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None of that has been superseded.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%

Survived the usual gauntlet of idiots on the highways of Maryland and put in my time at work.

Came home, hit the accountant's office and payed for our tax returns. Then ran by the mall to get a new watchband. While I was waiting for them to finish with my watch, we went into the Borders Express next door. I picked up one book and ordered two. I snagged The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, which looks pretty good. Actually, the cover to his second book really caught my eye, but once I saw it was #2, I decided I probably ought to read the first one so as not to confuse myself. *grin*

I've been twittering with Yasmine Galenorn for a bit, so I thought since I was here I should sample one of her books. Of course, they had #2 through #5 of her current series, but not the first one in stock. So, I went ahead and put in an order for Witchling and hope to get it soon.

While I was there, I went ahead and pre-ordered jimhines's upcoming The Mermaid's Madness through Borders too. What can I say, I really liked the first one of his Princess series. This series is a keeper (and yes, Jim, you can quote me. *grin*).

Came home and started working on Chapter 16 in Shadows. I didn't have quite the momentum I'd had this past weekend, but I still managed a respectable (for me) 1598 words tonight. Still on target to make the deadline, which is the important thing.

And now, time for bed.

Night!
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Words for Today

1598 / 1000 words. 160%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

51251 / 80000 words. 64%

Words for 2009

42697 / 365000 words. 12%

O.K., today wasn't the most exciting time to be had by your local friendly tech writer. No swinging from buildings, righting wrongs or even splitting the occasional infinitive. Nope, today was "let's write a software requirements document".

X 1: The system will . . .

X 2: The system will . . .

and then spend the rest of the day translating developerese into pseudo-English.

Can you say, "I want to pull my hair out"? Sure you can.

Once I get this darn document done, it'll be a breeze to maintain, but as the first full-time tech writer on this project, I've got a LOT of catch-up to do on basic documentation. I'm collating sources, trying to read notes on Excel spreadsheets and tracking down people who used to be on the project to make sure I know exactly what these darn requirements actually mean and did we/will we meet them.

Needless to say, even though the typing is not exciting, trying to put this to bed on time may become so.

Luckily for me, I think the conversation I was worrying about writing last night for Shadows went pretty well. I need to go back over it tomorrow and pump up Samantha's part, but I think I nailed the other character pretty well. *keeps fingers crossed* I added 1667 words to the chapter tonight and I think I brought it to a natural stopping point. It might be a little short though, so I'm going to try and add a little more conversation before we get to the "main event". A little more description might work well too, although sitting in a lean-to at night with no light source doesn't give me a lot to work with there. *grin*

Had a nice little conversation with Yasmine Galenorn on Twitter tonight. Along with being a pretty cool writer, she's got a gorgeous set of kitties; one that looks it could be my cat's twin sister. I wasn't exactly a "cat person" when I was growing up, but given our lifestyle and where we live, cats are definitely the better option than a dog right now. Now, when I can get that piece of property with about four or five acres for a dog to roam, then we'll talk.

I hit my writing goal early and I may actually get to bed on time for once. Go me!
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Words for Today

1667 / 1000 words. 167%

Progress on Stargate SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

24075 / 100000 words. 24%


Words for 2009

16521 / 365000 words. 5%

Well, the final Archon/NASFiC/TuckerCon schedule has been posted. NASFiC is in Collinsville IL (St. Louis, MO regional area) on August 2-5, 2007. I'm arriving Wednesday night and I'm thinking, looking at this schedule, that's a good idea.

I think someone has outkradicaled kradical. Obviously eating is optional and teleportation is being provided *grin*

Date	Time	Location	Panel Title	Other Panelists
Thu	2:00pm	GC - Marquette A	The Godzilla Panel	Daniel Kimmel (M),Michales Joy, Doug Ferguson, Christopher Becker
Thu	4:00pm	GC - Ballroom D5	The Best Idea I Ever Sold	Rick Wilber, Robert Reed, Rob Chilson, MaryJanice Davidson, Paula Helm Murray
Thu	5:00pm	GC - Ballroom C3	Doing It with Style	Gardner Dozois, William Fawcett, Selina Rosen, Gordon Van Gelder
Thu	6:00pm	GC - Ballroom D4	Star Trek from Next Gen to Enterprise (and the films)	Mike Cole, Daniel Kimmel, William R. Warren Jr., Sandra C. Morrese
Thu	11:00pm	GC - Ballroom D4	101 Things to do with the Undead!	Jacqueline Lichtenberg (M), Nick Pollotta, Cindy Appel, Selina Rosen, Susan Baugh, John Perkins
Fri	11:00am	HI - Monroe	Reading	N/A
Fri	5:00pm	HI - Ballroom B	True Grit - Urban Fantasy	Laurell K. Hamilton, Barbara Hambly, M.R. Sellars, Rae Morgan, Susan Sinor
Fri	6:00pm	GC - Ballroom C3	Gods & Godmothers	P.C. Hodgell, Lloyd Kropp, Marella Sands, Gene Wolfe, Sheila Finch, C.J. Mills
Fri	7:00pm	GC - Ballroom D5	Collecting Anime Cels	N/A
Sat	9:00am	GC - Marquette A	A Walk Around the Block	Jim Yelton, Sharon Shinn, Mel Tatum, Mike Shepard Moscoe
Sat	10:00am	HI - Ballroom A	How to Create Unforgettable Characters Workshop	Carol Berg, Joy Ward, Linnea Sinclair, Janni Lee Simner, Elizabeth Moon>
Sat	11:00am	GC - Mississippian	What's in Your Spellbook (2 hrs)	jan howard finder (MC), Mark Tiedemann, William Fawcett, Elizabeth Barrette, Paula Helm Murray, David Hartwell
Sat	2:00pm	HI - Ballroom B	Modern Myths	Lloyd Kropp, E.E. Knight, Laurell K. Hamilton, Barbara Hambly, Thomas Stratman
Sat	4:00pm	GC - Ballroom D6	Anime - Creating New Genres	Cynthia Ward
Sat	5:00pm	HI - Exec 2	Kaffeklatch	N/A
Sun	12:00pm	GC - LaSalle Lobby	Autographs	Peter Bradley, Ryu Cope, H.G. Stratmann

