So, I had finished the outline. Vision is done and up. The agendas are done (except for the html... but that's easy this time). I was feeling pretty good and crawled off for a little relaxation in the bathtub. Good day. Everything done ahead of time...

Well, except for that one thing...

I haven't written anything for today. Everything after midnight goes to November 1 because of NaNoWriMo.

Back out of the tub and to the computer. Back to work. Lucky for me I'm way over what I need for the month, so I'm just going to write about 500 words and call it good. It will mess with my 'Reaching 1,000,000' words per day goal, but I suspect that will change as soon as I get to work on the novel.

HA!
They thought they would get me with the agendas. Two on one day... but it turned out that one I could skip entirely, and the other had very little work. It's done and out. I still have web pages to do, but they'll wait until after I get done with Vision. Which is almsot done, by the way.

Just thought I'd drop that in here since I have to get a few things done still. Off to work!

I have completed the outline.

This is a very rare and strange event. I have a detailed outline, just ready for me to start working. It came in (quite unintentionally) at 330 entries, which makes 11 a day. 250 words per entry will take me well over 82,000 words for the novel. I can do this. I'm anxious to do this. LOL.

This is fun. I like trying new things.

My only problem is... well, I have to write something tomorrow. I have one short story to work on, and one unfinished novel. I can get a few thousand words out of them, I guess. And then I can start on the new novel after midnight. The only things I do not have outlined for it are the Prologue and the Epilogue -- but the first is based entirely on the closing of the previous book, and that isn't in the completed final draft yet. The Epilogue... well, I can put that in, I guess. There. That's added. Still looks good.

I'm going to work a bit on Vision now. I have it nearly done as well. Tomorrow I will have an agenda from the city, but it should be a short one. I'll have another on Friday. I'm doing some work at Forward Motion, and I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong there... very frustrating some times when I know I should be able to figure it out. But I'll get it eventually.

Right now, though.... The outline is done! Yay!

How very odd. I'm down to the last few notes on Freedom and Fame, and I've got only two or three more pages to do for Vision. This would... you know... put me done ahead of the game.

I'm sure that can't be right. I'm one of those people who are perpetually behind. I don't care how much time I spend sitting here doing sites and writing, by the time I get up to go to bed I will be farther behind than when I started. The idea that I might have a little bit of a rest tomorrow before midnight kind of... doesn't feel right. LOL.

I guess that says it all. I seem to work well under pressure, and I probably even create some of it for myself. Hmmm...

Ah well. Back to Vision and the outline. At least I'm having fun!

I went to bed early last night with very little work done. I got hit by the cold again, and it just knocked me out. Today I am back on medications which also knocked me out. You can't win in a situation like this.

NaNoWriMo is having trouble with their host site. I can really feel for the people, since Forward Motion went through the same thing not so long ago. I'm sure they're going nuts.

I'm having a great time preparing for the novel, though. I'm down to the last few notes. I would have had it done last night, but tonight will do.

I am having real problems iwth my connnection, though. Making it very difficult to get any on-line work done. Copying this off to make sure I don't lose it when I post. Not that I'd really be losing much, but...

Well, I've done about everything but write so far today. That's all right. It was a good day so far. I've gotten most of Vision done. I did some posts at NaNoWriMo. I'm gearing up for the fun! Yay!

I do have some work to do at FM tonight, but I'm going to wait until late, when I can mess around with the boards and maybe people won't notice. (LOL)

(Looking at notes I need to work into outline...) Best get back to work. It would be nice to be done with this a day or two early!

And I'm back. Twelve hours later. Pretty funny.

Russ and I went out for a bit. I'm now working on Vision. It's not looking like too bad of a day so far. If I can get a bunch of Vision stuff done quickly, then I can go on to the outline. Yay. I'm almost done with it, by the way. I'll be very happy to get all the way to the end of it and be ready.

Time to get to work...

Okay, a little more. Made 3011 words total for the day. And now. Really. Bed.

300 more words. That's all I need. I can do this... But I'm really tired tonight!

3:48Am... I can do this...

3:51 Am -- 229 more words.

3:52 am -- 151 words. (Yes, I am getting silly...)

3:58 am 83 words to go. Yes, slowed up there. Transition crap. But I'm past it.

4:01 am 2 words to go. LOL.

4:06 am -- 112 words over what I need. Almost tempted to do more, but I think it's time to sleep.

Good stuff, though. Past the part that had stopped me earlier. Heading into the last of the scenes. I bet it's going to run about 300 phases, which would be excellent. 10 phases a day, and about 270 words per phase (to reach 80,000 -- about the average for the previous five books in the set.)

I'm happy. I can do this.

After I sleep...

Yes, the bath helped. A couple nice scenes came out of it. Between them and the article, I've nearly reached 2000 words for the day. That's good. I'm just a bit over 9000 words for the outline, by the way. And I'm still mostly having fun with it, though it's going to be rough to get the last sections done before the first. Getting closer, though!

I have some Forward Motion work to do in the morning, though. Well, afternoon I suppose is the better term. I'm rather hoping it goes quickly.

I'm looking forward to November 1...

Quite a bit done on Vision tonight. Yay! But I have not yet started work on Freedom and Fame outline. I think I'm going to do my 'soak in the tub' trick with my notecards and see if I can come up with some interesting little bits for this entirely new section. That also gets me away from the computer and puts a break point between Vision and my work. Sometimes it's hard to leap from one to the other like that. Especially when I know that I really must have Vision done, but the outline could be unfinished when I start on November 1. I don't want to go that way, though, so I will keep working at this and see if I can get it all finished.

But right now... bath, relax, think my way through a dangerous journey across some mountains.

I have run into a plotting problem with Freedom and Fame. By cutting out so much of the original novel, I have deleted a large section of the conflict. It was stupid conflict, mind you, but still... better than nothing? Maybe not, but it has left me with this gap that I am having trouble filling with anything of interest. It shouldn't be that way, of course. My people are up to their asses in trouble. They have to make a long journey over dangerous terrain that they will only survive because they have a couple powerful mages with them. And they have an enemy dogging their steps... ah, of course. Take away the power of one of those mages, and surviving the journey becomes far less likely. Take Abby and Tristan away from the group, and can they still expect the blessing that follows them and their followers? Okay, I can see a couple spots there that can be expanded. I don't want to dwell too long on the journey part anyway, but because I have stressed the danger in doing what they are doing, I can't just leap over it and say 'and then they walked out of the mountains and reached the city.'

Good. That helps.

I'm working pretty well on Vision, too. Going together nicely. Shouldn't take too much to get it done now, though I still have one missing piece that I need to do. Not too much of a problem.

I am about half way through my word count for the night. Good. I am half tempted to stop and write on the new short story, but I think I'd be wiser to keep going on this one. I've made it through the 16 pages of orginal material, but there were probably seven or eight pages there that I only took a look at and skipped.

I was thinking about getting done, going to bed... and then I remebered that Russ has to get up at about 4:15. He has a deal to be at for the radio station at 6am. If I go to bed before that, I'll just wake him up when he needs the sleep. He has a horrible cold, and feeling really miserable.

But I'm tired tonight. Really beat. I may have to crawl off to bed anyway, as soon as I get my writing done.

