I am going to have to redo the pdf because I missed an entire article...

But I am not doing it until later tonight or tomorrow. This is it. I am done for the year as far as I'm concerned!

I did update the html version though!

Done! Last story of the year, and Russ just arrived -- surprised to find the van here. But I am done!

We have to run out and grab a few things for tomorrow. I'll be back for a recap of the year a little later!

8069 and still going.

I also got Vision # 7 posted, so that's another piece out of the way. Found one minor problem with it right away, but I hope the rest of it is fine.

Need to post in Esther's newsgroup that it's up.

Starting count was 7350

Current -- 7605

No email from Russ yet answering my question about the van.

I did pick up a little bit around the house, which is why the writing is still slow. I need to just concentrate on this now. Maybe some music...

I fed the cats, picked up the mail, and looked at the van. I'd say it's ours all right.

Now, the last few hundred words of this story. Please let it go fast and let me be done for the year! I have the notes all worked out to the end -- though no closing line. I think I know the basics of it, though. If I could manage this in the next hour, I would be a very happy person.

I am not allowed to sleep.

If it's not the cats at the door or climbing all over me, it's the dog barking like crazy. I think she may have had reason for the seconed one, though. It looks as though our older van is parked in front of the house, which means the friend we had loaned it to a few years ago must have brought it up from Omaha.

Now, there are a few reasons why he could have done this. I know he's getting married and I assume she also has a car, and since they live at an apartment, they might not have had room for the van anymore.

Or, it might be that the odd noise Russ heard in our newer van turned out to be something serious, and he had to call and ask that they bring the Van back.

Or it might not be our van. I mean I haven't seen it in about three years, and though it looks like ours, there are quite a few of those older Astro Vans around.

The truth is that I just didn't need to wake up this way. I would like to have slept until Russ got home, but that's the way it goes. I'm up. I've taken a bath and washed my hair, which I shouldn't have done since I still need to go feed the outdoor guys. I think, in fact, that I might go take care of all of that right now, and then sit down and right the last of my words for 2001.

Odd year...

The PDF file is too large. I'm going to have to redo it.

But not right now. Later. After some sleep, or maybe not until the first or so. Right now I am preparing to retire for a few hours. Maybe quite a few, since I'll be taking some Nyquil so I survive lying down.

It was 2AM when I started work on this. It's a bit after 6AM now. I think that's enough for one night.

I have something uploading. I also have a cat asleep sitting up on my desk. And it's a quarter to six, and 3f out.

Unfortunately, the bit that's uploading is probably going to take a while. I'd be tempted to go wander off to bed anyway, though. Russ will be up soon, and I would just like to crawl in and sleep for awhile now.

At least my writing, such as it is, is done. This is the last day though! I did just go over the 700,000 mark with yesterday's writing, finally. Now it's just a matter of getting the story done, and I do have the last few notes written out, so that's not a problem.

Sleep seems like such a good idea about now...

I did it.

(Falling over dead on desk now...)

Actually, I need to go open the html files back up and make the few changes there that I saw to make on the pdf.

Normally this wouldn't be so much trouble, but I honestly have very little functioning brain left tonight. A couple of these mistakes were just stupid things on my part. Stuff I normally check before I do a pdf, like links and titles. And blank pages...

But it's working at it one more time. If it does not go right this time, I'm not doing it again until after I sleep for a few hours.

Well, I got farther this time, if that's any consolation....

Ah well. It's best if I don't go crawl into bed and wake Russ up this late, since he has to go to work today. And he doesn't need my cold anyway. So... let's give it one more try...

And now my computer is acting up and I must restart.

Can you say conspiracy to drive me crazy?

No, no. Another mistake. Deep breaths, zette. This is just too many pills and feeling miserable. You can do this...

Try again...

Argh. Very close to done and found that I had repeated one article twice and missed another one entirely...

Did I mention it's 171 pages long?

And now the final step -- converting .doc file to .pdf. Sometimes it just doesn't work. But if it does, then all I have left to do (always something more, right?) is to do the pdf TOC. If this works, I will upload it and everything else tonight so that I can have most of tomorrow (today) free. We'll see.

Wish me luck...

Hello at 3am

Well, very nearly.

I'm much closer to done with the pdf version of Vision.

I really didn't want to be doing this at the last moment when I have things I want to get done, but life interfered. It's one of the reasons I really hope that we can work ahead of the next issue now that we have people who are not tied down to moderator duties and getting articles besides. I expect articles from moderators, but it would be nice if we can get enough other people interested that we get articles to fill out several issues -- and then it won't be a last minute job, waiting for things to come in before the TOC can be put together, and all of that.

I love working on Vision, mind you. I just don't like the wait, wait, wait... oh out of time! get it done! feeling. Some of that is my own fault. I need to get on top of this better for the next issue.

Hello at 2 am

I am not feeling well. I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but I am feeling progressively worse with each day. The good news is that I very nearly have all the pdf version of Vision done. The html version is ready to go up as well. The bad news is that I haven't done anything on the pdf version, but I might be able to get that tomorrow yet.

Don't even ask about the writing. Not that I won't have the story done, because I will. I will also make the 700,000 -- barely.

In 24 hours we'll already be into the next year.

I'm not ready...

Oh look. I've manged 100 words.

To say that I am not in the best of writing moods is putting it mildly. Not a good time for this kind of problem, of course. I'm thinking, if I get moving on While the Gods Sleep that I might go ahead and finish it tonight, and write a short article tomorrow. Or, if I can time it well enough, write the last 500 words just after midnight and be done for the year. We'll see. Either way, I see no trouble with being done this year.

I still need to work on Vision. Maybe I should be doing that now instead of grumbling about everything else? Seems like a good idea...

I am very ill. I have spent the day in bed with sneezes, coughing, nose bleeds, and general grumpiness that even sent most of the cats running. I have read the first third of C.J. Cherryh's Defender, however. About time.

I am up now because I have to get work done on Vision. And some writing done. But I'm not happy about it.

I also have to feed the herds, but I'm waiting until Russ is done with his show. They make such a fuss when they realize they're about to get fed!

I am sitting here wrapped up in a blanket and grumbling. I suppose I should get to work instead.

The html version of Vision is done. Now just run everything together and format for the pdf, and then do the same for the palm.

It's cold here...

A little bit more writing and I'm done for the night...

Okay. Yes I realize that writing is not everything. It's close, mind you -- but even I have moments where I am momentarily interested in something else. Like photography, for instance.

So I'm going to change things. I'm going to have at least one hour a day where I work on something outside of writing and web work. Photography is likely to be top of the list. Reading (which won't be confined to this hour, of course) might fill the time. Photography won't be taking pictures, but working on organizing them. My collections are horribly confused right now, and I would like to be able to call up pictures I want to see without having to go hunt through dozens of boxes of disks and hope that I have the right dates...

I just made a quick check of my computer files and found 23 short stories (short being not entirely correct) to edit and put out next year. That's not bad at all. And that's just with a quick run through the files, and does not include any novels. I can think of a couple of those right off that I'd like to clean up and get out -- Such Gifts as These and Waiting for the Last Dance, although I will probably hold the last one for next years Delacorte contest.

Preparing myself for the next year is a ritual I go through every late December. It's my way of saying that I can do better, if I just put a little more effort into it. Better at a lot of things, though most often everything but writing sort of falls by the wayside. Writing drives me, and no matter how hard I try to turn my attention to something else, it always comes back to this. But every year I try a little harder and make it just a bit farther in these other goals. So, if I don't at least try, I'm not going to get anywhere at all.

Time to go redo my daily check sheet for next year...

Just a little test, removing the pic on the left.... it might look better in my regular journal that way.

Forward Motion is down. I hope this is the 'we figured out the problems and everything will be fixed by New Years' down. I really feel sympathy for the guys running that place. It's a great site, and it's lousy that it would develop trouble over the holidays. I mean there is a faint chance that these particular computer people even have family. It's rare, of course, but it could happen.

Last night I finally began to see the changes I want to make for work next year. It's not in the number of words I do so much as in when and how I do them. I need a different schedule to my life.

Early this year I said I was going to write at least 500 words each day before I started work on web sites and such. It was very nice, and I enjoyed it a lot. I don't know why I stopped. But that's going to be the first goal. Get back to putting writing first in my day, instead of holding it out like a carrot to make sure I get everything else done, and then limping through it at 3am. It means I have to admit that writing is the primary goal, not the web sites. And that's fine by me.

And other changes. Actually, I'm not going to start with writing. I'm going to start with an hour of work around the house. Feeding small useless creatures, picking up, sweeping. etc. Dishes. Get all of that out of my way so that I don't come out of my office later and feel like I've been a slug (even if I have been) because the place is a mess. I am not a good housekeeper, but I can do better than this.

But then we get back to writing and web work. Another experiment I did earlier this year was to confine web work to Wednesday-Friday, except for the occasional important info that had to go up right away. I'm going to start doing that again, too.

