My Internet connection went down last night for hours and hours. It's kind of funny to realize how attached you can become to the Internet, even when you're not actually doing someting on it at the time.

Part of my constant checking was panic, though. Vision goes up tonight, and if I had to port the entire website over to another computer and use a dial-up, I wanted to know early.

I am running a horrid fever today. That doesn't happen very often. I'm not going to get much done with writing, thinking, or even sitting at this point. I just want to go crawl back into bed. Sigh.

I seem to have messed up a bit there and it won't let me edit it out. Oh well. With luck, this will push it down. If not, we'll live with it for a while until I have time to mess around and see what I can do.

I have Vision all but done. I'm proud of myself. I am, however, behind on the other writing. I hope to get some done tonight and then do a really run at it tomorrow. Things are going well, though. I'm almost half way through the novel now. I hope it keeps moving at least this well.

I have other ideas. I had a great novel idea this afternoon. Why do they always come at times when I absolutely should not under any circumstance start something new, no, no, no.

Argh. It's not going to leave my head.

Well, maybe I can placate it with some serious worldbuilding...

No comments:

Here it is, after ten, and I still haven't done any writing for the day. This will not be another 6,000 word day from the looks of things, but that's all right. I did get almost all of Vision done. I'm just waiting on a couple things to end it out, and then I'll be ready to do the TOC and post.

It's looking like a really good issue, too.

But I'm about to call it a night as far as working on that part is concerned, and turn my attention to the dreaded novel again. I hope to write just a couple thousand words tonight. I'll make up the rest after I get the other things out of the way.

It's taken me quite a while, but I'm very nearly done with the writing, and I haven't fall behind. Not ahead, but not behind either. That's good enough right now.

Part of the problem tonight is a sore throat that is making me feel more than a little ill. No, no, no. Still, I have done about 6,000 words, so I'm not complaining. I would like to do a little more than that, and actually get ahead... but I'm well within the time line that I sat up. I'm just anxious to go beyond it.

But I think I'm going to call it pretty much a night. Maybe I'll feel better tomorrow!

10,008 words for the day. Through all the phases for today and some of the next day.

And more than ready to call it a night!

I'm working on phase 94. I only have to make it to 100 tonight to finally be caught up. I thnk I can do this, though I am slowing down a bit. I am, however, determined to finally be where I should be when I quit tonight. And then I'll do some work on Vision, and then I'll take a bath and write some on a nice little short story that is buzzing around in my head.

I'm doing all right. I really am. I'm just... worn down tonight. This has been hard tonight. I've done a bit over 7,000 words tonight, and only 8 words short of 24,000 on the book so far. Nothing to complain about. I'm way ahead with the word count. At phase 93 I should have been at 20,925.

I'm closing out a chapter in phase 94. And that sometimes makes me stumble, trying to get the feel I want at the end.

But I'll get there.

It's coming up on midnight, and I am actually not doing too badly tonight. I have about 12 more phases to be completely caught up for the first time since I started this. It was a bad way to start, falling behind for the first three days. But this is better. I wouldn't mind even getting ahead... but that's going to have to wait a little longer. As soon as I'm caught up, I'll go to work on the Vision when I reach that point.

I think I'm going to be in a much better mood once I get to the point where I can feel like I'm not racing to just reach where I should have been.

I have written 5,505 words so far today. Not bad...

So I got up with this plan. I would come in and write 10 phases before I did anything else.

Right...

We had to get some boxes ready to go out. And then a slight problem on the site got my attention. Oh, and feeding the cats, of course. And...

I've been up for hours. I've written about 50 words. And now I'm hungry and I think I'll fix food before I try to do any more writing.

I am going to get caught up today.

Maybe.

I see that Blog is back up after their upgrade. I wonder how the buyout by Google is going to affect things. I like Google, so I'm keeping good thoughts.