Back to the outline. Just thought of an entire new chapter I want to add in. Good.

Sometimes I wonder what makes me tick.

I spent today with my little list of things that I need to get done. Not much of a list, really. Prepare five articles for Vision. (I did eight, I think.) Take notes based on 16 pages of the original manuscript for Freedom and Fame.

Every time I sat down to do that part, I found myself skating off to do something else instead. Nothing important. I finally took the papers and notecards and headed into the tub for a while. Headache, I told myself. A bath will help. I did two and a half notes, and then fell over asleep.

I came back out. I sat down to work, and found myself bouncing around the Internet instead. Huh. Stop that. Called up the outline. Looked at the papers... and started typing. Did about 700 words so far. Still moving well, even if I am here on a short little break. I'm about to cut a huge section of the original, and I need to cover some of the material from it in a new way. But it is going well. I'm on page 110 of the original. There is only 181 pages to it total. I shouldn't have much trouble getting this part done and being ready for November.

I lost my last post. Ah well. I hadn't really said anything important!

I've got something of a schedule worked out to get me through the last few days of the month and have me ready for posting Vision and getting my outline done for NaNoWriMo. I have plenty of time for both, but... well, in case you didn't notice, I'm easily distracted. I have no idea how it got to be the end of the month. It should be the 15th or so, I'm sure. But my computer keeps saying the 27th. I think computers are stealing days away from us.

It has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that I edited an entire 100,000+ book this month, plus wrote a new 62,000+ novel, and a couple short stories. Those couldn't have taken all those days, right?

I managed to do a lot of work on Vision tonight. I'm quite happy with that. Now it's back to work on the outline, and finish up the agenda stuff for the city -- except that it's still giving me trouble uploading.

Maybe a nice warm, long bath instead...

A few hundred words over. And now... good night! (And in a much better mood than I was a few hours ago.)

Slight break to do a quick check at Forward Motion, post a couple things, answer a private email... and move on. I'm up to 1709 words with just 1078 left. Excellent.

I have also finally settled on how this will work for the NaNoWriMo madness. When I have all of this done, I'll be able to divide up the number of phases by 30 (days in November) and tell just exactly how many of them I have to get through each day. I will then take my outline and put dates in at the appropriate spots. That should keep me easily in line, even if I get busy at some point.

Okay, off to do the last 1000+ words. So far I've had to make a few drastic changes in the plot, but it will still all lead to the same places, and this time by much better paths.

545 words to go. And I'm happy with the way this is working out. I'm up to 124 phases. There are going to be several hundred of them, but I think they'll still work well. I also know I'm about to hit a spot in the story where I am changing a great deal again.

I'm surprised to see that I'm just a little over half way through the original plot. Very good. I'm betting it will actually not go much over 300 phases then, unless I add a great deal in on this last half. I might.

I've never worked quite like this before. It's kind of fun to try something new and different. It actually makes the outline something I'm apt to stick closely to, which in this case will help. If it works out, I'll be doing the last two books in the series this way as well. I hope to have the entire series done by February, which whill make it one year from the time it was bought. I would have liked to have had it done by the end of December, but I'm not going to push that hard. Besides, I want December to be a fun month, not a totally crazed one.

Right. Like they're all not crazed. Oh, and I've written 810,550 words so far this year, not counting today's work. That means less than 100,000 for the last two months. Good so far. I hope to get it down even better, so that I can go into December without total panic.

Okay. Back to writing. Another 545 words. I can do that much...

836 words. And a very nice new little bit that I like very much. Ah, much better mood already.

I also realized I had written 205 words on the new short story right after I got up today and before I fell into the work on the agenda. That helps. I'm now just over 1000 words, with 1745 more to go.

I have given up trying to get the web stuff to work. I'll do it tomorrow. It's too late to keep messing around with this, and it just gives me a worse headache anyway. I'm already getting the little light flashes in my right eye -- prelude to really bad headaches if I don't ease up.

I have barely written 300 words for the day. I am going to go work on the outline for Freedom and Fame. I'm having fun with it. I wasn't certain I would, but the way I'm doing it seems to be working very well for me. I'm outlining in what I call 'phases.' They're not quite pages, and they're not quite scenes. Transistions is too strong a word, as well. But they follow the flow of the story by giving a line or two of description in what's going on. There may be several phases to a scene. So far I have 79 phases based on the original 50 pages of material. I've also cut several scenes, not to mention five characters, from the original story. Cutting the characters makes the phasing even more important since I have to work around people who are no longer there, and make certain anything essential that they covered is picked up by someone else.

I'm running out of time, though. I need to get this done and Vision put together. I may have to work in the 'reward' method. I can only work on the outline if I do X amount of work on Vision. I'll have to start that tomorrow, though. Today I've had quite enough of putting together things.

Okay, starting count for the outline was 2831. I am now up to 3153. I need to write 2786 words for the day to keep on my goal.

Somehow, I don't think I'm going to make it.

Actually, now I'm done with the PDF file. I forgot to do one important step. It really didn't take that long, and I'm glad I didn't send it out before it was done.

In the mean time, I'm trying to get the web pages to go together. It keeps crashing on the very first item. Not a good sign.

Sigh. I could be writing now, you know. I could be working on my notes to Freedom and Fame, which is going very well. Or I could be working out the details for my new short story. But instead I'm working on this damned agenda. For... four hours now, right? Something that, if they sent the material to me properly, I could do in maybe an hour. That is the frustration. I like doing the pdf's. I don't even mind doing the web site stuff. I would gladly do it forever... If someone on their end would just take the time to check the material before they send it to me, so that I'm not spending hours matching stuff up and making it readable.

The site I do this for has won national awards. But the people at the other end are less and less interested in seeing it work properly. I'm afraid it's coming to a time when I'm going to have to say do what you want with it, just don't bother me any more.

On the good news front, Russ will be home in the next hour. And he will bring pizza tonight. I'm looking forward to it. And I might just have to skip this part of the web site if it refuses to go up and move on to the other parts. And then... Yes, write...

I'm killing a little time here to see if the web stuff is going to bomb out again before I try to do something else. I can only sit and stare at it for so long...

So. I have a lovely new little short story. I'm working up the main conflict in my mind, but the intro 800 words are pretty good so far, and I have a wonderful closing line. I think it will stay less than 4000 or so words -- pretty short for me. I even have a market in mind for it, which is rare. I don't normally think about markets when I work. (Ignoring the fact that I can't even get the web program to open now... We'll just pretend I didn't check, right?) I don't expect the story to fit their needs, but I still think it's going to be a good little piece. I haven't written nearly enough short stories this year.

Huh. It seems to have done something. Post this and back to work...

The PDF file is put together. I need to send it off to some people, but I know I also need to make some cdrom versions. I'll wait until Russ gets home to figure out which is which. In the mean time, it's on to the web version. That's going to be... interesting to put together. I should have marked which of the attachments turned out to be duplicates. Oh well.

Off to work. I might get this done yet tonight!

Oh look... another hour gone. I do finally have the material in one document. As I worked through the set I found that they had duplicated many pieces and missed several others entirely. The agenda is now up to 106 pages. I now have to go change all those links, though. Then I get to create the pdf version.

And then I get to take all of this and material do the web site.

