make it through the mill.  Four more to go before I reach a stage I actually have to write.  Here’s hoping I can overcome the lassitude of the year, huh?

I hope, anyway.

Went through the first five chapters of On Azrael’s Wings.  My wife so smartly reminded me yesterday that even twenty minutes of attention to my writing is better than nothing. Here I’ve been holding out for a good chunk of time to concentrate, and getting nowhere when the hours didn’t materialize.

The reason I’m avoiding the new story and the two stalled stories?  Because I ain’t got nothing out there!  On Azrael’s Wings at least has the benefit of needing only nine new scenes and editing through the last half of the book.  It’s the only project closest to completion that I have right now.

Lester’s still doing great.  Most of the auction stuff is away.  Another round of applause for each and every one of you who donated money, bid at the auction, or simply wrote sympathetic emails to us.  They were all fantastic.  I couldn’t ask for a better bunch of people to be there for us.  Thank you!

(And I just discovered my caps shift doesn’t work with my iJournal on this iBook. Bummer. I’ll update at the website.)

LOTS been happening here. Mostly work. But this next month is supposed to be slower than molasses so I’ll have some extra days off. Not good for the paycheck, but fantastic for the RA recuperation and writing!

Obviously, from the first paragraph, you can deduce that I have an iBook now. It’s a few months old (my wife’s. We replaced hers,) but fine and dandy for me! I’ve actually gotten writing done after work!! WOOT! Part of my problem has been an inability to wander off to Coffee People and write—my new Palmie, while nifty in the extreme, doesn’t have a Dvorak keyboard driver for the keyboard. No Dvorak, no type, no writing. It’s been the cause of a year’s worth of dead time. By the time I arrive home at work, I get too comfortable and nothing gets done unless it’s my day off.

That’s changed, though. When I’m positive I’m going to get off work on time (or early! SQUEE!) I bring the iBook to work and hit the coffee shop on the way home. It hasn’t doubled my production by any means, but 500 words two or three days a week is better than none.

Right now I’m drinking an organic mocha with a touch of cayenne pepper in it. Not at Coffee People, my favorite place to be, but at the Urban Grind in the Pearl District. Yesterday I went to CP after work but it was packed (misty rainy weather brings out the coffee drinkers.) So no writing cuz I went home. Today’s a day off, and I figured I’d check out the local hot spots with wi-fi and get some writing done.

Rewrites on Born of Silence are going well now. I’ve added over ten chapters of new material and have three more new scenes to write before another spate of editing only. I’d like to get these three scene written this weekend (or the lion’s share anyway) so I can whip through the edits. A couple of weeks ago I blasted through four thousand words in a day.

Castle Walls is up for edits, too. I’m nearly through with them. The publisher wants to add a paragraph or two at one point and I’ve been mulling over the options there. This WILL be done and sent back by Friday. I’m not sure what happens next as far as editing goes. It’s due out sometime this summer.

After that, who knows. On Azrael’s Wings is still calling, but I think I may reread Iditarod. My publisher may be interested in it and it seems that a lot of folks are asking about a book.

Went to see Varrakai!, a Cirque du Soleil act here in town. Very nice. We sat third row to the side. The set was marvelous and the acts were terrific. Lots of aerial acts, though. Had I really paid attention, I would have gotten seats further back. We ended up with cricks in our neck from constantly looking skyward.

What else?

Went bowling for the first time in a dozen years. It was a department outing. Only went for two games before it got too much for me. My highest score was 108. I would have done better, but the ol’ body was starting to rebel. My thighs were killing me and it messed up my already messed up foot for a couple of days, but things are back in place and muscles no longer aching. The boss let me go home early the day after and I slept a solid three hours that afternoon!

My wife is sicker than a dog right now. She went to Seattle to visit her sister and niece. The kid’s sick and passed it along. The wife spent last night on the couch in the living room to avoid infecting me; she was up and down all night. I’ve spent the morning in the bedroom with the iBook and decided to get out of the house for a bit. (She had a fever last night but it may have dropped some today.)

All right. Enough dithering. Time to get some writing done. I’ll try to post a bit more regularly, at least to mention word counts. (Promise, jrosestar!)

Spent the morning updating my website. In particular, correcting the information and links on the pages about my books, adding a review on Tiopa (thanks, Elaine!) and checking the links in my sidebar.