So, now I'm left with a couple things concerning writing to work out. Novels, short stories, rewrites and edits. Those are four different things and I believe I am going to try to schedule, on a regular day, a bit of work on each of them, with the understanding that if one piece takes off or needs to be completed, I can drop the others. So, let's say I have a schedule for a regular day that looks like this:

One hour house work
work on new novel
rewrite older piece from files
edit story/novel to go out
work on short story

And Wednesday-Friday Schedule looks like this:
One hour house work
work on new novel
web work
rewrite older piece from files
edit story/novel to go out
work on short story

All that means is that there will be less time to work on the other material on those days.

Into this will thread the stuff on Forward Motion and work for Vision. Sitting and just working on any of these projects without breaking to talk at Forward Motion would probably drive me to distraction, which sounds odd because some people would find Forward Motion a distraction. I don't. I find it a needed little break now and then.

Other plans? Yes. I plan to read more. In order to make myself keep on the nf stuff, I'm going to start doing something I did when I read the Durrants' Story of Civilization and the Cambridge Ancient History books -- write down a quote that catches my attention from each day. Those will likely go in my journal.

This year is going to be about focus. About not only working on new material, but working harder on making certain the stuff that is going out is ready to be sent. I won't be changing my hours, just making better use of them. It will probably mean less new words over all, but more material going out, which means more possible sales. And if I do enough sales... well, I can drop the web work entirely, right?

Now there's a goal. (grin)

Very nearly done with the main part of Vision. I have three articles left, two of which I have to put together. Amazing to feel this relaxed coming up on our second year of production!

Three days worth of writing left. That's good, too. Nearly done with While the Gods Sleep, such as it is, and then... what am I going to start the new year off with? (grin)

So much to think about. But it's 4am and I think I'm going to call it a night!

I have very little work left on Vision! Yay! And the last story of the year is going well enough. In fact, everything is going so well that it's making me nervous.

Or maybe... maybe that's just finally the anxiousness I feel when I know there's a new year coming up, and I get to start new things. Fun things. Rewrites of some of my better work from this year. New stories. New areas to explore. This is the first I've felt excited about the new year so far. I want to pull out older material and look for things to rework -- unfortuantely there is this rather LARGE tree in front of my file cabinets. Ah well, just as well. I do need to finish what I have in front of me, right?

But finally, I feel like I have all the fun stuff in front of me again. Maybe it's because I'm actually getting Vision done a couple days ahead of time. Maybe it's because all I do have to work on is this last useless little story. (A few good lines, I have to admit, but other than that, there's not much to it.

So, I'm off to do a few more pages for Vision and then do a little writing of my own.

And maybe start planning out the new year. Despite a miserable headache I've had all day, I think I'm actually in a really good mood now.

Hello there...

4:30 AM. I am working on Vision. I'm actually doing quite well, in fact. A couple little glitches here and there, but I've gotten at least half of the 31 articles done. I'm working on one right now that's giving me a little trouble, but I think that's mostly because of the hour, not the article.

In fact, most of what I have left now are the regular articles -- a couple will just be copys from the last issue (like Guidelines) with the out of date parts cut. Good News is going to be a trick to do if the boards aren't running properly, but I'll manage something. I sure hope it gets up and going soon!

I did write a little over 500 words tonight. I'm feeling odd doing so few words. I think it's making me uneasy. It's not natural.

On the other hand, look at all the work I've gotten done for Vision.

Okay, that's it for my break...

The library web site is posting already. Yay! I think I will do some writing for a bit and then throw myself into work on Vision.

Last night, when I was feeling really awful, I took a little notebook into the bathtub with me and hand wrote a bunch of stuff. I would have taken the Visor, but I couldn't find the batteries we just bought for it. So now I have to type yesterday's work in before I can go on to today's work. This is why I don't do handwritten material any more -- it is a waste of my time to have to redo the exact same words in a new format. Oh, I might change a few here and there, but not enough to make it seem like a new draft.

And we'll not even talk about how awful my handwritting is and has always been, and how much fun it's going to be to try and figure out what these scratches actually mean...

Later...

I slept for a couple hours, actually. Russ had to get me up with promise of food. So off we went, I ate and now I'm stuffed and sleepy. I'm sure this isn't right.

I will get the library web site done, then go on to either Vision or a bit of writing.

End of the year is so close! I feel like it's just hovering out there, ready to leap on me with an 'ah ha! You screwed up!'

I still feel lousy. I am doing web work today, though. The one serious problem with my version of Front Page (which I understand they've corrected in the new one) is that you have to wait for something to upload before you can work on something else. And it often takes a LONG time for that to upload.

I might end up taking a nap and coming back later...

I have some library web site things to do, and then some work on Vision tonight. Getting near that due date! I'm looking forward to having it all up and running!

As far as my own writing... Well, I'm just drifting toward the end of the year. Just as well that I'm not rushed to get anything drastic done there. I don't think I would have the energy to handle it.

Post this, take a short rest while the other stuff is uploading, and be back later...

We appear to be back.

If Ihad anything interesting to say, I'd post it right now. But I don't, so I'll just go crawl off in a corner somewhere for awhile...

(Cold/flu/general yuckies...)

I wrote a very short piece for Holly Lisle's Winterfest Tale at Forward Motion. That was kind of my little holiday gift to myself -- a short piece of fluff, and don't worry about it. Only 835 words on my part, a little more than 900 with the opening that Holly wrote.

It's cold here. Even all bundled up, I'm still cold. I like the snow, but I wish it wouldn't get quite this cold.

We're drawing closer to New Year's eve and the last writing for the year. It's been a very good year for me, and I'm reluctant to let it go.

But then I wonder what will happen next year... and I can't wait to find out.

Oh the weather outside is fluffy
And my cats are surely scruffy
So since we've no where to go
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

Actually, we did get some lovely flurries through most of the afternoon. Nice big white flakes, but not a lot of them. It was rather nice.

All in all, I had a very lovely day. We went to see my parents at the hospital, where my mother has been for the last week or so. Then we came back home and made a quick dinner, opened presents, and just generally had a quiet day. I napped after dinner for some time. I've still got a sore throat and itchy ears, and it caught up with me.

But I am having a nice day. Wish it didn't have to end so soon!

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate, and a good day to everyone else. I am off to bed a couple hours early. I've written a bare 500 words again, and it was like pulling teeth tonight -- but only because I wanted to just do other things. To go have fun. To read journals, and post things, and generally not work.

But I did work some. I had forgotten to put out a very important piece of work for the city, and I finished it up (It was half done, and I needed something they never sent me, so I forgot about it...), and sent it off. There, that's done.

And now off to bed. I'll be back late today or early tomorrow. Have a good time.

I'm saved!

I have been told that the short story I just finished can be up to 15,000 words long. Right now it's sitting at 16,712. I can edit it down that far with no problem at all. In fact, I can edit it down far enough that I can add in a few more details here and there, and still come in under the count.

She is also talking about a short run novel...



Oh and if you would like to read my holiday story/poem for the year it's up at my journal web site right now: Zette's Days of Writing

No, I have not written a thing yet. But I will. What a nice day this has been!

Happy Holidays!

I wrote barely 500 words tonight. I did very little work on Vision. And now... bed! I'm tired and this looks like a very good time to head for bed since programs are crashing, and I would have to restart the entire computer anyway.

So, off to sleep... I hope!

I did some shopping today. Not much, and I basically only bought presents for the kittys and dog. I wanted to buy something for Russ, but I could't get rid of him. (grin) We bought stuff or Christmas Dinner (which is not much for just the two of us), and we just generally had a good day. It feels like it should be hours later than it is.

Forward Motion is still down. I feel sorry for the poor people trying to fix this. I know how annoyed I used to get when Russ had to work on the holiday-times that everyone else had off, and I imagine that some of them have families they'd rather be with as well. I hope they get done soon and get to spend All of tomorrow and Christmas Day with their people, even if it's not a holiday they celebrate.

I need to start back to work on While the Gods Sleep. I managed to write out some notes for it, and I think I can at least get it moving aways again. I'm not worried about word counts -- I've already managed over 40,000 this month, so even if I dropped down to 100 words a day, I'd be fine. (grin) Not that something like that is likely to happen.

I did some nice work on Vision last night as well.

But now I'm going to go watch some Man from UNCLE!

With Blood of the Clan completed, I had a couple options for finishing out my night. I could do nothing. I could watch TV. I could read... which almost won out. (I'm reading Pascal's Provincial Letters, and it's fascinating...)

Or I could work on the next issue of Vision.

Which I did. I have about 1/3rd of it done, and it's going together very well. I need some info off the Forward Motion Boards, which are down at the moment, so I'm calling it quits for the night now. Well, not quite quits. I want to set up a few of the pages for the pdf version as well, but that will only take a few minutes. And then I'm going to read more out of th Folio Society's Christmas Book, which they put out last year. I had planned on having that one done by Christmas, but then the new books came in... I shouldn't let myself get side tracked like that.

4:30 AM. Time to do this stuff and get to bed!

But it has been a good day as far as work is concerned.

16,712 Complete!

That is way too long, of course. But this draft is done. I'm glad.

Yay! It's done!

Hello I'm up to 15,166 words and almost done with this one scene. Then just the closing pieces left.

I think I'm going to make it!

I'm going to try to finish Blood of the Clan tonight. There is not that much left to do. Starting count is 14,092.

