Only 887 words today. It’s the second time this year I’ve gotten under a grand and the second time this month. Hmmm. Still, I’m doing better this month than I did last year at this time.

Lainey’s still battling depression. I’ve pushed her through two checkpoints, one break, and seven hours of trail in an effort to move the story along. She’s now got about 250 miles to go to Nome. This next stretch is going to be an angst builder. (Maybe that’s why I don’t want to start it. I need to get mentally prepared to slog through the section, but I’ve got to work today. I don’t want to stop in the middle and have Lainey’s emotions affecting me.)

Today is the first day of our switch to tea. I’m slurping organic peach tea at the moment, after a cup of black tea to wake up this morning. I think I can get used to this.

1021 words. I finished chapter 42, but at only 1500 words or so. Went back and plumped it out with another five hundred. Whew. (One of my weaknesses is whipping through and not beefing things up. I’m always adding in my rewrites.)

Lainey’s in Galena, looking for oil and butter to increase the fat intake for her dogs since it’s been colder than she expected. She succeeds (and then some) and learns a lesson in Alaskan hospitality.

Next chapter, I’m going to whiz through the next three legs and dump her at Unaklakleet. She’ll be really thinking about scratching by that point. But she’ll also only have 261 miles to go. It’s downhill from here on out if she can get over her exhaustion and moodiness to push through.

No writing yesterday. The boss called and begged and whined for me to work for her yesterday. She’s rennovating her kitchen. I got an email of thanks from her this morning. sigh I’m a sucker.

1051 words.

I think if I stop trying to focus on the trail and more on the inner voice of Lainey as she experiences the trail, I’ll be okay. As I’ve mentioned earlier, there’s only so much I can write about snow, good and bad trails, missing markers, dog problems, and so on before it gets flat out boring. I know that mushers on the trail don’t think it’s boring in the least (except on the occasional stretch of trail that offers nothing to the imagination,) but for a book? Not good to bore the readers.

Hopefully, by the time I finish chapter 42, Lainey will be through the next four checkpoints to Unaklakleet. She’ll be doing a hel of a push at one point, going twelve hours without a break, but the trail’s not too bad. I might have the dogs balk at that point, at least until they get some sleep.

Back into the swing, anyway. 1014 words down, chapter 41 complete. Lainey’s got a long, boring stretch in front of her and she’s beginning to succumb to the inevitable depression that happens to all mushers in the Iditarod. She’s over halfway to the finish line, but still hundreds of miles away. Her ultimate reward will be consummating a physical relationship with Scotch, but she’s finally coming to realize that it can’t be long term.

Unless she or Scotch gives up something . . .

Today’s a windy, rainy day, but we braved it to pick up our gallon jar of carrot honey at Saturday Market. We ordered it three weeks ago, forgot the next weekend, it rained horribly last weekend and by the time I got there they had already left. I’m glad we caught them today.

The reason for the honey? We’re down to the last few pots of coffee. After that, we’re going to drink tea instead. My friend (who’s recently been diagnosed diabetic) has been doing research into ‘good for you’ foods. Tea is one of them. I mean, what the hel, we’re already 50% decaf. Why not go herbal instead?

Off to spend the rest of this rainy day lounging in my sweat pants and reading the Lord of Chaos by Robert Jordan. After this, I’ll be into unknown waters, since this is as far as I’ve ever read in the series. I’m looking forward to discovering what happens next!

That would be me.

I’m alive, though it took a week for the flu to work it’s way through the gastrointestinal tract to the bitter end. At least it was never as bad as that first day. The wife caught the tail end of the bug on Thursday last before heading out of town to her sister’s for a visit the next day. Fortunately, she had less of it than I did. Her trip was a good one, if hectic.

I spent the days cleaning, battling ants, and sitting on my butt. I’ve finished the fifth book of the Wheel of Time series, and am starting the sixth. (Yet another reason for the lack of writing, since I haven’t written since I got sick.)

It’s been a beneficial read, in any case. I’ve been comparing the trials and tribulations of Our Hero with my Sanguire character. There will be major changes in the rewrites (and many thanks to Shawn for putting up with my blithering and questions.)

Today I forced myself to get my words done – 1196, thank gods! Chapter 41 is half completed. I’m betting this thing will go to 46 or 47 chapters total, so I’m almost finished.

Now, more reading (YAY!) and then off to work (BOO!)

