In case you were worried

I finished the detour chapter and things are pretty much back on track, albeit far richer for the coming-to-life the characters have recently displayed. Shann and Taafa are back in each other's company, relationship somewhat bruised. That's as it should be. You can't let things get too easy for them this early in the book (30K), or what's left to write about?

Yesterday at work it took me awhile to get into writing mode, my sub-conscious seemed to need a bit more time to deal with the character problems. I had a good writing blitz just after lunch, and then the customers started rolling in. It was quite an Untypical Friday afternoon. I wound up closing the file and emailing it home, unfinished. I couldn't leave off in the middle of that emotional scene, however, so I finished it up last night and this morning.f

The rest of today I have been domestic queen again, baking bread, canning dry beans, cleaning my house (and HOW that needed doing...), then some yard work which my elbow does not thank me for. However, if I don't do it, it won't get done, so I'll keep poking at it a bit at a time. Hubby had to work today, which makes something like 60 hours this week. He has to work tomorrow too :( but hopes he is nearing the end of this blitz. I know he is about out of energy. So I'll keep doing what I can of the yard and farm work to take some of the load off of him. When you run out of energy cells, they're gone.

progress...

I didn't have a lot of time to write today, though I did get a short scene down, and some sort of plan made. It's going to be at least another thousand words or two before Shann and Taafa meet again, and I have a few *worse* things thought up for them in the meantime so that once they find each other, they'll have to stick it out for a bit. And it will serve them right, too, for throwing me such a curve ball.

I spent the morning working out a powerpoint file for the interdenominational praise service tonight. Somehow I got shanghaied into running the computer. I've set the powerpoints up lots of times for our own worship team, but then I run sound and my nephew runs the computer. Anyway, this team moves all over the place, and some of the songs I'm only marginally familiar with, so that added some extra tension to the situation. The real excitment came when the laptop battery died, the person who set it up having forgotten to plug it in. And no that wasn't me, it's not my computer and I've never played with a Mac before either. Thankfully my friend (who had a choral dress rehearsal tonight)'s husband was right there and sprang into action, immediately realizing what had happened. I guess most of the people knew that song well enough anyway, they kept singing. That was early enough in the service to keep my tension pretty high for the whole thing. Anita can have it back next week, thank you very much. It's a little hard to worship when you're concentrating so hard your fingers are trembling and your eyes are bugging. Yeah, I'm sure it's just me. Put me behind the sound board any day. THAT I can deal with and worship at the same time. Wow I'm tired now that it's done.

Blogger hates me so bad that I could neither post this in the evening when I wrote it, OR this morning before I went to work. Yipes.

Character woes

I came across a little snag in my novel today. I discovered that the man I created, Shann, ran out of patience before I thought he would. When he'd had enough of Taafa, and left her stranded on the side of a mountain (after all, she could SEE the city from there and should be safe enough), it was actually quite in character. The problem? It wasn't in the outline. In fact, if I let the new story line diverge here in the direction it seems to want to go, it won't be the story I had intended to write. At all. I spent a while walking laps around the store, trying to figure out what will happen next, then wrote another scene and got Taafa into even more trouble. Now it's really messed up. Tomorrow I'm going to have to dredge a new channel from where we have ended up to where we need to go, and see if I can get Shann and Taafa to cooperate.

This is all in case you thought that having an outline would take all the fun out of writing. This kind of veering happens to me all the time, and it's reassuring to me when it does. Yes, even when I complain. It was a serious concern to me when I started my second novel that I had outlined all the creativity out. Now I find that seriously funny, as I wouldn't dream of writing from that sketchy an outline again, but then it seemed so over-the-top locked in.

So I expect that at some time tomorrow I'll find a way to get Shann and Taafa in the same room again, and perhaps even talking to each other. At some point, they're going to have to. Otherwise I will need to carve a new path to a completely unknown destination. Who knows? Maybe that's where we really want to go, but I don't think so.

On writing and reading

I think I work better when I have only one project to work on, but I'm wondering. Is that right? *Marks of Repentance* should be getting all my attention these days, then. My other novels are waiting patiently in the wings for their turn at revisions. And I simply don't do shorts.

So what have I been doing the past couple of days? Well, I HAVE added nearly 3K to Shann's story, so that's all right. But I've also written half that much in assorted other materials. I guess that's part of the deal of being a moderator over at Forward Motion. When things need doing, we're the front row, and that's as it should be. So not only has Mar roped me into writing website reviews for Vision Ezine for Writers, but I'm writing a class on subplots for the main site. Hey, I've got to put my recent illumination from the movie The Incredibles to good use one way or another! This also gives me a good excuse to watch the movie again soon. All in the name of research of course. :)

I have just finished reading Black by Ted Dekker. There's been a discussion recently at FM about the place of dreams in fiction, and for the most part, it's been agreed that dreams are a Bad Thing. Ted Dekker believes not. I should clarify that by saying that the dreams are not exactly the every-night variety. His main character, Tom Hunter, somehow gets mixed up in a parallel universe. When he falls asleep, he wakes up over there. When he falls asleep over there, he wakes up here. This cycle repeats itself throughout the whole novel (first of a trilogy). You're right, he doesn't get much rest! Critical things are happening in both universes, and he is key to both. What he learns in one is vital to the other, and vice versa. But he goes the longest time trying to figure out which one is real, and which one is the dream. He never figures it out.

As a writer, it seems an odd way to write a book. Dekker is a well-acclaimed author, and this is not his first book, both of which may help. If you've ever read a similar book, I'd be interested to know about it. It's not a technique I see myself using any time in the foreseeable future, but I found it quite interesting all the same.

Domestic Day

You want domestic? HERE'S domestic! Friday night before I went to bed, I got out both my canners. Into one I plunked two frozen stewing chickens (from the guy from whom we buy eggs) and into the other, a bag of frozen beef bones. I put a couple gallons of water over each, set them on my stove, and turned them on high. An hour or so later they still had not boiled (go figure) so I turned them on low and went to bed. Turned them off in the morning.

A couple of hours later they had cooled enough to handle, and I spent a couple of hours picking meat out of the bones and fat (which the outside vultures...er, CATS are thoroughly enjoying), and then started turning the remains into soup. I canned 14 quart jars of chicken soup (no veggies, but seasoned right to add noodles, veggies whatever when serving time comes). I canned 7 quart jars of beef soup base in a similar way, and then an additional 14 jars of beef SOUP, pinto beans and veggies included. I still have a couple of packages of beef bones in the deep freeze that I'd like to deal with, but I discover that I am out of quart jars. I have lots in the cellar filled with pickles, tomatoes, and fruit, but I did think I had more than this.


The work of one day 

It is so handy to be able to pop open a jar of soup for weekday lunches, or on a weekend camping trip over the summer. And it's especially nice having a few varieties. (I still have a couple of jars of clam chowder, borscht, and a different variety of beef veg soup in the cellar, but we were getting low.) And besides, my kids always like a taste of home.

It's a good thing it was cold and rainy again this weekend, or this wouldn't have gotten done. There is a ton of yard work that needs doing whenever it dries up/warms up enough to get started.

Such is life for the farm-dwelling, cooking from scratch kind of person. And you eat the tasteless stuff out of cans? Bah...

a week of Madness...

Sometimes I feel Jean's pain with Blogger. I just wrote out a nice post, and Blogger ate it before it could go up. Bad Blogger, no doughnut. But what does it want doughnuts for, anyway? It gets to eat nummy blog posts. Grr.

(Edited to add: Thanks to Katie for the heads-up, and apologies to anyone else who suffered through FOUR versions of this post. Apparently I made blogger have indigestion, and it recanted all its ERROR messages and regurgitated the posts. I have now done some deleting... Oh, and Jean, if you're reading this, I haven't been able to comment over at your place the last few times I've tried, either. So maybe it's not JUST blogger!)

Okay, the novel now stands at just over 21K (average of 3K a day for a week). I'm really liking the story still -- good news, eh? I could never have managed this pace with *False Perceptions*. I don't know whether that's good, bad, or indifferent, but it's a fact all the same. Maybe some day we'll get a professional opinion on which is the stronger story, but it's also possible I'll get no nibbles on either one. At any rate, it will be half a year at the least before either is ready to go out into the big world to seek its fortune.

I heard from Jim just before I left work at five that he had been called out on a service call an hour's drive out of town. I was smart enough to go through the A&W drive-through on the way home. It took me 55 minutes to do the chores by myself. The majority of the cows are in a pasture adjoining the haystack area, so for them I hauled bales over to the barbed wire fence (on my wheelbarrow!), broke the bales, and flipped the parts over. But I still needed five bales onto the atv trailer, and getting them over/under/through the fence was an entertainment not good for either my elbow or my shoulder. But I didn't get the atv stuck today (that was yesterday) so all was good, in the end. All the mooies have been fed and accounted for.

Tonight was the third weekly interdenominational praise night (which, as you may have noticed, Jim missed...) They are scheduled for eight weeks total, and I already know I am going to seriously miss them when they end. The band is made of musicians from various churches, and they are pretty tight considering. These evenings have provided much needed refreshment in my life.

Can I keep this up one more day?