About one and a half scenes to go, but the way I've been writing that could be another 10,000 words.

I like this story. I'll be glad to have it done and be able to play with it.

I'm waiting for Russ to get home, and we will decorate the tree tonight, finally. It's nice to have it sitting in here, of course, but decorated would be so much better.

We had our first snow today. Not enough to really cover all the grass, but still better than that dead brown that was everywhere before this. The outdoor cats are... startled. My new coat is good, by the way. Prior to this I wore only my levi jacket out. Amazing how much warmer a real one is. Need gloves, though. My fingers got cold and my hands still hurt.

On the 20th I only did 503 words on Blood of the Clan and 1511 yesterday. I am right down to the finaly scenes, and for some reason slowed down -- that doesn't happen to me very often. I might have them written tonight, and then I get to try and figure out how to cut this beast back to a reasonable size. I can think of one subplot that can go if I need to, but I think I'll talk to the editor before I do anything that drastic. (grin)

But I am going to get to work.

Russ should be back soon. That wil stop me from having to actually work, right?

Starting count: 14,092

The Lost (Wax) Morning

There are certain times when one should just cover up one's head and not come out. I've long held the feeling that morning in general is one of those times. Today proved me right.

Russ had a doctor's appointment this morning. He also needed to take Cricket back to the vet for her check up. He could not catch her, so he went on to his appointment. His hand appears to be fine, but it took two long hours there, and he came home in not a great mood. This was about 11am. At this point he came into the bedroom and woke me up. Not a good thing under any circumstances. Then he asked how I was feeling and if I should got to the doctor.

My immediate answer was no, no. NO. He tried to ask me questions. I was less than coherent and rather growly.

He left the room. And I heard a thunk and a curse and knew what had happened.

I like candles, but I can't burn them. I forget them, the cats are dangerous, etc. So sometimes, just to get the scent, I sit them on the floor vents...

Russ kicked it. Wax splattered straight up the wall and across the floor.

I went and got Cricket and shoved her in the cage and sent him on to the vet with her. Then I began scrapping wax off of everything.

Let me tell you about this particular wall. It's covered with a lovely small print of beige flowers an off white swirls. Subtly raised flowers and swirls. I spent the next two hours scrapping green wax off of beige flowers and white swirls. And oak woodwork. And the venetion blind and window underneath it.

Oh, and the floor. The off white floor with subtly inlaid beige flowers...

I have discovered why I hate craftwork. I hate sitting there doing that kind of repetitious work. I would, truly, rather be writing. Though it did give me a better feel for the work that archaeologists do. (Let's scrape this little bit off! Oh wow, look! More little beige flowers! Isn't that wonderful?)

I fear there shall be subtle hints of green on the wall and the floor for a long time. Oh, and did I mention that this is scented wax? Or that it melted all over the power supply for the answering machine and it's now making an odd whistling noise?

Oh, and the vet wasn't in, by the way. So Cricket came home, very pissed at having had to go for a ride...

Is there a reason for mornings?

Russ skipped the party to come home and make sure I was alright. I was feeling pretty lousy, so he went up to see my mother in the hospital, and he brought back a new tree stand, and a cute little teddy bear 'season Greetings' wreath. We have the tree up in my office, but not decorated yet. It's a beautiful tree, but very large!

I'm feeling a bit better tonight -- enough so that I will do some writing. I'm not sure how far I'll go. I've taken some medication for the problem, and there's every chance it will make me too tired to go on. We'll see

Did I mention the 'short story' is now 12078 words. This is not going to work...

But I'll ge the rest of the story told and then worry about how to tell it in half the words.

As I laid down to sleep last night... this morning, actually, I got a horrendous pain up through the left side of my neck, face, and ear. Hours later and it still aches. I am going back to bed. If I write at all today, it will likely be just a few hundred words on my visor, done from bed.

Russ has his company holiday party tonight over in Wayne, and may stay at his place there tonight. I decided to put the tree up on Solstice Eve. Providing I'm still alive then.

You know, it occurs to me that I can probably rework my daily journal so that this blogger takes the place of the usual entry. Hmmm.... three screen frame, and change this to just a plain text.... I'll think about that for January.

Now, sleep for a while longer and hope that I can wake up feeling better.

I should add that the count for the day is 2252 words. I am, I'm glad to say, heading into the climactic battle now. I suspect this might actually end short of a novella...

The headache got much worse before it finally began to ease again. I worked through it, though not well. I suspect that I'll have a lot of editing to do on that part, but for the moment, I have an ending count for the day. 12,078. It's a good count, even if it does mean this story is way too long.

Ah well. If I can't have fun, what good is this?

Quitting early tonight though. I need to rest and hope that this headache eases.

I wrote a bit over 1000 words earlier today, and then went off to do other things for awhile. I'm only now getting back to the compuer. Unfortunately, a bit of a headache is going to slow me down. This is still a vestige of the sore throat stuff, but I think it's all starting to clear up, so I'm happier.

Not that it will hurt for me to slow down. I'm just so excited about this story that I want to fly with it. I want to just leap in and not come back out until dawn.

Today's starting count: 9826

Current Count: 10,838

I had a good run of writing last night. My ending count was 9826, with a total of 4274 new words on the story. Yes, the story has gotten out of hand. Yes, I will be editing it back into something reasonable.

The cards are working very well. I even sat down and wrote out a few for While the Gods Sleep and I think I'll be able to move ahead on it too.

I think I need to find a set of these card dividers with numbers on them. Yeah. That way I can do novels by chapter. Ooooh... I like that idea....

Now, I still need a plot for next year's first story...

Ah well, still a few days to go before I have to throw myself into anything that drastic, right? And in the mean time, I'm almost up the main part of the story now. Did I mention that it's already over 9,000 words long...?

Off to do some work!

Hello...

Starting count: 5552

Currnet count: 8842

Good run of writing, though I'm really tired out now! You can see my journal entry for the new way I've set up doing note cards. Journal. Check the entry for the 18th if it's not on the front page.

I like this story. It's too long and I'm going to be editing like mad when I get through with the first write, but it's wonderful when stories move like this.

I think I'm going to call it a night, though, and take my note cards and myself off to a nice, warm bath...

Okay, I didn't go back to bed. I did the web work, and then I thought I ought to do a little more on Vision, and then next thing I know, it's 6 PM.

It's probably just as well. I would have been miserable in bed, and this way I feel as though I've gotten a few things done.

But now Russ is home and we're going out for a little bit. Not long. And then I'll be back to write something, I'm sure...

Don't expect to see much of me today. Feeling a bit more ill, and just worn down, so I'm feeding guys, checking email, and going back to bed. I will take the visor and keyboard with me, and do a little work there if I feel like it. If not, I'll be up later to get my writing and journal done.

Hate being ill this time of year...

I had no intention of writing this much, but I'm now up to 5552 words on the story. A bit over 2000 words for the night. It's a good strong story that can write itself even when I feel this lousy.

Nearly 4:30 AM. I'm heading for bed.

Thump...

I have not been well today. That translates to very few words. I've just made 500, which is my absolulte minimum for a day, and I'm about to call it quits.

I hope tomorrow is better...

And thank you to Sheila Viehl for the holiday gift of getting rid of the advertisement at the top of the page!

I was up at 8 AM again today, and stayed up until a bit after noon. Then I napped, got back up at two, decided it wasn't worth it, and went back to bed again for a few hours. The sore throat is getting the better of me, I fear.

I did print out a bunch of copies of the holiday poem to send out. It will be posted on my site on Christmas Eve, or maybe a day or two later. It proved to be prophetic -- it's all about some little teddy bears facing the prospect of a Christmas without snow. And we have not had a single flake in more than a month, while temps have been up in the 50's. They're saying we might finally get some snow on Sunday, but I'm not holding my breath.

As you can tell, I'm far behind on anything holiday related. I did get some decorations up and surprised Russ. We do not have a tree, and I'm not sure if we'll get one this year. But over all, it's not that bad. Things have apparently finally calmed down.

I will get to writing tonight. First I'm going to do some web work and maybe a little more work on Vision. I did some more notes on Blood of the Clan last night and this morning, and I have to say that this way of writing out ideas is working pretty well for me. I'm going to the store and buying more note cards and stuff. I'll write longer passages on my Visor, but working with notes on it has always given me some problems afterwards, since it's so hard to move them around.

Or it might just be that I needed a little change.

Time to get to work!

Russ is home! Yay! We talked for a little bit and I showed him the emails of my good news. He said he suspected there was something like this because I was in such a good mood on the phone when we talked. (grin) He was very tired and went to bed soon afterwards, and I came back here to write.

This was not a great writing day, but I have made my 1000 words, and Blood of the Clan is starting to move a little better now. I doubt it will go much farther tonight, but I'm glad to have gotten past that feeling of being stuck that I had there for a few hours. I knew what I wanted to write, I just couldn't sit down and do it!

I'm only going to write a few hundred more words and then I'll head into bed!

Well, kitten stompers.

I am having a horrible time just settling in and writing today. And now I'm tired! It's rather funny after my note of this afternoon.