I wrote over 6,000 words tonight, but I'm still not quite caught up with where I should be in phases. Ahead in word count, though, since the number of words per phase is almost always more than what is needed. It works out all right in the end. I'm just having trouble getting focused, which is really unlike me. Once I do start working, though, it goes very well.

I'm very tired. That's good as well. It's a bit after 6am here, and I think more than late enough for me to go crawl off to bed for a few hours.

Oh, and I got quite a bit of work done on Vision tonight as well. Even better. Something I should be doing.

And I have an idea for a very short short story that I might slip in tomorrow. I think the title is going to be Elegies in Falling Stars.

Sleep, though, sounds like a really good idea right now...

Okay, made it to 30 phases and taking a break. It's early. Short of another diasterous headache, I think I'm going to get caught up.

And I've already written over 4,000 words so far today. I'm in a MUCH better mood.

Made it. Now I'm into today's writing. Russ is off at work tonight, so I think I'll just work straight through, unless I start getting another headache. The nap helped with that one this afternoon. I'm not going to push to hard if I feel something coming on.

The first 25 phases came in 607 words over what I needed. That's really low compared to what I usually get, and I blame a lot of that on the headaches and the inability to think beyond the basics of the outline.

Two more sections to the end of this chapter. Will I get through the next 25 sections and be caught up yet tonight? I don't know. But at least I'm enjoying this again!

There. That's a bit better. I got those three phases done. Next stop is phase 25, which will take me through the list of phases for yesterday. With luck, this won't take me very long.

So I'm up to phase 18. I should have been through 25 last night. I'm fighting off the edge of a headache and hoping that I can just fall into the writing. Unfortunately, the upcoming chapter looks a bit odd and is going to take a little messing with the outline. I should have looked it back over before I committed to it.

Well, not that I'm really totally committed and can't do any anything else, right? That's silly. It' s just that, given the state of my head, I would like to have this be as easy as possible.

All right. I'm heading into phase 18. I'll be back after 20.

I did not have a good day yesterday. Not at the end. I got hit by another massive headache that has left me woozy even today. I did very little writing, which put me behind on the novel on the very first day. That's annoying. I've done a little writing today, but I'm actually going to go take a nap again for a few hours and see if that eases more of the headache.

I'll get caught up. I have plenty of time. But I'm not going to make myself suffer through it.

I'm preparing for the attack of the outline. Actually, I started it last night, and wrote less than 2000 words for the day. However, I did get all my chart stuff set up for this run, and did a lot of other work -- like getting another story out. That helps since the next two weeks are going to be pretty much booked with this novel, I think.

Right at the moment I'm doing some agenda stuff. I don't have everything in yet, but I was able to upload a few of the attachments. I'm going to put them together for the PDF version, too and have it ready to attach to the longer document when it arrives -- later today, I suppose. I expect there will a number more attachments, but this at least gets me ahead of the game a bit, especially since they've started sending them as bmps rather than jpgs -- and the bmps are just too large for a website, so I have to convert them all.

Okay, here's the plan for Book 7. I have 335 'phases' in the outline. I put an arbitrary 225 words per phase, which would bring the book out a little over 75,000 words. That's right in range of most of the others. I've also broken it out to about 25 phases per day, which is 5625 words. If I do more, all the better. But this will get the novel's first draft done in time.

Today is actually the first day of the work, but I did 7 phases last night to give myself a headstart. Anything I can do over what is needed just means I'll get it done that much quicker.

I think I'll go copy some of this over into 'Goals' section at Forward Motion.

Ack. Just got dropped out of the website I was updating for the agenda. Ah well. I got part of it done.

Time to get to work for about half an hour or so, and then feed the guys... nah. I might as well just feed them now and be done with it. And do that other Agenda work. Clear everything I can before I throw myself into this novel.

I think I'm going to have fun!

My, that was a fast day. Nice to have Russ back home!

I have a plan that requires to me to write a great deal over the next two weeks in order to be ready to start book #8 on the 8th of March, which is my birthday. I always start something new on my birthday, and I htink this would be a nice touch this year. But in order to do that, I have to write book #7 first. I have the outline done and printed -- 60 pages of it. If this goes as well as book #6 did, I shouldn't have a problem. If it doesn't... well, we'll just see.