I never thought that *Marks of Repentance* (aka: Shann) would get this kind of a kick start in its first week. Things just clicked today, and I wound up with a total of nearly 4K, bringing the total to date to a spit shy of 18K. I might as well go for the 21K pip at Forward Motion after all, don't you think? I just need a tad over 3K tomorrow, so if the customers and the characters all are agreeable, it should be a possibility.

The characters took the bit a few times today, but I managed to keep them turned in at least the general direction of the outline. I have to admit that it caught me off guard when Taafa and her cousin Nadiia had a shouting match in the courtyard, though. Poor Shann; I think it embarrassed him. I totally did not see this fight coming; I'd thought the cousins got along really well. Maybe they do. Even in the best of relationships there are squabbles at times. By both word count and scene count, I'm about a sixth of the way into the story. That does NOT mean I'll be done first draft in another five weeks, though. To say that continuing the pace would give me a major headache would be an understatement. I would like to know how the Sheila's and the Zette's of this world do those kind of numbers day after day, month after month, year after year. (Though I understand that Zette has had to slow down a bit in the past couple months).

Is there life outside writing? Barely, this week, although we did have worship team practice tonight, and tomorrow evening is the interdenominational worship service at the rec center. But mostly it's just write write answer-the-phone write.

For what it's worth...

I went to Curves this morning and finally could do the whole circuit again. Whatever has been the deal with my elbow has lessened off somewhat. I can still feel the discomfort, but the pain is gone. Hallelujah.

My in-laws upgraded their computer monitor to a flat screen, and didn't know what to do with their old 17" *regular* monitor. WooHoo!!! With the tower I picked up for fifty bucks two years ago I have been using the 14" monitor that came with our first computer, a 486 from 1992. It's been wavering between pastel pink and nearly purple for at least half that time. So now the old monitor is in the dumpster, and I am happily looking at a WHITE background, HUGE screen (well, yes, I have one this size at home, but still...) Me happy.

More words!

It's been easier to justify all the writing I've done this weekend with the fact that it has been pouring cats and dogs. It certainly wasn't conducive to yard work or anything like that.

I believe this was the first Easter sunday in our history where we didn't go to church. Jim had been up til past one Saturday night finishing the drawer glides, which didn't want to run smoothly, and by Sunday morning we were so low on water in the cistern from two days of NOT hauling, that he had to get a load. It was the oddest feeling. In the meanwhile I put the second coat of sealer on the drawers and began the move-in. *Nice, happy drawers*. (We've got a stack of t&g pine that we plan to use for drawer fronts and doors, but that's the next phase. We need to lay in a supply of hinges and knobs before we go and get all carried away with that.)

Later in the afternoon we went over to one of Jim's sis's homes for dinner, which is always fun. At least that part was normal for Easter.

Today Jim went back to work, and I still had time off, so I hooked up with Mar and others writing online and went for words again. Over the four day weekend my novel has grown from zero words to over twelve thousand. March Madness is still on at Forward Motion till the end of the month, and I'm hoping to keep the daily average up for the next few days before being quite thankful for half that much, five days a week again. Meanwhile, I am comfortable in the story and am past the dreaded opening scenes and into the early middle. Yay me...

Behold the transformation!

Before 


After 

Of words and drawers

Ten o'clock in the evening, and I'm exhausted. For starters, some very nice person got the wrong number at 2:20 am, and was convinced for five minutes that they did, indeed want to talk to us. Jim hadn't been asleep long enough at that point, and neither of us found it easy to go back TO sleep. He had to be in town by seven thirty to help a friend move.

I could have gone back to sleep at that time, and I must admit I was very tempted to. But I'd kind of half made a deal with Mar last night for some more synchronized writing, so I rolled out of bed and hit the shower so I'd be ready for my writing stint. I got just over 2K over the morning write/run before Jim got home, and Mar had to head out for HER day, so I'm pleased with the effort.

For the rest of the day it's been back and forth between the computer and the drawer building expedition with one trip to town for 1/4" plywood (drawer bottoms) and screws thrown in for good measure. As a dual purpose day, it went very well. I added a further 1600ish words for a two day total of 7506. Taafa is just about to figure out that she said the wrong thing in front of the wrong person, and there will be only one way out if she wants to keep her skin intact. She's fond of her skin, but she's already thinking of ways to flip this situation and land on her feet. Her thoughts are pretty basic and are founded on how nice she thinks her skin is. Her writer's thoughts are much more devious. I happen to know it is going to take her another 100K or so to land on those aforementioned feet, and there will be times she very much regrets her impulsive words that triggered the mess. Oh, Shann? For some reason, he's been fairly willing to let ladies go first. Although he is certainly IN the story and has had several pov scenes, the bulk of the story so far has been from Taafa's pov. I think it will balance much more evenly once they officially meet in the scene after this one. At least, I think so.

At the moment there are four lovely plywood boxes on my kitchen table and countertop, drying from the first application of clear sealing finish. They have been carefully and lovingly built to fit into a particular section of lower *cabinetry*. One more clear coat, and it will (theoretically) be only a minor job to mount the drawer glides and my kitchen will be in business.

The next time you go in your kitchen and pull out your cutlery drawer to grab a spoon or fork, please think about what a wonder of technology such a drawer is. I have lived for four and a half years without one, and tomorrow some time I greatly look forward to sliding that drawer in and out, in and out. It is one of the many unsung pleasures of life, but it will take me awhile before I start taking it for granted. At least a week, I should think.

AND...we're off :)

After completing the store pricing yesterday, which I see I forgot to mention then, I was able to get a good start to *Marks of Repentance* today.

I wrote online today, mostly with Mar when we both had time, and pulled Shann's story from zero words to 3902. I am SO tired...but it feels good. That first chapter is always tough, even though you know you can--you will--you MUST--revise it later. There's just so much that has to go in, and yet the last thing you need is an info-dump. Anyway, if it isn't written, it can't be revised. So at least I'm free of THAT problem, as the story is well under way by now.

Jim got a good start on building four drawers for the kitchen cabinets today. You don't even want to know how a person functions in a kitchen for YEARS without drawers at all. Okay, I did install a couple of wimpy wire basket ones we got for free a few years ago, but they hardly count. We do need a few more supplies we can pick up in the morning, and then he's back to the sawing and gluing and other fun stuff, and I'll see if there are more words in me wanting to come out.

WORK

Occasionally at work I actually WORK. I know this comes as a shock to some of my faithful readers, but it's true. In return for paying me, sometimes I need to do some pricing maintenance for my guys. Today I worked my way through almost all of the pricing guide of our major supplier. It's entiredly possible I'll be able to finish the other sections tomorrow; it's almost only ceramic tile left to double check, and I think one of the companies hasn't had an increase in recent memory. I did discover that I must have missed the commercial carpets last time I did this, though; there were some significant changes in that area. It's not an area that gets a lot of traffic, which is why no one noticed. I'll be glad when I have this out of my hair again, and can turn guilt-free to Mark of Repentance.

I've been playing out the opening scene for the book in my mind, trying to discover the way to lead into the story that provides both a glimpse of the world and a solid introduction to the conflict right at the beginning.

Here's the opening line of *Black* by Ted Dekker: "It all started one day earlier with a single silenced bullet out of nowhere." That leaves a couple of questions that beg an answer, doesn't it? There's certainly conflict. As an opening line, it is savorable. I'm on a hunt for my own opening line. Silenced guns aren't a big thing in my fantasy world, and there certainly isn't one going off right at the beginning. Or in the middle or the end, for that matter. Instead, I have a man alone with a ritually scarred face demanding to a foreign king that the king surrender. And then he walks away. And doesn't get killed. Lots to fit into that scene, for sure. And I hope it will beg many questions that my readers will want to find answers for.

At least it gives me something to think about besides price checks!

A different day

You know, a lot of days are just like any other day. Oh, they have minor variations to be sure, but within well-defined parameters. Today is not being one of them.

I went to Curves this morning. It was still a bad idea. I still had to skip about four of the machines, and use two of them one handed, which they're NOT designed for. And YES my elbow is sorer than it was earlier. This is driving me crazy. How can a person injure an elbow and not even know about it? How can an elbow feel this much better and still hurt this much? Like, I feel stupid going to the doctor NOW, but...what's wrong with it? (Throwing hay bales every night after work isn't helping either, guaranteed, but Jim hurt his back on the weekend, so we're gimping it out together.)

Anyway, back to the story. I'm at Curves, sitting on the bench and putting my street shoes back on, and I glance out the window to see the hugest plume of black smoke. Something is quite obviously on fire, and not that far away. Traffic looks normal, though. I glance at the clock and see that I have time to spare to walk *the long way around* to work.

A seniors' 4-storey strata apartment building is on fire, right next to the nursing home. I know two of the people who live in the strata, one of my bosses' mothers-in-law, and a fellow whose flooring we've recently re-done. I know the mom is currently in hospital from a bad fall, which seems suddenly to be a good thing. And the old fellow I know comes across the street looking like he's seen a ghost. His is a ground floor apartment, and he says at the very best the place will be flooded with water damage. That didn't look true for quite awhile, though. Why does it take so very long for the fire department to get hoses going when they're right there already?

After awhile I decided that I really ought to go to work, that eventually somebody might want in the store, so I cut through the alley and...met my bosses. They'd seen the smoke from where they were working across town and thought it looked close to the store, so had come to investigate. So I walked back over to the fire with them while they talked to the people that they knew. Anyway, I got to work kinda late in the end.