The trouble hasn't been that I don't want to write today. I really would like to have another good day. But I did have real life things to get done. Russ will be home tonight, and you know... I like to have the place a little neat! And I did more notes on the new story that, if you didn't see in the two other places posted, is already sold.

And I'm really having a good time with it, too. It's Blood of the Clan and based in a gaming universe. I've never seriously written for something like this before.

I'm also trying to get at least 500 words done on While the Gods Sleep so that I can get it done and out of the way before the end of the year.

You know something a little worrisome? Even with these two pieces and another I'm thinking about writing, I fear that I'm going to run out of stories to write before the end of the year. This would bring me up against two problems: (1)I have not missed a single day of writing in about two decades, and (2) I always finish everything by the end of the year. So... I would have to come up with things to write that are short enough that they don't run over. In case you haven't noticed, short isn't one of my best traits...

Turning it off...

That's my problem. I can't turn it off. I almost constantly think about writing. So much so that it's hard to get any sleep. I catch a few hours here and there, and if I'm lucky, I get a couple nights a week of six or seven hours.

But the last thing I think about when I'm going to sleep is the story(s) I'm currently working on. They keep me awake far longer than they should. I am glad I now have the Visor and can take occasional notes in bed because prior to this I often either got back up or I would try to memorize everything for the next day. The stories often invade my dreams as well, though rarely to give any help. If I'm stuck at a scene I try to se the idea up in my mind before I go to sleep. Sometimes I dream my way through them, but most often it's with help that I can't use. (How did the elves get into my SF universe, and what makes them think turning Idela into a toad is going to help anyway? She'll just be a very ambitious toad...)

The stories are almost always the first thing in my mind when I wake up. I come in and I sit down at the computer. I check to see if there is work that I absolutely have to do, and if there isn't... it's back to work on writing. Oh, I may be in chat, but the story is open.

Leaving the house doesn't help. I take the Visor, and even if I don't work on stories, Russ and I often discuss them. We discuss his work and my stories at dinner.

In other words, writing isn't something that I do when I have some free time and there's nothing on TV. With the exception of West Wing, I rarely watch TV at all. My reading habits have gotten very bad the last two years, and I need to change that part of my life. I should spend more time on house related things -- and after all, I could still think about writing while I'm sweeping and doing the dishes.

I could spend more time doing things at Forward Motion, too.

But... but...

I like my life. I like having stories that tumble over each other in their attempts to get down on the screen/paper. I like that I can write (like yesterday) 9,000 words and wish I had more time because there are so many more waiting, queued up to hit the screen as fast as my little fingers can type.

Oh, there are plenty of days when they fight me. Today is one of those. I need to finish a story by the end of the year for my own goals, and this one has been fighting me since June. It is not going to be the huge sweeping saga I originally saw. I'll be happy with a short story that does something. I'll look at it as character development for something longer, if I ever get the feel for it. But I will finish it.

The other story is going much better, but I'm holding it out like a carrot. Get something done on While the Gods Sleep and then I can work on The Blood of the Clan.

I should go and do a little house cleaning before Russ gets home tonight.

Later. I am going to get 500 words on While the Gods Sleep.

Starting count: 2567

I wrote some more and I've been going back and cleaning up the first part of the story, though I still don't have names for the main characters. I might do some work on that right now, in fact. The story is up to 1747 words. I also put up some holiday decorations and then napped. I have an ear ache/sore throat and it's rather put me in a bad mood.

I am going to try to get to 2000 words tonight and then maybe go back to bed...

Well... I hadn't intended to write more, but there I was in Forward Motion Chat, and Holly says she's up for an hour-long writing war...

So I now have 1333 words on a new story, so far called The Blood of the Clan. It's VERY rough, and I'm going to back through it and see what I can do to fix some of the story line.

But now I am going to go do some house things, and put up decorations, and just generally have fun.

And then I'll come back and write some more.

So what do I work on now?

70,126

DONE!

This ending is proving harder than I thought... I've only done a couple hundred words in the last half hour...

69,359

I am down to the last few paragraphs. Finally! Yes! I will have this one done by the next hour mark, if not a lot sooner!

68,250

I am on the last chapter. But I am going to eat lunch first. There's not much more to write, and I'm feeling much better about it now. But I would like a little food so the headache stuff doesn't grow too bad on me again.

I hope to make it to 70,000 after all. I had thought it wouldn't go much past 60,000 a couple days ago. Now that I'm this close, I want to see it make it that far.

It won't be long now!

67,193

I was slowed by a couple things. The spot in the story, which needed a little thought, and a download of some Cowboy Bebop music that Russ forwarded to me.

But now I am into the final battle, and in fact to the last desperate step by the mc. I doubt there's more than 2000 words, and probably less, to finish this part out.

And then just a final very short chapter where a last decision is made.

ALMOST DONE!

66,169

I am up to the final battle. I just read my notes, and I can see that this is going to go quickly. Good. I'll be done soon!

And I've already written nearly 3,000 words this morning. Obviously the story was ready to be finished.

64,649

Not bad for about an hour's work. But it does mean there is more than 3000 words to go because I'm not yet finished with the chapter I was working on, and there's one good sized chapter and another shorter one to go.

I'm going to take just a short break here, pick up a little bit in the room, find a sweater or something, and then leap back into work. I will have this done soon!

Well, so this is morning... I can't say I'm much impressed.

A combination of medications and a massive headache sent me to bed way too early last night -- just a few minutes after my last post. So now I'm up at barely 9AM! It's a gray, windy day. It might snow tonight, but it's already nearly 40f out. My cats are weirded out by me being up this early. Even the gray and white stray came up to the window and stared in shock.

I have an ear ache/sore throat that will probably make me miserable for most of the day, but I don't care. I am going to finish this book.

Paid in Gold and Blood has maybe 3000 words to go. I can do this.

Starting count: 63,328

63,036

I don't think I'm going to be done tonight. My head is still pounding a bit, and I think I'm going to go to bed 'early' for a change. I'm working to the end of this chapter -- just a few hundred more words -- and I'll see how I feel then.

I would really like to have this one done, but if it takes me another day, oh well. I have to stop pushing when it's not necessary.

Why does it seem that I just can't get moving tonight! ARGH!

All right. I will get to work on this now, and no more messing around.

Much.

62,420

I had some other things to get done after all. I'm only up to 62,134. Time to buckle down and work!

There. I edited a piece for Vision and I did as much other work as I can stand. Time to start writing finally!

Starting count is 61,611 (No writing elves got i and added to it since the last time I looked. Drat.)

Well, it's a good day anyway!

I did manage to get the server to upload two different web sites, but now it's stuck again. I have one more to go after this, but I don't think I'm going to make it. Gee, that's too bad. I guess I'll have to write instead.

I have what feels like the worse cold coming on that I ever remember. My chest hurts, and I haven't even started sneezing or coughing yet. My head is in that woozy stage where looking around too fast makes me dizzy. I can tell this is just going to be a lot of fun.

But... I am almost done with the novel and I'm looking forward to working on the new piece. Or one of the old pieces. I hope I can get to it soon!

61,611

3019 words for the day.

I will have this done tomorrow. Later today, actually. After I get some sleep!

I am really happy about how things have gone today. And on that note... some sleep! Be back later tonight. Probably after six. I want to get some other things done around the house tonight.

(happy zette...)

And now I have been writing.

61,046

I'm going for about 500 more, I think. Then sleep!

I have been... not writing. I have the opportunity to write something really kind of neat (yes, for money), and I spent most of the night thinking out my initial idea. I can't say more, and chances are that what I come up with might not be suitable, but I'm going to give it a try.

I am all the way to 59,297 on Paid in Gold an Blood. 300 more words and I'll be up to 1000. I think I'll do that right now before I go any farther on the other thing.

I'm really kind of tired tonight, too!

Once again my main journal is down. We have the world's most touchy server, and I know it's annoyed that Russ has gone off to New York and left in the hands of infidels. It goes down every time he leaves town. It's amazing. It's made me believe that computers (especially those connected to the Internet) are far more sentient than we believe. And they obviously read our email or else they wouldn't know Russ is a few thousand miles away now.

I've been working on all kinds of useless stuff today. Now it's time to write again. My main character is still exhausted. I'm a bit more awake now.

Starting count: 58,592

(I will make it to 60,000 at the very least!)

Life and art are too much alike. My main character is exhausted, and I'm so tired that I'm having trouble writing it out. Just a few hundred more words to the end of this chapter, and then I'm going to get some sleep!

I'd like to play more with the design of this blog, and maybe even get the comments part to work... but every time I try that, something messes up. We'll see if I can figure it out this weekend.

But right now... Don't expect to see me before sunset.

Well, about an hour of messing around on line waiting for Russ to get back from his meeting. He's running way late again. I should just open up the WIP and get to work on it... hold on. I bet that's him! Dog going nuts!

Just playing around this morning. I'm up way too early, but Russ will be leaving for New York in a few minutes, and I'd like to see him off. He's at a meeting right now, but he'll come back past here and throw a few things together, then head to Omaha to catch his plane.

