Ah, back to work. That's what I need to do!

I got some good writing done at about 5am today, right before I went off to get some sleep. Which I didn't do well, but still... I've been up for a few hours, gone to the store with Russ between the classes he's teaching today, and then read some Forward Motion stuff. Now I need to get working. This is, after all, the last day of the month. January certainly went quickly!

I have reached that sort of 'middle' stage, where I have finished one piece and can't quite fall back into another. I never much like this, but it never lasts more than a few hours anyway, so I guess I can live with it. (grin) I did start rewriting a children's story. This rewriting every day has been very helpful. I'm getting a lot of material ready to go out. Or I have already sent it out, which is even better.

I am working at getting my office cleaned up a little. Well, at least my des, which has been showing signs of becoming an undiscovered country under the pile of junk. I have things to get done here, but I'm not getting to them any time too soon, especially when I can't even locate the original manuscript under all the other junk. So, off to work I go... and for once not on writing.

Blood of the Clan went off in email not long ago. I'm done with it again for a while. I hope for a long while. (grin)

Niche is the chosen new title. I have some great new bits to add into it, too. I'm looking forward to getting back to work on the story, even if it is growing a bit too large. Well, that happens with me, doesn't it?

But now it's late, and I really am tired. I've been having horrendous back problems again, and I hope that I can just take enough stuff to put me to sleep for a few hours. Looking forward to that, too, if it happens. It might, since I'm so tired I can hardly type tonight.

I'll be back some time after noon. I have a few things that I need to get done around the house (yes, real life stuff does happen), but as soon as I get all caught up, I'll be back to writing. And maybe even back to posting.

And I am back at midnight, and with the final tie up idea for the story. Chasing Martian Mice will likely be retitled Adapation or Niche. I tend toward Niche. (grin)

Oops. Forgot to publish this one. No matter. I've written a little over 2000 words and I'm going to take a break for a bath. I might be back later. But I am really happy with the story at this point!

9018. And about to take a break. But not bad at all. Nice when I can actually get to work on things.

8184 at the top of the hour. Okay, maybe more than 10,000 words. Does this surprise me? I don't think so.

What does surprise me is how worn out I am! Ack!

Back to writing!

Yes, and then I don't post anything for a day or so. I've been a bit busy and preoccupied with a couple projects. Things are going along pretty well now, though. And the weather isn't half bad, either.

I'm going to finish off Chasing Martian Mice either tonight or tomorrow -- likely tomorrow. But I think I'm going to get a good chunk of it tonight. So, starting count is 7413. I'm probably looking at around 10,000 total.

And off I go! (Though I may take a break to watch a show with Russ!)

I've changed the settings on my blog so that the daily posts should be in chronological order rather than just from the last post I make. Thought I'd like a little change. I don't know why.

I have done my writing, despite the cold that hit me full force tonight. I'm pretty miserable. LOL. I slept most of the day, then slept in the bathtub, and now I'm going to go back to bed again. I hope it's cleared up tomorrow.

Oddly, though, I have not fallen behind on my work. Good thing.

oh drat, and I see a mistake in year 1, too. Well, I'll get that all later. LOL

Not quite, not quite. More than 5,107,200. I missed a line of new births. Don't want to figure them all in right now, but still...

Good to see the site back up, at least for some of us. The rest of you, hang in there. The Internet is slowly clearing and we'll all get back soon.

If you can't get to the main Forward Motion board, try here:

http://pub75.ezboard.com/bforwardmotioncrashii

And now I'm back to seeing how many mice can be generated by 56 females and 36 males in an environment with no predators and plenty of resources. I'm looking at 359,453 the first year and 5,107,200 more the second year (based on six per litter, and a new litter ever six weeks -- house mice can have up to ten litters a year, and up to twelve per litter, so this is actually a low estimate. LOL). Of course a few will just die off anyway. But for what I need in the story, this is very good. Not good for the people or the nice involved, but still...

Off to work on the story for a while.

I read other blogs to see how people react to different things. It's an interesting experience, how people deal with their lives, including their own mistakes. How they can shift blame, and get annoyed about things that either they instituted, or that they don't like -- that has nothing to do with their lives. Or how they can blame the problems in their lives on everything but their inability or unwillingness to take action and do something for themselves.

One incident from a while back, but which keeps surfacing, has me really thinking about self-denial. Someone stated that they were going to post a rant about something. They called it a rant for several posts prior to when they posted it. The rant is coming, was a common line.