Do you have those kind of jobs where you just open up something to start and the headache begins inching up the back of your head? That's this job. Sometimes they amaze me, and there's only a couple little things wrong. Sometimes...

I am now almost an hour and a half into the work. I have not yet started putting anything together. There are 51 attachments. Most of the scans were so bad I could not make out the words. So I had to spend time 'fixing' those, as best I could.

Then I found that they had used a very odd size font on the agenda itself, so I need to do a test pdf to see if it reads all right, before I put the entire thing together. Only it doesn't want to create a pdf at all. Hmmm....

It's going to be well over 100 pages by the time I'm done. Providing, of course, that I ever actually get done...

Got some site work done at Forward Motion. Now I really really really have to do the agenda. No, I haven't even looked at it yet. They annoyed me with it before I even got that far by not putting the numbers on the attachments. That means I have to open up over 20 attachments and start trying to match them up with numbered items on the agenda. I shouldn't have to do this. Snarl, but opening agenda now...

snarl, snarl...

I've been up and down today... just too tired to stay awake for some reason. I'm not sure why. Even now, after another four hours of sleep, I'm sitting here by the computer thinking that Russ is going to be gone all day and it's quiet and... I do need to get some work done, but not that badly, right? I could go crawl up in bed again for a while...

Maybe.

In the mean time, I'm going back to work on my two current projects -- the outline/notes for Freedom and Fame and a short story I started last night. The story is going well, I just have to get a better fix on my villian and how his actions would be something that a nature goddess would .... ah. I think I see something. An upsetting of nature, using magic to bring in creatures of his (or her?) own that devastate the land.

Okay. That might work. I'll need a little more build up... Maybe I'll just go sleep on it for awhile. (grin)

1130 words on the world building notes so far. Going pretty well. I have about 32 scenes written out. There may be as many as 200 or more before I'm done, though. And that's after culling a good part of the original story and cutting out six characters. Lots of stuff for this one. Changing major parts of the material as well, but it's going pretty good.

Agenda stuff has started to fall into my mailbox. Snarl. Well, at least I've gotten some work done first.

And today it's back to work on some serious world building/notes for the NaNoWriMo novel. I'm typing up a lot of material today. I need this to reintroduce me to what I'm going to start a week from today. I've done so much material in between that I've somewhat lost the feel for the series. Time to focus back in. I'm getting there.

I will also, unfortunately, have an agenda to do today. I just finished the one for the county -- easy stuff, I love that one.

Russ has a horrible cold, by the way. He's just miserable. I'm suffering through the 'can't focus' headache stuff, but working around it. I will get some work done.

Growl. Snarl.

But still... I've not done too badly the last few days.

It's OFF. It's done. It's out of my hands for the moment.

Took me longer than I wanted, but I think I liked it in the end. I ended up adding about 43 pages, but the way. Good stuff, too.

But it's gone. out of my hands, and now I can get back to work on other things.

I've reread the first 80 pages and done the last little clean up. So far, not bad. But it's 4am. I'm going tohead to bed for a few hours. I didn't get much sleep last night. I hope I do better today.

Down to the last few pages. 499 out of 506. Very, very close.

I'm going to read through it again tomorrow, probably.

Thunk...

478 out of 506. Another little glitch backtracked and fixed.

But... I'm tired. Really tired. Ack.

463 out of 506

Not too bad there. But I'll be glad to have this one done, of course. I can't believe how much I've added to this story. But I like it...

451 out of 506. Yes, the pages leapt up there a bit. I'm at the point where I go back to earlier material and add in little bits and pieces to fill the story out. 55 pages lef to do. Yes, I can do this tonight... except that I'm very tired. I hate that part.

Onward.

428. Also ran out to the store and got to see more of the snow. Quite a storm, really, for this early in the year.

416. Slow, but getting there.

Page 404. And I ate dinner. And pulled up a different story to get a couple names from it. I can almost see the end in sight. I just need this finished and out of my hands so I can get back to other work again. But it's too good a chance to brush off, or let linger. I'll get it done tonight.

I hope.

I lost my feel for the novel when I went to sleep. I came in and sat down to work, and got very annoyed that it just didn't feel right. I've been at it for about four hours, and I've managed on 20 some pages and some back-tracking work.

Russ just left for a meeting/dinner thingy. I'm going to pop something into the microwave and eat it while I work.

I reformatted the novel and it's now 501 pages. I'm on page 378. I I make it to 400, I think I'll have a good rush toward the end. If I can feel better about it, I'll have even less trouble.

Okay, about a quarter to seven here. I'm going to work at least the next fifteen minutes, and then make food, and then work some more. I'm going to check in now and then to note the work, and maybe feel like I'm getting somewhere.

Okay. Work. Right. I can get this done tonight.

Oh great. My cable connection just went down again. Sigh. Try again...

Lot of work done. Need to sleep for a few hours. Be back soon...

Didn't get to the zoo pictures, though. Maybe tomorrow. I hope so. Made it to page 348 on the novel, though. Only about 150 left. Yay! I can do this. And I like the novel. Good stuff.

Well, yes. I am still here. Even more busy than before. Russ is home too, and we had a little snow, and all is well in the world. I have a book to edit. I'm about 176 pages into the 512. It's taking me longer than I hoped, but I'm plugging away at it. I'm doing work at Foward Motion. I'm getting some writing done.

Busy. I also have the disk of Zoo pictures finally done, so I want to do that site as well. Oh my. Soo much to do!

Off to work, off to work. At least 250-300 on the novel tonight. That's my goal. I can do this.

Yay! Just got an email from Russ! He's in the car and on the way home! (I love his wireless Palm for times like this!) He'll be home in a couple hours now.

65,125

Fighting for Strangers #1 is done. I don't know that I'll get to # 2 any time in the near future. I like the characters, but I have a couple other projects that have to be done now. Maybe I'll put it on the list for new novels next year and think about a plot for it.

But right now I'm a bit content. And it's not even a bad draft. All things considered, I could have done worse this last week.

64,689. Down to the last few pages. Not much left at all, but I stopped to talk to Russ on the phone. He's in Chicago right now. Not much longer now! He'll be boarding the plane soon, and then when he gets to Omaha, there's just the drive home. He did ask about the temperatures. The bad news is that it's 35f. The good news is that there isn't the snow they predicted. That is supposed to be here tomorrow.

I'll be glad to have him home. This has been a stressful week.

Very close to done with Fighting for Strangers. I've forced myself to work on it tonight. I just wish Russ would get home. Still another six or seven hours, though.

Things aren't that bad. I'm just tired from this last week. If I thought I could, I would just crawl off into bed and sleep for a few hours. Unfortunately, the way I feel right now, I'd just stay awake anyway.

63,985. I'm betting I'll have it done in a thousand words or so.

Good.

Not much at all done today. I have a sick kitty (Kincaid). He's still up and moving, so I'm not going to call the vet tonight. Russ will be home in about eight hours, and that helps.

I feel sorry for the poor guy, though. He's pretty miserable. And I didn't help much. I was trying to clean him up and he panicked and leapt into the sink of water. Lucky that I got him before he got totally drenched. I've been trying to dry him off, but he just keeps growling at me. Kin rarely growls.

