Took an evening off from working on strategies for the re-write to indulge myself. I did something I haven't done since 1982.

I attended a concert.

Let me amend that. I actually went out to watch a band not performing at a bar. A real concert.

.38 Special, Styx and REO Speedwagon were performing about four miles from the house and I simply couldn't miss it. I'm a huge fan of all three of the groups and to be able to get them all in the same night was just too much to resist. wishweaver and the daughter-unit decided they weren't interested, but no one objected to me getting tickets for myself. I wound up getting seats about 20 rows back from the stage where I could watch everything.

.38 Special opened the show. I thought of the three groups, their performance was the most consistent. It seemed to take the crowd a few songs to get into the feel of the concert, but by the time they hit their trademark songs, people were starting to rock.

Styx came on next. They were the most uneven of the groups. I really loved their performance of Lorelei, Come Sail Away, Blue Collar Man and other songs, but they seemed almost out of tune performing The Grand Illusion, which surprised me and actually took the crowd out of it for a bit. Also, when they did "I am the Eggman", I think they confused a bunch of people. It was a good cover, but I didn't pay to see Styx cover the Beatles. Couldn't complain about their encore though (Blue Collar Man and Renegade).

REO Speedwagon was the closing act and I enjoyed it a lot but they played a lot of stuff from before I started following them. I enjoyed it and actually added a few songs I want to track down, but it was weird after knowing every song Styx performed. Still, they hit the highlights from "You Can Tune a Piano" and "HiInfidelity". Plus, they closed the concert with the song I knew they would - "Ridin' the Storm Out" (my favorite REO song bar none).

For the final encore, Styx and REO performed a song they'd written just for the concert tour. It was wild seeing eight guitarist out on stage at the same time (Styx's drummer grabbed a guitar and he's got some chops there too). It was a pretty good high-energy song and a great way to close out the night.

Got to the car with minimal amount of pain and the trip home was quick and painless. Time to drink some water, unwind for a moment and get to bed.

Reminder to self: Next time bring camera . . . your cell phone camera stinks.

I expect my hearing will return to normal around the 4th. *grin*

I got my editorial comments back for my Stargate novel this morning.

To quote "Mr. Tanner" - "The critics were concise but no one could accuse them of being over kind."

Ow.

I read through some of the comments I received and I went through the various stages one usually goes through. However at the end, the editor asked if I wanted to see the actual edits and we could discuss doing a re-write and set a new delivery date.

I wanted to reply - "Hey, you only gave me eight weeks to finish this and I have a regular job on top of that." "Hey, you approved that part in the synopsis and now you don't like it?" "Hey, if I had more time, maybe I would have caught a couple of those facts I got wrong."

What did I reply?

"Sorry it didn't work for you. Absolutely I would love to see the edits. I appreciate you giving me another shot."

Why?

Because that's what being a professional is. I had submitted something they found sub-par. It's their call, it's their license. It was time to take the big-boy pill and check the ol' ego into the hotel for a while. Yeah, it hurt. But, I've always told people, if you can't take critique, don't be a writer. Time to live up to my own words.

I received the edits this evening after I came home and read through them. I agree with about 90% of them. Still I have to go through and see what's left in the story, review the comments again from the initial letter and then go back to the editor with a plan on how to bring the story more into line with what they want it to be.

I knew the initial edits might be rough. It's a new franchise for me to work for and a new editor to learn what they like and don't like. I have to admit, I didn't expect it to be this bad, but they didn't kick me off the project. I'll take that to mean they must have seen something in my writing that made them want to salvage this.

*rolls up the sleeves*

Time to get to work. More to follow after I sleep on the edits I read.

Wow.

I've completely gutted Chapter Five in Childhood's Tears and scattered bits and pieces into Chapters Six and Seven and cut parts of Chapter Six out completely and Seven's not looking so good.

I do admit, I'm liking it a whole lot more than the initial pass, but it's still not natural for me to be editing before I reach the end of a book. I thought this might take a few weeks. This may be an entire summer just to catch up to where I start putting new stuff in.

Yikes.

I may have completely edited out two entire sections. I know you're supposed to be brutal when you edit, but this is darn right homicidal (? - libracidal?). I have saved them out into a new Word Perfect file. I may be able to use one of these little sub-plots later rather than now. *lifts one eyebrow* In fact, one would be perfect for later in the book. Bwah-ha-ha. Yes, once again, I have outfoxed you, plot monster.

Tomorrow I'll be trying to squish the left-overs from Chapter Five into Chapter Six with a slight twist on them to make it a tad more creepy. We'll get back to the swashbuckling in the chapter after that.

But, that's tomorrow.

Went and saw Up today in the theater. Damn good movie. I thought the quiet montage at the first was a very touching part that they didn't underplay or overplay. Nice amount of silliness and seriousness in the movie and I think Ed Asner had a ball doing the part. The short before the movie was cool too. Had never thought about the stork that had to deliver porcupine babies before. *grin*

Did a little shopping and picked up some music from a couple of groups that had been recommended to me by friends. Of course, FYE's scanners were down so I couldn't listen for myself, but they were used discs so I figure it's worth a chance. I'll listen to them tomorrow at work and hopefully I'll think my friends have wonderful tastes in music.

Did get some work done on Childhood's Tears tonight. Finished the re-write to Chapter 4. I added almost 2000 new words in the process and am now well on my way to finishing Chapter 5. I may be re-doing a chunk of this chapter too. I'm going to read it again tomorrow and make a decision then.