So far today I have finished reading Holly's *Vincalis the Agitator*, which makes me want to re-read the Secret Texts trilogy to pick up on the foreshadowing type stuff in it. It's been a couple of years since I read them.

I actually have gotten a start on the pricing guides for the store, but I'm not too big on re-arranging the samples and stuff; my elbow hurts. Soon I'm going to have pain on the right side from favoring the left.

At noon I drove past the strata (or at least close enough to see). The fire is out. The building is still standing, but has no roof and looks plenty warped. Everyone who lived in the building is accounted for. The nursing home was evacuated to the rec center eight or nine blocks away; I imagine they're back home by now, unless there is water damage on the side of the building nearest the strata.

Outlining

It seems about as hard to gear DOWN from writing as it does to gear UP. I did a fair bit of store work today, I guess, but I couldn't stay away from my story. Shann has become *Mark of Repentance* -- we'll see how long that lasts for a working title. I also tweaked the outline some more. Now it's at 62 scenes and is tighter in a couple of spots that needed it. (Not that I can remember yet what brainwave I had after lights out the other night.) More attention to pacing will doubtless still be a good thing. I've also updated the WIP link on the sidebar in case you're interested.

*Incredible* subplot lessons

It was a windy, cold, and snowy weekend, the perfect weekend for indoor pursuits. On Saturday I sewed a new comforter cover and pillowcases that I'd had the material for since November. I'd sort of been waiting until I got the new flooring and had the room gutted anyway for painting and flooring, but...I wanted the new look already. It doesn't *clash* with the current walls and carpet, but it doesn't look great either! Our sales reps want the guys to change a large section of demo floor at the store to something that is currently available, and I'm welcome to take home the *old* click laminate from that area. It's been in the store for two years and is in great shape. Only the really big question is WHEN the guys will have time to replace the store floor when they are so very busy? So, yeah. New look: started.

I also began scrapbooking our September trip to Vancouver Island. I've only had the scrapbook desk set up since January, so don't look at me that way. The hard part, apparently, is STARTING. I'm pleased with the eight or ten pages I've gotten done thus far.

Sunday after church Jim decided we needed to buy The Incredibles. So we watched it Sunday afternoon, went to his sister and brother-in-law's for supper and watched it again at their place with their two teen boys. It gave me some time to analyze the storyline (grin) and learn. If you've watched the movie, I'd be interested in your input. If you haven't, you may want to skip the rest of this post. Either you WANT to see it, and this will contain spoilers, or you DON'T want to, in which case you'll be bored silly.

Jean commented a few days ago that having trouble spotting subplots might be a good thing, meaning that they're so well interwoven into the main story line that they don't stand out. I have suspected all along, though, that it might require a different colored pair of glasses to see subplots. So I had a *duuh* moment (hour) with The Incredibles. So many subplots! The resolving of Bob and Helen's marriage problems is a subplot. Ditto Violet's shyness (characterized both by her relationship with Tony and by her hair, both resolved). Ditto Dash's learning the appropriate use of his powers (from a kid who puts tacks on his teacher's chair to a kid who figures out how to come in second in a race). Ditto Jack-Jack's having no special powers to figuring out what his are. Ditto Edna's search for the perfect material for super-suits, which includes the tiny subplot regarding why you should not have a cape on a super-suit. Ditto Mirage's recognition of Buddy's evilness and decision to help the Incredibles escape. Even the babysitter had her own subplot, from calm, cool and collected to frazzled beyond belief with Jack-Jack, to willingly giving the baby to the first person to walk in the door. Maybe the littlest subplot had to do with the neighbor kid on the tricycle, who kept sitting in their driveway to see what amazing thing would happen next. There are literally dozens of subplots woven together to create this super incredible movie. Could the movie have been done without all of these subplots? Certainly. Any one, two, or three of them could have been eliminated. The kid on the trike, for instance, adds NOTHING to the main story (except a little wow factor). But you couldn't have eliminated very many before the story would have begun to unravel. It would certainly have been a much less rich experience.

And without Violet's and Dash's subplots, how could this family have learned to work together (the main theme, I think), instead of Bob (Mr. Incredible) continuing to work alone? Many of the subs were necessary to the eventual outcome, but were still not, in and of themselves, the main plot.

For those of you who have wondered about my inability to understand subplots, I think you can relax now. I finally had on the right pair of glasses (incredible ones) to see the underworkings of the plot. Does that mean that the weaving wasn't tight enough? I don't think so. I think I was finally able to SEE, and it all fell into place. Hopefully it will prove to be like learning to ride a bicycle; once you know, you never forget how.

The dvd *extras*, such as the alternate opening scene were also fascinating from a writer's point of view (yes, we also watched THOSE twice). The director knew the story he wanted to tell, but played with different ways to get to it. What would set up the action in the best way? Also good lessons in how to eliminate unnecessary characters. And I haven't even touched the pacing of the story line, the lulls, the build-ups, the climax, the heroes thinking they've won and then finding the villain has the baby... So much more meat for study. Believe it or not, I could watch it again...

I feel like I spent hours yesterday in a writer's workshop! Good stuff. I recommend the movie, in case you haven't figured that out.

YAAAY

This morning when I looked out the window there were about twenty or more robins in the lilac bush (looking as annoyed as robins can get--scary, that...). Annoyed at what, you say? How about the snow covering the ground? It was quite a sight, actually. We had several inches, and then most of it melted by noon. If that was the worst kick-back we're getting out of winter, it's not so bad. We didn't even manage slick roads out of it.

But, I digress. Today has REAL NEWS. Today is the day we have all been waiting for. Today is the day that I make an announcement. Ready? I finished first draft of my 2-year novel, False Perceptions. It came in at about 84K, which is my longest first draft to date. I'll be able to add 10-20K easily enough by setting scenes better (description is something I really gloss over in first draft; *I* can see it, why can't you?) and then there are those subplots that I need to search out and tie off. I can think of several right off the top.

Friday afternoon. Ah. It will be nice to think about something else for a while.

soooooooo cloooooooooooose.........

It was looking hopeful there for awhile this morning. I wrote over 1800 words and I'm somewhere in the midst of the final chapter. Does that not sound like the perfect time for a peripheral migraine? Writing is not worth the headache. Not worth the chance of pushing it into a full scale one. I closed the file, turned some of the lights on low in the back corner of the store, and stared at the backs of my eyelids. I did NOT nap, honest!!

I can think of a couple of subplots that I did not wrap up adequately, back a chapter or two when I should have. I'll make notes and catch those in revision. For now, I'm just going to glory in the fact that I recognized some of the subplots in the book at all. Have I mentioned that I have a lot of trouble figuring out subplots? My book or your book, doesn't matter. It seems like they're invisible to the naked eye. Anyway, this story has some (yay!) and I haven't tied them up right (not so yay). However, it is progress.

Forward Ho!

One more calf yesterday; now we're up to 14 out of the expected 18. We haven't tagged this one yet, so don't know which gender the cutie-pie is. With the 13 we were at 7 heifers and 6 bulls.

Late last week (before my fight with the cow) I pulled a muscle or tendon in my left elbow. It's been causing a fair bit of pain when I try to lift anything with my left hand. (Thankfully it hasn't affected my typing comfort or speed.) Just in the past couple of days it's felt a little better so I tried Curves this morning, thinking that I might have to pass by one or two of the machines. Bad idea. Really bad idea, actually. That's all they'll see of me this week, I'm thinking. Hopefully by Monday it will have receded. The really odd thing is that I have no idea how I injured the elbow. I hate when that happens.

*False Perceptions* is zinging right along at over 2K today. And I might have been right. This might be the second last chapter after all. Suddenly things are getting more condensed, which may be an okay thing. Maybe, just maybe, I'll get first draft done this week. What a relief that will be. I'm looking forward to several FP-free months. After that I'll be in a better position to decide on the quality of the story.

Got one more crit out the door today, but there's still one in the line-up. This one doesn't have a rush on it, so I may leave it until next week. My main goal the rest of this week will be to get the 2ynovel done.

Not that I've remembered yet whatever it was in Shann plot points that I thought of late the other night. I'm trying really hard not to obsess about that. Grr.

As promised...

Mick Silva is hosting this month's celebration at his blog My Writers Group. There are quite a few links to various blogs, folks discussing aspects of Christian writing. Check it out if you're interested.

Another decent writing day on the home front, another 1300-plus words to finish a difficult, draining chapter. Somehow, I still think that I have three left to write, which is strange. It's what I thought after the last one... Still, at some point it has to be true, doesn't it?

I spent a couple of hours today actually earning my keep at work. When things cave in, they often do so in a big way. Three separate suppliers' orders got screwed up this week, how ya figure that? We'll see tomorrow if the dust has all settled. Some of it my guys will have to pay for, but one of the suppliers will have to kick in a fair chunk for shipping.

Last night after I went to bed (way too late...) and was nearly asleep, I thought of some plot twists for *Shann*. Being too far gone to reach for the lamp, notebook, and pen, I told myself that this was so obvious I couldn't possibly forget it, because it will naturally arise out of the story. Jeepers, I hope so. Can't for the life of me figure out what part of the story, though. Or what it was. Or what was so ground-breaking at one a.m. Or...

Progress...

