The Only Thing

On my mind today? Pain! I would have bet good money my back would be feeling better today, but it hurts so much my stomach is upset. I don't intend to come to work tomorrow. The only reason I came today is I had work do to that couldn't wait, and I've got an eye appointment this afternoon. They found something they didn't like last week and they want to take another lok at my left eye.

Yesterday I "worked" in the yard by setting a fire and then sitting in a lawn chair to watch it burn. While there, I did some writing, so it wasn't a total loss. But that turned out to be too much, and even though I sat/laid on the freakin couch all the rest of the day, I'm in a lot of pain today.

Fridays Rock

Not that I'll have any kind of down time this weekend. This has been a hard week for Kinesiology staff. I'm the only one here today, and I would have stayed home except I expected people to be out. I threw my freakin back out this morning getting out of bed. !!! Of course this happens the day before we're doing both the Persimmon Festival (mmmmm....persimmon ice cream) and the Lotus Festival (hmmmm...lots of walking around).

And I'm just tired. Everyone here is pooped out.

Yesterday I sent off chapters. Haven't heard a reply yet, and I'm nervous about that. Chapter four is an out and out gore fest and I have no clue how well or badly I handled that.

It occured to me yesterday that I need to have more live people to kill off later in the book. Will have to think about that some more.

New Things

I hope to send Kate chapter four today. It's really gruesome, and I'm going to need her input on this one for sure. Is it too much? Does it make sense? Does it develop Kelsey's character or am I engaging in wishful thinking?

Right now it's pretty quiet in the office, but I expect that will change soon. And it's RAINING! Tuesday we had a scary downpour with a straight line wind (I believe they call those derechos) that nearly caught me, Wednesday was a good soaking rain for hours and this morning a couple of good, long showers. You can almost hear the trees cheering.

Lotus Festival is this weekend. Despite not being much of a music person, I love going to the Lotus. You just never know what you're going to hear and see.

Long, Long....Long.................Long Time

That's one of my favorite Harrison Ford quotes, mostly because it's just funny the way he said it, and also how long it's been since I've done any serious writing. I have to admit, I was really worried about not going on, to the point I was kind of grieving over the book. Silly, huh? Anyway, first I agonized over going back and reorganizing text I'd already written, since Kate has give me such dire warnings about not re-writing until I was completely finished with the first draft.

But I got to about chapter six ("about" for a reason) and got confused. My chapters weren't meshing, things weren't happening in the proper order, and I had to re-tool the ending. Like I said, major confusion and I just couldn't go on until I re-ordered the chapters, like ending chapter five in a different place and inserting another chapter before it.

The up side is, after getting chapter two changed a bit so it fit better, I went on a tear, even writing on a clipboard during a Master Gardener meeting Birdie took me to last night for nearly an hour - until they turned the lights out to show slides. It's about a thousand words longer than it had been, hope that's not too much, but it makes a lot more sense AND I got to send it to Kate. So now she has the horrible chapter one, the very long chapter two and the road tested chapter three. I'm hoping to get another two off to her this week, but I think it'll only end up being one.

Finally! Progress!

Long Night Into Long Day

I have no reason to believe today will be easier than yesterday. On the up side, I got some good stuff done on the book yesterday afternoon in a few minutes I just freakin STOLE from the crazy busy-ness. Hell with these people, I can't work my ass off every minute of every day.

Oh, and I've already had one person talk to me like a pirate. *laugh*

Day In and Day In

Because it's never out around here. The morning was relatively peaceful, but the afternoon has been a BITCH.

On the weird side, I'm wearing a pink polo shirt we got in Florida years ago. I've had six people tell me it looks great on me (even though I'm still a little too large for it - but at least I can get it on today). Who knew.

On the WHOO HOO side, I got some good dialogue done this morning before a constant stream of needy faculty began making its way to my desk. I know Kate is wondering if I'm ever going to send her another chapter, but I will assure her it WILL happen, and soon. I'm breaking a cardinal rule and revising. *covering my ears to avoid the onslaught* I need to do it, I've changed my mind so much I can't go back to the first chapters and see what I've done to keep things straight in my mind.

I promise *holding up the requisite fingers* on my honor as a Brownie (far as I got) to send at least one chapter and possibly as many as three to Kate by Friday.

Really.

I mean it.

Slow Friday

Well, not so much slow, as quiet. I've been working steadily all day, and have managed to keep my head above water for the most part. Right now I'm in 296, working on the book and enjoying VERY much the lack of interruptions and the ever present drone of the massive fan just outside the door. Because this is the oldest part of the building, the gym across the hall has no AC so when it gets really hot like it has this summer, they just turn a fan on for a few weeks 24/7. I wonder why the place hasn't burned down already? And, what are the employees supposed to do if a University building burns down? Huh. Scary thought.

My head is full of thoughts right now, zinging around in my brain, wandering off to get lost, colliding with other thoughts and either exploding or mushing together in a paisley film, or just crowding up to my skull and pounding to be let out, be attended to, be heard.

Yeah, I'm having an allergy day and feeling royally stoned.

Now is the season of REALLY COOL STUFF going on that we'll miss because we'll be at the HOUSE.

The Handle

I'm getting a hold on it. My creeping advances are getting a wee bit bigger every day, but I'm still trying to figure a good way to get some serious minutes in. I'm just not awake enough to write anything worthwhile at four o'clock in the morning. About half the time I want to, I can bring myself to work out in the morning, but I really have to push myself, and we all know what a wimp I am. ;-)

Speaking of physical health, I have to say I haven't felt this good in a long time. I just knelt on the (admittedly not as hard as it could be) dance studio floor for several minutes on my bad knee and didn't feel any ill effects except a bit of pain. A month ago I literally couldn't have done it. This week (the two month anniversary of the end of my softball career) I'm walking with only a little pain, despite doing a lot more stairs (on purpose) than I've been doing and concentrating on PUSHING OFF with my left foot. I'm not allowing any kind of limp at all. Yes, I'm feeling it, yes I'm being careful not to tear it again, but man it feels good to start getting my regular stride back.

Tonight I'm going to test it by push mowing for a couple of hours. Wish me luck. *g*

[LATER]

Oooh! Oooh! I just outlined a new scene that I needed to make sense of a later scene, and it's a nice thriller. Kelsey begins to show her stuff here, and I can't WAIT to fill it out. *happy grin*

The chapters are still in disarray, but I now have the piece of puzzle I needed to make them fit again; more importantly, the thing is making sense to ME again.

