Ups and Downs

Well, it was a weekend of highs and lows. Pictured above is one of the highs.

Sheridan (third from this end) earned his Wolf rank in Cub Scouts and was rightfully proud. We had gotten a late start on some of his projects, but he's a sharp kid and managed to get them all done in time. Our main job as parents is keeping him focused. The banquet itself went on for a long time, and the kids were practically in rebellion by the time we left but I really couldn't blame them. Rowan especially had had enough. She was very, very good through the first two hours and forty five minutes, but we smelled a mutiny brewing from her direction towards the end and got out of there.

And Rowan really has been doing well lately. She has been more verbal, and starting to pick up on some things that we have been working on her with for a very long time. She's been having good days, and generally been in a good mood.

Then this happens.

Yep, that's a hurt little Stinkerbell who isn't sure what's going on but knows she doesn't like it. She fell off her computer stool and broke her elbow on the hard floor. I got an inkling it might be bad when she didn't stop saying ow after the first ow, then started crying.  She's usually tough as nails and shrugs off bumps and bruises as just everyday occurences. She kept looking at he elbow and saying "All gone! All gone", which is her way of saying "Make it stop" or "No more". She wanted me to kiss it and make it better, and I tried, but of course that didn't work either so Dad let her down as well. Karla bundled her off to the emergency room, where they spent the next four hours. The kiddo that returned home was not very happy.



She's now in a splint that she hates because it won't let her use her right hand, so she keeps trying to take it apart and get it off. Tomorrow we'll take her in to an orthopedic person and see if they want to put it in a cast. Poor girl, she's been getting good at taking care of certain things lately and I'm worried that this will set her back because she won't be able to do them anymore while she's one handed.

We also have to get Karla's car fixed because her taillights stay on when she turns the car off and runs down her battery. So we'll drop it off at the dealership tomorrow. We also have to get my new braces fitted, so that's another item we will have to squeeze in while trying to get Rowan to the next doctor.

Needless to say, I haven't done much more writing.

Oh well, it's a new week folks. So there's still plenty of time for things to get better.

Right?

Weekend Update (Sort of)

I slept in today, after staying up late and working on a scene from Argiope.

I had skipped ahead and decided to tackle the scene immediately AFTER the hero and heroine finally get together, and he is laying there feeling like the luckiest man alive but wondering if she has lost her mind. Yeah, he has a few self esteem issues....ones that aren't helped by the fact that he feels a bit like a third wheel when the bad guys try to kill him and the heroine sort of handles things herself. So I figured I would use the scene to give a glimpse of the lady protagonist's feelings about things since most of the time she is sort of a cypher.

Anyways, the scene is written and I think that after much labor, second guessing, and rewriting that it finally turned out decent.

Tonight is Sheridan's blue and gold banquet for cub scouts, so I'm attempting to bake a cake. I've baked many a cake in the past but this is a new GFCF cake mix that I don't have a lot of confidence in. We'll just have to see how it turns out as well. I hope it does, and I hope he has a good time. I know I went to one of these when I was a kid in scouts, but I don't remember it...probably because I was a hyperactive kid bored out of his skull and didn't pay a bit of attention to the proceedings. I have my doubts over how long Sheridan is going to remember this as well.

Not a lot else to report this weekend. I'm just kind of chillin and thinking about things. We'll see if I can keep doing that without spraining anything.

Enjoy the weekend, folks!

So Friday is Upon Us

So Friday is here, and the weekend looms...

I have managed to get some writing done, but it's "chaos" writing. It's parts of Argiope that may or not ever be used because I wrote ahead of the point I'm currently stalled at in the story itself. One of my proofreaders (Charlie) is of the opinion that I'm stalling out because I will soon be getting to the point where my protagonist finally works up the courage to make a move on the woman he's been mooning over, and I'm still not confident in my ability to handle that well. Who knows? Maybe she's right.

So far, the extra scenes I've written either take place before or immediately after that point. Now I HAVE actually figured out how I'm going to handle the all important scene, and I've even bounced it off a proofreader and my wife to see if it would garner the female seal of approval. They think I've found the right way to handle it, as it allows the scene to be handled completely from the male POV but it doesn't turn into a litany of Adam simply going down a checklist of Olivia's physical features and admiring them. It even has an element of humor, with a later injection of danger and action to go with it. So I think I've got it.

Now I just need to write it. Easier said than done...because it's still romance and the twelve year old inside me is still screaming "COOTIES!!!!!!!"

Sigh. It ain't easy being a guy.