Weekends are always so busy that I struggle to stay awake Mondays at work. I got plenty of sleep last night, too. There were a few customers in the morning, but the afternoon was fairly quiet.

I managed about 1500 words of *False Perceptions*. I'm in a confusing spot, because as I was writing, I realized another scene should come first, so I started on that one. So now I've got two partially done bits.

I had planned to do a crit this aft (I have two in the wings) but just couldn't deal with it. Too, too tired to make sense. So I poked and massaged the *Shann* outline some more, and I'm up to 59 scenes. I've even found some places to add conflict that don't require anyone getting captured and escaping yet again (Jean will be glad to know...) I'm about half way through the outline massage, and I know of a couple more places that are looking a little thin, so I'm hopeful to have a decent lengthed outline to start with. Getting closer...

Tomorrow is the second monthly Celebration of New Christian Fiction. If you had a look around last time, you might enjoy this one as well. I'll post the info in the morning, when I get it all. I think there are more bloggers participating this time than last.

Calves on Saturday morning

Of course Jim was away for the day on Saturday, when I discovered that two of the cows were in labor. Should be no big deal, I figure. I grab the digital camera. The farthest along is Molly. It will be her second calf.


Here the front hooves are just starting to show 


The calf being birthed. 

And it wasn't a big deal, until after the first birth, when the OTHER cow in labor decided how nice it was that she'd already given birth but didn't remember. She wouldn't let Molly anywhere near her own calf, and Molly, being new to this whole procedure, backed off. Not so me.


All was well until the old auntie biddy came snooping around 

I put down the camera and spent twenty minutes duking it out with the old cow. We circled around that baby dozens of times, me punching her on the side of the nose every time she leaned down to lick the calf. Finally I got her circling farther from the calf, allowing Molly back in there. With a LOT of help from God (yes, He DOES care about stuff like this), I managed to get the older cow clear down to the other end of the pasture and somehow locked up into the calving pen BY MYSELF (except...remember God?). That's probably an eighth of a mile. I have NEVER been good at moving cows. But like the Visa credit card commercial says, I was everywhere she wanted to be. When I got back, this is what I saw:



Mom and baby doing well. 

The old cow gave birth about an hour later.

We are now at thirteen calves, and about ready to go tag the two babies and turn them loose with the other moms and babies. They're well bonded with each other by now.

Winding up the Work Week

Between yesterday and today, *False Perceptions* has grown by just over 3K. It's feeling good, emotional and tense. I've remapped my way to the finish line, which is just three chapters away now (I think, unless I find a new map). The map was good; it outlined what needed to happen to get to my HEA ending. The same stuff is still happening; just we're cutting the technical bits and sticking closer to the characters than the plot. I think it's working. Obviously I can't totally dispense with the technical bits, but I think this approach is working better. It's about the characters, and they have some huge stuff to resolve -- the stuff that the plot keeps hucking at them. I'm way happier than I ever thought I would be writing this book. I wonder if there's places *back there* where I got balled up last time that needed this approach as well?

Still frantically busy at work. My boss is starting to mumble about locking the store doors for a week so that there will be no new stuff to deal with for awhile. Three new lookers today, and one gal who ordered her lino in October is ready (!) for installation next week. Good luck, lady. It just ain't ahappenin'.

Why a critique group? What's in it for me?

What benefits are there to a good online critique group? While I don't have vast experience with these circles myself (or with their sisters, the walk-in crit groups), I think different people expect different things when they hear the term.

Not every writer needs or desires a team approach. I know several fine writers who write, polish, and submit without any other eyes looking over their manuscripts. Some of them sell stories and books, too. It's a sound way to do things.

My understanding of many published writers (alas, I am not yet in a position to know this for myself...) is that their agent and editor act as a crit group for them. The writer pitches an idea, and the agent may suggest changes. The writer writes the story; the editor suggests changes. And the line editor will go through every sentence with a fine-tooth comb. Etc.

Some folks may think that a bunch of unpublished writers have nothing valid to offer each other: what do these unwashed writers actually KNOW, what expertise do they actually HAVE that another writer should listen to them? I firmly believe that we have much to offer each other.

These are specific areas that we can help each other with. Complex worldbuilding can use an extra set (or more) of eyes. Sometimes when I am neck deep into building a backdrop I don't see the inconsistencies I've created. I've been at it for weeks, eating and drinking it, sleeping and dreaming it, and I can't see the forest for the trees.

I also appreciate comments on the plot outline before I start to write, for the same reason. Sometimes I think a character will do one thing when it is obviously not in his character to do it, or it is not consistent with the worldbuilding. Is it just sloppy plotting on my part? Maybe. But it is hard to think of everything when *everything* is so all-encompassing. Someone with a narrower field of view can zero in on potential difficulties more readily.

As I critique another writer's work, I come to understand some of the flaws in my own work reflected in theirs. Perhaps their villain's actions don't seem logical. And as this makes me think of my own villains, I begin to see similar problems, and possibly ways to solve them.

Some groups require each writer to submit a certain number of pages each week for critique. To my lopsided way of thinking, that may not be useful. My preference is to push my way through the entire first draft without formal feedback, with few exceptions. In one story I wrote, I had a child nearly drown. I submitted that particular scene to a lifeguard for review before going on. I needed to know it was valid, the way I saw it in my head.

After the first draft is complete, I think it should rest a bit, if possible. Go do something else: write another first draft, plot out a new novel, or revise an earlier work before coming back to it. When you think you've gotten the bulk of the tweaking done, that's when I think new eyes can be helpful once again. Line edits may be useful here, but maybe the story isn't ready for them. I wasted several people's time when I asked them for line edits, but the story had more fundamental problems that needed addressing. Don't waste time on line edits when vast paragraphs or even chapters need to be ripped out and rewritten.

Should writers in a group be jealous of another writer's more advanced skills? No. When that writer sells, it benefits the whole group. They all stand to gain much information and encouragement from it. Should a more experienced writer look down on those who have less skill? No, not if they're willing to work on their craft. A little mentorship can go a long way. Every writer's learning curve is different, but I believe it is valuable to give a helping hand where needed, as much as I am thankful to those who reach down and give me the same.

If you sell a book, does that narrow the market for me? Not really. Maybe this particular publisher now has a full list for this quarter, but the real problem is not how many books are available, but how few people are readers. Support the industry: give books as gifts whenever you can! Help turn your kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews into lifelong readers.

Is there a difference between Christian crit groups and *regular* ones? Yes and no, with emphasis on both.

There is no difference. Both should hold up the highest standards of the craft to each other. Both should treat each other with respect, encouraging and cajoling one another to meet their goals.

There is a difference. A group of Christians who band together in such a way has the added benefit of a more focused goal, that of glorifying God through their stories. They also pledge to pray for one another through the journey, sharing and supporting one another at a deeper level.

Is this view of critique groups *the last word*? No, not at all. It is simply my personal viewpoint; what works for me. There are a few other people who share this vision with me, and we have formed a small group. Others are considering joining us. While many have certainly traveled the road alone, and reached their destination, others may falter or lose their way at an unmarked crossroad.

Share the burden. Share the joy.

Rusted wheels

The wheels were rusted and squeaky. It took a great deal of effort to get them turning. Several shots of oil were required where various gears interlocked. In the end, though, the wheels did turn.

And *False Perceptions* is 1088 words longer than it was yesterday. I re-read the last few chapters to set the scene, being as I've been ignoring the story for about a month now. The chapters did not stink as badly as I thought they did. They are not prize-winning prose, either, but the story is better than I remembered. That can only be a Good Thing, right?

The rest of the day got divided up (not very evenly) between customers, worship team planning (we got bumped forward a week), starting to draw a map for Nuumour's capital city (Shann), and getting first draft done for a crit. I always like to let a crit sit overnight when I can. I'm more likely to catch things that don't make sense or come across harsh if I can see it with a fresh eye.

Busy busy busy. I guess that's how things are going to be this spring. At least the time will go fast.

Some folks will do anything to keep from writing.

Today, however, it required a two-pronged approach. First, customers are always good for that kind of procrastination, and today they produced for me in a big way. Most of them found it hard to believe they'd have to wait at least two months before the guys could come replace their flooring. But only one person actually said she couldn't wait that long, sorry. I set up three new measures for the guys to do. We have three entire brand new houses between now and freedom, and by then there will be more stuff. The usual spring rush is just now starting.

My second approach was in fielding emails to and from folks interested in joining the Christian sff crit group that I'm involved in. When I posted openings, I didn't expect quite so much attention. If everyone who asked for initial information today responds again and wants to take the process a step further, I'll have a fair bit of critting to do as well. All in a good cause, though. We need more brains to bounce ideas off of, and are perfectly willing to bounce other people's ideas too. And if you are reading this as one of those applicants, don't worry, I didn't get SO MANY that we're turning folks away on that account. We'd be full, though!

Have you heard this before? Tomorrow I MUST get back to work on my novel.