And it got posted. But the rant maybe drew a little more fire than the person expected. Suddenly, it was never a rant. It was a carefully worded question, curiosity, nothing more. Never meant to be a rant at all.

And I think this person has perhaps even convinced herself of that part. Maybe she never even read the earlier posts where she said the rant over someone else was coming. But in the end... everyone who thought it was a rant (because she said it was) misunderstood her. She had done nothing in the wrong.

Self-denial is a good thing to have. We would go through life feeling guilty about every little misstep we take, and every mistake we make. But sometimes admitting, at least to ourselves, that maybe we could have handled things a little better isn't all that bad either. I'm not sure how many of us find that level. I know I struggle with it all the time. I've very little tolerance for 'poor me' excuses. I have less tolerance for people who are willing to tell someone else how exactly to run things without having to do any of the work themselves, or deal with the consequences.

But I learn interesting things from blogs. I see how people deal with problems, how they talk their way around their own mistakes, and how they try to push blame elsewhere. They're good fodder for characters. I know just where I'm going to use one, too. It works well, since most of the material will be in written reports.

You can learn things for writing just about anywhere.

About twelve hours ago it was -14 with a wind chill of -33. Now it's -2 with a wind chill of -15.

But the good news is that it should warm up to about 25 tomorrow. And snow. Both sound fine to me.

My brain decided on hibernation today, and I slept about ten hours straight. And then didn't want to get up. Pip had crawled in under the blankets with me, and Kwi was at my feet, and we thought maybe we could wait winter out. But then the dog knocked the door open in a reminder that I had to get up and feed creatures. So I did. And I have not done another thing, except for two posts at the site. I feel like a slug.

I think it might be time to go find something to drink, and maybe consider food as well. Maybe I'll get my head back out of this odd 'can't think' mode.

It's too cold to think.

Not a good way to try to write, either. My fingers are stiff. My hands hurt. My feet are freezing! ARGH!

And the cats are... well, pissed is a good term. None of them are happy. If they would just all curl up together and get warm, we'd all be happier about it. Instead, they have been fighting left and right all day.

Now, mind you, this is not the coldest weather I've ever seen. -8 with a -26 wind chill isn't that unusual. But this is the coldest week we've had in two years, and it just sort of adds up after a little while. Hi tomorrow is supposed to be 4. I think I'll just stay in bed.

On the other hand, I have gotten a bit of work done. I'm doing the beta reading for Holly, too. That's fun. Great book! And I got some important notes back on Blood of the Clan, and that's helped. I had to stop work until I had clarification, but I'll go back to it tomorrow. Today I rewrote a story and sent it off, so I have kept my two submissions a month record up. It looked bleak for a bit there this month, though not for any good reason. I just couldn't seem to get focused on rewrite/send.

I've been working on a new story called Chasing Martian Mice, and so far... I really like it. Good characters, interesting story. Nice SF stuff, which I don't do very often these days, it seems. I don't intend to write that much fantasy, but I somehow end up doing it anyway. LOL. I'm not complaining -- I like the stories -- but I do find it interesting, since I started primarily as an sf writer. That was my first love. I wasn't particularly good at it -- but writers seldom are in their teens. I didn't even consciously change to fantasy. I just wrote the stories that came to me. I always have.

And never regretted it, either. I'm having a great time.

Even when I'm cold.

I started a new short story tonight. I was doing very well on it, too -- and then a different short story came in with copy edits from the publisher. Not a bad set of copy edits, but a few confusing things, like one saying I never mentioned something, when it was the first thing mentioned when the subject came up -- but I take it to mean that I didn't mention it strongly enough. So major rewrite stuff here as well. I am on page 4 of 19, and it's going to take me a couple days, because I just want to go nap right now. (grin)

I think a bath might be a better idea. Relax a bit, think about how to handle the parts of this that don't need outside instructions. Yeah. I can do that...

There.

Brendan's Song is off to the publisher. The final edits done, everything finished. And gee, only six more of them to go.

I'll just go bury my head in the snow for awhile, shall I?

Tonight I do the last run through on Brendan's Song. I hope it goes well.

Oh, that was funny. One of the strays was at the window -- the little black and white one. Drove Pip nuts. I suspect he thought it was Kid outside. He and Kid do not get along, but he acted like 'that cat shouldn't be out there.'

I am very nearly done with my latest short story. I rather like it, too.

But I seem to be having trouble focusing. Time to close this and just sit down and work.