I have other obligations during the next week. Vision, for instance, but it's actually ready to be put together, and if I do that properly, it won't take me long. Reminds, me, though, that I better do the back issue site right now before I forget.

Yes, I'll do that now, and then go to work on #7.... or finish the rewrite on the short story and send it off. Yes, there's a good idea, too.

I think I'm going to be busy...

Good day, bad day. Russ is home. Russ brought the cat home. They're both much happier.

I had a very painful attack of something this morning. I have never had anything like it before. It started with needle-like pains throught the back of my head. Before I could even grab something to take, the pain seemed to drop into my chest, and went on for about fifteen minutes of hell. I had managed to crawl off to bed, at least, and that's where I stayed for the rest of the day. By the time Russ came home, I felt very weak, but better. We went out to a quiet dinner, and I came back home and went back to bed. Several hours later I felt well enough to come back to the computer and do some writing and some work on Vision.

I hope by tomorrow that I won't feel quite this weak. And my neck and shoulder hurt like hell now, which had better clear up. I need to get more work done. Needless to say, I have thought about the outline, but not worked on it today. I think I have found my way to up the danger and emotional level of the last section, but I'm not ready to lay it out yet.

I've hit one of those spots in the story. I don't know if it would be better to draw this section out or to make a quick transition. I'm tending toward quick transition, but I still need some sort of tension in the scene.

I think a short break is in order. Not getting very far very fast, but this is the last scenes of the entire series, so I want it to go well.

I am feeling considerably better this afternoon. The cat, by the way, is off the Vet's as well. Poor guy, but it'll be better for him. I was really starting to get worried when he didn't leave the spot in the bathroom all last night. I kept checking on him every two hours or so, which didn't do much for me, either.

But today I'm back at the outline, and I'm already at about half the word count I did for all of yesterday... which wasn't much, since I only wrote 599 words. But still, it's a big improvement.

Can I get the outline done today? Probably not. But I'm already closer than I was yesterday, so that's not all bad.

Yesterday was NOT a good day. I barely got 500 words done on the outline. My head was (and is) pounding. I have a very sick cat again. I can't write and I can't rest. I suspect that today is going to be another short day.

Which is a shame. I am up to the final round of battle for the story. I would like to get the outline done... but better not to push it when I'm feeling this way. I might even take a day off and work on one of the other projects. I would still not expect more than five hundred words though.

I'm going back to bed for a couple hours. This has to clear up soon...

Okay, so now the question becomes how much of this outline I can get done tonight. The word count is around 6400. It should go up to about 13,000 or 14,000. So, I'm about half way through at this point. Not too bad, considering how bogged down I got last night.

I wish this was the kind of work that could be done quickly and turn out a few thousand words in the next hour. It's not going to happen. I am hoping to get through this section, but right now... Eat a little something, and maybe rest. My head is pounding, and I know it's just this cold.

And not ten minutes after I post, he calls. He's trapped in Long Island. They have him on stand by for tomorrow, but definite on Wednesday morning. I told him not to bother with the stand by since he'd likely just spend all the time sitting in a chilly airport. Everything is fine here for food and such, so we'll be fine.

He was working inside the building today and had absolutely no idea until he came out to leave. They barely got him back to the hotel. I told him to go across the to cafe and get some food to bring back, in case he's stuck an extra day and they don't open.

He says the hotel opened the pay channels, and he's just going to sit and watch movies tonight. But he's not particularly happy about being stuck.

I didn't get as far on the outline last night as I had hoped I would, but I'm still doing fine. Got caught up in some things at Forward Motion, which meant I had to go back and read a huge long thread that I'd otherwise pretty much ignored. Hadn't even realized it had gotten off topic.

