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...

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

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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!

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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.

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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.
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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.

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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.
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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!

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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!

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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!

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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!
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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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...

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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!
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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.
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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!
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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...?
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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
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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

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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!

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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...
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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!

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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.
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Ah...

7058 words. 47,610 total

Good stretch of writing. 6:30am.

Time for some sleep!
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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.

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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.

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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...
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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...

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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!

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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.

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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.
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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.

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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....

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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.
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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...
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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!

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.
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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.

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Yes, I am writing now. Slowly. I'm almost up to 2000 words, I think. I want to get to bring the story up to around 30,000 which will put it at the end of another section. The next section, with luck, will be more exciting.

I think part of my problem is that I'm still in short story mode from the class I taught tonight. I wish I could get past it and fly, but I think I'm going to have to take a break away from the computer before that happens.

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I've done about 3000 words tonight. There was far too many other things going on. I wish I could ahve gotten more, but I had the class to prepare for tomorrow night -- teaching one in short story writing at Forward Motion. The last one went really well, and I think this should be good, too. I actually enjoy this stuff!

But right now I'm pretty tired. Time to get to bed for a few hours!

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6063 words. 24,157 total.

Almost 5am

Sleep...

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Hello there. I wrote tonight. I didn't expect to. I thought I was going to do 500 and go to bed. I am working up to 5000 now. I don't know why it kicked in when I was feeling so badly. But there it is. 2000 words into the new section already, too.

So many other things I should get done. At least my hand is much better tonight. Still sore after so much typing -- but not before I started, so I didn't suffer through all my art. (grin)

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And then I went off to bed and slept for a few hours. I have been feeling increasingly ill all day. I hope that helps, but I doubt I'm going to be at the computer for much longer.

I have not gotten the agenda done -- but this is for Monday, so I have a little leeway with it. I'm going to get at least 1000 words written tonight, though.

ack. That's all, just ack.

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No, I still haven't had a chance to figure out the problem here. Someone tried to help, but my brain is gone and I can't find the problem. I do keep changing things, but I don't have the time to just sit downa nd work on it.

And I don't even want to think about the archive stuff. When did my brain turn to mush?

Probably about the time I started getting (like today) more than 30 pieces of material for a city agenda, and had to make them all look good on the Internet and make them into a decent pdf and get copies of that back to the council people. This is a major bit of work, and I've barely started on it. Instead, I did the library web site first. And I got it all caught up -- but now there is two more emails of stuff for them as well.

Writing? Oh, I'll get to it eventually. I wrote 5000 words last night. I'd like to do that again, even if my hand hurt afterwards. Ah, suffering for our art, right?

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I'm up to 3700 and something in words. Going for at least 4000, and then a break, and then maybe some more.

You cannot imagine how relieved I am to get a good word count again.

But I think the novel is draining all the words from my brain. I had trouble with my journal and now with this. I think I'll just go write some more on it and give all of you a break. (grin)

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Hello there! My thumb is still very sore, I've had a ton of web work to get done. (Amazing how those little electrons can weigh a ton, isn't it?), and I'm going to be part of a word war at Forward Motion tonight. Looks like a busy day.

On the good side, Kid is fine today. On the bad -- Russ's thumb is very bad, and I just hope it doesn't get worse. He stayed home today, mostly because he has a horrible cold. And that was really helped by crawling around on the cold concrete in the wind last night, too. I have a cold now as well.

I have not written a thing yet today. I probably won't until the Word War.

And that's it on the update side.

Be back later...

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The Good People of Coralville is edited. I didn't think I was going to get it done, but I did. I have an epublisher in mind for this one, so we'll see how it goes.

And that's going to be about it for me tonight. I'm happy that I got something done, though. Doesn't make this day seem like such a waste.

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I did the 500. Of course the story wants to flow tonight, where it fought me every inch of the way since the first of the month.

Nevertheless, I am going to stop here for the moment and go on to editing Good People of Coralville.

page 143 out of 216. I think I can have this done fairly quickly, even though the story has far more errors closer to the end.

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I am going to try to write now. Just a few hundred words. My thumb is badly swollen and my right hand hurts. But I have not missed a day of writing in about two decades, and I won't tonight. I've tested my typing ability on posts and here. I can do it.

Novan is nearly to the capital. He's already in a bad mood. should make for a good set of pages. I hope.

one more test.

Okay, it's gotten the better of me today.

I can't type for long. I was bitten several times by one of my tame cats, and my right thumb is swollen and hurts quite a bit. Doing my writing tonight is going to be difficult. I'll go for my mimimum 500 new words and see how it looks. I can probably do editing on the other one, though. It won't take as much.

Bleeding all over my mouse and keyboard... good thing I like this cat. (He got outside and was scared out of his mind. Bit both Russ and me.)

Another try.

doing a test to see if I fixed the problem... (I doubt it.)

Page 118. This rewrite is going so well! It's gained a couple pages, too, but that's all right.

A couple years ago I never would have considered trying to write a YA novel. I'm not a teen, and haven't been for a lllllong time. But then people started telling me that my writing 'voice' fit YA books. I decided to give it a try. The Good People of Coralville is the earliest attempt. Differential Equations and Waiting for the Last Dance came next. And you know... I feel comfortable with them. I like the stories, and I like the characters.