Well Away

Yeah, I've been away, and I miss communing with this anonymous blog. Spent yesterday on the couch watching one after the other of Star Gate SG:1 season 9, which is much better than I expected. Amanda Tapping is pregnant enough they put her in XXLarge fatigues, which is hilarious, and the new guy is Ben Browder, who is a nice substitute for Richard Dean Anderson, and even the Ever Boring Jaffa didn't grate much on my nerves.

My laptop is being restructured, and there's no way I was going to sit upright in front of the desktop, so basically I *thought* about the story, and came up with something much better than the ending I had originally done. For one thing, my events are occuring at a much slower rate than the original outline would allow. That's okay with zombies, though, right? It can be a What Happens For The First Few Hours, or go on for weeks like Dawn of the Dead.

Also, my original ending was lame. *g*

Finally! Friday!

This has been such a long and mean week. Tomorrow all I have to do is drive south two hours, put in some hours of frustrating work then drive back two hours. After spending the day mowing our (finally) growing grass on Sunday I can have a couple of hours of weekend then start again on Monday.

The furniture guy was here again, and Kristi wants to make some pretty major changes in my desk situation because she doesn't like the space. Yeah, the desk is ugly. Yeah, the first furniture guy put one over on me because I'm a gullible person who believes what people say. Doesn't mean I don't get pissed off all over again when someone puts one over on me.

Today I'll be in 296 at four o'clock. I intend to get a lot of work done on T&R, and everyone can just leave me alone.

Wowza

Yesterday I *FINALLY* got a chance to read Kate's chapter four, and it blew me away. This work gets better all the time, and I'm so excited about getting to read it early. The funny thing is, I don't like the main character much, but I can't wait to see what happens next. I had the same reaction to Mel Gibson's movie "Payback", in which the main character isn't likable, but you want him to succeed. Much as I dislike Mr. Gibson, it's still one of my top 100 favorite movies.

There's another sf fan in the house! One of our adjunct faculty, the one who belly danced to the Firefly song at GenCon, came to the social last night (yeah, I went - and actually had a great time, especially the "coaching" dance faculty *bg*) with her husband, who is also a big time fan and not a half bad bowler. When I told them about my zombies tearing out their own throats he suggested the title "Halls of Death". (Think throat lozenges.)

Still Plugging

Away at putting my desk together, that is. I'd like to get some work done and knock down my distressingly long list of MUST DO TODAY items. Especially since some of them are abour a week old.

We've decided to not go to the Kinesiology Fall Social tonight after all. I'm still not feeling really kindly toward everyone, and I have a long and unfortunate history of Incidents (like the one at Planet Hollywood, for example) that makes me unwilling to go.

There's an interesting job opening at the IU Alumni Association that is three whole grades higher than my current one. If I can get a resume together in time, I'm going to apply. Maybe I'll get an actual office.

I also need to work on organizing Trouble and Ruin. Somehow, the chapters got mixed up, and it's confusing me. Kate has been teaching me that Organizing Is Good, and of course she's right.

Still Too Busy

If I could get five minutes, maybe I could put my tiny new desk together and get some work done. Too bad these people don't take a hint and leave me alone for five minutes.

Title suggestion: Deathless Throes (Get it? Instead of Deathless Prose... Yeah, that's a joke.)

I like One Breath from Death, by the way.

What A Crappy Day

Got my new desk in today. Did NOT get time to read Kate's chapter, and because so mad I cried. Those who know me well do not take that lightly. Crying means I'm one step closer to hitting. Goddam people and their poo pooing of my feelings. If I say I'm upset about something don't fucking tell me I'm over fucking reacting.

So, how about this title? Survive the Dead.

New Day

New desk day, theoretically. I had furniture ordered a couple of months ago to turn my orientation from having-my-back-to-the-busy-hallway into facing-people-coming-at-me. Of course they waited till the freakin first week of classes to deliver it. Or DID they? They said they'd be here Tuesday. I killed myself getting ready on Monday - packed my desk. No desk Tuesday. Spent Wednesday rooting around in boxes for stuff. Our budget coordinator called the CEO yesterday and I'm supposed to get furniture today.

Hmph.

We're supposed to go to a baseball game tonight. Spiderman will be there, AND fireworks. I wonder if I can get my eyes dilated first. Did that once, and it's a MAJOR enhancement to fireworks, let me tell you. *g*

Only a little bit of work done yesterday on the book, and Kate sent me her chapter four. I'm going to print it and maybe read it while I'm getting my new desk later today.

Hmph

I'm way too busy to blog. But you know what? Fuck it. I've got to keep writing.

Yes, I'm still writing, but man, it's even slower than ever, and it was glacial before. I've been working on the very short chapter where Kelsey has a kind of face to face with a zombie, and she makes a major decision after some internal discussion.

Parker's escape from the hospital has become a problem. I tried to trap him between the inner and outer glass doors, but I talked to an elevator guy the other day and he doesn't think it'll work the way I have it done. He says doors stay where they are when the power goes out, not automatically shut, but they do lock in position. I need to check that with a door guy.

A New Week

I've been looking forward to Monday, as I often do, because this is easier work than I have at home. *g* Sure, I'm fantastically busy here, but it's physically easy. All I have to do is six things at once, including standing in the hall directing people to their class - this is a very confusing building, so we do that the first few days of each semester.

Saturday I had some deep thought about outhouses, but now I can't remember what it was. Whatever, it stopped me in my tracks. I think it was something about how I use to use an outhouse all the time when I was a kid, because a significant number of people in my family still used them exclusively, even up to my high school years. When we moved to the big city (New Albany) when I was six and my dad bought his very first house (so I would have a permanent address in a good school district), there was still an outhouse in the back yard. I don't think we ever used it, because he installed a TINY one seater without room for a sink inside the house, but it was there till he knocked down the stall, covered it and put a basketball goal up in its place.

