Not a lot to report about tonight.

First off, congratulations to Rich Berlew who's fine web comic, Order of the Stick, won an Eagle Award for best web comic of 2007. He didn't win the best Graphic Novel of 2007, but somehow he didn't mind losing to Alan Moore. Huzzah, Rich and hopefully we'll get a chance to hang out at another convention here in the near future!

Worked with one of the developer leads at work and created a template for his team to use to do all their reports. That took about half the day to get everything "just right". But, it was a nice change of pace from the other assignments I've been dealing with lately. No frantic deadlines, no fate of the world rests on this, just a "hey, if you have a bit, could you work on this?"

While I was getting ready for work this morning, I had one of those blinding revelations regarding Harbinger of Darkness. I understand now where I need to go with its rewrite. Chapter 7 is really Chapter 1, Chapter 1 is probably around Chapter 4, the sub-villain is actually one of the more important villains, the whole church thing needs to come out and be saved for the second book and we can't kill off one of the characters until much later in the book, and he MUST be introduced in Chapter One, not Chapter Four like he is now.

(Yeah, I know, this doesn't mean anything to you guys because I think the only person who's read this thing and my blog is wishweaver, but work with me. I'm on a roll.)

Of course, I'm already stretched for time to write on the various projects I have going, so what the heck am I doing even considering another writing project? Heck if I know. Still, when the answers just reach up and slap you in the face, you have to pay attention. So, I'm going to stick to my current strategy about writing for the rest of the year, but I'm taking copious notes on what I want to do with Harbinger and working on the new Chapter One in my spare time at work.

*sigh*

Have I mentioned I'm a glutton for punishment.

And speaking of projects and stuff, I added another 1,152 words to Steel on Target tonight. I was a bit distracted tonight and it took me a long time to get into the flow of the story. I don't know if it's the changing weather, the rather uncomfortable chair I'm sitting in or what, but I need to figure out a way to try and get more focused on my writing when I'm at the house. If I can do 4,000+ at a coffeehouse, I should be able to do better than just over 1000 when I have two hours plus to write at home.

*grumble, grumble, mutter, mutter*

I think it's time to go to bed.

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Words for Today

1152 / 1000 words. 115%

Progress on Steel on Target

50703 / 95000 words. 53%

Words for 2008

140597 / 366000 words. 38%

I blame infinitydog. After all, according to his list I'm the wide-eyed novice AND the perky civilian who keeps getting kidnapped. I tell you, it's tough having a secret identity that keeps getting kidnapped and having to wait for the other heroes to have to rescue me to protect the secret.

*sigh*

I was uploading some more of our CDs into my iTunes library when I realized I'd just gone from Harry Chapin to Dvorak to Lynard Skynard to the Batman Beyond soundtrack.

Yeah, I have varied tastes in music.

I think besides some opera and almost all gangsta rap, I'm pretty well represented across the musical spectrum.

Nothing too exciting to report today. Work went pretty well, got a couple of small assignments. Which in their own way was good since they'll help prevent there being humongous assignments toward the end of this build on the project. I'm also helping format a document that'll become a template for a different team.

None of these are going to take a lot of my time, so I may be able to work in a little writing here in the near future.

Came home to fight with my current web provider (Sitelutions.com) and the owner of the domain name I really want to use (Register.com). See, I bought richardcwhite.com in an auction last year. I'm trying to transfer it from Register to Sitelutions. Actually, I've been trying to transfer it for a couple of weeks now but it keeps failing. I've already been on the phone with Register.com and if I have to call them back I'm not going to be happy. It seems the "transfer number" they issued me keeps coming back as invalid when Sitelutions tries to secure my address.

I came home, read through everything on both sites, re-watched the tutorial that Sitelutions provided on how to get stuff from Register.com to them, copied down pertinent notes, had one in one tab and one in the other so I could verify the fact that I can copy stuff down on paper, typed in the number the lady had given me on the phone (which did match the e-mail Register sent me) and now we wait. If I get a failed message again in the morning, I'm going to be a very unhappy camper when I get Register's help desk on the phone again.

This should NOT be that hard.