Inspiration is elusive

In an effort to regain enthusiam for my stalled 2ynovel, *False Perceptions* I re-read the entire progress thread at Forward Motion. This progress thread is where I posted the various assignments in response to the classes, and where folks (bless you all) could comment, encourage, question, or pick apart the various aspects. It was a very valuable process, and something I've missed (on that massive scale) during the planning of *Shann*. Reading through the thread took several hours. I wish I could say that my enthusiasm for the story was re-kindled and is burning brightly once again. Instead, I see instance after instance where I had difficulties capturing parts of the story. Times when I just couldn't get inside my main character's head and figure her out. Times when my worldbuilding and plotting were inconsistent, producing large enough holes to not only drip water, but to sail entire war fleets through. And those who followed faithfully through the process, asking the telling questions, etc, were being kind and helpful. And honest. It's no fault of theirs that the story isn't tighter.

I can't be too hard on myself, either. I had only written two novels before the 2yn class began. Now I'm at three and three quarters, nearly double. I've learned a lot both THROUGH the process and ABOUT the process. I've used many of the 2yn classes for doing the ground work for *Shann*, but I have to admit I've done many of them in a different order, with different emphasis, and I've gone back and forth between them as inspiration hit.

What am I saying? It's gonna be a tough couple of weeks, but I'm going to get the story out onto the screen. I'm not giving up on the first draft this close to the end. (You've already figured out I was stubborn, right?!) Will I actually be able to clean this novel up enough that I feel comfortable submitting it? THAT is an entirely different question. And I have no idea of the answer.

Busy Weekend

We had another calf, this one a bull calf for a total count of 11 calves. They are all strong and healthy. Jim replaced the tubes in our bike tires and oiled up the chains, etc to we could start biking again. We went for a few very short rides over teh weekend, enough to know that very short rides are going to be the norm for a week or two until our muscles begin to strengthen again. It's been a few years since we've done any significant amount of cycling, so we're out of shape for it. I shudder to think how bad it would be if I *wasn't* going to Curves three times a week.

Jim also got the leaks in our fiberglass slip tank fixed, which should make hauling water in the truck a little less of a dampening experience. The slip tank fits in teh truck bed and holds three hundred gallons of water, which we dump into a thirteen hundred gallon cistern at home. This is a chore that constantly needs doing.

MY biggest project over the weekend though was cleaning out our porch. It gets to be a major dumping zone, and it had been awhile since it got tackled to this degree. This morning I hauled four bags of garbage into work for the dumpster (we don't have garbage pickup at the farm) and a lot of recycling. It looks a heck of a lot better than it did on Friday.

Now it's time to read through my entire 2yn thread at Forward Motion (which has been loading onto my computer while I wrote this) and see if I can get some inspiration for the final scenes of *False Perceptions*. Here goes!

Outlines

I've been working back and forth from a Word document to notecards to a new Word document. Why? I'm not sure, but it seems to work for me. The first Word document is filled with random bits of scenes and things that I believe will happen in the Shann novel, mostly pretty sketchy. Then I took those bits and created scenes out of them, putting each perceived scene on its own notecard, with the pov character's name in the top left. If I'm not sure whose pov the scene will be from, I'm happy to leave it blank for now. Probably three quarters of them were easy to figure out, though. Then I shuffle those notecards around until they make some sort of logical order, and try to figure out what has to happen in between them to get the characters to the next notecard. That helped to fill in a few more. When I got stuck, I typed them back into a new Word document, a line for the pov, a line for the setting, then however many lines needed to describe what happens. When you click on word count, you can also see how many paragraphs you've made. Divide by three (because you've hit enter three times for each scene) and you know how many scenes you've thought up so far. I now have 51, and I'd be happier with 70-80 as my scenes tend to average 1500 words, and I'm aiming for 120K.

There are two options, and I'll likely use both. One is to take a close look at the pacing. I think there may be parts with too much action and no scenes allowing the development of the relationship between my two characters, who are from two very different cultures and falling in love. I need to mine that diversity more, I think. I also need to find out ways to *kill some time* while a character is pregnant. In essence, that's also a pacing problem, and unfortunately, she can't really get pregnant enough earlier to make a real difference to the plot line. As it is, there's little way that time can simply pass, and I need to figure out something that works for that. I don't know if sending them on another wild goose chase at that stage (as in, adding yet another major conflict) will be the right thing to do. That would be the second way to up the ante as far as scene count goes. At least I know at which stage in the plot things need to stretch out.

But really, isn't there a limit to the number of times two people (one or the other or both) can get captured and escape in one novel? You mean I may have to come up with something else? LOL

In other news, calf #10 was born today. Six heifers and four bull calves so far, eight babies left to come.

Adding twists

In this lovely limbo world I have created for myself this week (having completed *Quest* and not yet feeling guilty about not writing on *False Perceptions*), I enjoyed a play date with Shann and Taafa. As complicated as I thought I made their lives last time I wrote out outline point ideas, I see that my scene list is still too short to make a novel of 120K, my new goal. Now, it seems I *always* write short, so I'm really going to try to get my first draft up there somewhere in the neighborhood of the actual goal. I know I can add stuff in revision, subplots and more description, which I'm weak on, but wouldn't it be easier to get it close to right to start with? It seems so from this vantage point, where I am stretching my leg muscles behind the starting block, just waiting for the race official to wave the flag for the beginning of this new marathon.

You always love to hear about my goals, right? :p Okay. Next week I'm back at *False Perceptions* until IT IS FINISHED by golly. I allow myself till the end of March, but it will be pathetic if it takes that long. There can't be more than 10K left to write.

Pacing. The goals for Shann are as follows: Starting by April 4 (beginning of a new week), I plan (bad me, I almost wrote *hope*!) to write about 1500 words per day, Monday through Friday. Sixteen weeks of this should see me with a finished first draft of about 120K. If I get slack or (gasp) take some vacation time, add a few weeks. So, the end of July to the end of August. Then it will be revision time for *False Perceptions* with the 2yn class.

Now I still have to contemplate subplots for Shann. Why are these always so difficult for me to put a finger on?

This is not a rant

I know you don't come here to read a political rant, so I will continue to bite my tongue and not comment on this. Please do understand that while I, as a cattle producer, am extremely upset, I realize this is nothing YOU personally, as an American friend, did to ME, personally.

"QUEST TO BE QUEEN" FIRST DRAFT COMPLETE!!

Yes, that rates a newspaper headline. I got finished the tail end of the novel just at lunchtime today. It came in at 69555, but honestly, if I ever decide to do something with it, it's likely to be YA, so its relatively short length wouldn't necessarily be against it. I really enjoyed writing this entire story with the excpetion of last week, and a few days back in November (its the '04 nano project). For now, I just need to back up the file and let it sit for awhile. Hopefully when I get back to it later on this year I'll know whether it would be a good thing to polish up or if it is best continuing to be what I thought of at the time, just a fun little project.

The rest of this week is Fun-with-Shann week. I need to breakthrough on some plotting bits that are fuzzy, and I'm not entirely sure what motivates Taafa at certain points in the outline. I posted some bits for my crit group this afternoon; maybe they'll see things in it that I missed. I hope so, because I know it isn't all perfectly clear. They'll be hearing more from me as the week wears on, but then I'll be quiet again as I take a deep breath and jump back into *False Perceptions* next week. There can't be more than 10K to go on that novel, either. A good shove should get me through it. I sincerely hope.

A Link Worth Visiting

I just found Flogging the Quill thanks to Pat Loomis. This entry Story as River is about the right way to start a story, and is very interesting. Check it out!

Today

I got another 1370 in the final chapter of *Quest* this morning. Things are looking pretty grim at the moment, which is just as it should be. I like it! At noon I wondered whether I'd continue with *Quest* in the afternoon or switch to *Shann*. The question was completely moot. It was a busy busy afternoon. A friend came in for tea with me and left when she had finished hers. Mine was still untouched! My bosses are glad that all three of the jobs I sold this afternoon are do-it-yourselfer jobs. Everything is ordered and on the way. Our fax machine is also acting up so I dashed out for a bit and researched getting a new one. Do you know that it is relatively uncommon to have a fax machine with a voice answering machine built in? I love this feature, and the guys may have to swing for a separate answering machine. Or I can leave two fax machines plugged into the phone line and simply leave one empty of paper and transfer film... Hmm. We're gonna have to make a decision in the next day or two, before I take a hammer to this one. (Did I say that out loud?)

In case you were wondering

My medical test results yesterday came back completely clean. I guess my body just had a glitch, which my doctor isn't worried about. Neither am I.


This kitty was just too photogenic to keep to myself, even if there may be a few flowers that can't make it to the surface for blooming. 

YAY for me!!

I just had to pop in here and congratulate myself for finally finishing first draft of chapter eight of *Quest to be Queen*. :) It came in at 9767 words, and even though it was a frustrating chapter to write in many ways, the bones are in there somewhere. So far the whole book is at 65939 words (including the start I made on chapter nine a couple of weeks ago when I wrote myself into a corner in chapter eight.) Yes, I know, another short first draft. That seems to be how I work. I don't know what I'll do if I ever get a publisher who wants 200-250K books. Maybe with practice I'll learn to think up big enough stories.

The weekend went well. The water system is purring like a kitten. All the cows are happy, and we've had no new babies for over a week. The weather remains unseasonably warm and dry. On Sunday afternoon Jim and I went for a long walk along the dikes by the lake. It was great to get out in the sunshine and hear the birds.

My mom is still at the guest house until tomorrow. She's not very happy about it all. I wish there were easy solutions.