I think it occured to me how many people in this country will never even experience one, much less be familiar with them. Weird, the shit I think about. ;-)

Friday was TOO exciting. I did indeed get some writing done up in 296, before people found out where I was at and started pestering me. I woke Kelsey up in the car she had passed out in from shock. Parker is inside, trying to make himself not panic, looking for medical supplies (which WOULD be difficult to find in a hospital if you didn't know where to look) and she wakes up. Of course, that FUCKING computer died on me and I lost network AGAIN. No e-mail, which I needed when one of my faculty called to have a file sent somewhere, and I couldn't access my flash drive suddenly. I was SO PISSED until I figured out to drag the file to the desktop, and I saved this much:

A shadow fell over Kelsey’s eyes and woke her from her light slumber. She was happy about waking, because her mind absolutely refused to leave the slow motion, endless loop of her grandmother being chewed to death by her long-time neighbor. Much as she tried, though, she couldn’t bring back the scene of herself beating the damned thing to death. That’s what she wanted to see, because she thought it might be a lot more fun to watch than Grandma Opal.
It took a few moments to wonder why a shadow had appeared suddenly, and she almost opened her eyes before realizing she should be real damned careful if she didn’t want to end up like Grandma Opal. Because it was pretty easy to see how strong these things were if a slob like Miriam could throw a person five feet.

So Kelsey did open her eyes, but only by the narrowest slit. It was a trick she had learned as a young girl, when her mom used to send her to her room to nap. Like she needed a nap. When her mom would come in to check, Kelsey would totally relax every muscle in her body and let her eyes go slack, except for opening them the barest amount. Sometimes her mom, ironically afraid of being conned, would kneel down next to the bed, put her face really close to Kelsey’s and try to see if her eyes were open, but she never once noticed that her innocent daughter was watching, putting one over on her. As soon as she left, Kelsey would get out of bed and do whatever she wanted, quietly.

Now she used this skill on whatever was looking in the window. The first thing she noticed was that her face was only a couple of inches from the glass. It was grimy, and made her want more than anything to get out of this filthy car. On the other side a dead thing had its forehead pressed against the glass, looking closely at Kelsey.

Only a few inches away were two dead eyes. It was hard to tell where they were looking exactly because the parts that should be white were now a glassy black, so there was no discernable iris. The black made its eyes look a little bulgy, and its mouth was a bluish gray color slightly darker than the surrounding dead skin. Of course the mouth was hanging open and drool had collected in the dark mouth and was flowing out the corners and down the sides of its chin to the neck, where it mixed with the clotting blood it the ripped out neck. It had been a man in need of a shave, and the short dark bristles stood out sharply against the pale skin.

Still Friday

DAMN, it feels good to spend time with this book. I'm in 296, finally got fifteen minutes uninterrupted, and promptly typed a page. So of course now I'm here whoo hoo-ing. *g*

Kelsey is seeing a zombie UP CLOSE. She's going to decide she's about to become a zombie killing machine. No "I'm fast. They're slow." mantra like Parker keeps muttering to himself.

What a day! What a day!

The absolute busiest day of the year, so of course we were saddled with several mandatory meetings, like being gone ALL DAY yesterday because of a mandatory retreat at Bradford Woods, our VERY swank differently-abled teaching facility in - you guessed it! - Bradford Woods. I got there early, so I found a parking space easily and had a leisurely ten minute walk to the dining hall, which has very high ceilings and nicely placed fans and so never got unbearably hot even with two hundred people inside, and we worked pretty intensly for about three hours then went home. When I got home I pretty much passed out from the heat because I'm not used to going all day without AC, and heat index was 107 degrees.

My furniture was supposed to come in, I've had a million things to do and more than constant interruptions, but I'm holding up pretty darned well I think. Next week will be good, too. ;-)

No, I didn't get any writing done yesterday. Couldn't even watch a movie all the way through without falling asleep in the heat. BUT, while at the retreat I did some really nice work on the outline. Both Parker and Kelsey are coming into very good focus, and I'm getting a really good feel for how it's going to end (since I've decided the original ending I had is lame-o). It's basically going to end sooner, and not in the same physical place as before.

Kelsey is going to fight a dead CHP officer for his handgun. Can't wait to get to that. *eg* Parker (in the re-write/edit) will spell out his motivations much more clearly.

Really, I came to some really surprising conclusions yesterday and managed to write them down. I would have typed on the outline today, but it took literally all day to type this entry, and I've managed to send about six e-mails today. There's a peach on my desk I've been trying to eat for over an hour now.

School's in.

Still Agonizing Over The Title

What a geek. Anyway....how about

The Breath of Death

Well Damn

Blogger just ate my blog. Crap.

What did I say? Oh, yeah, I didn't write much yesterday, and this is the time we find out if I can REALLY do this novel thing, and I really hope I can because I *want* to read this book because I think it will be a fun read.

Only, I used a few more words.

The World

Will wonders never cease? We spent Saturday night at the house, trying to get ready for some major work next weekend, and Sunday morning Birdie TOLD me to go write at least 250 words while she was in the shower. To say I was stunned doesn't begin to cover it. She's so cool.

I finally got Parker face to face with his next zombie threat, trapped between the inside and outside doors of the hospital when the power goes out at the worst possible moment, so far as he's concerned. He figures out an important thing right before turning around and being inches away from death, then I end the chapter. You know, it didn't occur to me I've got both my leads nose to nose with a zombie with only glass between them until this moment. *sigh* I'm so slow in the head. But that works okay, because both of them will have sudden, deep thoughts that will define the rest of their life while staring into dead, black eyes.

What a Day

For writing? Hardly. We took yesterday off and went to the State Fair, where it was a 100 degrees and muggy, with a nice breeze - otherwise I would have melted away. It was Lottery Day, so of course we braved the masses of clueless people who don't seem to notice they're surrounded by thousands of other people who may not want them to stop in the middle of the sidewalk or step on your foot. People are stupid. It rained a bit when we were watching the live raptor show. That was cool. Not very eductional for either of us, but it's always cool to be that close to hawk, falcons and owls - especially when they're snarfing white mice. *eg* We also watched some of the harness competition in the big arena. It was very educational and fascinating, watching these incredibly rich rigs of jingling silver and shiny leather being pulled at a trot around the dirt floor (which normally houses the Indianapolis Ice Hocky team). I mean, how often do you see elegant young women in evening gowns grabbing the reins of a rearing horse, or jumping onto a rolling wagon? *g* We were shocked to discover we had been there for over two hours when we finally decided to leave, and then we didn't get home till almost midnight. Yeah, I'm really tired.