*sigh*

Oh, and I did do some writing this evening. Added another 1263 words to Steel on Target, which has taken another turn I wasn't suspecting. This could be good or it might be a prime target for the cutting block when we do the rewrite, but I figure I might as well see where it's going to lead.

And with that, I'm going to read another couple of chapters in Cruel Zinc Melodies and call it a night.
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Words for Today

1263 / 1000 words. 126%

Progress on Steel on Target

49551 / 95000 words. 52%

Words for 2008

139445 / 366000 words. 38%

Wow, with the two major projects put to bed, I was happy to go back to work today. I didn't exactly skip up the sidewalk to the building, but I will admit to whistling the tune to Willie and the Poorboys from CCR as I walked from the parking lot.

Now, yes, I do have other projects at work, but none of them seem to be quite as dire as the one's I just discharged and hopefully, we'll stay ahead of the game this time (provided people give me deadlines before they're crisis deadlines).

wishweaver has been drawn over to the dark side . . . yes, we caught it when Nicktoons began rerunning Avatar, so we've been spending every day from 7-8pm watching back-to-back episodes of the show. I know it's not "anime", but it's probably the most grown-up cartoon I've seen produced by an American team in forever. It feels anime-ish because it's plot driven not episodic like most cartoons and the characters have depth. No one is completely good and no one is completely evil. OK, well, maybe Azula's completely evil, but then she's a psychopathic witch with serious daddy issues.

Worked on Childhood's Tears again tonight, adding 1511 words to the story. I know I'm going to have to make a decision here soon as the editor with the sekrit project told me I could go ahead and start writing on it while we're waiting for the contract to come back from the licensor. The editor told me they're notoriously slow, but she's almost never had them reject a story she passed on to them.

So, I have to decide, which of my current writing projects do I push to the side to work on the sekrit project? To be honest, I"m thinking I'm going to drive on (bad pun there) with the military SF story Steel on Target and set Childhood's Tears and Chronicles of the Sea Dragon to the side. I really enjoy writing fantasy, but I think, given my military background as well as my experience in the 3rd ACR, this might be the strongest of the three. Plus, I'll need to set some time aside to work on Shattered Mirror and my college proposal, Black Satin Nights, which will need editing/rewriting between now and January.

So, I will keep working on my current schedule until Balticon and starting in June, I'll shift my schedule to Sekrit Project on Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, Steel on Target on Wed/Thurs, and Fridays will either be down days to recharge/read/play some PS2 or else work on Shattered Mirror when it's my turn to write.

I hate to leave Rowena and Asheera in the lurch, but there's only so much time and a whole lot of writing to do. I may see if I can slip in a little work on them during my lunch hours, but they'll just have to be patient with me.

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Words for Today

1511 / 1000 words. 151%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

39727 / 90000 words. 44%

Words for 2008

138182 / 366000 words. 38%

Wow, to those of you who stuck with this blog in my absence, thank you.

Like the song says, "Life is what happens to you when you're busy making plans."

When last we saw our intrepid writer, I was preparing for the Maryland Writer's Association's Annual Conference on 3 May. It was my first time representing Writer Beware at a con and I think everything went well, even in spite of the audio-visual glitches. One of the people who attended my talk said if he got nothing else out of the conference, my talk was worth the price of admission (and folks, this wasn't a cheap conference *grin*). Needless to say, that made the day for me right there.

I left the conference all fired up myself and ready to get right back to work.

Unfortunately, I hadn't counted on my real work getting in the way. I had two major deadlines last week and I was putting in some hours. Basically, I was coming home, eating dinner, reading my blog and then passing out. There was no staying up until midnight working on stories. I was so burnt out from writing all day that the last thing I wanted to do was write at home. So I read my wife's For Better or For Worse collections, a few web comics and otherwise accomplished nothing last week.