Pretty close to being done. Looks good so far. But I am going to let it sit while I get some sleep tonight.

I have about four more chapters to go. It will be good to have this done! And, along with the work for Vision, that pretty much catches me up on all the things I need done for other people. I'll be turning my attention more to new material again for a few days, and then start the editing for the next issue of Vision. And the last round of editing for Dacey's Dream.

Okay, enough of a break. Back to work...

Today has been odd. Things that should have taken no time at all took forever. But the final edits for Brendan's Song are, so far, going pretty fast. I have eight more chapters to go through, and then some over all checks of the entire manuscripts, plus some formatting to do. But only eight chapters. I can do that much yet tonight, I'm sure. I had hoped to send it all in tonight, but I think I'm going to have to let it sit until tomorrow, so that I don't overlook anything. Well, anything obvious. I'm bound to overlook something, I suppose.

We're supposed to have light snow today. And maybe more snow later this week. I'm rather looking forward to it.

Other than that... well, I've been writing...

What a great writing day!

Even if I haven't done any writing yet. The last of the copyedited chapters for Brendan's Song arrived, so I'll have that novel done and back in the next 48 hours. I received my contract from Echelon Press for the short story in their anthology. Yay!

And I sold a book to DDP! The Lost Cause -- an SF novel -- will come out sometime later this year. We're looking toward the end of the year, but it really depends on how fast we get the rest of this other series done.

But right now I need to get the stupid agenda done. Snarl. I want to work on writing things. (grin)

We have snow!

Not a lot, but at least it doesn't look dead brown out there. My strays were not happy when they showed up at the window, but they got over it when they each got a can of food all their own. This was in honor of one of my favorite little strays showing up for the first time in four months. Well fed. She's obviously found a nice home, but it was good to see her again. Russ has said he's seen her around, but I hadn't yet.

Beyond that, Russ and I are both mostly feeling better today. I have the final edits on Brendan's Song to complete now that I have all the material back from the copyeditor. It's going very well. I expect to have it done no later than tomorrow night.

I think I have found a place where I want to try submitting one of my 'off' books. I think it will be the next on the list of rewrites, and I hope that I can get it done by the end of the month. It's a relatively short novel, too. I think, in fact, that I'll go hunt down a copy of it right now and drop it into the 'edit' file folder.

I love writing...

Hey! Are first Winter Storm Warning! Excellent!

Not that I really expect us to get any snow out of it, but it's the first time anyone has sounded even half way serious about the weather. I am tired of cold, dead brown things every time I look out the window.

Russ is very ill, poor guy. He seems to be doing a bit better now, but we'll see. I'm having the backache from hell because I slept funny. Not a good combination, but I think we'll survive it.

Ack. Blah. Thunk.

I don't feel well.

I woke up after about three hours sleep. I felt all right for awhile, then decided I should crawl back into bed for a little while. Dropped into a deep sleep and work up feeling awful. Sore throat, upset stomach, pounding head. It's quite annoying. I have things to get done.

Yuck.

It's done. I just did the PDF version of it. THUNK. 132,000 words. I've gone over them so many times, I can recite whole tracts of the novel by heart. Which means, of course, that I've missed all kinds of obivous mistakes.

But I had fun with this. I really did.

I may end up redoing the pdf because I'm still not certain about the print, although this particular one is very easy for ME to read, which is a good sign. I think I'm going to offer it to a few people, and see what they think.

Boy am I worn out.

Tomorrow it should be back to normal work. Maybe. Really.

I now have less than 50 pages to go on the novel. It's looking pretty good. I've really enjoyed messing with this one, but I can't really afford to take much more time with it. It has helped, though. It's nice to know I have a sense of humor sometimes. Really.

This is a long beast, by the way. 133,000 words plus a few. Eight stories, some of them quite long. But (at least in my warped opinion) a lot of fun.

Less than 100 pages to go for Don't Go Home for the Holidays. I would have had it done except I stopped to do some cover art and had the agenda to do besides. I should have it done tomorrow. Maybe. At any rate, I'm going to work for another half an hour and then get some rest!

This is fun, though!

Okay, I apologize for thinking my neighbors were being idiots again. (Although it was something they've done often enough before, so it was a natural assumption.) Just as I posted that the fire engines went screaming past. I stepped out, but whatever is burning isn't on this block or within sight, but there is a LOT of smoke out there. And more sirens going by now. (Listens) A few blocks away, at least. Must be pretty big fire.

Okay, back to Agenda how.

