A day or two late . . .

Wasn't a bad Yuletide this year. Got to spend time with the love of my life, hanging out in our pjs all day as we watched movies and Discovery show specials. Stuffed our faces with turkey and all the trimmings, and fed the eager cats their share. (They won't get people food again until next Thanksgiving's turkey.)

Many thanks to all who sent cards. It was really cool to get them. Unfortunately, work interrupted my preparations and, by the time I realized the date, I didn't have time to send out cards from us! My goal next year is to do these during Thanksgiving week when I have free time from work. Then I can mail 'em out in plenty of advance. The three weeks before Yule were quite busy with holiday parties and coatchecks. Maybe next year will be the same.

I'm still rocking on NoteTaker. I've got eight notebooks up and am about halfway through organizing all my writing notes for different genres. I spent all day yesterday working on the cyberpunk notebook, combining information from my story, CyberEpic, and the one I'm halfway through and stalled on – Kou Itten. Had to read through both of them to pick up language (Spanish, Brazillian, cyberpunk lingo, Japanese) and characters (Nomads, Military, Techies, Netrunners.) I also dug out my old Cyberpunk RPG game notebook, found mucho weapons online for the mayhem loving people, and drew up lists of gear, cybernetics, and drugs for the mid 21st century.

I've got enough in the cyberpunk genre already to have a series. Wow.

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

At least I've been there the last three days as far as computer programs go. blissful sigh

You see, I currently use Word to write. I have documents for the current chapter I'm working on, the full novel as it's written, my notes, an encylopedia, AND a Sanguire dictionary. Then I have Omni Outliner for the character document and the plot line. Then, if I feel the need, I have an Architecture program to put together floor plans and maps. So, in one folder for one book, I have as many as nine or ten files. And if I have pictures of my characters, those files go into the same folder.

I've found a Mac program called NoteTaker that's knocking my socks off, man! I can literally have a virtual spiral notebook full of everything I need. I can put in tabs, pages, sections, move 'em around wherever I want 'em. I can even create the cover how I want!

So, that's what I've been doing the last three days. World building the Sanguire using NoteTaker. I've got a tab for books holding all the finished outlines and links to the documents themselves. I've got a tab for Sanguire characters alone, another for Human characters, and a third for Halfbreeds (which will be coming up in the distant future.) I've got a tab for my Sanguire Encyclopedia . . . and I even have the ability to link between entries, documenets, and pages within the notebook!

And the program automatically creates and maintains a backup of the notebook! If one is screwy, the other will survive!

If you have a Mac and are using OS X, I highly recommend this program!

Still writing that Slow Movin' story. I've figured out why writing sex scenes is so difficult. In any other scene, you've got description, dialogue, etc . . . you don't really need to get down to the teensy little details. In an erotic scene, however, you have to micro manage the entire thing to keep the mood flowing, without losing the reader with an inadvertant word or absolutely ridiculous activity. ("She put what where? I didn't know she was a contortionist!")

sigh

Only 500 words a day for the last four days. I hope to be finished with this soon. Then I'll post it to my mailing list. It's already longer than any of the other Slow stories. I'll have to go back and beef up those tales. Rather than ten short Plot What Plot tales, Slow's character is developing far too much for just a little 'slap and tickle.' The previous three stories definitely will need revamping to give a better idea of what type of person she is.

Surprising, too. She's already so much of a character!

Gotta love it. Didn't get any writing done, per se, but I got lots of other stuff done instead. Dishes are done, the floor's been vacuumed, the cat perches have been combed (O, the joy of long hair kitties,) and I got some errands finished.

Tomorrow Office Depot is delivering my wife's Yuletide present – her own computer desk. Right now she's using a card table. It'll look very nice once it's up, and leave her all sorts of nooks and crannies to squirrel things away in.

Also updated my website. I’m only putting links to five short stories at a time. Figured it was about time I changed ‘em. Plus I added a new one that I wrote a couple of weeks ago, Rude Awakenings. Don’t read this at work, or you’ll be mighty uncomfortable.

I’m just about done with the fourth Slow Movin’ short, entitled Bleedin’ Hearts. Then I’ve got the Valentine Slow Movin’ to finish writing. Once those are finished, I begin work on the third Sanguire novel, The False Side of Shadow. Should be on to that by the end of next week.

Five more days of work before a three day weekend.

...and off to the publisher! WOOT!

And yet so far. sigh I've only got about 5k left of editing. And it looks like work is going to be a bear for another two weeks. Only one day off next week.

(On the up side, however, there are SEVERAL nights of coat check. Which means TIPS! Gotta love cold weather and holiday parties!)

Plus I wrote another new scene – this one was because of a friend who insisted I should have written about Kathleen's fight with her parents before she decided to return to Anpo's side. Mama and Papa ain't happy, especially since little brother is going along for the ride.

I've only 10,378 words of the original edition to go! YAY!