Oh, and enjoyed going out to see Iron Man (4+/5 stars) and Speed Racer (2.5/5 stars). Iron Man was an outstanding time and I look forward to adding that one to my DVD collection when it becomes available. I was impressed by how true they were to the origins of Iron Man and still managed to move it forward into time. Although to tell you the truth, I thought the two robots assisting Tony Stark stole the show, and wishweaver wants his holographic interface with Jarvis. Hell, I think she'd take Jarvis also. Plus the easter egg at the end made sitting through the credits worth the wait. *grin*

Speed was an enjoyable romp and I thought once we got past Speed's childhood, the movie really got back into the stuff that made watching Speed the cartoon fun (family and the cars). Plus, you had the GRX, the Monster Car, the Inspector, the Acrobatic Racing Team (in a cameo unfortunately), over the top villains, Segways, ninjas, and all the other strangeness that made the Speed Racer cartoon fun.

On Saturday, I did finally get motivated and hit one of the local coffee shops. I added 4029 words to Steel on Target, nearly finishing the next chapter. I followed that up with tonight's return to Childhood's Tears adding 1138 words. Hopefully, with things settling down at work for a bit, I expect to get back on track here soon. I may have a few lapses (especially with the new Garrett, P.I. book from Glen Cook (Cruel Zinc Melodies) sitting here waiting for me to read it.), but I'm feeling better, the clients like the end results of the last week's projects and the world has continued to spin.

Now, if the squirrels would stop lining up by twos, practicing getting onto a boat.

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Words for Today

1138 / 1000 words. 114%

Progress on Steel on Target

48288 / 95000 words. 51%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

38216 / 90000 words. 42%

Words for 2008

136671 / 366000 words. 37%

Long day today.

Spent today either finishing up the web site at work, going to meetings or working on a user's manual for the other project I support. Of course, my meeting was at noon and I can't even complain because I'm the one who scheduled it. (Only time the conference room with the projector was available.) I was pretty brain-dead when I got home, but there was no rest for the weary . . .

I needed to finish up my slides for my presentation to the Maryland Writer's Association Annual Conference this upcoming Saturday. As usual, I've probably gone overboard (I'm sitting on 19 slides, although several of them have only two bullets on them), so I'll be spending some time tomorrow evening winnowing through everything, photocopying some handouts and finishing all my notes to myself. I think it'll be a lot of fun.

And, against my better judgment (and the bed whispering sweet nothings to me), I still managed to get some writing in. I added 1027 words to Steel on Target, getting May off to a good start. I'll post my April totals tomorrow, but I think they'll look a lot better than March's did.

And with that . . . it's off to bed.
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Words for Today

1027 / 1000 words. 103%

Progress on Steel on Target

44259 / 90000 words. 49%

Words for 2008

131504 / 366000 words. 36%

Fixed the damn problem with the HTML I was fighting yesterday. Well, I didn't exactly fix it. I just decided to delete it and use a different solution to the problem. Sure, I could have spent a couple of hours and eventually figured it out, but right now, I just want to get the furshenlinger thing done.

Finally got some feedback on the updated site also and spent the rest of the day making the corrections or adding in the new data that I wish I had gotten last week. Still, the site looks good and tomorrow, it goes live at work and I can move on to other projects I need to get done.

I have to say, I hope the weather gets and stays steady here soon. I've been sicker this past January through April than I have in three years. I have burned through leave and I really need to start building it back up. *sigh*

But, when the day was done at work, I caught the light rail and headed into Charm City to attend the University of Baltimore's Open House for graduate students wanting to pursue a degree in Liberal Arts. Talked to the admissions people and they seem to think that the 4.0 and the Phi Theta Kappa membership I earned at Howard Community College back in 2007 should easily outweigh the *mumbles incoherently* grade point I earned at Central Missouri State (now University of Central Missouri) back in 1982, so it's highly unlikely I'll have to enter school as a conditional student. Huz-frickin-zah!

OH, and the good thing about attending the Open House? They're going to be e-mailing us a code to enter in the on-line admissions application which will waive the application fee. *grin*

After the Dean and the Admissions/Financial Aid people talked to the group, they had break-out sessions with various faculty members. I recognized the person who was there to speak to the Creative Writing group since he and I had talked extensively at the poetry reading a couple of weeks ago. So, for the most part, I sat back and listened to the others asking him questions.