I didn't want him wet, though. The weather has turned cold, and I really don't want him to get a nasty cold on top of everything else. Well, at least now he's up in the chair, sleeping. Before this, I couldn't get him to get up off the floor.

I should get some writing done, but I'm having trouble concentrating for a number of reasons.

Ack.

60,815

I got side tracked by a little work for Forward Motion, which was fine. I didn't mind finally being able to do something there! And there were also police cars and an ambulance across the street, but it doesn't appear that they took anyone away, so I think that went all right.

I think, since it's so close to midnight, that I'm going to pretty much call it a day at five thousand plus words, and start new after midnight. This will give me a good run on tomorrow, which I think I need. Since I feel better, I would like to get some work around the house done.

There is so little left to do on this book that I might yet get it done before I go to bed, though.

Back to work...

60,160. Closer -- I think maybe two more chapters, and one of them a short one, disjointed -- the main character is ill, and I want him to just see a few things happening around him to fill in a gap of time.

If I finish this off, it will likely mean I'll have close to a 10,000 word day. I already have over 5,000. And I have the urge to write a lot more, now that I'm so close to the end. But my head hurts, too. I think I'll go hunt up a little food.

I have also started working out the missing notecards for the NaNoWriMo novel next month. This is good.

Food. Yes. I'll go find some now.

A good writing night!

I've gotten a lot of work done tonight. Just fell into it. Fighting for Strangers will be finished tonight. I knew I was close, so this puts me in a really good mood. Sort of my practice run for NaNoWriMo since the first draft is coming in around 62,000.

I am so glad I'm feeling better tonight, though I'm still a little shy about touching food. Maybe a salad -- that didn't bother me last night.

Current count -- 59,397

Soon...

You know, I would still be sleeping if the phone hadn't rang.

I haven't been this tired in years. In some ways it's kind of nice. I've mostly slept through being ill. The cats and dog have been relatively good, and it's been quiet outside because the weather has turned colder (supposed to be snow tomorrow through Wednesday, but I really don't believe it).

I did hurt my left arm yesterday. It was really strange. I was walking from one room to another and just banged straight into the edge of the door way. Now my arm hurts from my wrist up into my shoulder. I sure hope that passes quickly.

But I am going to write this afternoon. And see if I can make any sense out of stuff at Forward Motion. Headaches and reading do not go well for me, but I'm going to give it a try while I still feel halfway human.

So, off to see what harm... work... I can do.

Yes, feeling better. I even got a little fun out of writing. Here's a little snippet between Don Elihu De Sarenta, the King's Messenger and his friend, King Ivian. They've met up on the trail, both of them pursued by the enemy, and are about to make a stand, along with a few companions, in the only shelter they can find:

"I'm much better," Eli tried to assure him. "Though I do look forward to at least a few minutes rest in an actual bed at Rosewood. And a bath, though I've have gotten used to dips in streams and ponds lately. You've no idea what sort of trial you put your poor, underrated messengers through."

"Next he'll tell me I don't pay him enough," Ivy said with an exaggerated sigh.

"Pay?" Eli asked, looking shocked. "You mean you pay some people to do this?"

I am actually feeling better tonight. I even ate a little salad, which seems to have helped more than I expected.

I've gotten a good amount of writing done in the last couple hours, too. That makes me feel considerably better as well. I wish I had gotten something done around the house, but I still have a day or two. If I can just stay awake...

And I've got another wasp in the bathroom. It's turned cold, so they're starting to find their way inside. I've killed two there in the last two days, and one in my office. They scare Pip to death, by the way. He takes off at a run whenever he sees one. That's how I knew there was one in the bathroom before I even saw it. Unfortunately, it was up where I couldn't get it. Snarl. I want to take another nice, warm bath.

Snarl...

Yes, still ill. Spent much of the day curled up in blankets, cold and sweating. I think I might be past the worst of that, at least. Food has not been a good idea, even a little chicken rice soup and crackers.

I have gotten some writing done, in little spurts here and there before I feel the need to crawl back into bed.

Overall, not the best days I've had in a while.

Did I mention that I also have an agenda to do?

That's what I've been working on. No, it was not right. They sent -- hmmm, 8 attachments there, two there, seven for that one, a couple more single ones -- 20 plus attachments, and didn't bother to mark what they were attachments for on most of them. Or what order they should go in for the sets. So I've been pieceing together something that almost makes sense.

I figured I might as well get at least part of this done now. I already feel lousy. Why leave this until I feel better and ruin that?

Still ill, yes. I was feeling better, then a lot worse, and now... that kind of inbetween stage where I think it could go either way. This is as close to good as I've felt for about 24 hours, though. So I'm taking advantage of it with a bit of writing.

Food was not a good idea, by the way.

They say we should have snow on Monday into Tuesday... which is when Russ will be driving home from Omaha, of course. And he forgot to take his coat, poor guy. It's going to be miserable, especially if he has to dig the car out of a snow drift.

You know, I seem to be thinking almost in coherent thoughts. This might be good.

Still ill, but not as ill. Able to handle a couple things at Forward Motion this evening. I feel badly about that -- the site comes into my hands, and I am almost immediately so ill that I can hardly even look at the boards. I hate that.

I have not ate in about 30 hours, so I think I'm going to do a little chicken soup test here in a few minutes.

I'm thinking good thoughts.

I'm also doing a little writing.

Still ill. Barely crawling out of bed to check the email. I hope this is past by tomorrow.

I am ill. Well and truly miserably ill. I've come back to the computer a couple times, and I tried to eat something -- big mistake -- and now I'm going to go rest in a tub of water until I'm not feeling quite so ill.

Argh. I hate this. I want to just sit down and write today, and forget everything else for a little while. I don't think that's too much to ask.

(Grabbing Tums again...)

I am a couple hundred words over what I need for the day. Good.

I did something stupid at the web site -- lost an entire thread -- because I wan't thinking. Bad.

Argh.

But, I have the last load of clothes in the dryer now (and why is it suddenly squeaking, I ask?), and I'll write until it's done, and then spend a few hours in bed trying to sleep. Russ will be leaving about 9am. Sigh. He'll be gone for five days this time.

Back to writing for awhile...

We've done shopping. And more shopping. And a little bit more after that. I'm not a shopping kind of person, to be honest. But we did all right. House is now stocked with odd food and strange goodies.

I also did almost all my writing earlier today. I'm going to do more tonight and maybe even get ahead! What a thought!

Russ will be gone for five days. Since I got virtually nothing done when he was gone for nine days at the end of September and beginning of October, I really don't expect this to go any better. I would love to say that I will have a huge house cleaning binge, paint the garage, rake the yard, and knit a new sweater... but we'd all know I'm lying. I don't knit.

Off to do some writing, though...

Run run run!

We're getting Russ ready for his trip tomorrow. It's going pretty well... I mean it's not even midnight yet and we actually got something done off the list. (grin) I have to go make a grocery list for what I want while he's goine. Won't be much, since he'll only be gone five days. I tend to eat TV dinners and salads. And junk food. But we won't mention that. (Did I get chips and dip on the list... good, good.)

I've managed to write 1000 words already today, despite it being totally crazed around here. Russ is off washing clothes, and as soon as he gets back, we'll be off buying groceries. All in all, it looks good.