I had a different view than some of the others, but I won't go into that here. Just time to move on. I would like to go back to writing, but I'm going back to bed for a few hours instead. Russ is going to be home in about eight hours. Right now I don't think I'll survive that long. Yes, the cold leapt back at me yet again. Sigh. And I hurt my back shoveling snow, but not too badly, I'm glad to say. In fact, I'm rather pleased with how little it hurts.

OH ACK!

I think Russ is going to be stuck in New York with the snow. Well, it shouldn't be for more than a day, I'd guess. I haven't heard from him, but I did just see the CNN report, and since he's out in Long Island...

We'll just have to wait and see. I'm expecting quite a delay, though, unless he got in the air early, somehow.

Well, he could probably use a day off...

Ah, this is going well... but it's going to be slow. I have divided my groups up, set each one of them their own private little hell, and now they have to figure out how to survive them and escape to join the others again. So far... not too bad, though. I realize that each 'hell' is going to be formed by the first person in the group who regains consciousness.

I don't intend for this section to be very long. It's a test, but not the final one. There is still a major battle to be fought in the end. The demon is trying to break Abby's followers. If he can, he gains power from their despair. If he kills them without breaking them, though, it will backfire on him. On the other hand, if he can keep them trapped in their hells while he and Abby fight, it denies Abby the help and support that he needs.

I just want to outline this out now, so that I can get to work on it. (grin) This is fun...

Off to torture more characters for a while.

Just went through and cut six characters. They will still be present in other books, but they won't be making the final jump with them. Good. Things are starting to look much better now. Printed off my list of remaining characters, attached sticky note of ones to drop for previous book... or at least ones that say 'No, don't really want to go any farther in this madness, thank you.' This works quite well.

In fact, it works so well I'm really excited about getting started tonight. But I think I better go back and check the early part of this outline for any references to these people.

Or go fix some food so I don't get started and have to stop again. Hmmm....

The outline is going well enough. I'm about a third of the way through it, and hitting a couple places where I need to make some decisions. Shouldn't be too bad. I realize, though, that I still have too many characters, even for what I need to do. So I'll be going back through the previous outline and streamlining the number of people who join in for the final battle. That will help.

Yes, in fact, I need to make note of who I don't want along and just work as though they are not present at all for this one, and then go back and erase them out of the previous notes. I can do that. Just means doing things that Holly always discusses -- merging characters so that one takes care of the necessary things that two did before that. I think that's going to help quite a bit.

There. I feel better about today's work already! So, off I go!

So, I started the outline. I got a few sections in and then went to get some soda. And found myself cleaning out the fridge...

I decided that I'd either become a pod person, or there was something wrong with the outline. I'm glad to say that it was the outline, and now I have over 1000 words on it, and it's going well. And I even got the work on the agenda done. Now I'm doing some Estand stuff, and then I'll go back to the outline. If it keeps going well, I might get it done in no time at all.

It's fun so far! I've got 23 phases done, including the original opening which will just be moved farther into the story. I'm hoping for another 300+ phases for this story, like the last one. That should get me around 80,000 words in the first draft.

Time to finish off the estand stuff and get to work!

Today was Agenda Day. Yes, again. A few problems that had to be sorted out, but it went together rather well, and it's out now... ah, and here comes my copy back. I put my name on the mailing list just to make certain the mail server is working. IN fact, I do it twice -- once at my sff.net account, and one at my city account. That way I know at what step things went wrong. (grin)

I barely wrote 1000 words yesterday, but that's because I spent the time fine-tuning my outline. Much happier with it now. I'm going to start the outline for book 8 tonight, and with luck, I'll have it done in three or four days. Then I plan to write the last two books. Good plan, huh?

Overall, I think it's going to be fine, although I'm really lost on some of the stuff to do on Book 8. I have faith that as soon as I start to work on the outline it will fall into place. The plot has turned so much away from the original 20 year old story that I can barely use any of the background for this one.

No matter. I'm having fun, and it's going to be much better story when I'm done.