Tonight’s Mother’s Night. Tonight is when the membrane between the worlds of the living and the dead are at their finest. Tonight is the night for staying in, reconnecting with the living and loving members of your family, and enjoying memories of those who have gone before us. My wife and I plan on a nice candlelit dinner, lots of closeness, and a walk through the apartment building to see what our neigbors have done for decorations this year.

Technically, you’re not supposed to work on this day, but I think it all revolves around your definition of ‘work.’ I’ve already been working on the website. I plan on getting dishes done today, and maybe getting the last of the lights up in the living room. And a nap. Can’t forget the nap! LOL!

I’ve the next week off. If I do any writing, I think I’ll return to On Azrael’s Wings edits. Or maybe I’ll reread Iditarod. I know I’ve said I wouldn’t publish that one, but I’ve gotten a LOT of comments on it . . . I’ll have to go back over it to see, though.

To my friends, stay safe tonight. Spend a little extra time with each other. I’ll be online later this evening.

To my readers, take care. Tomorrow is Yule (a.k.a. Solstice,) a whole ‘nother holiday!

Of course. Busy day, but I spent a good portion of it doing cleaning stuff . . . which left me alone with my thoughts for a bit. Some story changes are in the works.

Orphan Maker: Got a handle on the next chapter. I’ll have to reread the last to make certain where I’m going with it. Not sure whether the next scene will be Loomis’ or Gwen’s POV. Gwen’s is due.

On Azrael’s Wings: Got a handle on the next scene there. Can almost see and hear and smell it. Should be worth another five hundred to a thousand words on the rewrites.

Born of Silence: Some character adjustments to go with the plot adjustments. Less nicey-nice with Jenna, more hardcore street bitch. She won’t be a blood thirsty killer, but she’ll be primed to become one should the proper circumstances arise. (Which they ultimately will.) Streetname change for Jenna. Her initials are J.D. and she’s known as that in the first draft. J.D. = Jack Daniels = Whiskey. There it is – she’s known on the streets as Whiskey.

Kou Itten: A story I haven’t mentioned here much. It’s a cyberpunk genre that was half written before I began this blog. It’s stalled out on me twice now, but I think I’ve finally found a way to complete the second half of the book and tie it all together. I’ll use the same format as before except reverse the character POV’s. (The first half is from my netrunner’s POV.)

So . . . no writing done, but lots of brainstorming. Not a bad day.

I’m hungry, but there’s nothing I want to eat.

I’m bored, but there’s nothing I want to do.

I’ve opened three different stories and can’t seem to get started on any of them. sigh

Orphan Maker is about two thirds complete. Editing for On Azrael’s Wings is about a third done with at least six more scenes to add to the mix. My Slow Movin’ short, ‘Sneakers!,’ is at a natural pause and though Slow has a sweet little thing to flirt with, it ain’t going anywhere.

Crap . . .

2323, a nice round number. . . LOL!

Chapter fifteen of Orphan Maker is complete, with major angst and mystery for the two MCs. And chapter fourteen of the new and improved version of On Azrael’s Wings is complete with new scenes as the Third Army makes its way into the city of Diosa to be billeted at the governor’s barracks.

I’m now off to run errands and see about buying a network hard drive to story files on . . . my Mac hard drive is almost bursting since I got my iPod . . . I need more storage now!

After writing my one thousand words yesterday and doing chores and the like, i became unaccountably bored. For some bizarre reason, I opened up On Azrael’s Wings and spent the evening reading through my edits (which stop at chapter fourteen.) Got a wild hair this morning and have already completed 1169 words on that novel.

Cool.

Now I still have a thousand words to go on Orphan Maker. I definitely want to finish the next chapter. I don’t know if I’ll continue writing today or begin reading Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Choices, choices!

And a decent restart on chapter fourteen. As stated before, my initial reasons to go back over the edited material was to alter Azrael’s parentage. Having done that, I can see where I’ll need to do at least one other pass through to beef up what’s going on within the characters. The tale starts with a very stern and demanding Azrael, and I really need to give the reader a bit more to go on when first encountering her.

I failed on fifty percent of last year’s goals. Here’s hoping I’ll hit at least seventy-five percent of this year’s . . .