And that, of course, worries me.

Oh good. We're back.

Not that you really missed anything. I wrote. I slept, I got up and fretted because there was no check in the mail and Russ is leaving for New York tomorrow. However, an email came saying the city had a check for him, so he could go and pick that up -- which is where he is now.

This month is going too fast. I need to buckle down and work. Unfortuantely, I have a sore throat. Snarl. And I wish Russ wasn't going away for another five days, but I'll survive it.

That's all my news right now...

Uck.

Well, whatever flu, miserable stuff has been going around, it seems to have caught up with me. I just hope Russ doesn't catch it, since he's flying off to New York on Thursday, and won't be home until Monday. Tonight he's up in Sioux Falls teaching a class for Gateway. He's been getting two or three of those a week when he's in town, but this is the first one up there.

I spent the day in bed and crawled out to see how things are going at Forward Motion. Looks good so far. I have several other emails to answer.

I have Vision to work on as well. I'm having a few problems there with the last issue of the year. I think people are trying to drive me nuts with that one.

Mostly, I would just like to crawl off somewhere for a while... but I guess I'll get some work done instead...

And, to add more fun to the entire deal, my connection keeps going down. You'd think that would mean I'd get more writing done, wouldn't you? No, of course not. Between worrying about Holly's site, which is momentarily in my hands, and panicking over missing emails, I've just gone nuts. And then there is the headache. I've mentioned the headache, right?

I would just like to have a good day of writing again. That would help a lot. But my head just isn't in it. I'm about half way through what I need for the day, and once I get there, I'm going to go back to bed and try to sleep past the headache again.

Okay. Enough bitching for the moment. Back to work.

Busy day already, and my head is not quite up to it. I picked up a cold -- not from wandering around the zoo. I felt it coming on before that. Probably the zoo didn't help in that respect, but it as such a nice day, just to get away. I do need to replace my shoes, though. Just not good walking shoes.

I'm going to do some writing work here in a little while. Try to get all caught up. It shouldn't be that hard!

4am. Writing sucks. I'm going to bed. Sleep would be very nice right now. And the bath was good, too, and I think the idea of sleeping while I'm still a little relaxed from it isn't a bad idea. More tomorrow. Maybe.

Yes, yes, I went to the zoo. And came back to odd things going on that I needed to take care of, both on-line and off. And then remembered that I still have more of the damned agenda to get up before tomorrow's meeting.

But I had an interesting day, at least. I'm also totally worn out, of course. Little sleep last night... and Kwi, being such a great cat, knew that we had to wake up early to go, so he came in meeping like a damned alarm clock. Ack.

I just did about the last of the work on the agenda. I'll do a little work on the regular journal, and then a break in the bathtub -- I feel like I'm covered in dust still, and I think I'll have a better chance writing if I don't feel so scrungy.

It was good to get away from the house for a little while. I'm likely not going to get away for a while again, especially since Russ will be back in New York from Thursday -Monday.

Okay, Agenda is as up and ready as I can make it. Time to do my journal and then clean up, and then write, and then sleep, and then...

Ah, life back to normal.

You know, it has felt like a very long day today, but here it is not quite midnight and I only have a couple hundred words to get done for the night. Good. After I get those done I can start work on Sunday's total (since it will be Sunday by then) and not have so much hanging over me after the zoo trip.

Russ is still not here. Soon, I hope.

(About 50 minutes later)

Russ came home with pizza. Good pizza. (grin)

We ate. He's taking a shower and heading for bed. I'm going to finish out my writing and take a shower and head for bed.

The pizza was worth the wait, though...

153 more words to go for the night, and then I kick over to Sunday's word count. Normally I wouldn't do that until after I sleep, but it seems wise to get a little headstart on it today.

Ah, a little better. Focus. That's what I've needed here the last couple days.

I've 996 words left to make my goal for the day. Any time I can drop below 1000, I generally don't give up.

Russ isn't home with the pizza yet. I forgot that they have two shows to do tonight. But he should be here soon!

And I can get a few hundred more words in, I'm sure...

Well, not a great day for writing again. I've managed about 1400 words, which is far more than I thought I would at times. I'll keep working a while longer, but all in all, I think I'm going to have a second low count day in a row. And tomorrow won't be any better if I go to the zoo.

On the other hand, Russ should be home with pizza soon.

I'm only a couple paragraphs or so from the end of this chapter. I can make it that far, at least. Really.

I feel like I've written more on this blog then on the stories today...

Batteries for camera are charged, though...

The agenda material does not want to upload. Sigh. I got a few pieces up, and I'll try again later. Right now I'm taking a break to do other work. Writing. If I kept at the agenda and it kept bombing out like that, I'm afraid I would do harm to my computer before I ever got to writing.

Going to the zoo tomorrow? I suspect I will. It takes a lot to get me to drop a zoo trip. It's going to be a long day there, though, and I'll have to be careful of my camera battery power or I'll not be able to take pictures all the way to the end. And yes, that is important to me.

Oh. Better check on batteries and get them charged up. Good plan. Maybe I'll take the bag of M&M's with me, too. Hmmm....

I'm tired. Which is good, by the way. I would like to get to bed at a fairly good hour tonight, so that getting up at 7am to head for Omaha doesn't kill me. (grin) The only other alternative would be to stay up... and that's really not a good plan.

Well, yesterday's word count turned out to be rather dismal -- 1020 words divided between two pieces. I can't say that I'll do any better today since there is so much going on... including the html work for the agenda.

I may go to the zoo tomorrow. The way I feel right now, it seems less likely. It may be that I need a day away, though. We'll have to see how I feel in the morning.

Russ is going to do some mc work at the comedy club tonight... which means pizza later. That sounds good, even if my stomach is giving me grief right now.

Another hour and I've just finished the pdf version. I think. I'm tempted to send it off and be done with it -- except that I still have all the html version to do as well. So I might hold it and check it tomorrow after my blood pressure comes back down, just to make certain I'm not doing anything really stupid.

And I'll just put a note on my computer now to do the html version then. Or finish the html version, because I think I can get some of the prelim work there out of the way right now. I mean why ruin another perfectly good writing day by having this hanging over me.

The agenda appears to be 142 pages, by the way. And it's only that short because they didn't send me a couple of the attachments.

But... I think I have made progress.

ARGH!

Agenda. Long agenda -- 127 pages at this point, and it's not done. And I swear, if I were a violent person, I'd be going postal by now. Four years of this? And They Can't Get It Right. Oh, it's not really that they can't, it's that it doesn't matter to them. Send it off to me, and they don't have to worry, because I wont' be able to reach them after hours on Friday anyway.

I have been working on this now for four hours. I'm almost done with the prelim work.

And, of course, I haven't written a single thing today yet. I won't make my goal -- I can pretty much guarantee that since I'm still not done with the work.

I'm ready to just send nasty little notes to everyone invovled and tell them what they can do with their agendas.

Okay. Back to work.

Thunk. Good writing night -- 3065 on Fighting for Strangers, and a bunch of notes on a new short story. And then some notes on a new novel that I will not be writing until January at the earliest. It just hit me, so I wrote them down like a good little obsessive writer. Maybe I can make it into a novella, instead. Lately I've found that I really like writing the mid-lenght stories. You know, the ones that are nearly impossible to find a home for.