On other fronts, I have actually got some things done this week and the house is better for it. Cabinets have been straightened out, laundry has been sorted, and the stuff that has been covering the floor of our walk in closet in a foot thick pile is now piled out in my bedroom, waiting to be sorted and put away or thrown away. So things are better. I have a repairman coming next week to fix an AC duct that the raccoon had tore up, so that's been dealt with as well.

All this crossing stuff off of checklists is getting scary. I'm not used to that.

Oh well...

Have a good Friday folks, and stay safe out there!

Sweet Dreams =/

So I dreamed I was back in school last night. I was sitting in my desk, surrounded by people I might know better if I came to class more often, and listening to the teacher explain that the projects worth half our grade were due today. As I thought about it in doomed silence, I sort of remembered her mentioning this project at the beginning of the semester. So now I realized I had blown it yet again, and would soon be the only fifty year old high school student in America.

Then my teeth started falling out.

Yep, I sat there at my desk, and realized one of my teeth was loose. I gave it a brief wiggle and the thing came right out in my hand. As I stared at it in numbed bemusement, another fell out in my mouth and I spit it into my palm next to it's mate. I pulled two more free before the teacher asked me in a sharp tone what I was doing. I swiftly stuffed my liberated molars and cuspids into my pocket and mumbled, "Nothing."

She told me it was time to stand up and give my oral report in front of the class.

I wondered if I could possibly bullshit my way through this, but then realized I had no idea what the report was supposed to be about. Was it a book report? A report on government? History? I racked my brain as I stood and shuffled towards the front of the class...trying to remember what class this was anyways. I had been skipping it so much I had forgotten the subject. Not to mention I could feel my other teeth hanging loose in my gums, ready to fall loose when I started talking.

So I stood in front of a class full of young strangers, with a mouth full of loose teeth, and wondering what the hell I was supposed to say. Mercifully, that's when I woke up.

Yeah, my mental life is in great shape.

So, absent anything major to report other than a little more work that I may or may not keep done on Argiope, that's about it. Oh, and I did a bunch of laundry.

All this excitement is killing me.

Oh well, have a good Thursday folks. It feels like spring is upon us!

A Different Approach

So I'm going to try a different approach to break my mental logjam on Argiope.

I'm going to skip ahead and write scenes that I know are going to occur, and worry about tying them back in later. That way work is getting done, and I will also have more time to figure a way forward between where I am and the scene that takes place later. I have never tried anything like this before, but I guess it can't hurt. It just doesn't come natural to me. I usually (okay, always) start a story at the beginning and work my way forward till I reach the point that I can slap "The End" on. (okay, I never actually write "The End" either)

I guess we'll just have to see how this works.

One reason for this is that I've been spending too much time lately brainstorming and not enough time putting my fingers to the keys. And the problem with brainstorming is that it can kind of take on a life of it's own and then you find out you haven't actually typed anything in a while. So one of the main goals here is to put my fingers to the keyboard and start producing verbage.  I'm just going to have to make myself put words on the Word processor program at least once a day...and for now those words are going to have to be part of Argiope.

So I'm going to jump ahead and start working on a scene between Adam, Olivia, and a young member of the enemy faction who finds himself forced to ally with them as they have do deal with a large arachnid that has joined them in a darkened movie theater. It's the scene I'm "seeing" at the moment, so why  not write it while it's fresh in my head?

Oh well, we'll see how this new fangled process works...even though doing new things makes me kind of grouchy.

Happy Humpday, folks!

Another Three Day Weekend Passes

I made it.

Without warning, some nutball decided we should have a school holiday in honor of our Presidents so I found myself on the receiving end of another three day weekend. Seriously...do these guys really need more honoring? They already got the job and the title. Nobody is going to call ME Mr. President for the rest of my life. I'm just going to get remembered as that grouchy old guy who keeps trying to get out of paying allowances.

Is THAT fair?

Anyways, I survived this assault on my sanity and now look forward to a semi-peaceful day. It isn't a Monday or Friday, where I get the bulk of my writing done, but I'll take what I get. I might can find my kitchen this morning, and get a little writing done at Starbucks. I'm due a little peace and quiet.

I've got a couple new ideas for Argiope, and I'll see if I can make them work better. I'm thinking of combining two scenes...one a romance scene, and the other an attack by the main characters nemesis...and setting it in a darkened movie theater. It would make an interesting scene, and might even shorten a book that is already reaching it's 80,000 word mark. I need to get this thing done sometime, and I just don't write fast enough to crank out Stephen King sized tomes.