Talked to some of my potential classmates for a bit and then hiked back to the light rail station to find I had missed the train by 3 minutes. So, I had to wait for 45 until the next train that was going to my station arrived, which got me back to my truck at 9:40 and then it was another 20 minute drive home from the station. I can tell, if I have late classes and use the train, I'll be getting home around midnight, but somehow that beats driving IN Baltimore.

What can I say? I learned to drive in a town of 490 people. One stop light, people, . . . one.

I know it's early, but based on my experiences at the school these two visits, I think I could fit in pretty easily. Yeah, we're talking about 4 years of my life, (48 hours of grad school, 6 hours a semester with summers to recover), but it'll be worth it.

Trying desperately to finish a web site at work. I was on the last page, making one last revision and then all of a sudden, one of the entries in a table is now mysteriously setting above the box instead of in it.

Now, this was working all day as well as in all the previous drafts of the page both in IE and in Firefox. Then, I make *A* change and poof, it's wrong on every page on the site.

I do so love CSS (especially script I didn't write but have to live with). I spent about 30 minutes fighting with it and then said, "the hell with it", and decided it could wait until tomorrow morning. But, it just galls me to know I was "that close" and then have something stupid happen like this.

*AAUUGGHH!*

And given the rest of the day at work, that was the icing on the cake.

Came home, read a few of wishweaver's For Better or For Worse collections and gathered up my computer and began working on Childhood's Tears. Hammered out 1238 words tonight and probably could have gotten more done if I hadn't spent (aka wasted) time looking through Wikipedia for some information (which of course led to the earlier entry).

Also, spent time on Sunday working with April on Shattered Mirror. We went over Chapter Eight and actually, there aren't as many revisions on this as I had anticipated. One of the lines I used in the chapter led us to discuss more on the nature of the mythology we're adapting and by the time we were done, we had refined the actual plot of the book (and any subsequent visits to this world), three new sub-plots and had created two versions of a fae Knight's Templar or Teutonic Order that were going to be bedeviling our characters in the near future.

It was fun just bouncing ideas off of each other, tossing some, accepting some and revising others. Some people say writing is a solitary business, and I guess in some ways it is, but I'm enjoying the heck out of collaborating on this one at least.

I have to admit, all the books I'm working on right now are a lot of fun. When I sit down and get started, the words just seem to flow out and it's more like I'm transcribing what I'm observing than actually making the stuff up whole cloth. That's when I know I'm in the zone writing.

But, it's time to call it a night and get ready to fight my old nemesis in the morning.
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Words for Today

1238 / 1000 words. 124%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

37079 / 90000 words. 41%

Words for 2008

130477 / 366000 words. 36%

I just found out my entry on Wikipedia was deleted by one of their "video game experts".

I had an entry for my work on Gauntlet Dark Legacy: Paths of Evil posted by one of the readers of my book. However, someone who hadn't read the book (obviously) had this to say about it.

"14:57, 11 July 2007 Frecklefoot (Talk | contribs) (13,474 bytes) (→Impact: removed trivial tidbit on a book no one has heard of by a writer we don't even have an article about -- too trivial) (undo)"

Ah fame, how fleeting.

Then again, I haven't seen too many books listed by this so-called platinum editor, either.

Bah and humbug and a pox on his family.

Met with our contractor today and picked out the bathroom fixtures for the master bath and the upstairs bathroom as well as the faucets for the bar in the new family room and the new half-bath in the basement. We discussed different options and one thing I'm looking forward to is putting a deep tub with the jets in it. Nothing like a whirlpool bath after a long aggravating day.

It also appears that they're hoping to get started on the kitchen renovations sometime next week. wishweaver and I will be busy hauling stuff downstairs into the new pantry once they give us a definite start date. It's tough . . . I want to have most of it done now, but we still need the food, dishes, glasses, etc. until they're ready to gut it.

Oh, the joys of home renovation.
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As mentioned in the entry subject, the NFL held its draft today. Personally, I think the Chiefs made out like bandits, picking up Glenn Dorsey (DT), Brandon Albert (OT), and Brandon Flowers (DB) with their first three picks. I would have loved for them to have tried to trade into the 2nd round again to pick up a defensive end, but given all the holes in the Chiefs' line-up, it's going to take a couple of drafts to fill everything we need.