But now it's time to go get some sleep again. I'll type up my new short story tomorrow, I think. I could use a new short story -- something where I can write "The End" in a matter of hours rather than months.

After some sleep...

Thunk...

Writing is finally going well. 1500 words so far, and the story is moving fine. I'm taking a little bit of a break. It's good to see this novel moving, even if I do still feel guilty about working on it when I have others to get done. Ah well. I'll get there with all of them, eventually.

Ah well. It's good to work. I'm having fun. In the end, that counts for a lot in writing.

The agenda is done and posted. Yay! I'm free again for a few hours!

I keep wondering how much I could get done today on Fighting for Strangers. Or if I should try my hand at the little short story that popped up in my mind this afternoon, and which refuses to be battered back down again.

I should edit a piece or two of Vision as well.

Hmmm...

But at least the agenda is done. LOL. That counts for something!

The PDF version of tomorrow's city agenda is done and already emailed. I still have to do the on-line version, of course, but so far... it's going well enough. I'm happy.

What an odd couple days at Forward Motion. Anyone there knows the story -- and I assume, really, that there aren't many (if any) readers of this blog outside that group. But I will say... you know, it takes a lot of ... nerve to step into a group with over 900 members and accuse the person who runs the group of lying.

And it's all pretty much settled now, I think. Which is good. But it is a reminder to go and check for material using key sentences, not titles or your name. Neither might appear on a stolen piece.

And, by the way, another odd misconception -- it doesn't matter if you don't make any money from it, or if you don't put your name on it -- the item is still stolen. I've noticed the 'As long as I don't make money from it, it's all right' idea in quite a few fanfic circles. That's not true. You are still using copyrighted material, and whether the owner of the copyright wants to pursue stopping you or not is entirely up to them.

Ah. There. Agenda has gone out and dropped back into my email box, so I know it went out properly.

Time, I guess, to go do the on-line version.

1820 words written, about 1100 to go to keep my numbers even for the million word goal. I hope to go over that today, again. The typing seems to be going well enough... steady but not outstanding. Still, I've written 25,743 just on this story since the start of the month, and I've gone over 30,000 for the month total. No outstanding days, but good solid writing so far. And I think I like the story real well, too.

I got ill just after I posted that. I've had an ongoing problem with my right ear. Dizzy, ill, miserable -- but I got past it. Russ and I went out to dinner tonight to celebrate his latest writing sale. He'll be doing a piece on Lewis and Clark for Fodors. You know, the travel guide people...

At any rate, it was pretty much a good day after the bout of being so miserable. I'm getting some writing done tonight. I've done a little Vision editing, and I might even break down and watch something tonight. I'm not sure yet. Russ is off helping a friend with a computer problem. I'll wait until he gets home and see how it goes from there... but as late as it is getting, I suspect he'll want to go to bed instead.

That's all right. I would like to get at least half of this new chapter done.

Updated The Good Read today. I need to push this one a bit more, and get attention there... but right now I feel like I maybe need to slow down a bit, so I'm not going to leap too hard at getting that site running.

The editing of Vision is going very well, too...

But right now I need to rest for a few minutes. Bout of dizzyness again. Argh.

Well, it's still early. I'll be back to write a little later.

Another day...

I did get through the difficult chapter last night. And if I'd written another 196 words I would have had 30,000 for the month. Over all, not doing too badly. Let's hope that I can do as well next month when I need it.

Someone read my alien internet story yesterday and left me a nice note at Forward Motion. That's such a nice feeling. And I'm still getting occasional notes on Seri Ember.

Maybe I should write more short stories. (grin)

But right now I'm getting a little work done. First article for Vision is edited and about to go off to the copyeditor. I've a few more to do, and then I need to round up some other material for the ezine. I've gotten quite a few articles already, but there are certain holes that I would like to fill, if possible.

All in all, pretty good so far. Now If my cats would just stop trying to climb all over me...

Ha! Over what I need for the day.

But Russ still isn't home. Sigh.

Just a few more paragraphs to the end of the chapter.... hold on! I think I heard a car door!

Yes! Russ Home!

Less than a 1000 to go to reach my minimum for the day and it's not even midnight yet. Yay!

I hope Russ gets home soon, too. He's had a long day, and was fighting a headache as well.

Back to writing. This is actually going far better than I could have hoped, the way the day started. I'm almost through this chapter. Good...

Okay, I'm not a bit over 1000 words for the day. Better. I would like to get through this chapter, but it's being a bit of trouble. I think it's likely going to take me a couple days fighting with it.

Current count: 21,428

I just edited several pieces for Vision and sent them off to Bethany for copy edits. I've probably done more harm than good. LOL. But I got work done, and that's good. I have even written a whole 300 words.

The edge of the headache is still digging at the back of my head. My right eye, which often gives me trouble because it no longer focuses properly, is a bit worse tonight. Or maybe not worse, just more noticeable. I've upped the size of the print on Word and that's helped. But this one doesn't get larger even when you up IE's font size. So, enough for the moment. Time to get back to work anyway!

Starting count -- 20,306
Current count -- 20,626

Gah... thunk.

That's been my day. Woke up with a blinding headache. Tried to sleep through it. Didn't work. Took a nice long bath... didn't work. More pills didn't work, but they did, eventually, knock me out.

The headache is still lingering at the back of my head. I'm only just now up and starting to really work, though I did get some reading done earlier.

Russ is off giving a talk somewhere in Nebraska. He'll be home later tonight. He teaches a digital photography class (snarf) on Thursday night and a class in Excel on Friday night. Busy week.

I, in the mean time, am just going to hope my fingers can find the keys so I can write. Ack.(My right hand keeps just sitting there and entirely missing it's part of the words.)

And now I just realized that the coding to sign up for my newsletter on both the journal pages and the main page is bad, and probably has been for some time. One of those days.

I fixed it.

If anyone wants to sign up for my newsletter, you can do so here

Well....

Let's just say that it's a good thing I decided to scrap all the work I'd done on Freedom and Fame so far and start over for the NaNoWriMo challenge. Last night, between being dead tired and having a horried headache, I managed to save an entirely different story over the top of it. I don't know why, or exactly how, I did that. Lucky for me I have some earlier material that I printed off so I can do notes on some of it. I had other note cards, but I threw them out as I copied them over to the file.

So, all in all, not the most promising day writing wise, but it could be worse. It could be something I was close to finishing, or something that I had not intended to start over. I've done that before, too. I'm just going to let it sit for a day or two now and work on finishing Fighting for Strangers # 1.

Ack. But it could be a worse ack.

Good evening. Sort of.

I've not gotten a lot done yet. Been messing around on the computer for a little while, wandering from site to site and answering a few emails and such. I think Russ and I have to go off and pick up a few things, so I'm not going to get too caught up in work just yet. I also slept quite a bit.

I need to buckle down and get some real work done over the next few days. Really!

Russ is home!

Well, Russ was home.

I swear, the city server knows just how to drive him nuts. In this case, the sscdc.net stuff was up all day. It was up, in fact, within half an hour of his getting home, because I went to check some info I had posted there. Russ got home. Russ sat down to check for his email on the sscdc.net account. Nothing. He checks the websites -- everything is down.