All right, computer is showing low battery, so I'm going to go to bed now.

Didn't get much writing done . . . stomach has been acting weird, but I did get a lot of reading done, which is always a good thing.

Met with a friend from work who'll be creating the new www.richardcwhite.com/nightwolfgraphics.com web site. We went over some basic ideas today, found a cool template he'll be using as a base, found some outstanding art I'm going to be asking permission to use on the site as well as laying out the basic ideas of what's going to go on what page.

I think the new site is going to be "tre' spiffy", but we'll see. Hopefully, we'll have it up and operational next month.

Beyond that, not much. I think I'll try to finish up the "Dream-Quest" tonight. Damn, Lovecraft went nuts in that story with odd names.

Well, not lazy personally, but lazy about updating.

Balticon was fun. Not as busy as I've been some shows, but busy enough. Caught up with friends and made a few new ones. Need to get some paperwork done that I promised a few people at the show and hopefully that will be happening in the next few days. Really had fun doing the Edgar Allen Poe panel on his detective stories.

Fun thing happened at my reading. Had a couple of people stop by. Told them I was going to be reading the first couple of chapters from my new Stargate Novel. One got on the phone and called a friend announcing a Stargate reading and *boom*, I had more people at that reading then I've had at any other reading I've ever done. The good thing about it was they laughed when they were supposed to, groaned at the "bad" jokes and most said they'd definitely pick up the book when it came out. *Score!*

The reason I'm a little behind on my Balticon projects is while I was there, Writer Beware was officially offered part of the Mystery Writers of America's booth at Book Expo America. Which, of course, was the next weekend. So, between Monday and Thursday, I had to coordinate for a table display, create business cards, make lots of phone calls, coordinate with a good friend for crash space (hotels were all gone by then) and make train reservations.

Why the train? Because on Tuesday (after Balticon), I was going to drop off my new car at Mazda for it's 7500 tune-up and oil change. When I reached the end of the street, I was horrified to see approximately four inches of water roll out from beneath my passenger's seat and puddle on the floorboards. We'd had a huge thunderstorm on Monday and apparently the drains were clogged in my car, forcing the water into the passenger compartment. Oh, joy. So, Mazda fixed that (under warranty, thank goodness), but I didn't get my car back until after BEA was over.

Still, BEA was a blast. Writer Beware had a great experience and again a major tip of the hat to the MWA for hosting us! Victoria Strauss has already posted some of our experiences from there on the Writer Beware Blog and Ann and I are working on entries to go up there too. Also, it was good to see Steve Roman again. It'd been a few years since we'd actually visited (San Diego ComicCon 2005 to be exact), and we made up some lost time visiting as well as him playing tour guide for the big Midwestern kid. Can't believe I walked past the Empire State Building four times before I realized what I was seeing. *sigh*

I'm back on Childhood's Tears again. Finishing up the edits to Chapter Four. I've spent the past few nights rereading my Lovecraft and I think I've finally got the other plot I'd been needing for this book to start adding in. I'm hoping this will make the story a tad more creepy. I don't want to take away from the Action/Adventure parts, but a certain horror overtone would really set this book off. *keeping fingers crossed*

Also, I'm meeting with an actual web designer this weekend to get nightwolfgraphics.com/richardcwhite.com up and operational again. We're probably moving web hosts and definitely bringing the web site into the 21st century. When he started spouting .jsp vs .php and all the other acronyms that go with modern design, I just nodded and decided I'll let him worry about how it works. *grin*

Oh, work? Yeah, I'm playing one-armed paper-hanger right now there. Should be a very entertaining month.

So, given all this, I probably should go to bed.

After sending a chapter of Childhood's Tears off to a beta and getting their feedback, I have decided to do something I've never done before. I'm going to revise this story before I get to the end. I was looking at the comments they made, especially between the first half and the second half of the chapter and realized they were absolutely right.

Then I looked at the whole story I'd written up until now and realized I had an OK story, but I had missed the big thrust of the story. I'd always envisioned this story to be sort of an "Indiana Jones meets Call of Cthulhu" but in the first draft, we were heavy into Indy and there was damn little Cthulhu. This needs to change.

So, since I wss going to rewrite the first chapter, I might as well go in now and revise the story to add in the spooky as well as the adventure. It was fun, I discussed the issue with the daughter over dinner tonight and she suggested what would make a wonderful addition to the book which will give it a Lovecraftian feel, but still keep it true to the world I'm developing.

You won't be seeing word counts for a while, but there will be progress measured in chapters updated. (Actually, overall word count will probably be coming down with the rewrite, but that's O.K. too.)

Current Revisions: Chapter 1 completed.

But, now back to see if the Royals can beat the White Sox in extra innings.

Night, everyone

Here's my schedule for Balticon 2009. I'll update with Room and fellow panelists once I dig up that information.

Panel	Date	Time	Panelists
Favorite Anime and Manga	Friday	1900
Autograph Session	Saturday	1100	Brian Koscienski, Chris Pisano
Writer Beware	Saturday	1300	Ann Crispin
Edgar Allan Poe and the Detective Story	Saturday	2200
Historical Sources of Fantasy	Sunday	1600
Reading	Sunday	1900	Just me

Not a hideously busy schedule and they should be pretty good panels. Don't know if I'm moderating anything yet, but I'm going to prep some questions just in case. The moderator at Balticon tends to be whoever gets to the panel last. *grin*

. . . I'm also twittering on occasion. If you're bored or just need to buzz me, I can often be found at Nightwolfwriter.