But I'm hot to work on chapter seven this afternoon. There's hardly anyone here, so I'm hoping to get a lot of words down, to try and catch up some from this light week.

[later in the day...]

Yeah, I've got Parker really thinking about his priorities, and should he be so concerned about helping his mom that he ignores someone who is right there and really needs help? Then he turns around and THERE'S a zombie in his face. *heh heh* There's going to be a marked difference in the reactions between the two.

Anyway, I've typed in some more words today (nearly 500), in the very few minutes I had to do so.

WHEW!

Yeah, it was covered in weekend yardsale debris on the dining room table. Pesky flash drive is safely ensconced in the cpu and ready to be backed up.

Last night we went to see Stardust, and it was a lot of fun. Too long and the music was just, wrong, but still a lot of fun. Birdie didn't see the whole Tristan Is The King thing coming at all, but I didn't get the blue blood joke until she laughed so I guess we're even. *g* On the way home we rescued a young couple trying to move furniture on vastly undersized hand trucks in this heat. The karma points were immediately cashed in when a lady in Corydon kindly called to let me know I sent my electric bill to the wrong place and she dropped it off on her way home last night.

I'm looking forward to digging into the beginning of chapter seven. Six is too long, and I'm thinking of either chopping off some of it or putting in a super short chapter right in the middle. That's for later. Right now I'm going to see how well Kelsey can handle stress and gore and her own awakening warrior tendencies.

I'm Lost!!!!!!!

I couldn't find my flash drive this morning! I can begin chapter seven, but now I'm going to worry all day about where my flash drive is. Yesterday I was so OUT OF IT - allergy season slammed into Bloomington full force yesterday. This morning I felt great until we drove into town, and I could feel my forehead going numb and I knew I would have another hard day of trying to stay awake and focused enough to work.

Kelsey is still out in the car, sleeping off the shock of her introduction to The Zombie World. One of the dead Parker lured out of the ER parking lot is going to inspect her briefly through the car window then walk on when she doesn't move. I haven't decided yet whether to have her be awake or not, but I'm thinking it will be all kinds of better to have her staring at the thing and wishing she could kill it. By the time Parker manages to escape the hospital, the zombie has wondered off, but when he looks in the car at her she continues to feign sleep, thinking to herself how creepy it is that he keeps staring at her. He, on the other hand, is continuing to check her for insipient zombie-ism, since she was injured by one.

Their motivations, especially Parker's are still not quite right. That's going to be the biggest thing that needs fixing on the re-write.

Heh heh. I just wrote this sentence: "What kind of thoughts could be making their sluggish way through its congealing brain mass?"

Working with a Sharpie pen today, though, so the going is slow. I like writing with a pen, I think I come up with more interesting wording. But it's so damned slow, and my hand cramps up pretty quickly. Darned old age.

Monday Monday

Not much to say today. Got a good bit of writing done on Friday but nothing on the weekend. The long, tiring weekend. Since it was 96 degrees outside yesterday I thought I'd go ahead and do some work on the driveway. ;-) Carried the pickax and shovel down the drive and went at it. Still have some fixing to do - that last rain made some new bad spots - but I found a good lode of clay to use for patching. Pewter got mad at me when I threw the shovel at her when she wouldn't stop heading toward the road.

A Preview

Of things to come. The office is beginning to be busy, and I'm really tired. This should be the norm for the rest of the semester, so I'd better get used to it - and don't forget allergy season is just around the corner! Whoo Hoo!

Yesterday in the afternoon I whipped out the bowling pencil after coming back from a walk and sketched out some sentences and ideas I'd had about chapter one. I also fixed a little of the chapter six words I wrote in the Hilton hallway on Saturday and added about 500 more words in about twenty minutes. Parker is IN the hospital, telling himself that zombies are slow and he's fast, but his damned feet just are NOT listening to him and they keep trying to quit walking. Feet are smart.

When we got home it was too damned hot to do anything so we started watching Bridge to Tarabithia, which was nothing like the trailer and made us cry. It's a rogue Disney movie that has an actual mother - no, it has TWO mothers. Therefore, someone else must die. About the lowest part of the film was when the enormous family of turkeys wandered through the yard, so we went out to watch that instead.

It's Back!

From vacation at TrinocCon. I'm tired and dehydrated from a wee bit o drinking and traveling on the always fun airlines. I got cool prezzies from my buds and it's always fun to listen to writers talk. Kate's new story is TOO much fun and I really hope she can place it somewhere.

Of course almost no writing , about 360 words on Saturday in the middle of a crowded hallway - in other words the kind of place I normally do my writing. But yesterday I had a nifty idea that I immediately wrote down. Then I was overheated and sank back onto the couch.

Last night was out "team" party to end the year. I was especially struck with Vella saying in her speech that there were no serious injuries during the year. Nice.

It's About Time

For vacation, that is. I get a WHOLE DAY to myself tomorrow, during which I expect to get a lot of work done on the house in preparation for VACATION. *happy sigh* The girls, already unhappy at how little time we're spending with them lately, are going to be further traumatized, but we'll have more time in the near future for them. But WE are going to have a good time, and visit with good friends.

That's the thing. People don't understand how important good friends are, and how rare it is to have a friend. Because most people mistake an aquaintance with a friend, like they tend to mistake fucking for love. My grandmother had one good friend, and they loved each other for nearly fifty years until she died. My last glimpse of Cory was of her walking down a busy sidewalk, crying her eyes out after the funeral.

Okay, writing. Yesterday I had two hours in 296 but it was 85 degrees with a droning "AC" in the background and no working computer at my station for a half hour. Didn't get a lot of typing done, but I did put down about four hundred words and then fell asleep. Don't laugh! I could barely walk over to Birdie's office later. I *hate* being that sleepy - it's one of the most painful things I know. After work we went to the fairgrounds for another Master Gardener class, and I fully intended to sleep, even though I had my laptop, but she insisted I come to the class. So, because it's important to share experience in a relationship I went, and didn't even grumble! ;-) It was cool, a lecture about herbs and *gasp* I learned stuff. *g*

I learned something about Parker and Kelsey yesterday, and while noodling on a pad of paper while waiting for the tech guy to show up, discovered that they're going to get a good laugh and like each other for a while before I separate them.