Still, this is, by far, the best first day draft I've seen for the Chiefs in almost twenty years. I can't wait to see how things go tomorrow.
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I need to finish my slides for the Maryland Writer's Conference for Saturday. It's my second time representing Writer Beware at a convention, but the first time was presenting the annual report at the SFWA meeting at NASFIC. This is my actual first time as a presenter/representative.

Yes, I am nervous, thanks for asking.
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Did some work on Childhood's Tears while my daughter had an appointment this morning, but since I didn't transcribe those words onto the computer, they'll have to wait for tomorrow's word total. I did work on Chronicles of the Sea Dragon tonight after I finished listening to the draft and the myriad discussions about who did well and who fell on their swords. I added 1010 words to the list.

Not sure how much I'll accomplish tomorrow. We're going down to visit with my collaborator, April, and her family tomorrow. We'll be going over my first pass at Chapter Eight for Shattered Mirror while we're down there. Depending on when we get home afterwards will determine whether I stay up and write or just crawl in the sack.

Which I'm getting ready to do now.
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Words for Today

1010 / 1000 words. 101%

Progress on CSD: Dragon Couchant

91343 / 120000 words. 76%

Words for 2008

129239 / 366000 words. 35%

Ever just completely have a brain fart?

Seriously, I'm working on a new version of the web site I've been prepping at work (at the meeting to discuss it, they came up with a list of about twenty things they want "a little different" from what it looks like now. Actually, what they want is lots of javascript, CSS and dynamic html. All three things I'm not really good at, so what they're going to get is my best work until they finally do what they should have done and turn this over to the corporate web team who has people who do this for a living, instead of enthusiastic amateurs like myself.

(Hey, I do a mean HTML, but I never learned the fancy stuff and still don't see the big deal with using most of it. I'm more a follower of Jakob Nielsen, when it comes down to it.)

But, for some reason today, what should have been a very simple task completely was beyond my ability today. I don't know if I'm simply missing something in the code or if all the various style sheets I'm linked to, (because I'm still using the original template and "tweaking it"), are interfering with my new layout or what I'm doing.

I spent over three hours on one table and it still looks like guano.

I'm supposed to post the new web site tomorrow, but given the fact the PM is out all next week on TDY, I'm thinking Tuesday is a more reasonable date, especially since data that was due to me last Friday still hasn't show up except from one person . . .

Now, hopefully, I'll get into work tomorrow and immediately see what the hell I was doing wrong and get going. I have a feeling I let myself get too wrapped around the axle and let my frustration keep me from seeing the obvious.

*sigh*
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Spent some time working on Steel on Target tonight. It was a good session, (I've noticed, bad day at work, good night of writing . . . hmmmm), where I added 2,090 words to Chapter Nine. That certainly helped toward the ol' writing goal. And, I was a real bastage to my main character tonight. I dropped a bomb in his lap by killing off the obvious romantic interest in the story.

Right now, he's going through the whole loss/anger/denial phase. What makes it worse, he sent her on the mission where she gets killed, so, of course, he's blaming himself for not being there. Right now, I'm writing it as internal monologue with him arguing with himself, almost as if there were two people in his head taking both sides. I don't know if this will survive the rewrite. It feels a little hokey right now . . . not because it doesn't happen. Lord knows, I've had those kind of arguments in my head before, but it's one thing to experience something for yourself and quite another thing to present it in a written format.

Obviously, in the cartoons, there'd be the little guy in a devil's suit on one shoulder and the angel wings on the other. This isn't quite that cut and dried, but it's definitely logic versus ego/emotions going on in my MC's head right now.

Plus, there's no doubt more of the major supporting characters are going to die over the next few chapters (this is military science fiction after all), and bad things happen to good people when bullets and missiles start flying all over a battlefield. If I had to compare them, I'd say this has a lot more in common with Sgt. Rock than Sgt. Fury. (The old D.C./Marvel fans will know what I'm talking about here.)