I spoke too soon when I said I was done with the Outline for Gix's War. After I went to bed last night I realized two flaws that I had to cover, which meant a lot of rearranging and adding in today. But so far, it's going well, just slowly.

And it snowed! REALLY snowed -- covered the grass and everything. I don't expect it to last long, but it's neat to see tonight. Nice to see. I hope it's still here in the morning. I'm not sure it will be, with the odd weather we've been having!

Happy Valentine's Day

We've had rain all day, but the temp has just now (in the last ten minutes) dropped below freezing. So pretty soon we're going to have ice, snow, and yucky stuff for people who have to go out into it.

I'm still recovering from my outline work. That was a lot of writing! And after I went to bed, I thought of several things I want to change, so I'm not actually done yet. But that' s all right. It's very close. And I would much rather have the ideas now rather than later when I'm writing the story. Or after I've written it.

So, today is going to be a little work on the next outline, and some additional stuff to this one.

And maybe feeding the cats since they've gathered around me, and Pip is istting on the mouse again to make certain he has my attention.

Five in the morning. I just finished the outline for Gix's War with 322 entries and 12,717 words. I don't think it's going to be very difficult to write the book. But I'm goig to work on outlining Hope in Hell first. I would like to have both outlines done and then just sit down and write the books as quickly as I can. That would be very nice.

Right now, though, I'm going to get some rest. And maybe a roll.

It's not going to be easy to outline the next one. But I'm going to go straight into it tomorrow. I'm even looking forward to it. It's great to be so close to the end!

Thunk (As head hits keyboard. Sleep Zette. Just a few hours...)

I thought Russ's plane left at noon -- that's the flight he usually takes to New York. (He does this trip at least twice a year. Actually, it leaves at 5:30PM. So he did come by -- with a teddy bear for me -- grabbed a last couple things, and off he went. But I'm glad he stopped. And the teddy bear is cute.

And now I'm back to work. I want to get through this section of the story and then go to the outlines for a while.

It's 51f here. This is just too strange. And tomorrow we're supposed to have a major ice storm.

In the mean time, I'm getting some writing done. Not as much as I would like, though. See, normally I replace my keyboard once a year. They wear out. I haven't been able to do that for about two years now, and this one is really starting to show the wear. I have to retype something in every sentence. It really slows me down and annoys me as well. And I'm not typing well to begin with for some reason. It's not like I'm out of practice. (grin)

Ah well. I'm going to get some work done on this novel -- did 1500 already today -- and then go over to the outline. I want the outline done by the time Russ comes back. Maybe all of it and a good chunk of the next one as well. And then, as soon as I make it through those, I'll sit down and write the last two novels in the series. After that... well, I still need to redo # 5, but that might just be a case of massive edit/add/rewrite rather than starting from scratch again. I looked it over, and what I have isn't bad. There just isn't enough of it.

So, if I get the last two books written, I can then just queue them all up for the rewrites (four is all but done already anyway), and that's it for the series.

Sounds like a good plan to me.

Time to get back to work.

I'm not entirely sure, but I think Russ is on his way to catch his flight to New York. He had a class to teach this morning, and he was going to try to stop by the house before he left town, but it's getting a bit late now, so I think he ran out of time. He won't be back home until early Tuesday morning.

I, of course, don't like that he's traveling with so much odd stuff going on in the world. It's going to be a long five days again.

And one cat has already gotten sick. I know they do this to me on purpose. It also looks like we're going to have an ice storm tomorrow. At least that's what they're calling for, but since we're on the tip of it, I doubt we'll get anything.

I should probably figure out where my few candles are, though. Just in case. And turn the computer off when I go to bed, though I do have it on a battery back up, so that's all right.

Time, I guess, to get to work on something rather than sitting here grumbling.

Last night, as I was picking through the debris on my desk, stories began to fall together. An odd time to have them make that leap from vague ideas to something I can run with, but then this wouldn't be the first time. At least it didn't wait until I went to bed for a change.