Today is agenda day. It should have been yesterday, but I just couldn't face it. It looks as though I won't be doing these for much longer. It also looks as though the entire server I work on will be going away. I'll miss it (and my journal site and my picture sites), but I won't miss the work.

So I'm working along and all of the sudden I can't hardly breathe. Back of the head starts pounding. Funny taste in my mouth.

And I realize that some idiot has taken the first non-windy day we've had in quite a while to burn things in his yard. Oh great. Why the hell do these people do this? And now, having finally recovered from all the dust and junk in the air, I'm hit again with a 'gack, can't breathe' attack.

Snarl, snarl.

I just want to get the agenda done and get back to the Sangre stuff so I can get IT done -- I'm having fun. And I have an idea for the cover that would be fun to do, although I have a back up cover done now, just in case. But I think I'll try the other one, if I can find the proper picture from my own files.

Don't Go Home for the Holidays is nearly done, by the way. I'm still not entirely certain what I'm going to do with it. However, it has provided one really great service. It's reminded me that there are times when being silly is good, and that I should always remember that part of life.

But now I'm going to go work on the Agenda again...

I'm well over the merging of the two books. I ran into a bit of a problem with the dating system. I'm setting it in 1996 (I had a vauge, late 90's date prior to this) and that means cleaning up a few time designations here and there. I've also written a bunch of new intro pieces for it. I am, generally, having a great time despite feeling like shit otherwise.

I'm also thinking about the cover art. I have thoughts, but they aren't settling in very well. I hope to come up with something by the time I'm done. Oh, and I'll need cover notes, and an introduction from me, and... hmmm.... a bit more work here than I thought there might be for something I think I'm just going to be giving away. But at least it is fun.

Oh, and ever so slight change in plans.

I looked at Sangre set 1. I looked at Sangre set 2. I decided that I really wanted just one set. So now I have a 133,000 word monster called Don't Go Home for the Holidays. It covers one year, from Christmas to Christmas. They are entirely silly stories, and a lot of fun to write. I might offer the set on my site. We'll see.

But back to work on it. I have to redo the opening and then get the entire book in order. Fun stuff.

YES! Did it! 7916 words total, 4758 today. And it had a perfect ending line. Yes, yes, yes. I love having stories fall together at the end like that. Such fun.

So now, off to the bath with the Cherryh book, and then back to do a little more work on my novel editing before bed.

My, that was fun.

Down to the closing lines of this silly story, and I can't quite seem to get them. I've written 4463 words on it tonight. Hmmm... I think it slipped over into novelette while I wasn't looking, too. Ah well, that's all right. The story has been fun to write. I keep giggling at lines.

I think what I'm going to do is take the Cherryh book into the bath tub, read for a while, and then come back and try again for the right closing lines.

No hold it. I might have an idea...

Ah. 2369 words... but the dog started barking and going crazy, and now I have a bit of headache. I'm going to rest for a few minutes. Not too long, I hope. The Aliens have just arrived on the scene. I hope I can get this all tied up tonight.

Ah, that's better. A bit over 1000 words on the Sangre story, and a wonderful ending bit has finally come to me that looks like so much fun that... well, I think I'll just push through on this one and finish it. Can't be more than a few thousand more words, I suppose. Ah, such fun. I'll be sorry to be done with it, to be honest, since it is the last of the set. Though that doesn't mean I can't do more of them. In fact, I rather have a few loose ends to tie up at some point that demands another set of stories.

I have grouped these two sets of stories into two books -- Double Time for Holidays, Don't Go Home for the Holidays. They're really a lot of fun. I need to badly edit the first one, but they're likely going to go out looking for a publishing home later this year.

Ah, but back to the story. We're right about to the alien invasion on Christmas Eve.

Hello in there. Is there a brain cell awake? Hello? Can we please get some work done now?

No?

Ah well. I guess I'll just sit here and eat my rice and pretend like I'm thinking about what to do next on the stories. Any of the stories.

I'm not stuck. I have ideas, and they're both doing well (as well as the outline for book 7), but my brain just refuses to kick over and get to work. Russ pointed out that I've been more wide awake at about 6am when I come to bed than I am most of the rest of the day. Frightening thought. Must get brain cells to act normally. Yeah, right.

Okay, so we're one week into the new year. I've not done badly. I've written about 15,000 words. I've edited over 200 pages of material (both short stories and novels), and I've read two books -- though granted, one was very short, but quite.. inspirational as it turned out. I am very nearly done with C.J. Cherryh's Explorer, and had to make myself stop reading at 9am so that I'd get some sleep. I've watched something on TV every single day.