So things are progressing, even if it's in fits in starts.

Now I just need to eat all this snack food I have inadvertently stocked the house with over the weekend so I can go back on my diet. Sigh, the perils of trying to de-kingsize yourself. It ain't easy folks.

Have a Happy Tuesday out there, folks!

A Late Night Equals A Late Morning.

I stayed out till 2 AM on a Writer's Night Out with Cherri Galbiati and Diane Driver last night, and needless to say I didn't just bound out of bed in my usual wide eyed and bushy tailed manner. So my blog is late. Sorry about that.

Anyways, we had a great time and talked about our current projects and encouraged each other to keep our chins up and to carry on in the tough field of writing. We discussed book covers, titles, pricing and other things that we have learned all affect the success of a book. Much caffeine and many hot fudge sundaes were consumed, and a good time was had by all.

So this week my goal is to break the mental logjam I'm fighting on Argiope, and get to going forward with that at a better clip. As I explained last night,  I have the first sixty percent of the book written, and I know how the last part between eighty percent and a hundred percent is supposed to go. It's just getting through this valley between sixty percent and eighty percent thats giving me trouble. It's sort of a slow part of the book, and I'm bogging down in it. It's the part where lots of conversations are going on and lots of things are finally getting explained. And the main character finally has time to breath and try to figure out what he is going to do about the attractive female he's been thrown together with. Since I swore that I would tell any romance from the male point of view, he will naturally have to consider and dismiss the clubbing her on the head option.

Oh well, one other thought...

Has anybody written a superhero/ zombie book yet? Think Batman in the zombie apocalypse. Meh, now that I actually printed that out I can see what a dumb idea it is... Welcome to the life of a writer.

Have a good week, folks!

Zombified Weekend

So now I'm thinking zombies.

It doesn't mean I will actually break down and try to write a zombie story, but it increases the odds. Since talking about it earlier, all I've been thinking is zombie apocalypse scenarios. Now the funny thing here is that I've haven't really read any zombie genre literature, so I really have no idea what is expected by the readers of this genre. It might be worth a look though. I think I'll buy a couple of zombie kindle books for my laptop and just see what this genre is all about. I'll have to figure out what the popular titles are and see what's popular with the fans.

So far I'm picturing these three rednecks riding down the road in a couple of trucks and trying to make their way to some safe area they heard about on their CB radio. One of them has his recently zombified girlfriend duct taped in the back of his truck because he can't just bring himself to shoot her yet. I know, I know....its' stupid but that's just the way things work when I'm suddenly playing around with new ideas. I may never use any of them, but sometimes a good one that I can use will creep in there.

Oh well, I'm going to be busy all weekend, so this is it till Monday for the blog. I'll be gone to family get togethers and stuff...and thinking about zombies.

I might also buy a new BBQ grill this weekend as well. That would be kind of nice. I've felt kind of "unequipped" since I threw out my old grill. It's been a long time since I made smoked brisket.

Anyways, I hope everybody has a great weekend and I'll see you Monday.

So, I Slept In Again

It's Friday, which means I have the option of going right back to bed after packing Rowan's breakfast and lunch for school. This time I went ahead and did that. I figured a few extra hours of sleep wouldn't do me any lasting harm...especially after I had been so good all week. Now I just need to make sure it doesn't become a habit.

I've been slowly plodding away at Argiope...less than a thousand words a day...but I have made progress. All I can say is that I think there is a good story in there somewhere, but this manuscript is going to need some major revisions.

I've also been doing some research. If I am going to stay in the fantasy/action/horror field, then I realized I needed to at least be a little more aware of what's going on in the market out there. Vampires are big, but I don't think that is going to come as a surprise to anybody. On the other hand, zombies seem to be getting bigger too. I hadn't realized they were so  popular. It seems that many monsters have their own little genre nowadays, and I'm not really writing stories in those genres. I might ought to at least try one or two, just to see how that works.

Of course, I'm an old purist so my vampires would most likely be evil, blood sucking, ancients who view humanity as self corralled cattle. ... or maybe they'll just be ticks in expensive suits... whatever, it's not a genre I'm up to date on at all so any attempt I made in that genre might be doomed. Zombies on the other hand...

Hmm...the whole zombie apocalypse, or the threat thereof, is a scenario that offers a great breadth of possibilities and situations for stories. Hmmm.... I would still need to read some of what is currently popular to see what the tastes of zombie fans run to. Oh well, more research.

Happy Friday folks...only a few more  hours till liberation!