That’s how I felt yesterday. All day from the moment I woke up until well into the evening. Green. Yuck. Couldn’t even keep water down (which was entertaining since I had to take my ibuprofen or suffer five times worse.)

This morning I’m pleased to report that I’ve had a cup of coffee and two slices of bread. No issues. YAY! I’m still not hungry, though, and that’s a major sign for me to take it easy. I work today, but I’ll spend part of it sitting in the office doing paperwork. Not going to push myself today.

Though I forgot to post here yesterday. 1008 words and it was like pulling teeth every step of the way. I claim spring fever since the weather here has been unseasonably warm. (Like the Iditarod with all the overheating. Seems the north eastern states have all the Alaska weather this Iditarod.) Then 1177 words today.

Speaking of the real Iditarod, it’s looking like Robert Sorlie of Team Norway is putting up a hel of a fight for first place again. Martin Buser and Ramy Brooks have been giving him a tough time, but it’s been pretty tight lately. (And Martin Buser is minus part of his middle finger after an amputation four days before the race. Man, that guy’s tough!) DeeDee Jonrowe has been kicking butt, too, and was in 4th place last I saw. She has yet to take her mandatory 8 hour break though, so that might drop her a bit in the standings.

On the novelized version, not only was I able to shave off seven and a half hours from my original projections of Lainey’s times, but she blew through a section of trail that I originally calculated a full rest break into. In other words, she would run for 6 hours, rest for 6 hours, and reach the next checkpoint in 5 more. Instead, she ran for 8 hours and reached the checkpoint. Bam! There’s another 9 off her total. That should put her into Nome well in advance of most the rookies.

it’s kind of like balancing a checkbook. You get your statement and go over it only to discover that you made an error in the bank’s favor. Wow! Suddenly you’re richer than you thought you were!

Total for the manuscript in a whopping 93,898 words! And Lainey is officially over the hump with only 500 miles to go before Nome.

Well, this sucks. I finally get everything ready to go with the new Palmie and adjust to the fact that there’s no Dvorak layout for the keyboard driver so I’ll hunt and peck when I’m away from the Mac. I test the Documents To Go program at home and easily upload the files I’m working on, double checking that I can access them. Then I happily (and naively) pack it all up and head out the door.

Guess what?

The only reason I haven’t lost the full novel and the .pdf of my notes is because both are saved on the memory card instead of the internal memory.

I think the issue is my word processing program. It’s not Micro$haft Word, it’s Mariner Write for Mac OS X. It uses less memory than the other and saves to a compatible .rtf file. (That way when I must track changes during editing, I can use the crappier program.)

Which means I either go back to the Micro$hit program, or I just bought a $400 paperweight with my tax refund . . .

Maybe I’ll use this only for short stories, character sketches and editing. Anybody out there willing to exchange a new Palm Tungsten T5 (and wireless keyboard) for a 17” Apple Powerbook with all the bells and whistles? user bats her baby blues in an abortive attempt to appear flirtatious

In lighter news, I am SPLINT FREE Yeah, baby! Yeah! It is ooooofficial! My thumb is healed, three long months of partial immobility are over! W00T!

To celebrate, I’ve taken myself to Coffee People again to have a soy Velvet Hammer with whip cream. It’s an experiment. After the Great Redhawk Land Cruise of 2004, I arrived home with a strong Velvet craving. I had been relatively dairy free for three weeks – a good thing since I’m allergic to the stuff – and that first cup was sweet, decadent and deadly. I got sooooooo sick!

I’m hoping the soy will make a difference.

Well, since writing is out (the chapter notes are the ones that have disappeared,) and I have about an hour before needing to be at work, I’m going to shut this down. Here’s hoping it’s still here when I get home!

But still well within my monthly wordcount.

Got kind of hung up between my notes and the trail notes at the Iditarod site. Some discrepencies and all. There were originally 112 miles between Cripple and Ruby, but the trail has changed, making it 73. My outline has Lainey stopping at the midway point for a break, but that really might not be necessary. Chances are good she can make it all the way to the next checkpoint with little overtaxing of her dogs.

I posed the question to my beta reader, and just heard back. Unfortunately, I have go to work in less than half an hour.

Instead, I worked on some more character sketches for Orphan Maker to keep up my word count.