Today we celebrate our son's 21st birthday. You may think that's an odd way to word it, but you see, he doesn't actually have a birthday this year, so we pretend when it is convenient. Only he's so far from home that convenience has nothing to do with it anyway. Happy birthday, Joel.

Some sort of progress

After today's inauspicious beginning, I tried to recreate Wednesday's words. Of course I couldn't do that, but I have no idea whether what I now have is better or worse than what I had before. And I never will know, will I? Sigh. I bet I wrote over 5K this week, and deleted more than half that many in order to get an improved word count for the week of MAYBE 2K. I'm having trouble keeping track, to be honest.

Cut off work early this afternoon because Jim had to drive to the next town over and pick up a snowmobile, and I decided to go with him. We got home kinda late, but it was fun to spend time together and talk in the truck.

GRRR...

I come into work optimistically thinking I can manage the 2K or however many words it will take me to get done this blinking chapter in *Quest* and discover that somehow I didn't save Wednesday's work. How is that even possible? I always save, and if for some odd chance I didn't (rare) the program prompts me at closing. How could I lose an entire 969 words that way? THIS IS DRIVING ME STARK RAVING MAD.

In better news, Jim got home last night with parts for the pump. Guess what he's doing today? :) Oh, and he *only* got one hundred percent on his course this week. Yay for my sweetie. :D

One of those days.

I suspected it might be; in fact I forewarned all of us in yesterday's post. Yes, indeed, the salesman-who-talks was at the shop when I arrived at nine, and he was still there when I left at twelve. Somewhere between then and one o'clock the boss managed to say the final goodbyes. I did have hopes for the afternoon, however, but those fell through as well.

My mother, as I've mentioned before, is 82, and she had a panic attack in the middle of the night last night and called my sis, who lives in the same town. Said sis and family are leaving tomorrow morning for five days away, and I'm not sure if this knowledge did not precipitate said panic attack. Anyway, two phone calls from my mother, with a phone call from my brother-in-law and my sister sandwiched in between. It looks like she is going into a private care home for the five days, but quite against her will.

Unfortunately for her, coming to my house isn't much of an option. For one thing, there's the trip, then there's the fact that all our bedrooms are upstairs and the bathroom is downstairs and she gets up several times at night, then the fact that our cat thinks he owns the whole house and would doubtless take exception to a closed door, and the fact that Jim watches tv til one in the morning and our house is not very sound-proof, and THEN the fact that I have to work three days of the five. (I'm not much looking forward to being 82 myself. How do you plan for such a thing?)

And no one need wonder why Val got no writing done today. Sad, but true.

But hubby should be home at some point tonight! :D We've had no calves this week, and the water system is running fairly well, so long as I'm ready to go tap the nut with the hammer as needed, usually at least twice an evening. It's been quite a week.

Moving along

I finally achieved some forward motion in *that chapter* of Quest, with just shy of 1K added today. Chapters in this book run anywhere from 7K to 10K. This chapter is currently pushing 8K, and it's not quite ready to wrap up yet, but the motives and actions are at least aimed towards the resolution.

Considering I worked around a sales rep, several customers, and a long detailed phone call, I did all right. In the last hour I peeled off another 882 words of jotting down plot points that seem like they might happen in *Shann*. There were getting to be too many of them stirring around in my head. The religion got a bit more complicated, and I discovered that I have a third country to plan out, at least on its western flank where it borders both Khairdazh and Nuumour. I also learned that more of the story is likely to take place in Khairdazh than I had thought it would earlier on. Plus there will be a lull in the storm somewhere in the middle of the book in Evdrika. More homework! (She says smiling happily...)

There's been an interesting thread lately at Forward Motion about how many words a person needs to write before they are likely to write a publishable work. The number bandied about in the profession is one million. That is in the neighborhood of eight to ten full-length novels. I'm only half way there! (grin). Probably less than half when you consider that some of mine are a tad on the short side. Or maybe more when you consider that *Heaven can Wait* has been written three times already. Of course, that's not a hard and fast rule. There have been a number of writers whose first or second books have sold and done reasonably well. And some writers, of course, will never achieve publication even on their twentieth or thirtieth novels, should they keep beating their heads on publisher's doors for that long.

Why do I mention it? It makes me think that perhaps I don't need to be too hard on myself if I can't get enthused about another pass on *Heaven can Wait* this spring. I've mentioned before that it (still!) has some major continuity issues. It's entirely possible that I'd be best off re-outlining the story and writing it again completely from scratch, without eyeing the earlier drafts for salvageable bits. And honestly, I don't have the desire to spend the time on that story. Maybe in a year or two I'll be able to come at it with a fresh outlook, but I've been pretty immersed in it, doing the three rounds from June '03 to August '04. If the story keeps coming back to mind, I'll give it another go, but for now, I'm taking it off my roster.

There, I feel better already.

A few more good days should see the end of this draft of *Quest*. Of course, tomorrow morning is shot before it starts because the sales-rep-who-talks-for-hours will be here.

And then another week or so of *False Perceptions*. I haven't received the feedback yet from Zette on the first three chapters, but I'm hoping I'll be able to push through and finish THAT first draft as well fairly soon, once my vacation time with *Quest* has rejuvenated me. And then...it will be *Shann* time.

Optimistic, aren't I? :)

"The Woman Who Laughed At God"

Nope, that's not me! That's the name of the book I finished reading today (url is on the sidebar). I did work on *Quest* for a bit this morning, deleting more parts of that chapter and adding some; I broke approximately even on words.

I was just plain exhausted today after that marathon of water work last evening. It was hard to get to sleep last night due to my brain not wanting to shut off. I wasn't worrying really, just...the brain was still on *zing* mode. So a few interruptions into my work on *Quest* where I was hunting down inconsistencies in the chapter (due to all the revisions), I gave up and sat back with my library book.

It's a disturbing book in many ways, from a Christian perspective. Jonathan Kirsch, the author, calls it *the untold history of the Jewish people*. He starts with the earliest biblical references to the story of God's people, and works his way through the three thousand odd years of history, exploring the evolution of Judaen religion and culture to the present time. I do have a clearer idea of the history now, especially in time periods where the Bible is silent, but the history that DOES *match* what I know about is severely canted to a secular way of thinking. In the end, I decided that this book was good research for the various ways misinterpretation and various sects could crop up even within true religion, and that I could put some of this information to use in the novel I plan to write next. So I now have some notes in place for adding depth to my story. Several good ideas came out of it. Face it, people will always have different interpretations of even the simplest of things. And it gave me a good idea for the main plot resolution for the story as well. I guess I'll have to stop saying that I don't know what the new fantasy will be about. It will still take some time before I can articulate it in a couple of sentences, though.

Everything is holding its own on the water front. I still don't dare leave the system unattended, as periodically I have to go down into *the hole* and tap *the nut* with a hammer (scientific, eh?) to make the foot valve shut properly. If left to its own devices, it eventually pops the breaker, which means anything plugged into that circuit is off until I get home (including the electric fence and my deep freezes) and also that the pump will likely require priming. I wish to avoid messing with THAT as much as possible, for I can't do it by myself, and I don't want to call for more help if it can be avoided. So when I'm home and awake, I'll leave the water turned on. It means I'm kinda tied to being home when I'm not at work, but I wasn't planning a whirlwind social life anyway.

The cows and calves are happy and healthy, and no one looks ready to pop a baby any time soon. That's okay by me.

The good news is that Jim has found the parts needed to replace this foot valve, including a filter/screen thing (badly needed). He'll exchange the parts this weekend, and this nasty little phase should be behind us.

Prayer is good...and needed

As of Monday morning, the foot valve in the water cistern is seized. Thus, no water for me or the cows (of which, at the moment, including babies, there are 31.) I'm pretty easy, came into town and had a shower at Jim's sis's before work. Her hubby is a plumber and will go to the farm later this morning to see what can be done. And the cows all had a good drink last evening before everything went ker-whap, so they'll be okay till this evening. Unhappy, but okay. Jim was hoping he'd be able to pick up the parts in Alberta, that everything would hold together till he got back, but it doesn't look like another jerry-rig will work. That's my ever-so-professional opinion, anyway.

And the evening and the morning were the first day...(four more to go...)

You think I can concentrate on my story now? Here's hoping.

Half done with 9

We woke up to discover another bull calf in our pasture, and a couple of hours later Stupid Cow gave birth to a heifer. So the girl babies are still ahead by one. I'm very glad that Stupid Cow had her calf before Jim leaves for a five day training session, because, well, she lives up to her name very well. But she and baby seem to be doing just fine. I was sure she would wait til he was away to have it...

He leaves after church tomorrow. The college town is about an eight hour drive away; he has classes Monday through Thursday and expects to arrive home very late Thursday night. A couple of friends have offered to help me out with the chores while he's gone. This is the first time he's had to be away for any length of time when his folks, who live on our property, have been on vacation. Or other times, we had a kid or two living at home yet. Anyway, I shouldn't have told my mother, because she's going to worry about me all week, but I honestly don't think it's too big a deal (now that Stupid Cow has done her thing). The one man lives nearby, is a farmer and a mechanic and goes to our church. I've known him for like twenty years. He and his son will come every day to do routine chores with me. The other fellow is Jim's supervisor at work, and he and his wife are close friends of ours. He grew up on a farm too and said I can call him any time day or night if I need help with calving. Either guy is as capable as Jim of dealing with our moron water system if I have trouble with THAT. Though everything seems to be running smoothly on the water front. We've had enough hassle with that to last the year already, so it should be fine.