I don't see many mornings any more. Sometimes I stay up this late, but I rarely get up, unless I might be going somewhere. I have never been fond of mornings. Most of it was because I had to go to school, and I hated it. Not school so much as just the people there. We moved quite a bit when I was younger, and that made me the perpetual outsider. When we finally stopped moving, it was a a time of such great family stress that I hated everything, everywhere.

So now I just associate mornings with stress, I think. And work -- had to get up early to go to work, which was also not my favorite thing.

I have a good life now. I could even get to like an occasional morning...

58,592 is the final count for the night.

I could probably go on a little more, but I really do want to get some sleep. And I'm at a point that should be fun to write tomorrow. (Though not fun for the character, of course. Isn't that the way these things always go?)

But I am nearly done with it all. I'm pleased. And worried. I still have one major bit of work to finish off this year, but it's going to be much harder to write. Ah well. It'll be a good ending to the year.

And now... sleep!

58,167

That's gone far quicker than I expected it too, especially since this is sort of little transition scene that I couldn't quite focus on. Not until I started putting down the words before me, and I could see the trees where Katashan is sitting, and feel how utterly, mind-numblingly tired he is. How the world moves in odd ways as he slips down and puts the tree at his back. How he closes his eyes and slips away, and comes back again with others gathering around him.

I was only going to go for 1000 words. I might end up doing more after all.

Okay. I ended up doing all kinds of things at the Forward Motion site, and now I really need to get some writing done!

Starting count is 57,217. I've written a few hundred but not nearly enough!

So, I have not actually done any writing yet. I better get to that now! But it was fun working with this stuff tonight. Just what I needed for a change. I suspect I'll be back to a 1000 word day, though. Oh well. Time to work!

Let's see... again...and again...

That worked. Let's try this one... (Just to see how far I can go before I screw it up again...)

I'm sure I've messed this up again, but this is a test...

And it's another day!

Russ is back home -- well, not exactly home but he is in town. The cats have chewed through the power supply cord to the phone, which is making for an interesting evening. Other than all that... life isn't too bad. I have yet to write. I've been doing odd web page things first, and preparing to go out with Russ tonight. Tomorrow he leaves for four days in New York, so we need to make certain that everything is handled here.

There is still no snow, although the temperature has dropped considerably over the last two days. I suspect that we might not see any before this weekend. Which is fine.

57,217 is my final count for the night. If the story contines at the rate of 500 words to each note card of material, I've got about 7,500 to 8,000 more to go. I suspect that it won't go quite that well, but I see another 5-6,000 at least. Maybe I'll have this done within the next 24 hours. Hard to say, though probably not. Russ will be home tonight, and we'll have only a few hours together before he leaves for New York. I'm sure I'll be done before the weekend is out at the worst.

Unless I get side tracked by another story. That's not impossible, though I'm fighting the urge off!

There is so much I want to write. Good thing the new year is almost upon us, and I'll have good use for those ideas!

But right now... a few hours sleep!

I came back and wrote more. I'm up to 55,847 now. I think it's starting to flow, but for the moment I'm going to take another break. I need to think out this scene in another dimension, more or less. and I think I'll have the best luck considering that in a nice, warm bath. (grin)

Be back sometime tonight, I'm sure!

54,698

Okay, that's it for a little while. I need to find some food and think about the next step. I have the notes, but I want to do it right!

54,326

It's moving along, though it does seem to be slow again! I don't know why I can't fly with this story. I have it all mapped out!

Ah well, I shouldn't complain. I have nearly 2000 words done, and it's way early for me.

Huh. Maybe that's the problem. I rarely start writing before midnight. Maybe I just don't have the brain kicked in for it yet!

I'm going for the next 300 words, and then a break again!

Okay, back to work. Russ unexpectedly had to go out of town tonight, so I might as well have something to keep me busy. Writing for awhile, and then maybe some picture work.

I have ideas for stories. I have ideas for lots of things. But I'm forcing myself to finish this first.

Off I go again!

53,649. That's a bit over 1000 and time for me to stop for a while. I need a break, and the story needs a rest.

I will probably be back at it later, though. I feel that lure of having the ending now firmly in mind, and I want to push for it.

So far I've written about 400 words, which isn't too bad, although it seems to be very slow.

This should be a moment of high conflict in the story. It's not. The feeling just isn't there, even though the mechanics of the scene is right. I can't tell if I'm just not inspired and need to rethink the entire scene, or if I'm just tired (about three hours sleep), and it will look better later. It may also just be a need to spice up the words some, and that will come in the revision.

So, I guess the best I can do is move on with it. Like all first drafts for me, I won't know if it's working until the rewrite.

I am up early. I have people coming to clean the house -- every other Tuesday, but I won't see them again until a week or two after New Years because the holidays fall on Tuesdays. Yes, part of it is laziness, but also because I have bad back problems and can't do anything that requires heavy lifting, or downward pressure -- like scrubbing floors, bathtubs, etc. This works quite well.

Last night I wrote out notes for the entire rest of Paid in Gold and Blood. I expect to have it done by the end of this weekend, if not a lot sooner. This may be too soon, and I'll be scrambling for things to fill in the rest of the month, but over all I'm happy to have everything finally line up.

So now I'm going to go do some writing. I don't know how much I'll get done today!

So the computer died and took the opening to the new chapter with it...

Ah well. I know I can get it rewritten anyway, but it was annoying.

I'm about 300 words short of 1000 now.

Hi there. Yesterday I went off to the zoo and had a great time. Today I picked up the house, worried over yet another sick cat, and did some writing. It's still early, and I've managed about 500 words so far.

I am working on my schedule for next year. Not easy, but I have a few weeks to think it out. And I'm doing work on Vision already -- yay! Most of the material is in, and I'm having a great time with it. Our second year of publication!

Time to get to work...

There. 1034 words done. I don't think I'll do any more on it tonight. I want to look over some other work, and just relax a bit. We might go somewhere tomorrow. That would be nice, too.

But right now I'm going to go read some stuff and do some editing, and generally just relax and not get caught up in anything.

And think about the next story. Isn't that the way it always is with me?

I went to bed and slept for hours, then got up and worked on web stuff for hours. but now I've managed about 770 words on Paid in Gold and Blood, so I will make my 1000 before I go to bed.

Holly's current Forward Motion question is why do you write. I've started to answer a couple dozen times now. Odd how such a simple question, and one so central to my life, is turning out to be so hard to answer.

I do have an idea for the first work of 2002.

I guess I better work a bit harder on finishing up 2001, huh?

This is the last change, and then I'm leaving it for awhile. I am really tired today!

I think I had better leave this alone for awhile. My head and I are not agreeing, and working on something like this is not the wisest thing I could be doing right now. Of course writing is sort of out as well.

I did get something off in the mail today. Years ago, I would give myself 'word count bonus' for doing that. But then, that was back in the dark ages when I might actually miss a whole day without writing.

I really shouldn't be messing with this stuff, but I have a headache and I can't see any reason to do anything else right now.

Changing things...

I cannot get comments to work on this one for some reason, and I'm not up to messing with it right now.

Test #2

Testing out the comments... I hope.

Ah, 49,889 words. Just over the 1000 I wanted. But I am going to try for 50,000. It shouldn't take me too long to do it. I hope! But the way I've been going... I don't know.

Word count 49, 335 (starting count was 48,840)

I'm working on Paid in Gold and Blood tonight. It's moving ahead a little. I've just finished the first 500 words for the night, and I am really tempted to stop here and go on to something else. I'm not really falling into the story as well as I would like to, and I'm tired. Not a good combination.

Ah, and I still have the pdf version of the city agenda to do, and one more bit of work for Estand. Both of those could wait until tomorrow.

This has been a very... calm month, as far as writing goes. No bursts of creativity, but no moments of 'what next!' either. I think that's what I wanted out of this month, but now that I have it, I'm finding it hard to keep my interest up. I obviously do better with some writing stress applied.

But I guess I'll live with this for a month.

Let's check this one...

Doing a little test here to change some colors...

Okay, I have some serious work to get done today. Unfortunatley, it isn't on writing. Two agendas, a pdf version of one of them (somwhere around 70 pages), and the newspaper site to do.

Speaking of PDF, last night I told Russ that I might offer a PDF version of some of my stories, just for fun. We'll see. It's not like I really need to find things to do besides really writing...

Or maybe I do.

Don't you hate it when I start thinking?

Done!

7714 words total. It's done and out of the way, and I can move on.

Tomorrow. Later today. Whatever.

7405 and very nearly done with the story!

Good thing, because i'm running out of energy!

I found the ending that will tie this story up. Not a great story, but very nearly done. And, with only 95 words to go to novelette, I suspect I shoudl stop calling it 'short' now.

We'll see how it goes from here.

Almost!

I'm back. I'm winding my way down to the end of this sotry at a little over 6000 words. Not too bad.

Somewhere in the last couple days I seem to have reawakened my muse again. That's good, too. At least for as long as she sticks around. With luck I'll be able to get the rest of this year done.

I had a long discussion with Russ about what I want to do in the future. He's still convinced that epublishing is on the verge of taking off, and that it's better to be in the forfront, before the big names start crowding in, than to be a latercomer and trying to find a place. It was good to hear some of what I'd been saying for the last couple years repeated to me.

Time to get back to work...