Still Goofing Off

Went to Dr. Haven's going away party at Dr. Frey's house last night. This place is going to hell, with all the older faculty leaving. She doesn't want to go, either, but them's the rules. It's been sad watching her pack 30 years of teaching into a few boxes to cart down the hall. But the party was pleasant, even though we were the only staff there. We hadn't intended to go, but were told the guest list was explicitly chosen by Betty Haven. Who could say no?

Didn't get a lot of writing done yesterday, only about 400 words on the end of chapter six. Every time I started typing, the phone rang or someone wanted something. Nice to see some things never change. Not.

But I did get closer to the end of the chapter, and outline longhand what's going to happen the rest of the way. Parker is going to try and be a hero, but he's going to channel my feelings on the roof a couple of weeks ago when I convinced myself that you can be brave if you just WANT to, and then you find out it really doesn't work that way.

This morning I woke up wanting to write, and I think I was actually dreaming about Parker's foray into the hospital. But by the time I dragged myself out of bed, let the cats out, made the coffee and woke up for a while, the words were determined to stay inside, so I did about 200 in twenty minutes, mostly adding some actual description to my normally description-less prose.

Hi Susan! Hi Kate!

How about "A Blight in the Sky"?

Long Weekend

As happens so often, I'm happy to be at work today so I can rest. Sheesh.

Friday night, Monroe County Fair (in the pouring rain) for the fourth time that week. Friday night Harry Potter movie, got home about 11:30. Saturday morning Indianapolis Zoo (I petted a shark!) for about 4 hours, then walked to Victory Field to eat hamburgers, drink beer, have access to a private bathroom and watch the game from a nice, private area along the first base side. The Famous Chicken was there and funny as always. Home at about 11:30, it took a while to walk back to the car cause we stopped to listen to Incubus for a couple of minutes. Up and out of the house Sunday morning to go to the house, pick up the phone, hear there may be a buyer and climb up on the shed to cut cedar limbs and put another cement block on the roof. (Birdie commented that I was fixing it the same way my dad would have. Made me laugh, and then nearly cry because it's so true. A tin roof is amazingly slick when it's covered in old ceder needles. *shiver*) Then we went to the casino for about an hour.

Kate wanted to know how much writing I got done this weekend. ;-)

I had hoped to get chapter six finished on Friday, and I did get a lot done up in the quiet of 296, but it's not done. I debated with myself whether or not to introduce Spevak to them then, and I debated so long I ran out of time. What a bummer. I wanted to send chapter six to Kate and see what she thinks. Not that she would ever say anything bad. She's too easy. ;-)

Whoa

Thats was cool. Yesterday I finally calmed down enough from actually working most of the day, AND THERE WAS NO ONE HERE. So, I started typing on chapter six, which I've been stuck on. I was determined that I was going to write, "Even if it's only a few words, even if it's crap."

Whaddaya know, I did about 400 words in about ten minutes. Then Dr. Frey stopped by my desk to talk about Harry Potter for a few minutes, and then it was time to go.

Time to go to my last softball game. I love walking onto an infield. I love pitching the ball and seeing it land in the strike zone. I love grabbing a ground ball and making it look easy. I especially love when I get to do something really fun, like outrun a batter to first and take a throw from the 1stbaseman. Don't love running bases, I've never been a runner and I'm not going to miss that one little bit.

I'm still grieving - softball is a major part of my life.

Slow

And I knew it would be, once I got hold of Harry Potter. I'm over 2/3 done now, though, so I'll get back to serious writing soon. I think I'm going to print it out again when I finish chapter six.

The outline really needs to be dealt with, too. Seriously dealt with. I have to more fully imagine the book, especially now that I've got a better idea of the characters.

Last night we went to the fair, thinking it was a Master Gardener class night, but it wasn't. I had to sit a couple of times to let my foot rest, so I hauled HP out and finished a couple of chapters. Then when we got home I made her take a flexoril, so now she's tired as hell and probably won't want to go to the fair - but she has to. It remains to be seen if I can make her do the stuff she should, like she handles me.

Bleh Bleh and More Bleh

I feel crappy. Everything hurts. But, I am still writing the book. Reading the latest Harry Potter, which isn't very good but sold millions before it came out, is pretty depressing.

Numbers

Mine are down rather drastically, but I've been busy. I've decided to quit paying so much attention to the numbers, because it's depressing to see how slowly the thing is growing.

Chapter six is coming along. The rewrite is going well, more in tune with the character motivations I had in mind going in.

Kate wrote back and liked chapter three, or whichever one it is that introduces Kelsey, and had some helpful suggestions.

My Harry Potter came in today, so that will take up a bit of my time.

We visited Nancy this weekend, and Dana will be at the house tomorrow probably fucking it up beyond repair. But I have to trust him to do the work. Nancy drives me crazy with her blind love for this disgusting person, but I want to give him another chance.

I'm tired, and my foot hurts and I want to go home. This week is the fair several nights, though.

Rain Rain Rain

This is the first time I've hoped a game would NOT be rained out, but it will be, and I'll be in a pickle. Cause I don't want to play again. My foot isn't going to be ready for a good long time, and I know that if I play before the end of August I'll tear it up again, and those people aren't worth it.

Yesterday, as I said, I got about 700 words done in about a half hour with people having a couple of loud conversations about three feet behind me. I then printed chapter six and took it with me to the hair dresser, where I left a lot of blue felt pen all over it. Then Kim punked out my hair and you know, it looked pretty good.

I forgot that I promised Kate a chapter, so I guess I'll give chapter two a quick pass and send it to her.

Whoa A Rare Good Day

If I didn't have five people partying in my office I might have done a thousand words. As it is, I just pumped out 700+ words on the chapter six re-write. It's a lot different from the stuff that's come before. I sent some to Kate and she was all, "All right, all right, you needed to fix it." *laugh*

Big Day

Yesterday [Monday] was pretty horrible. Pain when I bumped my leg on the cart. Humiliation when I heard "my" team talking about the state tournament they're going to this weekend. Nice of them to ask.

That cut me hard, and I left before they could see me crying. I am retired from softball. Fuck them.

I did some writing this morning, exercised a little and played guitar for about five minutes.

It occurs to me that there are some intrinsic weaknesses in my book. The biggest one is that the "goal" Parker is working for isn't big enough. There needs to be more setup for why it's so important to him to get to his mom. Is he a momma's boy? Then that won't work, because the readers are momma's boys who don't want to read about themselves.