So last night I spent awhile online with Karenee, and I think we solved the problem with the chapter of *Quest* I was having trouble with on Thursday. Come Monday I'll see how it went. I've been fighting a migraine today, but I think it's finally easing back.

The moral

There's a moral to the story. (Isn't there always?) The moral is: Don't check your email first thing in the morning; it's too easy to get distracted. And how! The day started with some Forward Motion business that needed taking care of. Yes, it could have waited until afternoon, but not once I knew it was there! And a couple other emails, less urgent, but being as I was there anyway...

And then the customers. It actually turned into a pretty busy day. I firmed up the flooring order for an insurance job for a single mom with three teens whose house was gutted by fire, and who has little in the line of day-to-day cash. I think the house is going to turn out beyond her wildest dreams. We're able to massage the total amount by getting some seconds, and by bulk buying with additional orders, and--she's going to be so happy. She already is.

At the other end of the spectrum are folks who signed on *their* order for eighteen grand in hardwood flooring and porcelain tile. Things are not going to slow up at work any time soon. We're booking into April.

Of course the boss returned from the jobsite with blow-in insulation all over his boots. Suddenly vacuuming was high on my list of priorities. Amazing how that works.

Writing? What's that? Didn't happen. Here it is 4:30 and I haven't even cracked a file open.

Aargh

Thanks, Mar, for the loan of your muse. The only reason she's helping me at all is because she heard there's a polar bear on her tail, and she's trying to stay ahead of it. I haven't bothered to tell her that Inuit is (mostly) harmless, because I'm not perfectly sure that's true, and because I'll take whatever momentum I can get, by whatever means it comes. She'll come back to you with a red furry dragon in tow. THAT ought to spark up your Victorian romance.

1893 words. Many of them are unlovely words. I wrote myself into a corner, ditched the chapter, and started with the next one (the last one, thankfully) that I DO know how to get through. At least I think I do. Guess I'll find out tomorrow, hey?

In other news, I had my ultrasound today, but won't get the results back until the 28th. I would just like to remind all my faithful readers what a true blessing it is to be able to pee when you need to. This business of drinking a quart of water and then waiting for an hour and a half, and THEN having somebody poke your belly for fifteen minutes is---not a nice business. We take much for granted each and every day, and this is one I'm going to remember to be thankful for for awhile. At least a few days.

Let's see...

After getting the gears from Mar and Jean about my whining about lack of writing, I decided to do some writing, so that I wouldn't have to whine about not doing it. Hey, it's perfectly logical, if you think about it.

No?

You've thought about it and it doesn't work? Oh well. It works for me. And it's MY little world, after all.

It wasn't fun. I don't think my writing STINKS exactly this week, but...it certainly isn't singing, either. I just want something crossed off my list, so I'm signing up for the word count marathon at FM and am shooting for 5-10K over the next two days. We'll see how THAT goes, LOL. Those little pips are SO fun to collect. I'm pretty sure 10K would see *Quest to be Queen*'s first draft completed. Which makes it a darn short novel, even so, but if I ever decide to do something with it, I'll worry about that later. This was my *just-for-fun nano novel*, remember. I'm not feeling obligated to ever deal with it again, if I don't feel like it. But at the same time I DO feel obligated to finish the draft. (Mantra--repeat after me: I will NOT allow unfinished novels to choke up my hard drive. I WILL finish what I start.)

Yeah, tell that to my muse. I bet she's enjoying a lovely vacation on some yacht in the Mediterranean. Were there not clauses in our contract that covered conditions like these? Like, if she gets to go, so do I? Sigh. Can you tell I really don't have anything to talk about on my blog today? Shall I just stop now? Okay.

Habits

Big talk here about being a writer, and I've been stalled for weeks. I refuse to call it writer's block, because mostly it's not. Some days the problem has been sheer laziness, other days it's exhaustion (yesterday, for instance), sometimes it's been distraction (lots of that), and a few days it's even been because I had *real* work. But it's been SOMETHING far too many days in a row now. My good habits have gone down the drain, and it's time to go dredging them back. I'll give them a shower and a good scrubbing, maybe a haircut, and see if they are willing to serve once again. If not, I'll have to go hunting new ones.

I did pull 660 words today on *Quest*, but that's not a lot considering how much time I wasted. Aargh.

Riding the Wave

In case you're interested in what is riding the edge of current Christian fiction, check out today's post at Pat Loomis' blog: The Cutting Edge: Celebration of New Christian Fiction. I gave you a heads' up a few days ago that this carnival celebration was coming! She has links to nine different blogs of folks who are writing and re-defining the edge of Christian fiction. Some good articles out there, and more next month as well. Pat is planning for a monthly rotation of this celebration. Check it out!

In other news, my well-laid plans for getting an extra long night's sleep last night didn't exactly pan out. I did get to bed (almost) early enough, but Jim woke me after an hour because he needed help with a cow and calf. Now we have Calf #7, our third bull calf. I do feel more rested than I did yesterday, though, so I'm hoping for some words today... In yet other news, my ultrasound is scheduled for Thursday.

oh so tired...

I left work early on Friday to hop the bus for my sister's house for the weekend, and got back at 11:30 last night. We ate and slept the family memory album we are building for two and a half days, and I'm really really tired. I learned quite a lot about my mother's history, though, this weekend. She's 82, and managed fairly well with all the time she spent at my sis's with us. We did take a break Sunday morning long enough to go to church, and I thoroughly enjoyed popping in at the church we used to attend when we lived there ('95-'00). I'd like to bring Pastor Ron home with me! (meant in the nicest possible way...)

Today I was doing good to stay awake at work. I did complete a crit and get some paperwork done for my guys. I'm currently reading a very very odd book, called The Woman Who Laughed at God by Jonathan Kirsch. I thought it was a biblical novel about Sarah, and it isn't, not even a little bit. It is a critique of historical Judaism by a modern day secular Jew. At least I think that's a fair representation of the book. It's quite interesting, and sent me scurrying to my Bible on a number of occasions (Does it really say THAT?!) I guess that's not an all bad result!

Now it's time to get back in the groove. First I need to find the groove. Before that, I need to remember what the groove is. Right.

Walking the tight rope

The biggest challenge I'm facing thus far in the new fantasy story I'm developing is the religion. I've been struggling over this for more than a month now, trying to piece together a fake true religion. No wonder I'm confused!

I'm basing my main character's homeland very loosely on Israel in the Old Testament. It is a legalistic country with the religious and governmental aspects irrevocably entwined. It is also pre-Messianic, and the people of Khairdazh have, of course, vastly re-interpreted their prophecies to line up with how they would like to see the future. They are about to declare war on the country next door.

Although I have not duplicated the system to include animal sacrifice as was practiced by the Jews, still I expect that one of my themes for the novel will be Psalm 51:16-17 (or its Khairdazhian equivalent): "You (God) do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." (New International Version)

I feel like a tightrope walker, and my physical balance has never been very good, probably because of my poor eyesight. I'm not sure my mental balance is any better. I've received a bit of advice from a couple of pro writers who have already built these kinds of worlds and religious orders. I'm feeding my crit group pieces as they take shape, and I'm evaluating their very valuable responses. I'm reading more in the Old Testament, and I'm praying. Slowly, gingerly, I slide one foot further out onto the tightrope, and try to keep my balance. This aspect is a huge part of the foundation of this new novel, and I don't dare get too far into the other areas of pre-planning until this is solid.

I suppose that's good. Not only was Rome not built in one day, but it's not like I don't have a writing project already on the go. Sigh. Time to stop philosophizing and go for word count on my current novel.

Blog carnivals

Ever heard of a blog carnival? If you have, you're ahead of me. Well, that is to say, I HAVE heard of it, but just in the past couple of days. Pat Loomis will be hosting one on Tuesday, Feb 15. In it, she will be pointing folks to various blogs, including mine; we'll be discussing some variation of the topic of new directions in Christian fiction. If you're curious about how the carnival works, go on over to her site, she has blogged about it.

What can I blame today's lack of getting anything done on? Not customers. It just was a washout as far as new words go. I opened my file, stared at it a bit, and closed it. I don't think I so much as changed two words. I did post something for my crit group to comment on regarding religion in my new little world, and finally got a handle on the government for the other country, that I gave up on last week. So I did make some progress, but it wasn't on what I'm supposed to be working on. I do have a headache, and Jim came home from work mid-morning sick, so I may be able to pull an excuse or two out of the hat if I try hard enough. Try. Try. Try.

It's CRITTING time!

When you think of me writing away, this is where I am.

Months go by with no critiques at all, and suddenly I have a week with two of them. Today's synopsis crit took most of the morning. I have to do all I can do to help my friends to break into print!

I got a few hundred words on *Quest* this afternoon. Not as much as I would have liked, but interruptions were rampant at work. Yes, that's me (the invisible one) sitting in that chair in the photo, hopping up constantly to get the phone. Eventually I gave up and spent some time organizing a bunch of the worldbuilding I've been doing for *Shann*. That needed doing, too, and didn't require as solid of concentration.

Did I mention that calf #6 was waiting for us when we got home from work last night? So far all is well on the western front.