Anyway, I had thought I was getting ready to go to bed, picking up the desk, preparing to sleep. No, think again. I ended up writing another 2000 words and topping 4000 for the night. And then I took my little notecards off with me to the bathtub and wrote some more there.

Unfortunately, I'm a little tight on time right now as Russ prepares for his next trip to New York on Thursday. Things to get done around here... right now he's off making pet food runs to three different places.

But, since he's not back yet, I think I'll just open up one of the projects -- maybe the outline -- and do a little work.

Oh, and we're having an incredible wind storm today, but it's not particularly cold with it. Very odd.

And good evening!

I've been working away today. Writing, editing, fixing dinner, talking with Russ before he went back off to more work for a few hours, and then back to writing. Did dishes somewhere in there. Fed cats. Read board stuff, looked at blogs and journals, and now I'm nearly back to the top of the cycle again... writing. (grin)

I don't have a very structured life. The closest it comes to structure is feeding the cats every day, usually between 4 and 5pm. They get crazed if they think I've forgotten them.

And I suspect that's why 'time' goals don't work for me, while word count ones do very well. I have the time to work, but with no outside influences -- work, kids, etc. -- my time becomes very fluid. I stay up till dawn and get back up until well after noon. I stop to spend a few hours with Russ doing things, and then come back to work.

I could endlessly wander through writing and never actually accomplish anything. It would be very easy for me. But I have learned, down through the decades, that I work well with having a specific -- and very low -- goal for working. It's only by chance that I made it an every day goal. It would work just as well being a four-day a week goal, or just a straight end-of-the-month goal.

But as it happens... I love writing. I don't need to take time off from it, because this is what I do for enjoyment. Yes, sometimes it's more fun than others. Last year I had just about the most fun I ever had, with eight books contracted to one place, two others at other places. The fact that I had so much fun shows in my year end word count. When I'm enjoying myself, the word count goes up.

So far this year has been average for work. I did a bit over 50,000 words in January, and I had slowed down in the first part of February, partly because of Vision work. However, last night I finally hit on the story that took off, and had a good day. I suspect it's going to keep going that way for a week or so.

My daily routine is a fluid blend of writing and editing. If I get stuck on one, I go to the other -- or another story.

Is this going to make me a great writer? No. The number of words a person writes has never been an indication of whether she is a good or bad at writing. How much I edit (which, by the way, I also love) won't make me a great writer either. It's the stories a writer tells that makes a good writer. Whether they are told quickly when writing them down and are edited once or a dozen times isn't going to make a bad story good. Neither will writing it slowly make it any better.

Goals are personal expressions of what a person wants to achieve. That goal may be as nebulous as get a story in the mail by the end of the month or a definite goal in word count. It's how that person works, and can never be used as a judgment of the material they write.

(Giggle)

I posted the second part of the glacier stuff, and it wouldn't show up! I posted, reposted, edited, reposted... all day long. This was also annoying me all the more because I couldn't get to my regular journal for most of the day.

I forgot that I reset the way the entries are posted so that they work their way downward through the day. It's been there all along.

Well, let's see. sscdc.net is completely down -- email and sites. Wonderful. I wonder if the city pulled the plug and didn't bother to tell me, even though they had sent me all the information to put up this weekend -- which took me about five hours, since it had so many problems. Russ isn't here, but he should be home soon. And the damned phone keeps ringing.

I can tell right now that it's not going to be a good day. Just not good in general. I'm sure I'll manage to get things worked out soon and not feel so annoyed, but at the moment, it's not my best mood.

I did, however, have more thoughts on glaciers last night.

Ice takes more space than the water it becomes in melting. I seem to remember that's because of air molecules caught between the frozen parts -- the same thing that makes those pretty patterns in snowflakes? Anyway, let's say that you want to have a single glacier provide the water for a river. How long of a river? The glacier would have to be far away if you want a desert between, or else the climate wouldn't be right. So, are we talking thousands of miles? The Missouri (which is just a few blocks away from where I live) is about 2700 miles long, and it flows into the Mississippi, which is even longer -- another reminder that it's a long distance from the source of a river to the end.