5900 words even at this point. A little after 6pm. That's over my 500 words, too. (grin)

Russ is home. He's brought Kincaid from the kitty doctor where he went to have his asthma shot this morning. It's funny because he gets so put out about having to go, and he feels so much better when he gets back that he is actually in a mood to tell you how annoyed he is.

Silly cats.

As soon as Russ is ready we're going to go off for food and some shopping. Out of various kinds of kitty foods, and that's dangerous in this place.

I am writing early tonight. I do have some few web things to get finished, but I'm trying to set myself up for next year and a change I'd like to try again. I want to write at least 500 words (half my daily minimum), before I go to work on other computer things.

So, I have At the End of the Map up. Starting count is 5348. This is turning out to be a boring story, but a good character study. I think I'll use the two main characters again somewhere else. They're typical fantasy characters -- male cousins who grew up together on the streets, one a musician and one a thief. I wonder if I couldn't work that into something unusual with them that takes them out of the usual pack of fantasy characters.

Not right now, though. Right now I just want to get this story done and I think I can see the ending coming up fairly soon now.

It's 6am my time. I've been working on odd things tonight. I'm actually closer to the end of At the End of the Map, and it's going well enough. But I took the time to write my intro to the upcoming issue of Vision. I also edited my piece on setting goals. And I read all of Paid in Gold and Blood so I can get a feel for it.

I've written almost 2000 words on the short story alone, so I suppose I can call it a day soon.

All in all, it went better than I expected it to.

I'm still working on At the End of the Map. I managed a bit over 1000 words today, and it's taken a turn that might help make it slightly more interesting. At least I think I can see the end now, just about. Hey, this one might even manage to stay a short story again.

I've been reading the unfinished novel and trying to get back into it, too.

But I think, right now, I need a break!

3627 words on At the End of the Map. I should point out that they haven't reached that end of the map yet. I don't know how it is that I can drag things out like this.

But that is 1000 words for today.

I also opened a novel Differential Equations that I'm editing to go out in the Delacorte contest. Has to be out by the end of this month. It's really virtually done. I just never liked the opening lines, and last night I finally came up with a simple fix. I might have it out in the mail by this weekend.

This might be it for me tonight. Or I might go in and work some more on the short story. Right now I'm going to copy some floppy disks to the hard drive again -- my way of taking a break.

Okay, I'm really working now. Starting count for At the End of the Map was 2567.

I'm now at 2831. I'm trying for at least 500 on this one (not far away), and if it's still moving, I'll try to finish it.

It's another really foggy night here. Russ is home from the hospital and watching shows. I'm preparing to think about writing. Maybe. I'm sure I'm considering it. I'm just not sure how seriously I'm considering it. In fact, this is almost more writing than I've done all day. The only thing that tops it is the regular journal entry.

I'm sure I've gotten goofy somewhere along the line again. Well, better than the angst stuff of the last couple days.

Actually, I'm not going to go write yet. I need to do one more bit of work yet. So this is a false alarm. You can all go back to your real lives again...

Meant to post here earlier, but I've had a day 'off' more or less. I'm only writing a few hundred words on At the End of the Map.

The server for my main journal is down again. It will probably be back up about the time I go to sleep, so the entry for the second is going to be increasingly late. Oh well. I'm sure we'll all survive it!

505 words on Paid in Gold and Blood

503 words on While the Gods Sleep

506 words on At the End of the Map

1514 for the day. And that's it for writing. I'm going to work on digital picture stuff for a while!

So here we are in December. I've only written a couple hundred words so far. I've purposely tried to slow down and not race toward the end of the year like I'll never have time to write again after December 31. I've already topped last year's total words by quite a bit. There is no reason to keep pushing.

It looks as though the journal is down again. I'm getting tired of this. I hope Russ figures out what's wrong with the server down there.

Time to go write on Paid In Gold And Blood. Maybe on others, too -- if I can stay awake!

Yes, I did it. At a little before midnight my time (about an hour ago) I topped 100,000 words for the second month in a row.

My journal server is down though, so I can't update it. Ah well. I'm sure we'll all live through it.

But here we are on the first day of December! Time to start all over again, though I will not be doing another 100,000 month!

Ah no, I was off there. I've only done about 400 words on Paid in Gold and Blood, but it's still going well.

1050 words on the new short story. I think it may sit there for the night. I've moved over to Paid in Gold and Blood and it's actually moving forward a bit, too. I think I've done about 800 words there. So, a couple hundred more and I'll have my 100,000.

I didn't think it was going to be this hard on the last day, but there are reasons. The death of George Harrison is one. Russ learning that he will probably have to have a second operation on his hand (he'll know Monday) is another.

But here I am, writing away. I'll get there.

The last day of the month. I have most of my dare stuff completed, and I might get the last section. It's hard to say. I'm about 1000 words from making 100,000, too -- and I will do that, though it seems as though I'm having a very hard time drawing the words out. I've two new pieces -- yeah, like I needed to start something new, right? One is based on a Forward Motion Exercise, and it's about 700+ words right now.

The other is a Christmas Teddy Bear Poem. Last night I said I was not doing a story for this year. I've done one every year for the last seven, and I just didn't have a story in me. I was right. I had a poem, which now runs two pages and is probably better than the horrible story I put out last year. That's not saying a lot. I'm short one line and a title.

Hey, words are words at this point.

Okay, maybe four more lines because the last two didn't fit in quite as well as I hoped.

Ah, that's better... 460 words for the Teddy Bear Poem. Total of 792. That's done for now.

I'm sitting at 795 words for At the End of the Map -- that's all new for today.

and 47,322 words on Paid in Gold and Blood at the end of yesterday.

I need a total of 2452 words to reach 100,000. I have 1255, which means I'm a bit over half way there. I can do this. I don't know why it seems to hard!

Off to write....

I finally finished about an hour ago

7441 words, completed story of no use.

And an article done at 1041 words.

Now I have only two unfinished pieces for the year. I pulled them both up, but While the Gods Sleep just didn't catch me. I am getting a few words done on Paid in Gold and Blood.

So, we'll see how it goes!

I don't think this thing could crawl any slower.

Going to have dinner now...

The starting count for tonight is 6399.

I think there is a story buried somewhere in all that turgid, unappealling prose. I might even try to rework it sometime in the future. I think I could make an interesting middlegrade story out of it.

But for the moment, the idea is just to get it done.

I also have a partly written article for a future Vision. So over all, I'm not doing too badly. I just need to get this one done!

Off I go, leaping back into the words...

The story has two problems. First, it's way too long, and second it's about the most boring thing I've written in years. Somehow, the combination of the two just doesn't make it likely to ever go any farther than a first draft.

However, I have to admit it's been interesting to work in present tense. I switch between it and past tense for the backstory parts. And I will finish it, though probably not tonight (this morning). I've done a little over 3,000 words today, and they did not come easy. I also snuck in about 500 words on my last article for the dare. About 500 more words on it and I'll be done.

But there are still a few rewrites to do in the next two days.

After I get some sleep.

And here we are again. Starting count at 2524. I've actually been working for a little while and the count is a bit over 3000. I think I even have an idea of where this one is going. I like to think so, anyway. The full title is now

Magic to Save the World: A Winterfest Tale

Onward...

As of yesterday, my total for the month was 90,990 words. I am going to have my second 100,000 word month in a row.

2524 words

That's it for tonight. I'll finish it tomorrow. I hope.

Time to get some sleep!

2065 words

Maybe half a story here so far. Hard to say just yet. But to be honest, I'm actually getting tired. I might be calling it a night soon!

1425 words

An intereting little tale. It's not done, of course. Still, it's working out all right, I think.

1066 words

It's going just fine for something that has no plot...

Ah...

I think I have a better idea. Cutting everything back to Holly's opening and starting over again.

(Have I mentioned that I'm crazed?)

And now it's on to the next story. I had a little help here. I'm working on the little exercise that Holly Lisle created for Forward Motion -- A Winterfest Tale. I believe she had about 150 words of opening, and I'm now at 472. I'm not sure how far this will go, but I see a nice little tale coming out of it. This will be my final short story for the Dare, so I'm happy.

11,700 words

DONE!

10982 words. No, no. Not done. But closer, closer. A couple pieces actually fell into place. No matter that it's 4am. This is crazed.

10,036 words

Finally moving, yes. I can see the end. I just can't quite see the next step to get there. Just a little damn step, for crying out loud!

I really didn't expect this story to be so much trouble. But I think it's a good story, so I can't complain too much, right? Or I can, but it's still not going to change anything.

Just go get it done...

9530 words

I had far too much frustration getting this one back on line. I wrote and deleted several pieces before I think I've finally found the right track again.

I love writing. Even as annoying as this has been, it's still so wonderful when you feel as though you've fallen into the right path again.

Back to work.

So here I am, back again. I had a long day of very frustrating Web Work, with sites that wouldn't save, wouldn't upload, wouldn't read correctly. And now it's almost 1AM and I'm barely getting started on the story.

Starting count is 9000. Let's see if I can finally finish...

9000 even. Should I stop now? I'm in the middle of the battle scene. I don't want to quit.