I'm using Twirl for my twitter service. Keeps the footprint on my computer relatively small rather than tying up a tab on Firefox with the web version.

Not to worry. I will not be posting a twitterfeed here. God knows, it's bad enough they have to put up with my inane ramblings and questions over there.

I've noticed LJ lets you post your Skype account and your Yahoo IM account. Wonder when they'll catch up and let you post your twitter information?

Well, the two week hiatus was a welcome time. Caught up on some reading, did some gaming, visited with friends and family and just did whatever I wanted to (within reason).

Still, all lazy times must come to an end eventually. So, based on a suggestion from a friend from Twitter, I've dusted off Childhood's Tears and decided it's going to be my next big project. Yes, I know I had multiple projects going last year this time and I haven't given up on any of them. Still, I think it'll be better to concentrate on one for a while and then work on one of the others when I need a break.

That, and I may be working on the Harbinger re-write on my lunch hours . . . we'll see how that shapes up.

My goal would be to try and get two novels ready to start shopping around by the end of the year. My goal is to have an agent by the end of 2010 and to do that, I need agent bait (aka a completed, non-media tie-in, book). So, Childhood's Tears, Harbinger need to be in the bag and Steel on Target well under way.

Yeah, I don't have delusions of grandeur, do I? *grin*

Speaking of delusions (grand or otherwise), I do have short story to share.

Last Monday, I moved into a new building at work . . .same assignment, but the govies decided they want our spaces, so we're moving to a contractor site. It was raining cats and dogs that morning, so I'm wearing my rain jacket with the hood up. Even with the limited vision, I can see a series of cones stretched across the walkway and I guess they're doing some construction there. I approach and then skirt around them, trying to avoid the wet grass and water puddles.

That's when it happens.

The next thing I know, I've got a Canadian Goose in my face, flapping its wings and hissing at me. Now, remember I had my hood up and I never saw it until it was right there. I shifted out of range but managed to restrain myself from whapping it with my binder or kicking it. Once I cleared the area, with him still in pursuit, I realized he had a mate who'd made her nest in the flower bed next to the walkway.

Needless to say, ever since that day, Mr. Goose and I have had a love/hate relationship. I try to give him a wide berth, but he seems insistent on keeping an eye on me and bristling any time he thinks I'm encroaching on his space.

He and the missus are on week three of six or so weeks before the eggs hatch, so we're going to have to work out an uneasy truce one of these days. *sigh*

But, then again, how many people can say they were mugged by a goose? *grin*
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Words for Today

1075 / 1000 words. 108%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

44059 / 90000 words. 49%

Words for 2009

81982 / 365000 words. 22%

Did no writing today and felt no guilt.

Did feel weird not writing but I can live with it.

Did put in a request for a guest pass for Dragon*Con.

Did talk to someone about being at Marcon next year. I think that's definitely going to happen.

Worked on basic ideas for a proposal for a book.

Sent ideas to daytonward so he can shoot me down if I'm too far off base with ideas.

Talked to ghostbearmw about doing some short stories for Battlecorps.

So, no writing but lots of plotting. *grin* Amazing what you can accomplish with a little time on Twitter.

OH, and did spend evening visiting with family and running around the mall so daughter could spend gift cards she's been saving up. Good time was had by all.

Tomorrow, reading, watching a DVD and relaxing is on schedule. Writing officially resumes on 27 Apr 2009 unless something very strange comes up between now and then.

Stargate SG-1: Shadows of the Heart is gone.

I finished edits, ran spell check, fixed a whole bunch of dumb mistakes I'd made and gave it a good look over today. Typed up a nice letter to the publisher, attached the Word document to the letter and shipped it off.

Now we start the "hope the licensor likes it" voodoo rituals.

Book came in at 89,411. Just didn't have time to find that 589 extra words to get it to a nice round number.

At this point . . . who cares. It's done and I never want to back myself into that kind of deadline crunch again. I guess it's good to know I can do it. I just don't want to do it.

I'm going to take a short break and then get back to work on something. I may go back to rewriting Harbinger or maybe I'll jump on Childhood's Tears. Plus, I do have this Star Trek idea I need to have worked out so I can pitch it later this year.

Ah, a writer's life. Get one out the door, start working on the next.
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Words for Today

830 / 1000 words. 83%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

89411 / 80000 words. 112%

Words for 2009

80907 / 365000 words. 22%

Wow, I guess it's a good thing I took off Friday and Monday because the universe conspired against me about getting much done this weekend. Now, what happened over the weekend was mostly good stuff, but getting more than a couple of hours at a shot to work on Shadows was just a hassle.

Still, I won't bore you with the whining. Let it be known that going into D-Day, I have completed 23 of 25 chapters for rewrite and added 1324 new words. I've rewritten big chunks of Chapters 22 and 23 and I think they now tie all the earlier ones together rather nicely.

I also met with April over the weekend and we hashed out the next chapter of Shattered Mirror as well as starting to tighten up exactly what we want to happen in this book. We've be building this book one chapter at a time, but now we're at a point where we need to stop talking in large generalities about the book and really pick our focus. We've come up with a lot of good thematic stuff as well as the who's doing what to whom stuff, but now we have to decide what EXACTLY happens in the book and what would go into later books, if we sell the first one.

It's interesting trying to work in the YA universe since complete YA novels tend to be 20-40K shorter than what I normally write. It's going to be good to help me focus and really ensure any rabbit trails we follow must lead to something specific in the book. No just "seeing what happens" as I tend to do in first drafts.

