The whiny story of slogging through writing my first novel.

Friday, August 31, 2007

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.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

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.

Monday, August 27, 2007

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.

Friday, August 24, 2007

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.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

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.

Monday, August 20, 2007

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.

Friday, August 17, 2007

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.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

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.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

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, August 13, 2007

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.

Thursday, August 9, 2007

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.

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

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.