Now that last one may sound odd. But recall that I have a huge video collection, and I had the urge to revisit some of the old series we have in there. I rarely watch more than three or four hours a month, but I thought I'd try something different this year. I decided to make the choices somewhat random. I take one show per day off of each page of the printed list (there are over 200 pages), alternating from the front and back, and working toward the middle. This is almost all TV series stuff, since I left out all movies, music, and nonfiction shows.

So far I've watched a three 21 Jump Streets (didn't realize I had that many, although many are duplicates), a Disney Zorro and a CBN Zorro, and a Young Riders. It's been kind of interesting, jumping between them. Tonight would be a 77 Sunset Strip, but I still can't locate that run of tapes, which is really starting to annoy me. I may end up watching something that accidently got left in the list -- one of the 3 Stooges pieces. I've got several on laser disk. Well, that should make an interesting change, if nothing else.

(Has the brain started working yet? Testing, testing... time to open up the WIPS and see if we can get anywhere...)

Okay. Yes. I have written a few lines. Time to get to work. Wish me luck, people. (grin)

I wrote an article tonight. I hadn't meant to, but I ended up with one for a future issue of Vision. I also held a class in rewrite/editing stuff which went for a couple hours and was a lot of fun. I then sorted through stacks of video tapes, trying to make some sense out of them. (Thankfully they were numbered and catalogued. But still...) Then I went and watched two shows, neither of which were the one I was looking for in the stacks. I still can't figure out were tapes 2374 through about 2396 could be. Ah well. It's like a game, sometimes.

On the other hand, I did finally find With Lawrence in Arabia by Lowell Thomas. And how it got onto that set of bookshelves I'll never know...

Ah well. I'm going to do a little writing on some of the fiction pieces, and then I'm going to read. I'm worn out tonight!

Long day. Lots done. Little of it writing... (grin)

I did update a ton of stuff for Estand that had been building up ever since I started having computer problems. I'm glad I got all of that work out of the way, though one email has bounced, and I'll have to look into why. I hate hotmail addresses, by the way. They almost inevitably have a problem.

But that's done. (Their website, by the way, has no email address either. I ended up writing to their webmaster. Shakes head in wonder.)

At any rate, the one thing I did do today that I really enjoyed was finishing the updates and printing of the video list. Our last print out was from December, 1998. We've added a bit since then. I broke the material out into sets (series, movies, music, and such) and just printed the series section, which ran over 230 pages of 8.5 font print. Looks nice though. I have a plan to watch something from each page. I started with the old list and I've done four shows so far, alternating from the front page to the back page and working my way through. A couple 21 Jump Street's, a couple Zorro's (CBN version). It's been helpful to take my mind off of feeling so lousy.

I also started C.J. Cherryh's Explorer. I had to leave it in the bedroom when I got up or I wouldn't have gotten anything done. I was still awake at 9am reading it today. It's rare that I don't just read one of her books straight through, but I find that I want to linger over this one. For a day, at least. (grin)

Okay, off to do some real work. Or maybe watch the last of the 21 Jump Street episodes I'll be seeing for a while. Next up... 77 Sunset Strip. Now there's a leap.

Long day. Nothing done. Hmmm....

I'm not quite sure where the time goes on days when I'm not feeling well. I haven't really done anything that I can put my finger on... at least not enough to cover all the time I've been up. I think my mind goes blank now and then. I know it did in the bathtub, but I feel better for that one.

So, here I am about to make a major attack on my writing. I've been a bit lax the first few days of the year. Oh, I've managed 1000 to 2000 words a day, but I still don't feel as if I've connected with anything. However, I think I'm about to feel more comfortable with Ashan, someone who was going to be a secondary character in Emergent, but is already bringing out aspects of the story that are going to make this far more interesting. The problem may not be dealing with him, but rather lingering too long on him.

I have three main characters, all of them powerful, all of them at odds with each other for one reason or another, and all of them going to have to learn to work together by the end. It's going to be a lot of fun running them up against each other.

The Sangre story hasn't gone much beyond those lines from yesterday, but I expect that it will take off as well. I have all night. It's fun!

I have started my second short story. This is the last of the Sangre stories. I had an older version of this, but the circumstances of the stories leading up to it have changed so much that, at best, I'll just salvage some of the better lines:

Apache leaned back in the seat and sighed when the pickup stopped moving. Baby looked up from the map she had so laboriously studied with the flashlight, looked out at the night darkened landscape, and then back at the map again. She finally shook her head.

