So, today's tally is 1013 words. Just barely made my goal for the day. Finished chapter 20, and am ready to go for chapter 21. Kathleen's fears about her pending childbirth are soothed by Anpo's acceptance. Next up, arriving at summer camp for the first time and the inherent dangers of a white woman's first appearance there.

Work is gonna be rough for the rest of the week. Gotta love the OSBA (Oregon School Boards Association!) LOTS of work involved with them! They've got the entire hotel to themselves for their conference, and we have tons of room sets, and room changes to do. I'll be working graveyard Saturday night to prepare their Sunday morning sessions after a couple of late dinners. No problem. The more hours the better. Things will slow down considerably until after Thanksgiving. Then we pick up for holiday parties a bit, before falling off to next to nothing through February.

Lots of time to write, cuz I certainly won't have any money to do more than pay bills and rent!

Thinking about going to Burbank at the end of January for the Cremation gig. And no, I won't be giving Cremation a single cent, but I'd like to see friends I haven't seen in a couple of years. (Not since Orlando Bardcon last year.) We'll see if it's financially feasible considering the slow period at work.

Finally got most of that political plot scoped out, and filed away for future reference. That's three or four plots I have completely outlined that I have to write yet. Once I'm finished with Tiopa edits, who knows what will happen?

I hate politics!

Here's a question for everybody and anybody who reads this and is willing to brainstorm with me…

A is a consort. She belongs to B. B is sister to C. C is king of all the land.

B is ambitious. She wants to have C assassinated so she can take the throne. She also needs to have the assassin killed to keep anybody from pointing the finger at her.

A is unaware of all of this. However, she will be involved in the plot, and will ultimately take the fall for the dead assassin's job.

By A taking the fall for the murder of C AND the assassin, it will clear B's name so she can assume the throne.

Y'all still with me?

So . . . how the hel does that happen?? I've been fighting over this for the last hour. Scribbling it down on paper doesn't get me any closer to an answer, either. I need something extremely convoluted, something that'll play out to a minimum of 100k.

It sucks to know the beginning and ending of a novel and not know how the hel to get there!

Corporate Avenger! Yeah! Kick ass rock!

A total of 2623 words on Tiopa yesterday, and an additional 436 of notes for the next Sanguire story. Not much, admittedly, but my goal is simply to brainstorm more of what's going on with the characters, so I have an idea of where the story is going to go.

Just got a heads up from a friend of mine. Apparently Tor is looking for sensual high fantasy, much like Kushiel's Dart (did I spell that right?) Damn! I wish I hadn't posted On Azrael's Wings online now! I think I could really beef that one up to fit the bill, ya know? sigh We'll see if I can come up with another plot or not.

If I do, perhaps the third Sanguire story (tentatively titled The False Side of Shadow) will wait until I can put out something for Tor?

That’s me.

Had two days off, and got next to nothing done as far as writing went. Sheesh. I think I need to get back into Forward Motion’s Dares. Haven’t done them since last summer, and my production has fallen off considerably. (Though, I must admit, the goals I set for myself there at the beginning of the year have all but taken care of themselves. The only thing I didn’t finish was a vampire short sumission to a lesbian anthology. Everything else has been accomplished.)

Anyhoooo… I’ve decided to crack down on myself. I think the previous ease (and now sudden difficulty) of Tiopa Ki Lakota edits had me slacking. Whipped through 10k a week – well, two days a week – prior to Kathleen and Anpo coming together. Took me almost two weeks to slog through one chapter after that because of the intrenched mixed point of views. If I want to offer this to my publisher by the end of the year, I really need to get hopping. I’m only at 38k and the original manuscript was 104k.

So, you’ll probably hear more from me as I use this journal to keep myself (and my readers) posted.

New schedule consists of 1k editing / day on work days. Any extra time or energy will be placed in writing something new once I’ve made the requirement. (Or continue on the same path until I get sick of it that day.) Then 2k editing / day on days off. Same thing as far as extra words go.

I’ve been working on Slow Movin’ IV, tentatively titled ‘Bleedin’ Hearts.’ Everybody thank Steph at the Academy. She’s asked for a Valentine story, and that’s going to be it.

So far today, 1544 words.

Also found a kewl set of radio stations! NativeStream! Yeah, baby! Not only do they have a station of nothing but Powwow music, but they also have a popular stream and an alternative stream. I just found a new band called Dying Tribe! Now I’m listening to Lunar Drive, a trance kind of band full of Indian chants and stuff. Love it! Beats my paltry MP3 collection.

Damned near pulled all my remaining hair and teeth out, this took so long! Six furkin' hours to slog through one chapter! I certainly hope I can get through 2.5 of 'em on my day off!

Still gonna beef it up. It sits right at 2037 words. I'd like to gain another 300 words on the chapter before it's completed. I could use a lot more padding, since I had to chop the hel out of the flow. That's what I get for swapping POVs back and forth. I'm glad I've learned better now.

It doesn't help that Carnivale is on HBO. Caught the last two eps and the newest one. I'm really liking this show, man. It's weird beyond belief. Totally rocks!

Which brought up an idea. A story about carnies. And just to put a twist on it (and get it away from Carnivale and the movie 'Carnie' with Jodie Foster,) I figured an interstellar carnival. It'd have to be dark, grimy, maybe hopping from asteroid to asteroid in the belt, entertaining miners. Yeah, that'd work.

Now I just need a plot.

LOL!

. . . and another 5k . . . I hope. Still stuck at less than 1k, however. I'm to the scene where Kathleen discovers Anpo's true nature is not male. The problem with the chapter is that it's intertwined with the POVs from both characters. I swapped from one to the other quite freely during the writing, and didn't change it for the first round of editing for publication. Now I know better. Must keep the POV per scene as separate as possible, else it looks pretty unprofessional.

sigh

So, figuring out who should be in what scene, who's POV to use . . . that's the difficulty. I've finally split the scene in two. The first is Kathleen's POV as she comes to the surprise conclusion that this isn't a man. Now I've got to wade through Kathleen's perceptions in the second half of the scene, and attribute them to Anpo in some manner. I've already lost 300 words this chapter. I'll probably have to go back and beef it up once the first round of edits is complete.

I don't think I'll make 5k today.

I have Wednesday and Thursday off. Thursday's gonna be an errand day, so I'll do my damnedest to get 5k on Woden's Day. Hopefully the same on Thor's Day, but no guarantees.