Luckily, my short experience in the first Gulf War was casualty-free and everyone I was responsible for over there came home in one piece, so I don't have personal experience to draw on. Still, I have lost friends and family when I was no where near and I remember what I went through, especially the unreasonable guilt for being so far away, not that I could have done anything for them if I had been there, but it's sometimes hard to convince yourself to concede that point. Hopefully, I can translate that into my writing of this scene.

*sigh again*
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Words for Today

2090 / 1000 words. 209%

Progress on Steel on Target

43232 / 90000 words. 48%

Words for 2008

128229 / 366000 words. 35%

I finished totaling things up before I posted to the blog this evening and noted a few things. Along with adding 1323 words to Steel on Target tonight, I just rolled over 126K for the year, which would be a very respectable novel. However, given the fact that my work has been spread over several projects, none of them is quite done. I'm going to go well over the projected word count on Chronicles, but I knew that was likely when I started writing it last year.

Childhood's Tears just hit the 40% mark last night and Steel on Target just went over 46%. Shattered Mirror is moving in fits and spurts, but April and I are making progress on it. I'd guess we're about halfway through the first draft. The college proposal, Black Satin Nights, is done for one college and 1/2 done for the other.

Plus, along with the writing I'm doing for Writer Beware, I'm still waiting to hear back on my sekrit project, which will put all the others on hold, if everything goes as planned. And, I just wrote to an editor to see if I could pitch for another book series.

(Did I mention, I'm still employed full-time? Yes, I have a writing death wish this year, I guess.)

Still, I think the schedule I set up for myself this year is helping. I'm not getting burnt out on any one project and each project is different enough that I can recharge one part of my brain while I'm expending energy in a different area. I think there's enough difference between Childhood, a fantasy; Steel, military sf; Mirror, YA urban fantasy; and Chronicles, fantasy with a strong pirate theme, to keep them all fresh. Plus working on this many stories requires me to reread them from time to time. This helps me remember what I set up back in chapter X and decide when I need to bring Y back to the forefront.

It's also requiring me to keep good notes on places and people, which is never a bad thing.

Would I recommend this for everyone? No, not really. I'm not sure I would recommend this for me next year. Still, after I hit the wall and lost almost the entire second half of the year last year, I'm pleased with my production. Of course, I'd feel much better if I had something . . . anything . . . under contract right now because there's no guarantee anything I'm writing now will ever see the light of day.

But that's O.K..

I'm a storyteller, it's what I do.
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Words for Today

1323 / 1000 words. 132%

Progress on Steel on Target

41142 / 90000 words. 46% done!

Words for 2008

126139 / 366000 words. 34%

Had an interesting discussion with the daughter-unit at dinner this evening. She's got some drawing chops and she's also developing her own characters for stories. Not sure if she'd thinking about doing web comics with her characters or writing stories or what she's going to do with them, but we got into a discussion of fiction, fan fiction, Mary Sues and Original Characters in fan fic.

One of the things we discussed was how to make your stories more unique, especially when you're young and can't just travel all around the world soaking up experiences. (Hell, I'm old and have only been out of the country a few times - and for the record, getting assigned to a war zone does not count.) I suggested people make Mary Sues many times because they haven't read enough, both fiction and non-fiction to create realistic characters. This feels especially true in fan fic - if you don't have anything else to base characters on, or like in Harry Potter, are only familiar with the movie versions, you don't have the depth to really make the characters come alive. So, you write about what you do know well, which tends to be yourself or at least an idealized version of yourself.

Now, self-insertion is not bad in and of itself. It can be handled very adroitly - I think about how Stan Lee and Jack Kirby wrote themselves into various Marvel comics all the time, (Spider-Man's wedding for example). However, they never made themselves the focus of the story.

The problem is, inexperienced writers don't see how they're shoving the main characters off to the side with their idealized selves handling the problem while juggling six chainsaws and balancing on a bomb at the same time. I don't think people intentionally set out to write Mary Sues (well, outside of the parodies where it's obvious the author knows exactly what they're doing). I think they're just making beginner mistakes and many will progress beyond that and move on.