Still, even with all the distractions, I did get 4 chapters done between Fri and tonight. The end (of this project) is in sight.
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Words for Fri-Sun

1324 / 3000 words. 44%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

88581 / 80000 words. 111%

Progress on Shadows of the Heart's Revisions

23 / 25 chapters. 92%

Words for 2009

80077 / 365000 words. 22%

wishweaver did not have a good day today, so I wound up taking off at lunchtime from work and coming home. She felt well enough not to go to the doctor, but she was either fighting off a bad virus or she got some bad food yesterday. Much unfun was had by all.

I decided to go ahead and take all day off tomorrow also. We are supposed to have some company coming by tomorrow, so I'll want to use tomorrow morning to get as much done as I can. I did push on today and wound up adding 995 words to Shadows. I also completed the edits on Chapters 17-19. That leaves six chapters to edit between now and Monday. Still going to be close, but we'll keep plugging away. I'm a little less concerned than I was Monday night.

I'm already plotting out things to do once this is done. None of them has anything to do with writing, unless you consider the work I'm going to do on getting my web site back operational as writing. I have a stack of anime that needs to be watched, a stack of older and newer movies I need to watch, an entirely too tall pile of books to be read and some serious video gaming I need to get back on. (If nothing else, I need to finish up Xenosaga II. I've been ready to move onto the last big section in that one since last summer. Just got distracted and never sat down and finished.)

In some ways, Monday can NOT get here soon enough.
______________________________________________________________________________

Words for Today

995 / 1000 words. 100%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

87257 / 80000 words. 109%

Progress on Shadows of the Heart's revisions

19 / 25 chapters. 76%

Words for 2009

78753 / 365000 words. 22%

For those who might not have heard, Dave Arneson passed away on 7 April.

He was THE father of role-playing, who with Gary Gygax created the juggernaut of Dungeons and Dragons. Dave was the one who came up with the idea of players controlling only one character instead of platoons or squads as in typical table top gaming as well as creating the first RPG Campaign - Blackmoor.

I still treasure my original D&D books (Men and Magic, Monsters and Treasure, The Underworld and Wilderness Campaigns). Those three little digest-sized books and their suppliments, (Greyhawk, Blackmoor, Eldrich Wizardry and Gods, Demi-Gods and Heroes), killed a lot of hours at college (and a small chunk of my less than stellar undergraduate GPA, but that's another story).

I have been a Dungeon Master/Game Master for dozens of systems since 1979, but I think the early versions of D&D are still my favorites. I think all the time I spent GM'ing has helped my writing because as the GM I had to worry about things like believability, pacing, tension, balancing the action, keeping everyone involved as well as becoming everything from an angry troll bouncer to a bouncy elven barmaid in a split second, while trying to field a half-dozen questions from the players AND their characters at the same time.

So, Dave and Gary were both early influences on my writing and if I ever sell any of my original work, it'll be a large part because of their influence. (And yes, I'd love to write D&D stories also, but I'd like to think just being forced to read as much mythology, fantasy and history as I did to keep ahead of my players helped my writing as much as being a gamer did.)

I was at Dragon*Con in 2002, trying to promote a comic called Chronicles of the Sea Dragon. (Yes, I'm turning that idea into a novel.) While I'm there in Artist's Alley, a gentleman comes over to my table and begins flipping through the pages I have in a binder. He starts asking me about the characters and we spend some time discussing the world I've built for it and why.

After a bit, he stops and asks, "Do you play Dungeons and Dragons?"

I blushed a bit, because in some circles, D&D is looked down on by other fantasy writers/artists, but answered truthfully. "I've been playing since 1979."

"That's good. I could see myself running a campaign in your world."

That struck me as odd. "Oh."

He looked at me and grinned. "You don't know who I am, do you?"

"No sir, I'm afraid I don't recognize you." I figured he might be a comic artist or maybe one of the writers who attend D*C.

He hands me his business card. "I'm Dave Arneson."

The genuflecting began. Dave Arneson, Dave 'The Godfather of Gaming' Arneson liked my ideas enough he could envision running one of his games in my world?! He was extremely gracious and we had a very nice conversation about gaming in general as well as how he developed Blackmoor originally. After that, I honestly don't remember much of the next couple of hours at the con. Yes, I was in full geek mode and I really didn't care.

But, that's the way he was. Gary was the guy who followed the spotlight. Dave just kept plugging away between his work at TSR and teaching at various schools. Sometimes, I don't think he ever realized, or cared, what a force his simple idea had become. He was just wanted someone to pass him the dice for one more roll.

You are going to be missed, Dave.

O.K., wishweaver has been pushing me to ask for an extension on the delivery of this book, but I'm so damn close to being done, I just hate to do it. Of course, to make the deadline, I'm really pushing myself in the editing and rewriting stages. I made it through Chapter 12 last night and then Chapters 13-16 tonight. I can see the finish line (nine chapters to go), but I'm exhausted in the mornings. Luckily, I've turned in my latest deliverables at work today, so I've got a few days before anything else is going to be due. I'll try to balance doing some work at work and doing some editing at work.

At least, I'll be off from Friday noon until COB on Monday. As long as I get this en route to Fandemonium by 2359 on Monday, I'll be on time. They'll get it first thing Tuesday morning, which is when they would have gotten it whether I quit working on it at 1700 EST or 2359 EST.

It's weird, I went through four chapters today and the word count meter barely budged, even though there was a whole lot of typing going on. I added 692 words for all my efforts on Shadows. Even though the word meter isn't moving, I caught some conflicting information between Chapter 2 and 14, which would have annoyed the editor if it had slipped through. So, I guess, yeah me?