But I think I might. I need to see the rest of this battle, and I think my mind is starting to fog over from lack of sleep. So this is it for tonight! Nearly 8am. Time to go to bed!

Yes, I'm still here. 7:01am 8679 words

I also edited and sent off another short story.

I am going to have to quit soon, though. I think.

7503

We have achieved novelette.

And still a ways to go.

7145 words.

Novelette lenght closing in quickly...

Well, the story is moving. I'm up to 6712 words and still moving, though slowly. I'm close to finished though. It may remain a short story after all.

Maybe.

Off to do more work....

Okay, now that we're back from dinner...

Yeah, another distraction. But I feel better now for the food. Let's see if I can get going.

Yesterday's ending count was 5461. I am now at 5618. I think I see something that I need to do to help the story a little, so it's back a few pages to drop that in as well. And then onward. I think I can come close to having this one done tonight.

Well, I was sidetracked there. We went to Star Wars. Yes, the very first original Star Wars. They were playing it at a big renovanted theatre here in town -- beautiful place where they have concerts, plays, etc. Bill Cosby was there a few weeks ago. So was Bob Dylan. There were not a lot of people at the movie, but it was fun. Star Wars was where Russ and I went on our first date.

And when we came out, it was snowing. Pretty nice.

I'll be back to writing soon.

Back to work on For the Honor of the Hunt.

The total from yesterday was 2441 new words, 5461 total for the story.

This one is writing oddly. I normally don't go back and do any editing as I write, but I've tried it with this one since I sort of got lost between last night and today. I started just to read it to get the feel back, and ended up changing a few things, and then a few more things -- well, it'll be less editing later.

I think I'll have it done tonight, unless it takes a big leap into some plot sink that I don't see right now. I don't think it will.

4445 words. I'm taking my visor and going to bed to write some more. Some cold medication would probably be a good plan too. Don't know when I'll be back! That stuff really knocks me out some nights.

I wish I was doing better on the story tonight. It doesn't want to fly for some reason, even though I can see the steps fairly clearly. Maybe it's the relationship between the two. Yeah. Maybe Teon needs to climb out of the stream and walk away. There. Conflict again. He helps her and walks away. Forced together again soon afterwards.

Yes, that's better.

But I'm going to bed anyway.

I'm having a couple problems with story steps. I'm not entirely certain how I'll go with ... hold on. I think I just now saw an answer. I need someone to make a mistake in the number of people who escaped. Easy thing to do.

Also realized that I overlooked one really important little thing that my mc has to do right off the beginning. Time to go back and add that in before I forget again.

I'm looking at a bit over 1000 words tonight and then heading to bed. I have one of those colds that has settled in the right side of my head, and my eye is running tears all night. Very annoying. But I'm close to that goal so I won't have to suffer for much longer -- unless the story takes off again. (grin)

3819

But I have to go think out the next step -- actually line out the last half of the story. Once I have it in place, I think the rest of the story is going to go together well.

I'll be back later.

I am back to work on For the Honor of the Hunt tonight. This after a pretty nice day out on a trip to Omaha where I bought books, cds for my camera, more books, and the the missing Cowboy Bebop DVD (the first one, which we already sat down and watched). I am now ready to get back to work on the story Yesterday's count ended at 3020. I've done a few hundred words since then. I'm even still happy with it. I should be done soon, too.

Well, it looks like I might be getting closer to figuring this out...

.
Trying an experiment here. Please stand by...
.

.
3020

That's it for tonight. Normally I would just go ahead and finish, but I need to get to bed before dawn.

And I've stopped at a good point. Britta knows she's been a total idiot and made some stupid assumptions. She's going to pay for them now.

Tomorrow, when I get back to work.

.

.
2008

Moving along pretty well, though the story feels too heavy-handed. Still fun to write. She's about to get her first glimpse of her quary.

I'm going to go to about 3000 and then get to bed. Looks like that won't be too much longer!

.

.
Back. Had a little bit of an insight into part of the opening. Changed that. And now it's back to work.

On the world Andradora men could do anything except jobs that required them to have weapons -- the forces, the police and bounty hunters. After all, statistics had shown that men were more likely to be a danger with weapons than women. They had proof going all the way back to Mother Earth. But the world ran into serious problems and had to turn to the Inner Worlds Council for help. The provisions of such help include that the worlds always adopt the IWC standard constitution. And now men can have whatever jobs they like.

And Britta is about to head into the woods to hunt a quarry. She's just recieved word that another Hunter got in ahead of her. A male loner without a team. She's not thrilled.

.

.
1240

Taking a short break here to wash my hair and think about the next step in the story. It's going well enough. Too much info dumping, but the story is there.
.

.
547 words and a piece of pie and ice cream.

It's going pretty well. Haven't actually even started the hunt yet, of course... but hey. It will be a short story. Really.

.

.
Today's story will be...

For the Honor of the Hunt

And we shall begin in the woods at twilight on a rainy night... ah, but you have the wrong image. The woods are on another world. The hunted is a human who has murdered others, and the person after him is licensed by the government for the work. Only recently there have been some changes in the laws for Hunters, and now she's not the only one after the quary.
.

.
5:36am About to go to bed.

I finished Not a Ghost of a Chance. I wrote a short article for Vision. I'm ready to just sleep now, I think.

I do feel better, obviously. I just hope it stays that way!

.

.
Felt worse today than I did yesterday. Got up and visited mother, father and niece for a little bit, then came back home, ate a some soup, and crawled back into bed. I sure hope this passes by tomorrow. I'm cold. I'm miserable. I want to finish the current short story, which will probaby happen anyway. That's why I have the visor with the keyboard, after all.

And it helps that I can see the end of the story, too. Almost there, in fact. Fun stuff. I needed fun stuff.

Happy T-Day to all those who celebrate it.

And remember one important thing -- You are what you eat.
.

.
I slept a good part of today. I still feel lousy. I've written about 1000 words and I'm heading for bed soon.

I am working on a fun story, though. Just about to the end, too, which is good. One more thing out of the way soon.

Just thought I ought to check in here, though. Maybe this weekend I'll feel a little less overwhelmed by everything and try to edit the problems out of this thing.
.

.
You know those tales of people who push themselves to their limits, achieve success... and then fall over dead?

Well, I feel about one step short of that right now.

I woke up today feeling off. By evening it was a 'crawl into a dark hole and bury myself' feeling. It's not getting better.

I have to do some writing yet today. That's all that will keep me from just throwing myself into bed and not coming back out till spring.
.

.
70,436 words.

Done.

Not a great story. But still completed against all odds this month.

And now I'm going to get a few hours sleep before I go back to my regularly scheduled Dare stories.

DONE!

.

.
69,158

It's going to be just about 70,000. This will be the last stretch. It's 5:30am, but I won't go to bed until I'm done.

All I have now is two final end notes, so to speak. Janal looking to his future. And then Cory preparing for his own.

Almost there!

.
67,111

It seemed a little slow to get moving, but apparently not. I'm doing well. I have one last death to met out, and then just a set of four very short pieces -- probably no more than 500 words each -- to finish this out.

You know, after all of this, I am having trouble believing that I'm almost done!
.

.

I have all the notes for the entire rest of the novel sitting here in front of me. Not detailed notes, so I can't say how many words this will take. Just sets of steps finally leading to the end. I can see it now.

I doubt I'll get it all done tonight, but I'm going to write for a while yet. We'll see how far it goes.

.

.
65,483

And break again. Bath. Think out this last bit of the battle.

Almost finished, but it's goign to take a little work to make this fall into place even close to right.

.

.
64,468

That caused a few continunity problems. I caught a couple of them straight out, and the rest I'll get -- you guessed it -- in the rewrite.

I am up to the last chapter of this battle. Then it's just the three short end chapters, laying out the futures for the three men, all of whom have a right to the throne. Nothing long and drastic. Just closure.

I suspect that this is going to be done before 70,000.

.

.
Ummm.

well...

ARGH!

Okay, at what point did I mess up whose POV this was supposed to be?

Oh, and look, publishing here is temporarily down.

Hmmm.... I think I need to look this over....

ARGH.

I can fix this. A couple little inserted chapters from the other pov might actually make this ending move a little better anyway. Yes. I can do that...

63,214

.

.
Hi there. Yes, I'm back again.

The starting count today is 62,360. I am currently up to 62,844.

The really good news is that I've seen the break point, the moment when this novel is really over, with the exception of three tie up chapters, one from each POV. Right now I'm writing one of the most boring battle scenes I've ever done. I suspect it's boring because I've approached it wrong. Rewrites will correct that.

But I know that there will be some battle here, so I'll leave the one that's written for now, and work out the rest of it later. I just want the thing finished.

Closer, closer...

.

.
Only did a few hundred more before I started wearing down. Going to bed now, I hope...

Story is sort of stuck anyway. Need to think it out a little bit.

Very tired....

Night!
.

.
3:30AM

61,494

Yes, almost 2,000 that hour. Much better. But I think I'm about written out for the night again. Still, not too bad at all.
.

.
2:30am

59,689

On to the next battle. Now to reach the person in charge, who thinks he's safe in his fortress.