Daughter-Unit wasn't thrilled about the concept of "non-fiction" because she sees non-fiction in the same category as the textbooks she has to read for school. However, I pointed her toward a couple of my favorite non-fiction books and hope she'll make some time to read them. One is the Pulitzer Prize winning The Rising Sun by John Toland, which tells the story of WWII from the Japanese point of view. Toland and his wife (I believe she was Nisei, but I could be off here) were granted access to Japanese military papers, prisoner, ex-soldiers, civilians as well as letters and diaries that were collected right after the war. It 's a nice counter-balance to the standard retelling of the war with several anecdotes that in turn amused and aggravated me. I read this back in 1974 and I remember finishing both books in one sitting. I was very pleased to find a set of first editions in a used book store a few years ago still in their dust covers. *geeky grin*

The other favorite non-fiction book is Under a Black Flag by David Cordingly, which is a rather unromantic, yet still highly readable book about the Golden Age of Piracy. Anyone writing pirate or privateer stories needs to have this book in their arsenal.

As wishweaver and I pointed out, telling a story is basically telling a lie with enough truth in it to make people believe it could have happened. The more the author learns about their subject, the easier it is to work the lies (the story) into the truth (the setting for the story) without people spotting where the seams are. The more you read, the more you see how other authors weave their magic and create their characters.

Perhaps not your typical dinner conversation, but it was fun listening to her dissecting her favorite fan-fics (especially the Twilight ones) and listening to why she thought various ones worked or didn't. I guess growing up with two writers in the family, she's doomed. *grin*

OH, yeah, I did do some writing of my own tonight. I'm almost through with Chapter Nine for Childhood's Tears, adding another 1419 words to it. I've almost made up for slacking off this weekend. *huzzah!*
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Words for tonight

1419 / 1000 words. 142%♦

Progress on Childhood's Tears

35841 / 90000 words. 40%

Words for 2008

124816 / 366000 words. 34%

Remember my big plans for the weekend?

Fugitaboutit.

Didn't happen. Various reasons, all it boils down to is I didn't write this weekend.

So what do I do today? 1588 words on my college writing project, finishing up the first chapter (which is what one of the universities wants for my admissions package). The others want between 30-50 pages, so I'll continue pecking away at this one over the summer, but at least I have the first chapter done so I can start polishing it.

(Word of warning, LJ-ers, I may hit a couple of you up for suggestions/critiques on this first chapter later this summer. I want in this program, so I'm going to make sure the sample is as polished as I can possibly make it.

Oh, and after I finished the college project, I knocked out 1069 words on Childhood's Tears.

So, basically I went from producing no words to nearly catching up on what I owed over the weekend plus. Who knows? Maybe the couple of days of not writing recharged me or maybe I was sick and tired of being lazy. Don't know, don't care as long as words are getting done now.

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On a different subject, dzeytoun and I went to see Forbidden Kingdom yesterday. I rate it 3.5 bags of popcorn on the matinee scale. Look, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon it's not. However, it's a fun tale with some Chinese mythology thrown in. Plus, you have Jackie Chan doing the Drunken Master and Jet Li as the "Silent Monk". What's not to like, and even in his 50s, Jackie Chan still fights with the best of them. No, it's not going to win any Oscars and the storyline is a bit simplistic but who cares, it's a go into the theater, turn off your inner critic and just enjoy a fun story.

This one will be on my DVD list this fall.

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Words for Today

2657 / 1000 words. 266% done!

Progress on Black Satin Nights

16 / 50 pages. 32%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

34422 / 90000 words. 38%

Words for 2008

123397 / 366000 words. 34%

I'm not quite sure what happened last evening, but I just couldn't pull the trigger on writing. Sat in front of the computer and just nada.

Luckily, I almost made up for last night. I worked on Chapter Nine of Steel on Target, adding 1537 words and I hope to do some more writing on our intrepid band of cavalry troopers tomorrow as well as finishing up my first draft of the sample package for Grad School. Oh yeah, and working on Chronicles of the Sea Dragon also.

But, tonight was fun. To celebrate