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.