Slowed a bit this hour by some outside work. Back to work now. Is that oer 3,000 already? Good. I need to get this beast really moving again.

I have also, finally, seen the very ending of the book. The post battle stuff to tie up where the three povs go after this. Each to their own place.

There is really not that much left. I can't believe that there's a chance I will end this one soon! Finally!
.

.
1:30am

58,534

About to leave one battle for another -- and not one they expect, either.

Did I mention the problem of rushing through magic made gates to save a city under siege before you find out if it's actully not already fallen...?
.

.
Argh.

My computer started giving me problems right after midnight. It's taken me over half an hour to get it up and running again. I did manage to save all the words I had done, at least!

57,372
.

.
My journal is still not up. I hope to have it back to work tomorrow.

Last night I did 4103 words on the novel. It's getting clsoer to the end. I think if I can focus now, I'll be jsut about done. But I've screwed up a couple things today -- like forgetting the last class I was going to teach. Sigh.

Time to do some writing.

Starting count is 56,236

.
I took a long break to take a bath and write out some notes. I am ready to get back to work.

Foward Motion is down right now, which is always annoying, even when I don't really want or need to be in chat there.

Time to get back to work! No, I'm not going to get this done tonight after all, but at least I see the path through it again!

.

.
55,271

I have seen... complications. Oh yes, nice little complications that are going to draw the is story out far more than I thought, but which are wonderful for the plot. Both the complication I mentioned in my last post, and now another more mundane one.

That's a bit over 3,000 words so far tonight. I'll be going on still...
.

.
54,237 words

I am writing away tonight. A couple thousand words down already, and it's still moving forward. I see a sub thread that I will have to go back and add in later. This is something that happens often with me, so I'm not surprised. But I see that I have made one part too easy, and now that 'that part' is about to change the entire outcome of the war, I realize that I need to both stress it more earlier in the novel, and make it more difficult at the same time.

I have the difficult part figured out and it's going to be fun to write it now. This is fun!

.
My journal at http://www.sscdc.net/zj is locked at the moment and Russ doesn't feel well, so I'm not asking him to go down and fix it for me. I'll still be doing my daily entries there, but they'll just have to wait to be uploaded.

I did a good amount of writing last night. Finally leapt over the 50,000 mark! YAY! I'm on the last section of the book, and I think it's going to go quickly now. Not well, mind you -- but at least I should have it finished soon.
.

.
Ah...

7058 words. 47,610 total

Good stretch of writing. 6:30am.

Time for some sleep!
.

.
I am at 44,251 -- about 300 words short of 4,000 for the night.

No, I don't know quite how that happened. But there it is. And I'm still going.

I even see a next scene, and the ending coming closer to view. It's fun when a story falls properly into place.

.

.
Hi there.

Almost 3000 words so far tonight. Coming closer to the 50,000 word mark. Having fun.

Still can't quite clearly see the ending though, which is a bit of a problem. (grin) Confrontation, of course. I know the main people involved.

I'll know it when I get there.

.

.
Well, no, I didn't write.

I did sit down with Russ and watch several hours of Alien Nation, the TV series out of the 90's. It was a very nice change of pace. I am relaxed, and I'll do a few hundred words soon -- but I am letting up on the stress. That includes silly things like telling myself I would be happier if I was writing more. If it happens, fine.

So, off to see what kind of trouble I can get into...
.

.
The newspaper is done, the agenda is uploading. I still have a small agenda to do for the county, but that won't take long. Then an update to the 'What's New' Page, and I'll be about done with the major stuff for the web sites. There is something else that came in yesterday that I only just now remembered. I'll see if it's time sensitive. If not... tomorrow.

I am a much happier person when I can throw myself into a story and write like mad. Doing a thousand words is fine, but I hardly feel as though I've even dipped into the alternate universe at that point. I love having long stretches where I'm really caught up in the story and the words flow. I'm sure every writer is that way. I get that kind of feeling quite often, and even though I'm snarling and growling now, I know that as a I near the end of the novel, I am likely to drop in and not come out until it is done. That's the way I often work. I love the rush of words and excitment that leads up to The End.

Maybe some time this weekend...

.
I need a break.

No, not from writing. That's the one thing that I still very much enjoy. But a break from home, cats, working on the damned web pages...

Okay, it's really that last one. And it's not that I've even been over run with work lately, but it is the first thing I face when I get up, and I admit that I start dreading the idea of even looking in my email box. Today is not too bad. Newspaper and another agenda. I can do these and get on with the important stuff. The novel is waiting.

I finally ended at 40,552 last night. There was about 800 more words there, but I cut one scene and rewrote it, and then ended up doing it again with a slightly later scene.

You know what would be really nice? To have a 10,000+ word day and finish this one. I could do it if I could just get my focus on the story.

But I can't get anywhere near that if I don't go do the web sites.

I'll gripe at you more a little later...

Hmmm... I appear not to have posted this one.

Well, the newspaper site is uploading. This looks like an excellent time to post this and go feed the cats!

.

.
I cut 300+ words. It just was not right. I'm back up to 39,256.

It still isn't quite right, but it's better.

.

.
39,324
That's better. It's going, but not really well. I can't seem to see this confrontation very clearly. I'm going to write it out in this current style, but I suspect I might change it drastically in a rewrite.
.

I haven't even gotten 1000 words yet, but I have a reason. I've been trying to help Russ out (who had surgery on his hand today, in case any of you missed that). I'm probably bothering him more than helping.

Write. I must write.

.
I just finished with the class stuff for tonight. That was a lot of fun, even though I felt as though my brain was somewhere far, far away.

And now I have to consider writing.

Ack.

Okay, I can do 1000 words. I can do that... Really....

.
Stopping at 3:45AM and 4119 words for a total of 38,202.

I had wanted to make 40,000 tonight, but my brain is turning off early. No matter.

I am almost through part 4. I think parts 5 & 6 are going to be shorter than the previous ones, which still works out all right. We will be hitting over 50,000 by the end. Only 12,000 more to go to get to the minimum word count. I can do this.

And then finish one short story and write two more -- and rewrite/send out several others. That all before the end of November. After that we go on to finish the novella/novelette and the last novel of the year in December. And if by some miracle I'm not still trying to write the last of those in the final hours of 2001, then I'll maybe do some short nf at the end of the year. Or a short story or two.

But right now, I'm done with this for the night.
.

.
37,487

I know that I'm doing alright. I'm almost up to that secret that I kept hidden. But I am really wearing down tonight. Only 3AM! I'm getting soft in my old age!

No, I'm not really complaining. I'm glad to have gotten this far tonight, considering that when I started I didn't think I was going to make 1000 again.

A little more, and then I'll quit for the night. My starting count this morning was 34,083. I can make it to at elast 38,090 -- 4,000 words. That's not too far away!

back to words...
.

.
36,471

My people are moving. I'm wearing down, though. But I'll keep going for as long as I can. I want this one to move!

.

.
Good West Wing tonight. A lot of fun stuff, a lot of exciting things.

And that helped. Russ goes in for same day surgery on his hand tomorrow. I need to escape for a bit. So I have, of all things, the Monkees on. And I'm writing. I'm already up to 35,456. I'm doing all right tonight. Let's see how far I can run with this.

I've hit a spot here that ... well, I would probably be wise to reveal a secret now in the story line, but I think it will be so much better a little later. So I'll hold off.

Back to work!

.
34,083 is as far as I got last night. 16,000 more and I could be done. There is part of me (a large part of me, in fact) that says just to sit down and finish it. It's not like I haven't had 16,000+ days before. I could do this.

But I don't think this is the day. Russ has gone to a second doctor to look at his hand, and chances are he'll be in the hospital sometime in the next 24 hours. Can you tell that this has not been the best week? I'm lucky in that I'm one of those people who turn to writing as an escape when I reach the point where I know things will be all right, but before they actually are. So expect me to do some serious writing soon. Just not before I have word on things.

Right now I'm going to do a little work on it, though. I'm going to be slow and distracted, and worried. But I will do some writing.

.
33,805. Better, so far, than I had expected. Still slow. A good part of that is because when I got so bogged down with the inability to write, I pulled open a novel I wrote earlier this year and began to read it. That was partly an attempt to remind myself that I can write books, and partly just to distract myself away from other things. I think it's finally working. I read a bit, force myself to write a few hundred more words, and read a bit more. It is not in the same series, nor even in the same genre. But I'll take any help I can get right now.

.
Still not the best of all days, but I have written nearly 1000 words. I can't seem to stay focused, though. I don't know why.

I did get my cable modem today. Ah, this is very nice! It's allowed me to do more on the web in the time I already spend here, avoiding writing.

I am at 33,347 right now. I need to reach at least 33,607 to make 1000. That's not too bad. But I'm falling farther behind and my mind just refuses to focus on the work.
.

.
This was not a good day. We lost our 17 year old cat. My husband's hand is infected, and the doctor is talking about a possible hospital stay.

I wrote my bare minimum of 500 words on the novel, and fought those out over about three hours. I did write what turned out to be a fun, silly piece about the cat we just lost. It was good and depressing at the same time.

Tomorrow the people come to do the cable modem hook up. I wish I could say I'm looking forward to it.

I'm going to bed now.