I could probably make it another hour or so, but I'm thinking the body is telling me to go to sleep and it usually knows better than my mind does in situations like this.

Night!
_________________________________________________________________________________

Words for Today

692 / 1000 words. 69%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

86262 / 80000 words. 108%

Progress on Shadows of the Heart's revisions

16 / 25 chapters. 64%

Words for 2009

77758 / 365000 words. 21%

Survived another Monday at work, actually got some stuff done, received my first set of edits by the development team and now am busy correcting my misconceptions of how this system works and making new pictures to help me demonstrate my new-found knowledge.

There are times I wish I could just make the developers write some of this stuff and let me clean it up. They probably spend more time trying to explain stuff to me than they would just breaking down and typing up a few paragraphs.

I didn't get any work done on the book yesterday. wishweaver and I went out for a "short" trip to Tyson's Corner, VA. I had intended to get home around 6pm and get back to work. Instead we wound up meeting friends for dinner and I got home after 9pm. Had a great time, but really didn't have the time to spare. Still, it was nice to meet up with mollymorrison, sorerutenshi and April (my co-author on Shattered Mirror) and much good Japanese food was eaten by all.

Came home from work tonight ready to make up for lost time.

That was, until Chapter 11 reared its ugly head. I spent three hours tonight working on the one chapter. I wrote, re-wrote, added, shifted, deleted . . . In general, this chapter looks only vaguely like it did at the start. Officially, I've added 373 words to Shadows, but there was probably a couple of thousand words written tonight all told.

I'm hoping I get the corrections made on the document at work tomorrow early. I'll be taking in a few chapters with me to try and edit in any slack time I can get. Just need to ask Wish where she's hiding the "Red Pen of Doom" (pat. pend.)
____________________________________________________________________________

Words for Today (officially)

373 / 1000 words. 37%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

85570 / 80000 words. 107%

Progress on Shadows of the Heart's revisions

11 / 25 chapters. 44%

Words for 2009

77066 / 365000 words. 21%

Wow, where did the day go. Somehow, writing doesn't seem to take anywhere near as long as editing does. I finished creating the new Chapter 7 today and then edited Chapters 8-10. I've been sitting here at the computer off and on since 1100 today. *sigh* Still, we added 1760 words to Shadows, and finished 4 chapters so life is good.

Part of the problem was I added in some new stuff at the start of the new Chap 7 and wanted to end the chapter on a bit of whimsy, without loosing the flow of the events or making it too silly. I think I spent over an hour working and reworking the last page of the chapter this afternoon. The problem is, it was something that would have easily worked on the TV show, but it just didn't seem like it was working in the prose. I like the compromise I worked out with myself, but we'll see what the editor thinks when she gets it.

I am happier with the flow of the story now and I did catch some errors (had characters changing name in mid-event for one thing). While I'm sure I'm going to have lots of "editorial changes", especially since this is the first time I've worked with this editor, but I'm glad I'm catching the blatant boo-boos now.

We didn't get into the city after all, mores the pity. I'm going to have to make sure my schedule is clear for next year, come hell or high water. This is getting ridiculous.

OK. Have to go into work for a bit tomorrow and then back on the story.

Talk to you later, LJ.
_________________________________________________________________________________

Words for Today

1760 / 1000 words. 176%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

85197 / 80000 words. 106%

Progress on Shadows of the Heart's revisions

10 / 25 chapters. 40%

Words for 2009

76693 / 365000 words. 21%

This is it. The next-to-last weekend before I have to turn Shadows in to the editor. Trouble is, I was really unfocused tonight. Not necessarily unproductive, but unfocused. Just took longer to get what I did accomplished. I added 2021 words tonight in the new Chapter Seven. I'll try to finish it up tomorrow morning and then edit it on the metro if we wind up going to the Cherry Blossom festival tomorrow afternoon in D.C.

I haven't been to one for years and I'm thinking, if the weather holds out, it might be a lot of fun and a good way to recharge the ol' batteries for the last big push.

Also, I found a new web comic that I really enjoyed tonight. It's called The Dreamland Chronicles. It's a lot of fun and I really enjoy what the creator is doing with this one. I know some people are not fond of 3-D rendering in their comics, but for some reason, this one really works for me. Check it out and see what you think.

Not really much else to say outside of iTunes being stupid tonight. I'm not sure if it and Twitter don't play well together but I'm getting spikes on the CPU which are making iTunes really stutter and drag. Very odd. Didn't do this on the old laptop which had way less RAM. I'm thinking I may need to reload iTunes and see if it clears it out.

*sigh*
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Words for Today

2021 / 1000 words. 202%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

83437 / 80000 words. 104%

Progress on Shadows of the Heart's revisons

6.67 / 25 chapters. 27%

Words for 2009

74933 / 365000 words. 21%

First surprise of the day was I didn't go to work.

Daughter-unit injured her hand last night (shut in a door). Nothing too serious, but it was definitely painful. She and wishweaver didn't think it was a good idea to go to school where it would probably get bumped into repeatedly over the day, but Wish had something due at work, so I stayed home in case the daughter's hand got worse and she needed to go to the doc.

We used the opportunity to finish an assignment she was late on, but the teacher said she'd accept it up to Friday. We sat down, discussed what needed to be done and hammered it out in a few hours. Course, if she'd done it when she was supposed to, we could have spread the pain out a bit, but what's done is done. I know when her next assignment like this is due, so we'll start on it a tad earlier next time.