I'm not quite certain what a few of these panels are going to be about and I hope they assign moderators in sufficient time for us to make some kinds of determinations, but looking at the guest list, I'm pretty stoked. I mean, I get to be on panels with Gene Wolfe, Barbara Hambly, Laura K. Hamilton, Elizabeth Moon, Gardner Dozois and Bill Fawcett. How cool is that!

Hopefully, I'll have some time to relax in there and also crash the Writer Beware panel on Sunday (I figure, since I'm a member of the Writer Beware Team, I might as well at least sit in as a rep.

Busy, busy weekend.

Well, the rest of my vacation didn't exactly go according to any plans . . . much less mine.

Wednesday went pretty well. I wrote that morning and spent the evening visiting with my friend, Tee Morris. We discussed writing, family, and different types of beers. Tried a nice one called Tres Pistoles, a dark belgian ale . . . very tasty. I definitely recommend it.

Tee and I come at writing from different directions. He's written several novels (quite good ones, in my opinion) as well as writing for Wiley Press (Podcasting for Dummies and the follow-up coming soon). However, his publisher doesn't have the distribution to get him into a lot of stores. I've done a lot of work and had decent sales, but so far, I haven't had anything original published (all media tie-in work so far). We're like opposite sides of the same coin. Still, it's fun to talk about our different experiences and goals as writers.

Thursday was my birthday, so that was a no-writing day.

Friday started out pretty well. Until water got spilled on my laptop. *sigh* Here's hoping it's going to dry out and start working again. Right now, the b key is inoperative, the touch pad is shot and typing any other key starts the b key (typing continuous lines of b's, making it impossible to write, use the internet, etc.). I'm hoping it'll eventually dry out, because the shop wants $209 just to look at it (apparently spills aren't covered under the warranty) and if I have to replace the keyboard or the motherboard, it goes up exponentially. *double sigh* So for now, I'm using wishweaver's laptop and debating on whether its worth the effort to fix or simply replace mine. Bleah.

Saturday, we had a friend of my daughter's over and then Wish was out for a while, so I didn't get to leave for Shore Leave until about 10pm. Still got to visit with kradical, terri_osborne, bill_leisner, tiggeralyn, daytonward and a host of other Trek authors. Lots of good conversations and definitely not enough time to visit with everyone.

Sunday, we had mollymorrison, sorentenshi, and dzeytoun over to go see the Order of the Phoenix. Well, they got to see it. I kept my daughter company at the mall since she didn't want to see it and I'm not quite comfortable turning her loose in the mall for three hours on her own, quite yet. Yeah, I'm a nervous dad, so sue me.

So, not much writing done with all this going on. Still, I think the basic experiment went pretty well. I'm convinced if I were to get to a point where I'm working part-time and writing part-time, I could set up a schedule and stick to it fairly well.

We'll just have to see what the future holds.

Lloyd Alexander passed away yesterday at the age of 82.

He was one of my favorite fantasy authors. I can remember my sixth-grade teacher reading the entire Chronicles of Prydain to us right after lunch, one chapter a day. It was my first "real" exposure to fantasy and between it and J.R.R. Tolkien's works, I think they influenced my desire to become a historian, specifically a medieval historian, when I was in college.

I was reading through his obit in the Washington Post today and discovered he also served in WWII in the Army and was in counterintelligence. I've noted a number of Fantasy and SF writers (as well as comic book people) have previous military experience, but I'm always amazed to find another former military intelligence person who's also a F/SF writer.

His wife, Janine, passed on May 2 of this year. They'd been married 62 years. As someone who's only been married 16 years, I'm in awe of that and look forward to trying to break that record (Means I have to live to 94 and wishweaver has to put up with me for another 46 years. *grin*)

I think I need to swing by the bookstore tonight and pick up a new copy of the Chronicles of Prydain. Been meaning to get the daughter-unit started on them and this seems like as good a time as any.

Here's a glass raised for a fellow "Silent Warrior" and a damn fine author.

So long, Lloyd. You'll be missed.