And there, I think, is the problem a lot of new writers have. They don't really find characters that they're comfortable with and can live with for the length of time it takes to write a novel. There are those who want to write about dark, nasty characters that they want to be heroes and then fine that they get tired of them. (And, of course, you have to think about publication. There are not a lot of publishers out there looking for evil main characters. Every now and then one comes along, but not often enough to call it a trend in publishing.)

The characters I write too often tend in the opposite direction -- too good to be real. Those are the kinds of characters I like to read, but I understand that most of mine are too flat. I try to work on that in rewrites and edits. Sometimes I manage, and sometimes not.

But I usually like the stories, and lately -- hanging around so many other writers -- I begin to think that's kind of unusual.

I'm going to do some more editing, and then I'm off to bed. This may well be the final psot before then.

Good writing to everyone.

Ah, this is much better. I had the feeling it would be. I started editing The Good People of Coralville on page 105. I'm already up to 108. It's a YA novel, and only 211 or so pages long. I might have this done soon!

So why am I getting the odd number codes at the beginning of the posts?

You people are going to get very tired of seeing this site. I write a lot. Even here.

Finally reached 2000 words. A bit over, in fact, but not by much. 12,546 total. I am now going to open The Good People of Coralville and do a little editing on it. I'm tired, though. I shouldn't be.

Novan is at the first gate to the city -- which is really not at the city itself, but sort of a long, tower spotted wall that stands between the wild lands and the grazing land for the city. He's still a few hours ride to the city itself, but he's met with the first messenger and knows that some thing is up. A Lord has arrived who normally doesn't leave his Eastern lands.

I am likely to skip most of the rest of the ride -- condence it down to a few sheep, another wall and gate, a ride through the old city, and arrival at the palace. It would be nice if I could do it in just that few words, too. (grin)

But right now I'm on to some editing.

So at 11:47 I had the first 1000 words written for the night, and I'm upp to 11,547. I should go for at least another thousand so that I don't fall behind again.

My MC is doing far too much thinking (i.e. info dump) right now, but I want to get all to this down in this draft. I can work out the best way to present it in another draft. My Emperor (MC) is heading back to his capital again, and he's damned tired of being called there to settle minor disputes. The policy of his late father -- and the long war on the frontier that they didn't need to fight -- is clearer now that he had to deal with business at home.

Seven years on the throne. He's not happy.

Things are about to change, and not for the better.

Well, later and later. And I still haven't done any writing. However, I did pick up a cybercat and a lovely little silver and black teddy bear. I keep looking around the room thinking I ough to clean up my office. Really. It's getting to be quite a mess again. But then I think I'm just doing that to avoid writing again. And that's very odd for me. I love to write.

So -- on to part two of the novel. Emperor Novan is about to come home to fight with his wife, and ride off with someone who really isn't a friend after all...

(Where is that map!)

Well, see... I found the kitty templateand decided to go with it for a few days. Silly, but that's the way I want it to be for now.

It's hours later, and I haven't really done anything new. Soon it'll be time for dinner and I can avoid even more work that way.

But, since this is a log to follow my work on the NaNoWriMo novel, I should introduce a little about it now. The book is called Return to Faneh-Thenyal. Yes, it is a sequel, but to a much shorter work called The Last Days of Faneh-Thenyal, which will be for sale at the Jintsu site in December. I hadn't intended to write a sequel, but I was just doing the last round of edits and trying to come up with something for the NaNoWriMo novel when it hit me.

Unfortunately, in the first five days of the month I did only 10,525 words. That's not a bad count, just not anywhere near where I hoped to be. However, I am now at the end of part one, and my first group of people are suitably stranded, so I can move on to the next set -- an emperor who's about to find out he has even fewer friends than he thought. And it's going to be a very painful lesson to learn.

My hope is to continue in the 3-5,000 words a day vein that I've gotten into the last couple days.

But there are distractions. I found a young adult novel that I want to get done and out. I did a lot of work on it last night. And I have a short story that's only half finished, and I hate to leave them sitting around like that.

And now I've done more writing here than I have on anything else. Time to get to work for a few minutes before dinner!

I could have gotten a lot of writing done in the last hour or so I've been playing with this. I could have at least done a couple more web sites. Now, granted, I am having fun. But I'm going to be going nuts in about 12 hours trying to get my writing done and thinking about all the time I've been spending here.

But it is fun...

This is the last thing I'm doing here for a bit. I really do have other work to do. Realy.

I think I'm going to have to kill someone for getting me caught up in this stuff!

Yes, I'm trying a different style. No, I shouldn't be playing with this thing...

Well, except for some odd coding that seems to have gotten in there, it looks all right. I'll be playing with it a bit more as I go along, but right now I really do have to get back to my real web work.

Should I mention now that I don't do 'live' coding any more at all? I looked at this stuff and blanched because I had forgotten so much of the material. It'll come back, I'm sure.

I have done two sets of web pages already today. I'm on to another two sets and then I hope to get to my writing. Yes, I'm another NaNoWriMo person. Return to Faneh-Thenyal is sitting at 10,525 words, with the first section done. There are six sections in all, so if I can keep them at 10,000 words, I should do fine.

I just can't believe it's already the sixth. Time to get back to work!

Okay, I decided to play with this Blogger stuff. Like I need another distraction -- but it looked like fun. I can always use fun, right?

You know I should be doing real web work, right?

Let's see how this works...