Along with her typing, I did get some of my own typing done today and tonight. I revised Chapters 4-6 of Shadows, adding another 2093 words to the story. I almost completely rewrote Chapter 6 and tomorrow, I have to add in a new Chapter 7. This should be the last major revision until I reach Chapter 23. Should be. Will keep fingers crossed.

So, if I mentioned a first surprise, that implies a second one, no?

Well, here it is. The Balticon Program Participant's page. What's so surprising about a standard convention page listing who's attending. Well, I always assumed one would know they were a participant at a convention before it appeared on the Internet.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the thought. Given everything else, I probably will attend it since it's about 40 miles from my house as the beltway turns. Still, either someone was "watching out for me" after the last few times of not knowing whether I was an attendee until the last minute or else there's another Richard White out there who'll be fighting me for the badge.

I wonder what panels I signed up for? *grin*
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Words for Today

2093 / 1000 words. 209%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

81416 / 80000 words. 102%

Progress on Shadows of the Heart's revisons

6 / 25 chapters. 24%

Words for 2009

72912 / 365000 words. 20%

The editing/re-write of Shadows kicked off tonight. I only made my way through three of the 24 chapters tonight, but with the adding details, deleting superfluous dialog and reorganizing some of my thoughts (as well as some of those of my characters), I wound up adding 984 words. I'm hoping I can devote more time to this tomorrow night. I'd like to get through at least five chapters worth of revisions going into the weekend.

I finished two of my quarterly reports today at work, so they're out of my hair until late June/early July. Huzzah! I have one more deliverable that's due on Friday, but it's short and mostly done already. Now, if I can just get going on a couple of major deliverables I have that aren't tied to production cycles. Ah, the joys of tech writing.

I'm sure I had more things to say earlier, but the brain tends to get fuzzy this time of the morning.

Night, LJ.
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Words for Today

984 / 1000 words. 98%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

79323 / 80000 words. 99%

Words for 2009

70819 / 365000 words. 19%

Been a bit since I posted. Sorry to disappear like that.

a) UCM lost in the NCAA Div II Final Four to the eventual national champions Findley (OH) University 67-65. Congrats to Findley for going 36-0 on the season. Well done.

b) Survived the daughter-unit's 16th birthday party over the weekend. Good part - everyone enjoyed themselves. Best part - over until next year.

c) Found out I did not get accepted into University of Baltimore's MFA program by logging into my student page and finding the message waiting there. Official word is supposed to come sometime this week. Will try and schedule a meeting with the Dept. Chair to see what I can do to improve my chances for next year. If I don't get in then, I'll just pass on the MFA. I'd be 55 if I get in next year. Any older than that and it shifts from being useful to vanity.

Yeah, that one stings a bit. Esp. since I have more pro credits than most of the instructors at the school, but I can't teach at the local JuCo without the Masters. Maybe I'll look into getting a straight MA in English instead.

d) I lost Monday because my old computer was just not enjoying life, so I have a new baby in the house. It's a cute little HP Pavillion dv7-1245dx Entertainment Computer. Let me tell you, that extra 2G of RAM is making this baby scream loading programs compared to the old Toshiba. The Toshiba would have probably been fine with XP on the machine, but Vista and it were NOT friends. Took a little bit to figure out how to move all the stuff from one machine to the other (esp. setting up Thunderbird as my mail client and getting it to talk to a recalcitrant mail server).

e) And speaking of pro cred, as you might note from the title of this blog entry, I have officially hit the end of Shadows this evening. Yes, I know I need to add another chapter and yes, I know it needs editing/rewriting and yes, I know the 13th is still right around the corner.

But, the first draft is done.

I finished Chapter 22 and then wrote a bridge chapter (currently Chapter 13b) which explains some of what happens in Chapter 21. Now to add in the new chapter and modify the chapters I've already identified to accommodate all the rest of the stuff I added in 20, 21 and 22. I'm quite convinced, the new stuff I have to add will push me well over what I needed for this book.

But still, it's nice to say, I'm in editing mode, not writing mode.

Note to self, never get this far behind on a project again or else push for a more reasonable delivery date.

And now, it's off to bed.
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Words for the day

3810 / 1000 words. 381%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

78399 / 80000 words. 98% done!

Words for 2009

69835 / 365000 words. 19%

Snurched from the SFWA feed

CHESTERTOWN, Md. -- A Massachusetts Superior Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Ann Crispin and Victoria Strauss, the principal operators of the Writer Beware website, filed by a purported literary agent.

Writer Beware is a publishing industry watchdog group sponsored by Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America which “shines a light into the dark corners of the shadow-world of literary scams, schemes and pitfalls.”

The suit, initiated by Robert Fletcher and his company, the Literary Agency Group, alleged defamation, loss of business and emotional distress while making claims Fletcher had lost $25,000 per month due to warnings about his business practices posted by Crispin and Strauss.

The suit was dismissed with prejudice March 18 by the Massachusetts Superior Court due to Fletcher’s failure to respond to discovery or otherwise prosecute the lawsuit. Crispin and Strauss, through counsel, intend to file a motion against Fletcher and the Literary Agency Group, Inc., seeking recovery of their legal fees incurred in defending what they believe to be a frivolous lawsuit.

The case dates to Feb. 2008, when Fletcher and his company filed for a temporary restraining order pending a preliminary injunction against Crispin and Strauss in Suffolk County Superior Court in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. During a subsequent hearing Feb. 19, the temporary restraining order was dismissed for improper service (Strauss wasn't served until 42 minutes after the time of the hearing, and Crispin was not served at all), but the supporting complaint was allowed to proceed.