"No, that's not right, Apache," she said. "You took a wrong turn somewhere. We should be in downtown Phoenix."

Apache stared out at the towering cactus, and the cliffs a few miles away silhouetted by the bright moon light.

"I'm going to kill you, Morning Glory Sange. Do you think they'll ever find your body out here?"

"You were the one driving! Why is it my fault we're lost?" Baby demanded.

"You told me were to go!"

"I've been telling you that for years. I never thought you would listen to me, but I should have known you'd take me along with you when you did."

Ah, the Sangre sisters are so much fun. And I have the entire alien invasion on Christmas Eve to tell this time around. Should be... fun.

I just, finally, got the agenda out in the email. It wasn't that it was a hard agenda to do, but I got sidetracked last night and forgot to get it out.

The cold that hit me just before the new year is one of those that just wears you down. I've spent most of the day reading in bed (I will get Genome done!) and doing little bits on Emergent. I found the key to my 'other' society. I had the basics of it lined out, but I've hit on a nice Queen Bee society, and a poor guy caught in the middle of a power play between two dangerous women. He's not happy. He's also trying to figure out how to stay alive. The inevitable answer is going to be to leave, but that's not easy. And since the only place he can leave to is the enemy's camp...

Playing with Fire is going out tomorrow. I'm aiming high. According to my list, I have 200 completed manuscripts of verying size. Probably about 45 or so have sold. Time to see what in the rest of this mass can be reworked and put out on the circuit again.

Now it's time to do the web site for the agenda, though, and get that part done. Then back to writing...

There. First short story of the year written. Putting Down the Sword (yes the title does keep changing) has a couple interesting characters, and I may use them again here and there. 2460 completed first draft. Nice length.

I need to up the tension in Emergent. The opening couple pages were great, and though I did what I wanted it to do after that, I still lost some of my fire in the translation from mind to paper.

I have a very short Public Works Agenda to get done right now. That shouldn't take me long at all. And then I'll either work on Emergent or a bit on the outline for Gix's War.

Oh, and I edited all of Playing With Fire last night. I think I'll give it one more go through and then decide where I'm mailing it off to.

Yes, I am trying to be serious about all of this. And have fun. (grin)

So far today's writing has not been exactly great. Part is a headache/cold/general miserableness. That annoys me and makes it harder for me to work. Bad attitude. I laid down for a few minutes, but someone called every fifteen minutes and hung up. Since Russ is off teaching classes tonight, I couldn't just yank the phone out of the wall.

But I'm moving on Emergent anyway. I've had some nice visions of what to do with it. And I'm about to have my first really bad thing happen. Always good stuff to write.

There. That's my little break. Time to get back to work.

Yes! First Sale of the Year!

One of the seven unanswered stories from last year just came back as sold. Book Work will appear in the Echelon Press anthology later this year.

Ah. That's better. Good way to start the year.

Now on to more writing.

Good first day...

I've edited the first 14 pages of Playing with Fire

I've written about 1500 words on Emergent

I've written about 1050 words on Putting Down the Sword

Started (barely) outline for Gix's War (Going to take that into the tub with me to work on.)

I am, unfortunately, still fighting with the cold that is trying very hard to take hold of me tonight. I'm going to cal lit quits soon, and take a bath and then some sleep. But, over all, I'm just thrilled with how well today went, despite having a bad few hours this afternoon.

Time to take a break from the computer, though...

1079 words before I quit to go get some sleep. Or a bath and then some sleep.

The opening is good. Oh, and I just had a thought on how to handle the vision for the novel. Good. (Making note now...)

It's a good start. If it wasn't for this horrible cold and fever, I'd feel really good right now. LOL

Time to go get some rest. I'll be back in a few hours.

Welcome to the New Year!

I have a good sign. I started the new novel -- Emergent -- with only a vague vision of the opening, but the first 500 words have fallen together so well that it's uncanny. A vision unfolding, including a character I had not even seen until now. And I found the music for it too, quite by accident. Runrig's Pride of the Summer -- with the lovely refrain of "It's good to be young and daring."

So, starting over from zero wasn't so hard after all, even if I did leave my 1,000,000-word year behind. I hope that it keeps going this well for a while. I love the opening so far, and I have a very good feeling for my MC -- who has not shown up on the pages yet.

Have a happy New Year, people. I'm off to a good start.