1. Write / edit 1000 words a day.

2. Write 6 short stories.

3. Finish edits to On Azrael’s Wings and submit the manuscript somewhere.

4. Finish writing the Iditarod novel.

5. Edit and rewrite the Sanguire novels and submit the first manuscript to Tor.

Wish me luck!

I’ve also gone through every character entry in my fantasy notebook to reflect the changes in Azrael’s family. Tomorrow I’ll catch up te where I’m at in the rewrites. From there, I dig back into the edits, hopefully to finish soon. (Not that I know what to do with the manuscript once it’s finished! LOL!)

When not reading, I’ve been contemplating upcoming edits of the Sanguire. One of the things I considered doing was rewriting the books by character POV. It would mean going through the books a dozen times, but I hoped to get a bit more depth into each individual character by focusing start to finish on one individual.

Somewhere during this time, I came across a link to the Snowflake Process of writing a novel. It suggests literally plotting the book from each character POV to make the story line more complicated. (My apologies to whoever had this link on their website. I’ve quite forgotten where I got it from, having bookmarked it for later perusal.)

I decided to give the process a shot with my Azrael edits. One of the things I’ve never been comfortable with has been King Shonal’s belief that Azrael was a true threat to his throne. Where did he come up with the absurd notion when there were two others with much better claims than hers? What did he plan, and how did he put those plans into action?

Nothing worked as is. Azrael is no longer 4th in line to inherit the throne, and Shonal is no longer her cousin. He’s her younger half-brother, the true heir. She’s an illegitimate by-blow, nobly born into the house of her mother, and unable to claim the crown of her father. Which puts Shonal’s fears of her deciding to use her military clout into a far different light . . .

I know how Azrael feels regarding the ‘incident’ with the farm boy. I know how Ursula feels about it, as well. I’ve been at a loss, however, about how Azrael would physically respond to Ursula when next they’re together.

Hence, I’ve avoided writing for about a week.

The scene is from Ursula’s POV as she wakes the following morning. She discovers that Azrael has come to bed in the wee hours, and there she is upon waking. Had this scene been from Azrael’s POV, I don’t think there would have been as much of an issue. I could wax eloquent on her inner voice with little consequence. But she’s quite taciturn when she’s upset. How would that look to another?

I think I’ve finally broken through this. Now to semi-resolve the issue so I can move on to the next scene . . .

Polished off another 1100 words today. The new chapter thirteen is complete.

In this one, Ursula spends the afternoon alternating between being in fear of her life and worried for her mistress. Though the army left the farmstead with no bloodshed, she knows it was a mighty close thing. Night falls and the army is finally called to a halt, hasty arrangements are made for sleeping, but Azrael does not come to her body slaves. That furthers Ursula’s angst.

In the second half, Azrael approaches in the wee hours of the morn. She’s still wracking her brain in an effort to understand where the sudden urge to mutilate the innocent farm boy came from. She knows that Midia holds strong influence over her by the sheer number of years they’ve been together. But what is it about Ursula? She’s only been there about three weeks and she already holds quite a bit of sway. More angst for our stoic and aloof leader.

I should write a book. Character Torturing for Fun and Profit!

1400 words of Ursula’s response toward Azrael’s fury. Last chapter, a farm boy flirted with Ursula and Azrael did not take it well. Fortunately, she has a great amount of emotional control or there’d be one dead man to add to her long list of atrocities. Ursula now has to worry about what that means for her and the other slaves. Midia may get some of the spill over should Azrael be unable to keep her head.

And what will happen to Ursula? She accepted the flirting. She’s still new enough in her position that a capricious owner wouldn’t lose anything by tossing her to the wolves (or in this case, the army.) Or will she be whipped? Physically beaten? To top off these concerns, she knows that the worst would be to have Azrael set her aside, put her in the realm of all the ‘others’, those not welcome in Azrael’s circle of influence. As Midia has said, either you’re with Azrael or you’re not – you are nothing, not even worth the time to acknowledge.

Ursula is coming to believe she’d rather be tortured to death for her complicity than to see utter apathy in Azrael’s eyes.

In other news, graveyard tonight, which is why I got the writing done. Took me about 3.5 hours to get this far. I’ve shown some major restraint! The wife put on Shrek 2 and I didn’t even pause! HAH!

I have the next two nights off. I’ve got to do a follow up scene for this chapter from Azrael’s POV. Then I go to the next trumped up scene to see what further kind of trouble I can brew for these two.