Currently, Fletcher and his companies remain the subjects of an active investigation by the Florida Attorney General's Office.

“I’m very pleased that the case was dismissed. Knowing how hard those involved with Writer Beware work – and how important the work they do is to writers, both within SFWA and outside of it – it’s very good news, indeed,” said SFWA President Russell Davis. “Writer Beware is one of the most important and valuable services SFWA provides, and knowing that this frivolous case was dismissed, and that Mr. Fletcher is now the subject of an investigation in Florida only validates the work done by Ann Crispin and Victoria Strauss.”

Crispin and Strauss have volunteered countless hours of their time to advising, educating and warning aspiring and established authors about dubious, questionable and outright criminal business practices on the fringes of the publishing industry. They maintain the Writer Beware website (www.writerbeware.com) and are major contributors to Writer Beware Blogs! (http://accrispin.blogspot.com/).

About SFWA

Founded in 1965 by the late Damon Knight, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America brings together the most successful and daring writers of speculative fiction throughout the world.

Since its inception, SFWA® has grown in numbers and influence until it is now widely recognized as one of the most effective non-profit writers' organizations in existence, boasting a membership of approximately 1,500 science fiction and fantasy writers as well as artists, editors and allied professionals. Each year the organization presents the prestigious Nebula Awards® for the year’s best literary and dramatic works of speculative fiction.

I thought I was working on the last chapter of the book. (Yes, I did say I want to go back in and add a couple of chapters, but they're in the middle of the book. Work with me here.)

Ahem, let me start that again. I thought i was working on the last chapter of the book. Until one of the characters sprung a last plot twist on me. I swear they're doing this to me on purpose. Oh sure, we'll meander around and do what you want us to do in the early part of the book. Now that you're trying to wrap it up for editing/rewrites, now we're going to take over and write the story for you.

*sigh*

I did manage to survive another day of making screen shots and editing the user's manual at work. Got my first set of edits back, so I'm hoping I can put the manual mostly to rest by the middle of next week. Of course, they'll do something to make me re-write a section before this is all over. No code is ever permanently frozen.
Then I can get back to the other systemic documents I need to finish writing/re-writing.

Even with the distractions by my characters, I added another 2087 words to Shadows tonight. I'm about halfway through what's now Chapter 22. Hopefully, I'll finish up soon. If anything else comes up, I'm saving it for the sequel. No more new ideas, you guys!
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Words for Today

2087 / 1000 words. 209%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

74589 / 80000 words. 93%

Words for 2009

66025 / 365000 words. 18%

The University of Central Missouri continues to make me proud. They came back from down 12 at halftime with a blistering 69% from the floor (including 7 of 10 from three-point land) to defeat Gannon University (Pa) 86-77.

Not sure who they'll face in the next round, but whoever it is will be 33-0 when the Mules face them (both teams in the late game are undefeated). Not that UCM is any slouch at 30-4, but it's pretty impressive to get this far in a season without being defeated. Augusta State (GA) will be playing Cal-Poly Pomona in the other Final Four game.

Keeping the ol' fingers crossed.

Go Mules!

Things went a little better at work today. Mainly because I got left alone for a lot of it to work, but I'll take my victories where I can get them. I did identify a large bug in the system though as I was trying to take my screen shots, so I got an attaboy for that.

Went out to the mailbox and my signed contract with Fandemonium was there. Huzzah! Took the family out to dinner at one of the local Japanese restaurants and enjoyed some new dishes. Along with various rolls, I tried Toro Tartare, which is basically uncooked tuna in a special sauce with some tempura flakes to give it shape. Very interesting dish. Not necessarily something I'd like to order every time but definitely worth trying. Finished off the meal with a dish of Green Tea ice cream. Nom.

Came home and started working on the last chapter of Shadows. Well, actually, I started working on it this morning. As you may recall, I mentioned two people appeared in the last chapter who hadn't been in the book earlier? Well, I was going over some stuff while getting ready for work and all of a sudden I realized why a couple of sections earlier in the book just didn't seem "right". It was something I was going to go back over in the edits, but although it was O.K., it just felt like there was something I was missing.

Eureka moments are cool.

All of a sudden, I knew why those guys were there. I also knew I needed to add in another chapter and a bridge chapter and two chapters needed X re-written . . . so I was scrambling around, bouncing ideas off of wishweaver and as soon as I got to work, I scribbled all my ideas down so I wouldn't forget them. Then tonight, on Shadows, I decided to go ahead and finish the last chapter before going back to add in the other stuff (I'll just tie it in with the regular re-write) and WOW, some other stuff popped up in a conversation between two characters that ties in so well with the stuff from this morning. I've added that to the notes too.

It's strange. Now that I've reached the end of the story, I now know what the story is I'm trying to tell.

Yes, I had an outline.

Yes, I had a pitch I had to give to the publisher.

None of that has been superseded. What's happened is I now know how to best focus the story to meet the approved plot points.

Writing is a bizarre little business.

I added another 1734 words to Shadows tonight. Might have gotten some more in, but ran into daytonward on Twitter. He was trying to test his new Skype account, so I buzzed him as soon as he'd finished downloading everything. We visited a bit about his Star Trek projects, his other projects, writing in general, our military experiences, especially in basic training (or boot camp for the Marines out there), watching old PBS shows, Doctor Who, Stargate, The Unit, the 4400, and god knows what else.