Amazing. Really amazing. He decided to go down to the library and restart it tonight rather than have to get up and do it in the morning.

But, except for this little glitch, he's glad to be home. (grin)

Russ is probably somewhere half way between Omaha and home now. I expect him in the next 45 minutes to an hour. Maybe sooner -- it's hard to say when he actually emailed me.

I am happy to say that my headache eased quite a bit, and I got a couple important things done today after all, although not the work on the novel. I did get some important things written though, so that counts. And I'll get some writing done on the WIP here soon. Knowing Russ, he'll be very tired when he gets home, so we'll talk for a few minutes and he'll head off to bed.

I'm glad this nine days is over!

Two hours later...

Headache+ Tylenol = 17 words + sleep.

I'm woozy, half ill, and annoyed. But I'm back up. I'm going to try to do more writing, but the fact it took me three tries on just about every other word in this sentence doesn't give me much hope.

Two hours later...

And I still haven't gotten anything written. I did get a few things picked up, and some stuff washed out by hand that is now drying. I fed the hordes and made a quick TV dinner for myself. (Eating now.) I hope that the food will help ease the headache a bit. I'm finding it very difficult to concentrate, of course.

I likely won't get as much written today as I hoped, but I'm starting to feel like a human again...

Starting out the day with a headache, probably weather induced. It's turned cold and windy here today... Russ is just going to be thrilled with the change. He'll be home in about ten hours (looks around at all the stuff she intended to do) -- oh well. Did get some things fixed up around here. And got a lot of writing done. That counts, right?

At any rate... I'm preparing to do some work. The story is going well, and -- the usual odd way my mind works -- it has allowed me to step back from Freedom and Fame and take a look at what might be wrong there. I'm about to do more notes for that one, and with luck, I'll actually have a workable plot for NaNoWriMo.

Not that being without a plot has stopped me before, of course...

Okay... off to work...

I did over 4000 words again. A good night. And I was ready to go to bed... but Kin got sick, so I stayed up to make sure he was all right. Now I think I can go get some sleep, though. I'm ready for it.

I'm over 17,000 words into the new novel, which really isn't bad at all. I think this won't go too badly, in the end. And it will be nice to have another first drafted story done that I can work on later.

But for now... I'm going to try to go to bed again!

I nice bath, very relaxing.

A shame I remembered that I still have half the agenda work to get done...

Ah well. I'm just checking now to see if the site will even let me access it. Russ had to talk someone through restarting the mail server this morning. There's not telling if this will work or not. I really don't care either way at the moment. I can work on writing while it is slowly processing the other stuff.

And I have access to the site! Off to do the work!

Only a couple hundred words farther along, but I did get a few other things done as well. Now I'm going to take a nice, warm bath and relax a little before I go back to work. It has seemed, for some odd reason, to be a very long day already. I think taking a break (though a break from what, I can't qutie decide) and starting fresh in an hour or so seems like a great idea.

If I get my little head tuned in and connect with this story, I could have a very good writing day. I'd like that... (grin)

I wrote an additional 1000 words before I got to bed, which gives me a nice start on today...

Which is good, because I woke up with a sharp pain through my left elbow, and I'm beginning to suspect that I may have been stung. I put some gunk on it (which I appear to be spreading all over the arm of my chair now... hmmm), and that's helping. So, I rather hope that I'll get a chance to have a really good day of writing.

And edit some of Vision, as well as Dacey.

Russ will be home about 1am on Monday morning. Yay! It's been an odd, long week. I'm looking forward to having him home!

Not dead yet...

While waiting for the journal to upload, I decided to go on with Fighting for Strangers #1. This will be counted for today's stuff -- I've already entered the numbers for Friday. So, it gives me a nice lead on the day when I get back up in a few hours.

Suddenly, I'm really enjoying myself and the work. I wish it had been this way all week. I would have had this book nearly done by ow, although 65 pages isn't too bad for four days work. I'm rather enjoying it, in fact. And the edit on Dacey went very well, once I got the feel again.

It should be getting light outside soon. I should crawl off to bed before then, I suppose. Ah, nice day for work. I like it when I can get done like this and not feel like pounding my head on the keyboard.

Of course, when I get up I need to find out if the web site for the agenda ever reset. It seems unlikely. Russ emailed with a note that he could tell the sites email server was down as well.

Ah well. I really don't care much, except that I hate having work unfinished.

Good writing night. New totals:
Days left in year
88
Words left to write
259,950
Words left per day
2,953.98

And I edited a chapter of Dacey besides. It may be that my brain is finally getting past panic mode and letting me work again. I hope so. I'd love to have a couple really good days.

Other than that, life is pretty much the same. The cats are still cats. My house is still a mess. I still have too much material to finish before the end of the year.

I need to get a life...

So, here is where I'm sitting for totals today:

Days left in year
89
Words left to write
264,167
Words left per day
2,968.17

That's down quite a bit from the 2981.14 I had yesterday, thanks to some good writing last night.

(PDF file just finished transmitting... excellent. I'll have two copies coming back into my mailbox now, just to make certain that it both went out, and one of the touchier mail systems is working.)

I'm tempted to go take a nice, relaxing bath before I try to work tonight. Or maybe a few pages, then a bath, then a bit more work. Russ might be calling soon, so I might as well wait for a bit and see if he does...

Yes, good plan. Time to do the kind of work that I hope will actually pay off sometime, and get me out of this agenda work! (grin)

And, of course, the web site developed a glitch and won't let me access it now. ARGH!

I'll be sending out the pdf version in a few minutes, though. Honestly, there are days... I've been working on this for a bit over three hours now, and the idea that I won't be able to actually finish it drives me crazy. Is it a wonder I leap at the chance to go write, where at least I have some control over what gets done?

I think I'm going to mail the PDF off and then just work for a little while, and go back to check the web site later, to see if it will let me in. Sometimes, after a few hours, it resets and all is fine. And I have the rest of the weekend to get it done, so I'm not going to pull my hair out yet.

Still working away on the agenda, of course. It's not going too badly, but it takes time. An agenda that came to me as 13 pages with attachments is now 63 pages, including graphics, Excel spread sheets, Memos, Documents, etc. And all of that will soon be in pdf form. And then all the individual pieces have to be posted separately on the web site. So it takes time... but eventually I will get there. And then I get to go back to work on writing.

Break done. On to pdf stuff.

And today is the second Agenda of the week. I could be wrong, but it actually looks like the part they did is right. Granted, they didn't do nearly as much on it as they usually do -- a lot of the stuff they normally put in the main part they left for me to do as attachments -- but that's all right. I think I can do this with a minimum amount of trouble. The good things is that this is Monday's agenda, so I don't have to rush through it. I will get it done tonight and out, though, so it's not hanging over me all weekend.

So, off to do that work.

Oh, and yesterday was an over 4000 word day thanks to a word war with holly at dawn. I slept well, too...

Agenda day. Messed up agenda, but then they always are.

Please let me make some big story sales so I can stop having to fix these mistakes. Four years of these things, every single week. I can count the number of times they were right on one hand... and those only because they were barely two or three page agendas. (This one is 47 pages.)