Both Parker and Kelsey need to be more likeable. They need to get along better with each other. Or maybe...maybe they don't. Maybe it would be better to separate them pretty quickly, then have them work toward the goal (see above) and come at it from separate angles.

So, what is this nifty goal? Ah ha! Now Parker's nifty is still to get to his mother, and he's ditching again. But this time he's ditching for a Really Good Reason - Kelsey is going to turn into a zombie. It's with her that he decides he can't off people, even ravenous dead ones, so he's going to leave her somewhere and get back on the road.

Yesterday [Tuesday] I re-did an outline of sorts for chapter six. Kate is adament that I continue without rewriting, but I feel like I need it to keep the characters intact in my head. They really veered off in a weird direction.

New Week

Hope it's better than the last week. My left heel is screwed, and I'm going to miss the game tonight. My right shin is pretty darned sore. I woke up at 2:00 this morning and couldn't go to sleep for the longest time - stress, stress, stress.

Surprisingly, I wrote nearly 500 words yesterday while ensconced on the bed with my feet up. Messed around with chapter six a little, correcting really eggegious errors before adding text. While typing, I was very conscious of "just putting it down" without a worry about Is It Good? or not. And it's not good. But the story is advanced.

What A Night!

Well THAT was painful. Got hit with a monster line drive last night - thought my leg was broken. It must have looked bad, because everyone came running, and Vella pulled me out of the game after another inning and a half. It hurt so much I didn't mind. And THEN, I somehow re-injured my left heel, which hurts worse than the shin smack. The worst part is we've got two games next week, Monday and Thursday.

I wrote some more on Parker and Kelsey meeting yesterday afternoon, trying to keep in mind where I wanted their relationship to go, rather than how I felt them getting along. I also went back and fixed a rather boffo error right at the top of the chapter. Duh. I think I wrote about 400 words here and there and fixed up quite a bit at about 600 words into the chapter.

Another Slow Day

But I'm still going. Parker and Kelsey aren't interacting the way I expected. Weird. Did about 300 words today, in the afternoon, without feeling at all in the mood to write. Got a 6:00 game, and I'm not in the mood for that, either.

But my new laptop keyboard came in, so I can get that going again.

Last night we went to the Owen County fair rather than working on the lawnmower. We had a great time, and that was good for both of us.

Nuther Day Nuther

Oh, let's say another day of drudgery. I'm feeling really listless and more ambitionless than normal. My knee feels a ton better, softball season - which has been more of a chore than anything else this year - is FINALLY almost over, and it's been incredibly quiet at work the last few weeks, which is unheard of.

I guess it's because I've got so many loose ends right now. The house, of course, is number one. My weight gain is a bad thing I never quite get around to dealing with. My phobia about getting all my work done is pretty bad right now - I need to clean my desk, but instead I play Swords and Sandals online.

But the novel is really going, at least for me the pace is good. I'm way up in nosebleed territory for word count compared to anything I've attempted before. (No, I don't count that first Dead City screenplay because it was SO AWFUL.) It's the bright spot in my life right now.

Yesterday and Today

Nothing yesterday - I was too flippin beat. Then a wasp (I think) stung me right behind the left ear this morning at about 12:30 as I slept, and I've been pretty out of it most of the day.

But I did manage to put down 600 words on When Parker Met Kelsey. Of course they're not behaving toward one another the way I envisioned, but I still really like the idea of them not trusting each other for bad reasons.

&$*)#

I fucking HATE today. I'm tired. I'm stuck in the fucking office and I'm tired. I hate everything today, and I need to write. Need it.

Where to begin about the last few days. Thursday a late game, which we won (WE BEAT ALLENS!!) then up early for work. Friday at work was BORING, then a six o'clock game so the evening was long and hot and drunken, starting with wine after the game, moving to BW3, then off to Es until after 11:30. The best thing was writing back and forth with Kate, who sent me her chapter two and said more good things about my chapter three. Saturday we both felt awful, and aren't sure if it was the wine or the wings, but we stayed home. Then she fell through the deck while I was asleep. Lucky she wasn't hurt badly. Sunday down to the house, worked until I got heat exhaustion, but the gutters are in better shape and the deck is stained. I can't believe I was the one doing the high work - I even went up on the roof. Not that I did anything up there. I actually GOT OFF THE LADDER, but then because motionless with fear, despite my determination to get past that and clean the gutters anyway. The only thing that got me moving was my butt literally burning on the hot roof. Then we went to the casino and didn't leave till 10:30 so I didn't get to bed til after 12:30. I feel HORRIBLE today.

Friday I was SO excited about writing, then I went home and spent Saturday defragging my computer - still missing keys, so no writing at home. Damn.

I'm finally off the Parker in the garbage truck episode, and he and Kelsey are about to meet. I told Anna that I was writing a zombie novel and her eyes widened and said, "Zombies are so HOT right now." Yeah, I thought, that's why I'm doing it.

Alright, Okay

It's been a while. I thought I had given up. A week ago Kate asked me for a chapter and I freaked out and completely stopped. Then we had a really hard weekend - Sunday we BOTH mowed for three hours and were in so much pain.

Today I sent her chapter three and she REALLY LIKED IT. Cool. *happy grin* So, I did some revision work, and wrote a few words.

I'm not touching Earned Run till I get busy with Trouble and Ruin again. A deal's a deal.

Zip Day

I was tired, cranky, and feeling outright hostile toward the novel. Weird. So, of course I didn't write a thing.

Much later in the day...

I printed out chapter three, so I can write on it, edit and send it to Kate. She sent me a piece yesterday that was fun reading, and wants to know when she's going to see more from me. *sigh*

Little

To report. I can't fucking TYPE these days. My fingers aren't cooperating - weird. The weekend was pretty boring, really, but I think I'm having a stress reaction. I should be taking herb. Friday I took her to the bar for drinks, ran into Freddie, Eileen and his boyfriend Shaun. Icky people, but Birdie is loyal to old friendships with Freddie and Eileen. Went to see Shrek the Third and were pleasantly surprised. Then watched most of the Battlestar Galactica miniseries till almost midnight. Up and away by 9:00 and worked about eight hours. It rained ALL the way home, then most of the morning/early afternoon Sunday. The gutter fell off the house and the wood is so rotted you can't drive a nail into it. I don't think that's enough of a hint to Birdie that the house is screaming for repair.