Changing gears

Wow, changing gears was SO the right thing to do. I accomplished a lovely 1605 words on *Quest to be Queen* (nano'04) this morning. I'd read through the previous 54K over the past few days, and decided to ditch what I had for an outline for this section. (*Quest* requires seven tasks, and this is the last one.) I took stock of all the interpersonal relationships at the end of the 54K, and decided which of them needed to be solved by the end of this task. The big one, obviously, must wait until the grand finale, but some development (negative) must happen in this task to keep things interesting. So having decided who all has to save who else's life, and in what order (!), I threw them out to see what would happen. Then I discovered that a man they meet, that I thought was neutral to the whole quest thing, is actually on Teagren's side. But once she went off with him, I realized that he's only pretending. That sets things up nicely for tomorrow. It was WONDERFUL having fun writing again! :D

A while back I signed up for February's romance challenge at FM, so today I wrote the first draft of a short scene when Taafa and Shann meet (from Taafa's first person point of view). It's not how I intend to write the novel, but it did give me some insight into how she thinks. It's going to take a bit of spit and polish before I post it on the board. The challenge was to write a first meeting between two people who will eventually fall in love, and to show the initial conflict between them. There is plenty of that between Shann and Taafa (her country wants him dead, and expects her to help), so we'll see if I got a handle on any of it. Oh, and I finally got my maps colored, too!

Then I read through the article for Zette, for Vision's March edition, and couldn't find anything else to tweak, so sent that off. It was a very productive day, all in all. It occurs to me that I should post a link for Vision ezine over on my blog's side panel, in case anyone is interested in having a look. I'm not *just* pitching my own article here; there are many helpful writing articles in each issue of this free bi-monthly ezine. Forward Motion has been publishing it for more than four years; all issues are archived and are downloadable in adobe format and in palm, I think.

What else is new? A few weeks ago I mentioned a physical problem I'm having, and that I require an ultrasound. The day before my scheduled appointment, the ultrasound machine/computer broke down. When the parts arrived from Toronto, they were the incorrect parts. So I'm looking at at least another week before I can get the procedure done. I understand that patients with more critical needs have been granted appointments out of town, but apparently I'm not considered to be in dire straits (which I suppose is some sort of good news...). I'm not particularly enjoying the waiting game. As a writer, I have a better than average imagination, and I'm trying very hard to keep it turned OFF when thinking about this. It is certainly an opportunity for learning more about relaxing in the Lord and trusting that He remains in control, even of broken down ultrasound machines.

And baby makes five...

Some happy cows and babies...

All mothers and juniors are doing well. Five down, thirteen to go.

A new week in my little world...

I thoroughly enjoyed reading through *Quest to be Queen*, and am quite excited to start writing on it again tomorrow. Even the part that seemed to drag while I was writing doesn't seem so bad nearly three months later. (Maybe because I've recently met writing that really DID drag!)

That and a crit and my customers rounded out the day. Oh, and the snap trap method has inched closer in score to the bucket trap method with the demise of Rustle #9.

Desperate Times call for...

Desperate Measures

That's why the store is so clean today. The excuse? Unless everything is spotless, it could be hard to know for sure whether there are any more Rustles lurking. The reason? I opened my False Perceptions file and stared at it for twenty minutes. Know what? I don't like this story. The outline is solid, and I really like many of the characters. BUT. Finishing this is like pulling hen's teeth. I keep telling myself that I'm NOT a quitter. I don't ditch books at 70K, relatively close to the end.

I might let it rest a bit, though. My nano novel, *Quest* is also unfinished and fairly close to the end. I'm doing a read-through and some brainstorming there and I think I'll roll that one through to the end before beating myself up some more over False Perceptions. Something's got to give.

I'm committed to getting both those first drafts done before starting to write Shann. And who am I kidding? I've got a LOT of work yet to do on Shann before I know what the story is. I'm spiraling ever closer, but I know it's not ready to be told. But at least it excites me.

Is this a case of the grass always being greener on the other side? (We've got one young cow, expecting her first calf any day now, that is absolutely convinced of the truth in this saying.) Will the next novel always look brighter than the one in the midst of the daily slog? I fear that may be the case.

But it takes so long both to write a book and to pre-plan a book, that it seems silly not to multi-task. They utilize different parts of my brain. Mornings are quieter at the store, and I'm freshest. That's when I *should* write. That's when the words come the easiest. Afternoons tend to have more interruptions, and by then my brain is also losing its edge. Worldbuilding and other pre-planning still works fine in those circumstances.

It's a bad sign if I'd rather clean the store than write. Even with mice for an excuse.

In other news, we now have calf #4. Another bull calf makes the score 2 and 2. It's raining now, supposed to get cold next week. Maybe winter is going to take another swing through here after all.

two steps back, three steps forward

THAT was productive. I opened up Tuesday's file in *False Perceptions* and remembered why brushing up the first three chapters sounded like such a good idea yesterday. I was stonewalled. Couldn't figure out how to write the scene I'd started. It appears that I can have the result from a different scene so, minus 200, plus 300 puts me a little in the black. It's still ugly. Why is this book driving me stark raving mad?

I'd have gotten further (I think) but a friend stopped by the store and visited for quite awhile with some tales of woe that actually affect me, too. So it was a tad difficult to just block it out and jump back into a stalled part of the book.

Couldn't get excited about the government of Nuumour, either, and filling in its missing parts. I'll have to come back to that. Instead, today I contemplated technology, transportation, and communication for the *Shann* novel. The world is starting to come together.

We caught another Rustle today. The score is snap-trap 3, bucket contraption 5.

more about governments, cows and water

I am thrilled to report that Jim was finally able to get enough pressure in the water line last night to blow out the gunk that was clogging it. The cows now have proper water pressure at their trough, and can drink their fill much easier. He wound up playing cop for awhile, keeping them from bashing each other out of the way and making sure they all got a chance to drink. Then he had to turn off the system overnight because they had gone through so much water that we were in danger of running out! (Our well doesn't recover quickly, and the cistern level was dropping rapidly.) He hauled a load of water this morning with the tank in the pickup to try to keep the cistern at a usable level. It will take a few days for everything to return to normal, I'm thinking. We're still having issues with other parts of the line as well, due to silt buildup, but nothing as critical as the cows' section. What a relief. He was concerned that he'd have to bring in the bobcat and dig up that entire length.

During this morning's writing time I copped out. I spent my *False Perceptions* time on brushing up the first three chapters. I had a look at Zette's queue for the 2year novel class, and realized that I am next in line, and could get called on any day to submit my chapters for personal pointers. The first and third chapters just got a light swish with the brush, but there were some serious tangles in the second chapter. I'm sure I don't have them all combed out yet, but it looks a heck of a lot tidier than it did. I could see that Treyan really did not come across sympathetically; I had not introduced him well. I'm not convinced it's anywhere near perfect yet, but at least it's not terminally embarrassing...

I have a reasonably firm grip on Khairdazh's government now, and how it works. I woke up in the middle of the night realizing that if they're going to be declaring war any day now, they need to be conscripting warriors. So I have that worked in, too. It's amazing how I can be completely blind to some of the most obvious things.

Nuumour's government has been harder to finalize. All I knew was that it wasn't based on a religious order. The government needs to be strong enough that it won't be ripe for a takeover, and it must be the government of one country only (ie, not part of an empire), even though they trade with a variety of other countries. I wish I could get a firmer idea of how other types of governments work, such as oligarchy: government by small group of privileged individuals. How is a leader chosen? Are they all equal? Is that like governing by committee? (Scary, huh?) And what kind of privileged? Knowing so many cool (for a novel!) kinds of government exist makes me really not want to settle for a typical fantasy kingdom. More mulling to do, and some internet research when I get the time.

It looks like I'm going to have some *real* duties in my new role as moderator at Forward Motion. Zette has tucked me in as an assistant on the Young Writer's Scene board, which is an entire FM in miniature for youth under 18, with restricted access only. There is an awful lot happening in there that I (and the other 6K plus members of FM) had no idea existed. Wow.

We're still having spring weather, but rumor has it that winter will be back soon. That's probably what all the calves are waiting for, to be born in a blizzard. Silly them.

of governments...

Things remain really busy at work. A couple of weeks ago I think I mentioned that we had some whole house jobs hanging out there. Well, today one of them came home to roost, a five thousand square foot duplex. The guy thought sometime in February would be good. My boss told him *it just ain't gonna happen*. He promises to be done by sometime in April! It looks like a never-ending year.

In between I managed to squeak out just over 1K on *False Perceptions*. Hard work, but apparently somebody's got to do it, and I've been nominated.

My photoshop program decided to act up last night, so I don't have my maps colored yet. This is a great botheration to me. It was looking so good, too, and then something glitched and it didn't save right. Grrr. I love technology.

So this afternoon I've been developing the governmental structure for Shann's country, Khairdazh. It is a theocracy -- government by church officials, who believe they have divine authority. So I'm playing with ideas of how this kind of government really works on a day to day basis. Who is the boss guy (the mouthpiece of God)? How does he get picked? Who rules under him, and how? Good questions. As yet, I have very few answers. But they're coming. And as soon as I have a clue about Khairdazh's government, I get to play the game all over again with Taafa's country, Nuumour. Trust me, it will NOT be a theocracy. (That's all I know for sure!)