I'm back up for the second... no the third time. The cats all seem pretty much fine, though Kin is starting to sound congested this afternoon. Hell, I'm starting to sound congested now, so I'm not going to make much of it just yet.

I'm hoping that today will be a quiet, just type and don't think about much else, day. It hasn't started out that way, but it's only 3pm. I could get a lot of work done if I could just... do it.

Days left in year
90
Words left to write
268,303
Words left per day
2,981.14

That's not too bad. I keep dropping the Words left per day total down, and then going a few days with barely 1000, and it jumps back up. I would like to make a real dent in it, although writing 3000 words a day isn't that much of a stretch for me. I just keep starting at it too late in the day, and get all growly about 5am when I still have a few hundred words to go.

I signed up for the NaNoWriMo novel in a month deal yesterday... and then panicked because I haven't a clue what I am going to do for it. I may, however, have found a good answer. I've been working on Freedom and Fame, but it just... stopped. I've been adding world building notes, but no new text. I think I'm going to scrap the first 10,000 words that I've written already and start over on November 1. This gives me all the rest of October to finish up the world building and plotting notes. With luck, then, I'll have figured out what went wrong in the first version, and be able to just push straight through the draft.

I rather like this plan. It gives me a novel in November and one more first draft for the series. It also means I won't have yet another novel to finish before the end of the year.

Well, you never know what might happen between now and November 1, but for the moment, this is going to be my plan.

I wrote over 3000 words, so I'm doing well. I think I wrenched my shoulder, though -- probably moving some stuff around in my office. Or maybe shoving Cricket in the kitty cage.

I'm tired. My arm hurts. My cats all seem to be all right this morning, but I'm half afraid to go to bed to find out what will be wrong when I wake up again.

Not that they're driving me nuts.

But it's time to retire and try to sleep. More writing later today...

I'm up to Chapter two in Fighting for Strangers #1 -- Prince of the North. So far it's not been too bad. I wish I coudl reember when I wrote this, though I know it was back on the Atari -- I can tell by the print. So that would be in the 80's sometime. I'm enjoying the work so far, and it's all the better because I think I'll have something I can sell from it later. But right now... I don't have to worry about that part. I can just get it typed in and reworked a little. It's like a writing exercise to get me going. I'm really rather enjoying that part.

Starting count -- 3235

Okay, some Vision work done, and I'm finally able to sit down and do some writing. Calm enough to handle it, too.

Well, maybe not. Dog wants out. Fine, fine. I won't write. Ever again.

The Price of the Song. That was it. Good...

You know that you've just been a little crazed when you realize you emailed off a submission last night after several days of rewrites and fixes... and can't remember what it was. At all. A fantasy piece, I know what. Lucky for me I remember where it went, too. Time to check the sent box...

I have given up the idea of doing any serious new writing this week. Too many distractions! I did pull out an old manuscript that needs an electronic copy, so I'm typing/editing/rewriting it for the moment. I'm just going to throw myself into it and see how it goes. The story is actually more interesting than I remember.

I'll also be editing Dacey's Dream. The editing has been going well there, though slowly. I don't mind slowly, I just need consistant. Quite obviously I need to get my mind locked into 'write' mode again. I'd like to really have at least a couple good writing days while Russ is gone. I'm not sure what else I've been doing!

And zette sleeps, gets up...

And finds that a cat has vomited blood on the floor.

It wasn't Cricket. She was sick, mind you -- she had that sick kitty look with the glazed eyes and barely able to move from room to room. She had blood from her bladder. But she was not vomiting it as well.

I'm going to go stark raving over the top crazy.

I'm fairly certain now that it's Kincaid, our cat with kitty asthma. The odd thing is, he's acting far better than normal. He's not making his normal little gasping kitty noises. He's moving around a lot. His tail is up, his eyes are bright... His nose is cold.

I'm not going to worry. Obviously this is not a continual thing, and I'll talk to Russ about it tonight or tomorrow. I can't carry him down to the vet even if I wanted to -- no kitty carrier. And even if it was here -- well, he's just shy of 27 pounds. I can't lift that much weight any more without having severe back problems.

I don't know why my cats are doing this to me.

Maybe I ought to be the one carted off for a nice quiet stay somewhere.

Vet has come and picked up sick kitty. Zette is finally going to go get some sleep...

Well, I'm not really surprised by this...

Today, I asked someone who had posted a note for a class they wanted to offer at Forward Motion to please go back in and write the sentences properly -- i.e., with capitals. I pointed out (which has been pointed out to her before, by the way) that when someone offers a class, we would like it to look as professional as possible. And that 'we' is not a royal we -- Holly personally posted to her about this back on Network 54. We discussed it quite a bit back there, in fact.

No one expects perfection. None of us is that good -- but we do expect, in a case like this, to not purposely do something that you know is wrong.

Now, I did not anywhere tell her to use capitals in everything else she posted, but only when she was representing the site. And offering a class is representing Forward Motion -- she's saying she's intelligent enough to teach other people at the site in Forward Motion's name.

Instead, a post like that just screams, "hi, i can't write real sentences, and i'll teach you to do the same!"

She's gone off in huff. If she can't play her way (and never mind that her way is wrong) all the time, she just won't post.

Sorry, I can't feel badly about this. She knows what a proper sentence is, and she's been asked not to do this before. She's not stupid. But it's apparently far easier to be persecuted than to change three or four sentences.

Russ just called. He'll arrange to have the vet come and pick Cricket up tomorrow, just to be safe. And to keep me from going stark raving mad between now and Sunday when he gets home.

I was prepared to take her down there myself. I'd have to walk and it's quite a ways. (South Sioux is narrow and long.) He said he'd already talked to the vet before he left, because a cat almost always gets sick while he's gone. Our vet is a great guy. He comes by and picks up the animals for us.

Of course, he also says we put his daughter through college, so I guess it's a fair trade.

Well, she got sick again, though not as badly, I think. And she's still up and moving around.

I hate days like these.

I ended up with 3015 words. Good count, good scene.

I went to bed about 9am, got back up a few minutes later... and found that one of the cats had been ill, and there were spots of blood all over the kitchen floor.

I was fairly certain I knew who it had been. Cricket has an ongoing bladder infection that the vet can't clear up and can't figure out. She gets it, gets better, gets it again. She doesn't usually vomit blood, though, so I worried over her, getting up every couple hours to see how she was doing. She stayed up and moving all day (better than me, in fact), and was quite happy tonight when I opened up one of the really expensive cans of cat food for them.

I'll be watching her tonight and tomorrow. If she starts looking bad, into the cat carrier she goes tomorrow, and we take a nice long walk down to the vet.

But to say that I'm really worn down...

Slow writing, but a good scene done. A difficult scene, dealing with the deaths of many people, and an unexpected gift.

new total 46,820
old total 44,935
new words 1885

Still a ways to go tonight, I think. But I'm happy with what I've gotten so far.

Had several other things to take care of. Kind of funny, really. Yesterday, when I couldn't come up with ten words to write without looking for something else to do, I couldn't find anything to get me away from the computer. Today, wanting to do the scene in Ada Nish Pura, I am constantly side tracked by a number of things. I don't need to be side tracked by most of them, but it still happens.