No creative feelings AT ALL. We'll see if I wake up/get creative feeling enough to do any typing this afternoon. Kate wants to see stuff, but everything needs a lot of revision.

Oh My God

I walked two batters last night in the game. Vella came out to the mound and threatened to put her shoes on. It got really quiet all over the field because I JUST DON'T DO THAT. It was the end of the game, which was good, because I was totally freaked out.

Don't even remember if I wrote yesterday or not. Of course, yesterday sucked in a most major way, so I wouldn't be surprised to find I did not write. What is it about my having payroll spread out over my desk and peering intently on my screen that draws people to me like flies? Nothing to do today - no one bugging me.

It's Horrible

This week, or at least the way I feel. While Birdie went into the house this morning to get the handful of tampons I forgot to get, I had a little cry. They started with no effort and I had a hard time stopping before Birdie got back out. I feel horrible, and I've felt horrible all summer from one thing after another. Last night it was icepick-through-the-gut menstrual cramps. Birdie is unhappy about something but won't say what. The house isn't near to completion. Money is becoming an issue. Our house is in terrible shape.

And the novel is taking forever to get done. I only wrote about 250 words yesterday, but spent a LOT of time e-mailing back and forth with Kate about life and writing, and with Susan. No work on Earned Run.

Not Too Bad

I had Parker in a bad way in the cab of the garbage truck yesterday while in 296. There was no one there but me, so I had a few minutes of just chugging away, throwing words on the screen. Got to about 500, and Annie popped in the door. She said how wonderful it was that I was still writing, then talked for a good fifteen minutes. Good thing I like her. ;-) I ended up not noticing the time again, but looked up at nearly 700 words and saw it was nearly five minutes after. Damn. I was on a 1000 word day. Oh, well. *happy grin*

Oddly Crappy

I feel like hell today; I think it's PMS, on top of stress about the house, my back, money, not getting things done and the year is flying by, not getting new furniture at my office. That last one has me on the verge of tears. How in the fucking world could I have believed Shea even for a moment? Kay is all smugness - she's got a fucking office and isn't in the middle of the goddamn hallway. I'm looking at jobs again. I told everyone a couple of years ago that my office was the second biggest reason I was leaving, after Terry. Well, the situation hasn't changed a bit, and I'm still not "used" to having people walk up behind me all day, staring over my shoulder, startling the hell out of me at least once a day. Fuck it. Let some numbskull chickie right out of high school have this job.

The book is still going slowly, but going. I'm seriously going to start working on another project, because I already know it's going to take forever to finish Trouble and Ruin, so I may as well work on something else as well - just so long as I don't stop working on T&R. If I ever do stop, I will cease work on everything else until it starts up again.

[later...] Ah HA! I did start my period. Now I feel crappy for real but at least I know why.

Got a great idea for Earned Run while walking to the IMU for lunch. Harmony (my hero) is going to either call or text the bad guy's phone to set off the umpire-scrambing virus, after the bad guys "win" by taking over the control room. They're also going to kill Harmon's boyfriend and shoot Hal the helpful programmer.

Pain

That was my weekend. It's hot out, I worked too hard on Saturday and hurt my back, and I wasn't good for Birdie this weekend. Did the tiniest amount of work on the book yesterday while soaking up some sun in the hammock. Friday I did get some writing done, but it's funny how when Cheryl is gone, ten million fucking people want my time. I always expect it to be quiet when she's not here - why don't I ever remember that's not what happens?

Not Too Shabby

I did about 650 words in a fifteen or twenty minutes up in 296, then ran out of steam. But then I got to work on the outline and fixed it up quite a bit. (Damn near made myself late for a six o'clock game.) Still haven't gone ahead in the plot and gotten it more detailed, but it's getting there. I do have the main bits, but it needs to be fleshed out, so to speak. I'm going to print out the "improved" outline and blue pen it today. I'm thinking I need to do some more hand writing for a while because it may be the spark that has gotten my juices going again.

This and That

A little of this, a little of that. Got some typing done to help save the scribbling, did a few words. I was into doing it, but it was busy all day. Same problem today. How is it that when Cheryl is gone I can't get any writing done because hordes of helpless people descend on my desk?

Got an interesting idea yesterday about a CGUS story, and expanded on it a bit today. I'm thinking of a story set in the Beta Colony (Bcol), of a module collector who rents the original AcolMod (A Colony Module) to a film making company who wants to do a movie about the stowaway. Of course, they have no interest in making it historically accurate (re: Oliver Stone), and then they find out the mod is WAY too small to work on, and it's falling apart from - essentially - radiation poisoning.

Hmmm....what kind of real or imagined conspiracy can be gotten from the stowaway? I need to let this one simmer longer.

Oh, and it occured to me that NAFTA and the Cerian Problem have a lot in common. Back to jstor.com to get a couple of articles. *grin* Why is the research the best part?

Kate's Back!

It was nice to have Kate come back, though bad for her. She's someone I completely trust talking about writing. She'll never make fun of me or try to bring me down, and will answer questions patiently. Yesterday she agreed that keeping the outline up to date is important.

The outline I printed the other day is now covered in blue pen. *g* I wrote some dialogue on it, too. Did some great re-writing yesterday as well, and a really bad thing happened.

I forgot that I was keeping the chapters separate. I started writing in the main text again, then went back to writing in the chapters files and WROTE OVER the main text with it. I haven't had the nerve to look at what damage I've done.

A Glimmer

Of hope that I WILL get this book done - despite not being satisfied with the title - was how many words I wrote yesterday. But I'm lost, so I really need to revisit the outline. I brought it with me from home so I can work on it, and I will do that today.

I'll be in 296 this afternoon, but Carol Kennedy is here, so I'll probably be working while I'm up there. Bummer.

Taking better care of myself. The enormous hemeroid flareup is pretty much over. Next time I'll have to go to the doctor because I'm out of medicine. Dammit. The back is slowly recovering, but it needs to be good by Thursday because I might be playing third base. The knee is way better than it was but man is it sore. I'm a wreck. But last night I did almost ten minutes on the treadmill, and this morning I lifted, stretched a bit and did some pilates. Though very overweight (still not near my worst weight, thank goodness) I'm in pretty good condition if you don't count the owies and injuries.