And how long has the river been flowing? To have any sort of civilization grow up around the banks, it would have to be pretty steady and old. Oh -- and one thing I did realize, talking about gorges and such -- it could do something like that through a desert. There is a lovely one in New Mexico -- Rio Grande Gorge? I've stood and looked down at. Beautiful place.



Okay, for the glacier (or even a group of glaciers) to provide the water to keep that river flowing for centuries, it would have to have a huge ice pack. I'm not even sure how large it would have to be to continually sustain something like that. Could the front edge of something that large be so far from the back that the ice continues to accrete at the far end, snow continuing to fall and compress, pressing the front forward? Isn't that how mountain glaciers work now? How much would it take to form a gigantic, renewable, glacier?

I seem to remember reading that glaciers are very heavy, too. And as they retreat, the ground lifts, and could cut off the front edge of a glacier from the area from the path the ice melt had taken in the past, which would mean the end of the river as it looked for a new path. It might still end up in the same general drainage system though, if it were all 'facing' properly.

All in all, it's an interesting look at the problems of a glacier and how you could use it.

Talking about river formation tonight in chat brought up some questions. One person would like to have the river form from a glacier, and I think that's a good starting point, but as I pointed out, it could be the only thing that forms the glacier -- which he understood. Unfortunately, the pace of chat isn't a really good place for long discussions like that, I think.

I've been thinking about why a glacier couldn't be the only source, though. It would seem like a natural one, wouldn't it? I think it finally all came together.

Yes, I really do think about these things. I've read a few books on geology, mountain formation, and climate. (Odd things to know -- river formed valleys have a V shape and glacial formed valleys have a U shape.)

In order for a glacier to be the primary (as in largest, not first) source for a river, it would have to be very large. For it to be that large, I would think it would have an impact on the climate around it... that is everything would be very cold where it is. If it is huge and cold, it would slow the amount of ice melt from the glacier, and that would mean it couldn't have enough to form a river at the source. In fact, if it were that large, it might actually grow rather than retreat. Actually, many mountain-based glaciers do grow each year as new snowfall puts pressure on the upper areas, getting it to flow downward. Ice under that kind of pressure does flow, like water, but very, very slowly.

The same things would be true if you spilt the glacier up into a number of smaller glaciers, though you could spread their area of influence out farther. The only problem here is that all the glaciers would have to be 'pointed' in the same direction and have no impediments to their melt off that would stop them from joining into one large river. But... it could work. If they were all part of what once had been a large glacier, now melting back with ground areas showing between, they would likely all have a common spot where they join. I've stood at the top of a pass in the Rocky Mountains and watched the little brooks of snow melt fall off on both sides of me, one head west toward the Colorado River basin, and the other to the east, to the Missouri-Mississippi River basin, so glaciers couldn't just be added on mountainsides and all expected to meet up.

However, the more I consider this, a sudden change in climate could attack a huge glacier and start the melt. After all, it obviously has in the past. But would this sudden change last long enough for a city to be built at the mouth of the river, dependent already on that melt? Sudden, in ecology terms, doesn't mean something that happens in days, after all. Or would the melt be enough, even after the glacier shrunk or broke into several smaller ones?

No matter what, such an area -- either large glacier, or many small ones -- would also have a lot of moisture from evaporation on top of the glacier, not just melt at the base. So rain and snow -- and snow melt -- would play a part in the river's formation. So would all the climates it passes through from the glaciers to the ocean. Everything from the ecology (how much of the rain water is retained, for instance, in the foothills?), to the human made irrigation systems in the desert will affect the river.

All in all, I think it's a really fascinating subject. I've studied moraines and glacier lakes -- even stood by one. Lovely, pure clear water. I have pictures somewhere... I'll have to find them. (Print, before the digital cameras.)