Two hours later, we decided his Skype system was working. And, the germ of a Star Trek proposal is percolating in the back of my brain. Definitely need to work on the idea and I may have to pigeon-hole kradical at Shore Leave. I'm thinking copious amounts of scotch might help.

It's amazing. Get two writers together and all of a sudden story ideas just appear out of thin air. *grin*
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Words for Today

1753 / 1000 words. 175%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

72502 / 80000 words. 91%

Words for 2009

63938 / 365000 words. 18%

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, but it was just tough getting going tonight. I've been fighting a document at work (not computer-related this time, more stylistic issues). The problem is, they sorta know what they want in the document, but not really and it's becoming a "I'll know it when I see it" issue. Plus, my supervisor and I are disagreeing on the screen shots I'm using and I have a feeling I'm going to be re-shooting about 75 of them between now and Thursday.

(Notes the divot in the desk seems to get a little deeper every day from the head pounding.)

So, I'm a little grumpy when I get home, I mess around a bit with the interwebs, watch a little TV with the daughter-unit and finally set down to write . . .

. . . and I just don't wanna do it.

The conversation in my head has been like this most of the evening:

Rich: But you have to do it. The deadline's coming and we need all the time we can get for edits.
Motivation: Screw you.
Rich: That's all well and good, but we have to do it.
Motivation: No, I want to goof off and not have to concentrate.
Greed: But, we don't get paid if we don't finish.
Motivation: Rassenfrassen, all right, but I'm not going out of my way to help.
Concentration: Huh? Were you guys talking? I was watching sparkly things.
Rich: *sigh*

So, with Greed holding the business end of the cat-o-nine-tails, we finally beat Motivation and Concentration into doing some work tonight. I wound up adding 1550 words to Shadows, leaving me a bit over a third of the way done with this chapter. Of course, two characters who hadn't been in the book up to now decided to invite themselves for the last chapter. Gee thanks guys.

Still, given the day, I shouldn't complain. When I go back through for the edits, I may have to add a few more scenes in, depending on the feedback I get from wishweaver. But, I hope tomorrow goes a little better. I want to spend some time on Wednesday listening to the UCM Mules playing in the Div II Elite Eight. Keeping the ol' fingers crossed.

Think I'll call it a little early tonight.
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Words for Today

1550 / 1000 words. 155%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

70768 / 80000 words. 88%

Words for 2009

62204 / 365000 words. 17%

OK, I don't normally do this,

But I have to admit, it's cute:




Found at I Can Has Cheezburger

Well, we got off to a slightly later start today, but part of that was intentional. I let myself sleep in until after 10 and took my time getting ready. Went out for Indian for lunch with the family and then set sail to find a good place to type.

Panera's? Nope, line out the door and all the outside tables taken.
Starbucks? Nope, too crowded, all the electrical plugs taken. (My Toshiba's battery might last a couple of hours on a good day. No sense taking chances with it today.)
Orinoco Coffee House? Out of business.
B&N? Nope, I was there yesterday, don't want to wear out my welcome.
Books-a-Million? Success!

There was one electrical plug left open and I snagged it and a nearby table. Luckily, unlike B&N, B-A-M doesn't make you pay for the WiFi, so I was able to do a little twittering as well as looking up some SG-1 terminology. I finally was ready to write at 1430 and the next time I looked up it was 1730. I was sitting just over 3300 words. I took a break there and went out with a friend for dinner. We lounged about there and then came home and lounged some more before restarting at 2130. Finally at 2300, I finished my next-to-last chapter and decided enough was enough for the weekend.

Final count for today was 4401 words. Final count for the weekend? 13166 words.

I think that's my highest two and a quarter day total yet. Just shows what a deadline can do for your motivation.

This weekend's experiments with going outside the house to write were interesting. I didn't take my headphones with me for space/weight reasons, so I was writing without my music which is unusual for me. However I did seem to get more work done in less time outside the house than inside. Don't know if it's because I have internet here and not there (usually), so there's less visual distractions or if it's really just the change in scenery.

I may be wandering down in the weeds, but I'm as interested in the writing process as I am in the writing itself. Tis the curse of being an analyst for so long in the Army. I'm almost more interested in the "why" than I am the "who", "what", and "where".

But, I'll worry about that another evening. It's time for bed.
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Words for Today

4401 / 1000 words. 440%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

69218 / 80000 words. 87%

Words for 2009

60654 / 365000 words. 17%

I took today to seriously work on Shadows. Now, that's not to say I haven't been serious about my writing, but I've been fitting it in around everything else, to include the full-time job. However, I decided to make this weekend the big push to get this finished.

So, after taking the Daughter-unit to her vision therapy, I grabbed my car and hit the nearest B&N. Three hours and two iced teas later, I hit 3400 words. Came home and did some shopping/errands with wishweaver and then got back to writing after dinner. Added another 2,300+ this evening for a grand total of 5749 words for the day.

Go me!

With a little bit of luck, I'll try that again tomorrow and see if I can't knock out these last couple of chapters.

While I will admit, it was every bit as much work or more than my regular job, it didn't feel like it. I was really into the story and was surprised how much better the words flowed when I knew I didn't have to "cram" it in around everything else.

Now, if writing only paid as well as tech-writing. *grin*

But now, it's off to play a little Guild Wars and enjoy myself.
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Words for Today

5749 / 1000 words. 575%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

64817 / 80000 words. 81%

Words for 2009

56253 / 365000 words. 15%