The Long Long Weekend

My back went out last week. Birdie and I spent Thursday at home, and I couldn't move on Friday. Missed two days of work and a softball game Friday night. That's the first time in ten years my back has done that. I haven't missed it.

No writing. I played Sims on Thursday and Friday I read Fevre Dream.

Saturday worked a bit in the garden and vacuumed, went to the ReStore and found some bargains. Vella's party that night and I had to leave early, after not being fit enough to play cornhole. Sunday worked at the house, but didn't get much done due to ladder avoidance. Then we went to Caesar's where I actually won a little bit of money.

Today I'm going to work on the outline, because I've completely gone away from it. The middle that I'm writing toward bears no relationship to the outline. It needs to simplify, for one thing, because my chapters are actually long enough to hold up having fewer of them. The story will be more simple than I expected. Parker is trying to get home, he finds Kelsey and rescues her, but then they don't trust each other and have problems on top of their problems because of it.

How about this for a title: Dead and Dangerous.

[afternoon] So, at about eleven o'clock I thought I would BRIEFLY work on the outline, but I ended up adding some good stuff to chapter three, concerning the first zombie Parker sees - the clerk in the scuba shop. Did about 650 words, working off and on for a little while. Ahhhh, that's better.

Possible Problem

I've been heating up on the CGUS novel again. Somehow, all the progress I've made on Trouble and Ruin have made me impatient to get to that one, the science fiction set in solar system colonies, possibly called "Common Heritage". Yesterday and today's research has concerned International Commerce Law, Space Law and The Law of the Sea. I've been reading about the 1967 treaty and the Moon Treaty, and, VERY importantly, an article written in 1917 about air space. I'm getting a really good idea about what the hell's going on politically, commercially, etc. in the novel - which of course I can't overty write about.

That's SO frustrating, to have to invest so much time and effort putting together FASCINATING stuff (to me and about five other geeks, anyway) and then using it only as a framework for the "real" book. People like Kim Stanley Robinson or Jerry Pournelle can get away with pages of exposition, but there's no way for me. Uh uh.

Yesterday I was upstairs and started chapter five, which for right now begins with Parker running out of the scuba shop and into even more trouble than he can imagine, being stuck in a small space with a zombie. But then Carol Kennedy wanted me to do some stuff, so I ended up with about three minutes to work. I managed 78 words. Sucks, but I keep telling myself, at least I'm still writing on it, and at least I still want to finish it. I'm now at 13,100 words, which is a typical length short story for someone like Elizabeth Moon.

Keepin On

Still working on it, though at a reduced rate. Considering how slowly I was working on it in the first place... *sigh*

Right now I'm cleaning up the beginning of chapter four, where Kelsey comes out of the shelter. I'm going to push on today, though, and maybe begin the work on either Parker rescuing/meeting Kelsey or introducing the preacher man. Today is 296, so I'll get some writing time.

TGIM

Thank goodness it's Monday. What a long, hard weekend, beginning with both of us being worn out on Friday and nixing out plans to go south and get a head start on the house Saturday morning. We did, however, manage to get up and out of the house in a fairly leisurely way by 8:00 Saturday, which is an hour quicker than normal. So we yard sale'd all the way down, got some cool stuff, and turned a two hour drive into a four hour drive. It was a beautiful day, though, and I got sun, a Millenium Falcon, a cool hat and a new blue bag. My mom had brought her phone and I got her all set up - she seemed really pleased, which is good. Then we settled into a very serious work session. I painted and painted and painted, after weed whacking then showering. It was REALLY hot, so we both suffered. Fortunately, Birdie had brought my ice packs, so I asked her to drive back for a while, which she did even though she didn't want to. We stopped for plants, so we have all the vegetables for the garden, and THEN we drove through a thunderstorm and stopped at Gayla's house to give Baby his IV. The lights wouldn't turn on when we went in. That must have been SOME storm. We did the whole thing by candlelight, wind-up flashlight and - the best light, surprisingly - my cell phone flashlight. *laugh* The only problem was that you have to keep holding down the button to keep that one on. But it was a great light. We got home about eleven, and I slept till almost 9:30. We took it easy till about one o'clock, then started working. I only got to mow for a while, then a quick shower made me quit, whereupon I went out to the garden to help Birdie and of course she yelled at me and I yelled back and we had a NASTY fight so I went in the house and got staggering drunk while ironing shirts. I feel like hell today. But I said something in the fight that really got to her - I told her I didn't want to be a verbal punching bag. She's been yelling at me lately, and half the time we fight she tells me to move out. I think I'm looking at the end of our relationship, and I'd better think about buying my own house.

You'll notice I didn't say a thing about writing. Nothing over the weekend, and some notes in the outline so far today. Parker is going to cement Kelsey's distrust of him by peering at her through the window of the car. He'll be concerned she may have died and become dangerous, and she will think he's checking her out at the most inappropriate time in the history of the world. Hopefully I can play it funny.

TGIF MAN!

Considering the fact the week started with a holiday, it's seemed to last forever. Been really quiet around the office and everyone has had problems not nodding off. I've gotten extremely little writing done, but I have been writing, which is a minor victory. That I'm still interested in finishing the book is a slightly larger victory.

Yesterday in 296 I wrote a little bit more on the Kelsey comes out of the shelter. I'm thinking of skipping on to the next chapter or so because I'm just not into that section right now. Probably what will happen is that I'll blue pencil that part quite a bit on the first revision. And I'm really looking forward to that...having pages and pages and pages and pages of text that I WROTE. Awesome.

Yeah, You Guessed It

I didn't do any writing yesterday, except for the little bit of blue pen revision at my desk.

[morning] Right now I'm so completely dissatisfied with my life, with my bum knees and softball going away, the house dragging us down so thoroughly, money always an issue, and just a general malaise. Mind you, I remind myself constantly that I've got a damned good life, but I still dwell on the negatives. One of the negatives right now is that I'm not writing every day.

[afternoon] I wrote for a few minutes right after lunch, but was interrupted. Still, I suddenly got a better idea of how the killing Grandma Opal chapter starts. I kept the first sentence, which was pretty cool, and now I'm going with Kelsey and her feelings more, and describing what's going on rather than expecting the audience to just "know". Duh.