1105 words today. Easy peasy. Another checkpoint down, another trail beginning. The next little bit will be rougher than usual. There’s no way Lainey’s team can make the next checkpoint (90 miles) without stopping in the wilderness. Alone. I’m already hinting at the difference in her race as opposed to Scotch’s. Scotch wasn’t at the last checkpoint, though chances are good they would have seen one another there. Scotch prefers the outdoors to the checkpoints and has confidence in her abilities to deal with whatever comes. Lainey doesn’t. Hence, Scotch blew through Cripple to camp out, and Lainey remained at the checkpoint for a six hour layover.

She has no choice now. cackle

As to the real Iditarod, DeeDee Jonrowe is in first place already. It’s been said that it’s rare for anyone leading this soon to actually retain the position until the end. She’s never one the race, though she’s come in at the top ten many times. Wonder if her dogs will stick it out for her?

And Martin Buser is in the top ten, though he had a finger amputated last week. Man, that’s gotta hurt . . .

Rachel Scdoris, a legally blind musher from Oregon, is dead last. I hope she makes it, even if she does get the Red Lantern in Nome. Just making it to the finish line is a tremendous accomplishment . . . and that’s for fully sighted people.

Yesterday I also went over the times in and out for the rest of the race. I’ve shaved off seven and a half hours, putting Lainey in close to my original estimation. Of course, that’s subject to change during rewrites. I’ll have to go over everything with a fine toothed comb to make sure I have her posted times correct.

Another early wake up today, which is a double edged sword. In too much pain to sleep solid and forced out of bed an hour early – still, it gives me an extra hour before my writing time to get chores done. I’ve noticed a correlation between the amount of labor at work compared to the amount of sleep I get. If I exhaust myself, I sleep better than when I have days off. Go figure.

Off to write!

At least more than I was yesterday. No writing on Saturday, but I got 1015 words today.

Did them early because this is the first weekend of Portland Saturday Market. Wandered over there for a breakfast of chicken from an Egyptian place and an apple butter elephant ear.

Then I went to Powell’s bookstore. You see, I finished the second book of the Wheel of Time series and became panicky. I mean, I only have up to number four here! What’ll happen if I read through them at the speed of light? Huh? Huh? So I got numbers five and six. Would have gotten seven, but I found a book called The Hand-Sculpted House and bought it instead. We’re seriously thinking about building a Cob house when we get our property in the future.

Wow. This is a mighty link heavy post, isn’t it?

Thanks to my eagle eyed beta reader, I’ve discovered I’m about eight hours off of Lainey’s racing schedule. After close calculations, she’ll be coming in a full eight hours later than I originally wanted. Damn. That’s mighty slow actually. At least according to the Top Ten Fastest Rookies list. sigh

Must shave off eight hours and thirty seven minutes . . .

A thousand words, chapter thirty-eight finished. Quick and easy run from McGrath to Takotna and then on to Ophir checkpoints. Lainey’s handing with another rookie, Roman Spencer, who will be her primary competition for best time in by the end of the book.

On the home front, our hermit crabs have locked themselves out of their house . . . LOL! There’s an empty shell in their tank for when they decide to discard the ones they’re wearing. Sam is curled up on the driftwood piece, sort of lodged in the corner as he sleeps. And the empty shell is parked half inside the coconut shell they use for a house. We thought that Hermie had pulled it in after him to block the opening, but my wife just discovered Hermie snoozing by the water dish. Seems whoever moved the furniture last night really screwed things up! Heh.

Last time I took a nap I had every intention of getting another thousand words in when I got up. I don’t think I’m going to try it today. Maybe that’ll get me going, but I’ve started rereading Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, and am becoming engrossed anew. (I gave up after the seventh book because I got sick and tired of having to reread the entire series when a new book came out . . . so much real time had passed between new installments that I forgot half the characters or what they were supposed to be doing when I last read them.)

And all that. After yesterday’s nap, I was confronted with my wife’s homework assignment. No, I didn’t do it for her. But I am one of her resources. I know the computer programs better and am a research junkie. So I helped her with a layout for one of her papers. By the time that was finished, the odds of actually getting writing done were minimal.

So, today, I didn’t take a break. Finished the last of chapter thirty-seven, and started thirty-eight. 2090 words total. I’m ahead of schedule for March and still about 2k behind for the year. I should get another 2k tomorrow since I work graveyard. Don’t know that I’ll get anything truly done on Saturday, however.

And I got the house vacuumed! Yay me!