I think I'm going to use this. I know about the caves under some glacier bases, about how something trapped in a glacier at the summit can take hundreds (or was it more?) of years to reach the base. It's all interesting stuff...

And today is Agenda day. I have been working on it for about two hours now. I probably would have been done except for two things -- they sent all the graphics in a form that I had to convert to jpgs, and they sent duplicates of some material under different names so that I have to compare everything to make sure it's actually something I need, and then give it the proper name.

So far the agenda is 127 pages long. I don't think it will be more than another ten or so pages, so I'm actually starting to get in a good 'almost done' mood.

Oh look. My cable connection just went down.

Yes, it's going to be one of those days...

136 pages. We're PDFing at the moment. And listening to a Smetana I don't think I've heard before. Vltava, 'which is about a river that rtises in the mountain forests of Bohemia.' A nice Tone Poem.

Oh drat. Cancel that PDF. Forgot to change some tags. Knew there was something I had forgotten...

Pretty funny. I can time that one. Took me about 14 minutes to change the links. The Tone Poem is nearly over.

I have an eclectic taste in music. I don't care what it's called, as long as I like it. Something like Vltava, which I really liked on the first listening, might be perfect for working one day. It's a wonderful live recording. Now we're on to Debussy's Iberia. Not as catchy right off. But I like classical music on occasion, and tonight seems to be one of those nights, at least for the moment.

Okay, I've achieved the basic PDF file again. Now to do bookmarks, and then send it off. And then I get to do the web page version of it.

I think my connection is back up. Going to send this and see...

Alas, my Visor is giving me trouble. I've used it almost daily for four years, and despite being dropped and occasion and having the cats play hockey with it, it's held up pretty well. But in the last two days it has glitched and eaten one opening to a short story twice, along with some important work for Vision. So I'm going to have to not use it much for a while until I can either replace it or figure out what's wrong. It may just be that I need to delete everything I can off of it and reload only a few programs.

At any rate, it's been a bit of an annoyance.

As is coming back here a few hours later and realizing that I never uploaded this. Snarf.


So tonight, while fighting the cold from hell yet again, I've been trying to recreate the Vision work. I don't mind losing the short story yet again (although it did bring about an uncommon bout of cursing... right until I realized what else I had lost), but the work for Vision is tougher. I have been working my way through it, but it's going to take a couple days to get all the notes gathered again.

Well, that's a much better way to start the day. Just made a sale to DKA ezine.

And yes, I am up early again, considering I didn't go to bed until just after 9am.

When I got up today, the headache that had been plaguing me for days had grown to full forced head exploding pain. Unfortunately there were things that had to be done. I worked through them, very slowly, but steadily. I took more asprin. Words started to be words again, and not just designs on the computer or paper. I finally remembered how to turn on the TV and the VCR, although by that point I no longer needed the brainless entertainment.

Tonight I need to get back to work. I am stopped by the fact that a back up of a new story didn't work, and I have less than 400 words out of a bit over 2000. Granted, in most cases, this wouldn't be a real problem. I don't mind reworking it from here. It wasn't that much material. But with the headache just sitting there ready to leap out... well, I think I'm going to have to let that rest, and stop where I am on word count.

Oh, this is just great. The backup of the new short story didn't take, and I've lost about 1700 words or more. Maybe around 2000. Ah well. I can redo that much.

Tomorrow.

I don't think I've ever missed this many days before. Life was just a bit too frantic for a few days there, mostly with FM site related stuff. Most of it has been worked out to some degree. Some of it needed to be talked over, but won't be. Hopefully it will still not be a problem again.

The site doesn't need babysitters. All it really needs is people who remember to not let their emotions run their actions sometimes. It's not a big huge deal... unless people aren't willing to admit that they could change.

Okay, anyway. Back to writing stuff. I'm working on the outline for the next book in the series. I had meant to do it in January, but I did other things instead. I hope I can get it done in the next week or so, and then get to work on the novel itself.

Off to pull out my notes, my asprin, and some tea to drink. With luck, I'll get something done.