Ever have one of those evenings when you were going to get stuff done, kept getting interrupted and by the end of the day, you'd actually accomplished stuff anyway?

As I had mentioned, I'm doing a little writing on Harbinger at lunch. It's amazing how much fifteen minutes here, twenty minutes there adds up. I typed in all the stuff I'd put together at work today and discovered I'd added 2183 words and finished off the second chapter. I'm noticing the chapters I'm writing for new version of the story are longer than my normal 3-4,000 word chapters. This is good, I think. They're a little more meaty, but there's stuff going on that's setting up the rest of the book. As I may have mentioned before, my "throw-away" character from the old first chapter has now morphed into a major character and second only to the "main villain" in importance to the story. His thread in the original Harbinger was there to be a catalyst, but after rethinking what I had done in the story and how I wanted to change it, I think he's going to be the main sub-plot that will bedevil our young heroine as she negotiates the rest of the story.

(cue evil laughter and rubbing of hands here)

Still, as I started transcribing, I spotted someone I needed to speak to on Skype and buzzed them. It turns out they won't be able to go to Archon this year, which is too bad. I haven't seen Thyla since the time I shared the table with the Sluggy Freelance people at Dragon*Con and it would have been cool to get to visit again. I still have good memories of hanging out with them and I think I actually sold more Sluggy stuff at the table than joesunday, Pete and Thyla did combined. I know I sold more of their stuff than I did my own. *sigh*

It was a good talk, but that took almost an hour from my writing. I jumped back into the transcribing and then I got a phone call from a friend. Definitely needed to take this call and we visited for about a half-hour before she had to call someone else. So, I jumped back onto Harbinger one more time. Finished the transcription, saved it, opened the unnamed project and glanced at my clock. Aauugh. I had to think. I had met my quota already with what I'd typed, but that was stuff I'd written earlier and it wasn't the unnamed project which does have a rough deadline.

So, I grabbed my notebook, checked the chapter breakdowns and completed Chapter Two and got started on Chapter Three. Ran a quick word count and lo and behold, I had 1073 words on the Unnamed project done. Don't know where they came from, they just sort of flowed out of my fingers and they all made reasonably good sense. Sure, some may not survive the rewrite, but they're not full of the stink, so I'll take solace there.

Oh, and I completed one of the two big writing projects at work today also. So, I guess this should go down as a "good writing day". I need to see if I can find a Snoopy dancing near his typewriter pic so I can add that for a "good writing day" icon.

That's it for now. Time to finish my glass of water and hit the sack. Tomorrow, I get to wrestle with the monthly financials. My favorite pasttime . . . not.
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Words for Today

3256 / 1000 words. 326%

Progress on Harbinger of Darkness

9880 / 120000 words. 8%

Progress on Unnamed Project: SotH

4796 / 100000 words. 5%

Words for 2008

160508 / 366000 words. 44%

Wow.

At least I almost redeemed myself this weekend. I set out with the greatest of intents to get some major writing done this weekend to get myself back on track. As you can guess from the title of this post, it didn't quite happen.

I did get 2542 words written on Harbinger on Saturday, but that was mostly transcribing what I'd put together over a few lunches during the week. I took the computer with me to go out and write on Chronicles twice on Saturday, but both times, things came up and nothing actually got done. I think I wrote a whole three paragraphs on Saturday and didn't bother trying to count them toward the weekend total. I just managed to stay ahead of my yearly goal.

Today was wishweaver's and my anniversary. Yep, she's put up with me for seventeen years so far and believe me, I appreciate it. We took the daughter-unit out for lunch today and then I went shopping while Wish worked on her mid-term some more. I picked up a wedding present for kradical and terri_osborne, as well as picking up a couple of things for Wish. (Yeah, I know, you're supposed to shop ahead of time, but it took a while to get Wish to give me a hint what she might be interested in. I'm telling you, this girl is hard to shop for. *sigh* Well, outside of getting her iTunes gift cards, that is.)

We went out for dinner tonight to our favorite Japanese steakhouse and had a nice conversation with the couple who were sitting next to us at the hibachi grill. Yeah, we splurged a bit, but the meal was nice and it was good to just relax and not worry about school, house or work for a bit. She liked her presents (huzzah!), so I guess she'll keep me around for another year. *wink*

Came home and started work on the sekrit project. I'm a little nervous about getting started without the contract, but I'm going to take the editor at her word until events prove me wrong. The first chapter is kind of short, (1063 words), but there was a great stopping place and it feels like adding any more is simply just padding. I'd rather save the words for the end of the book since I usually run over my word count anyway on the first draft.

I would say, "Hey, Glen Cook gets away with two page chapters in his latest book", but then again, he's Glen Cook and I'm not.

Well, in for a penny, in for a pound. The sekrit project is officially kicked off as of tonight.
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Words for Yesterday

2542 / 1000 words. 254% done!

Words for Today

1063 / 1000 words. 106% done!

Progress on Harbinger of Darkness

7697 / 120000 words. 6% done!

Progress on Unnamed Project:(SotH)

1063 / 100000 words. 1% done!

Words for 2008

153792 / 366000 words. 42%

Work went well today, all things considered. I finished my proposed revisions for the users manual and hope to get started on that (as well as some other documentation) next week. The funny thing is, now that I'm not working on that other project . . . now, they're coming out of the woodwork needing assistance with their web site.

*sigh*

Still, until they get their own tech writer/web person, my management has asked me to still help out now and then, so I guess that'll me one of my projects tomorrow.

And, I still found some time to work on Harbinger.

In fact, I wound up spending most of my time tonight transcribing all the stuff I did at work tonight. I was fully intending to copy that stuff in and work on Steel on Target, but it just took a little longer to get the writing going this evening. Once I got going, it went well, though. I added 2783 words tonight, finishing up the first chapter of the revised work. Yeah, I know, I wasn't going to start this rewrite until I finished one of my other projects, but I wanted to capture the new first chapter before I forgot all the stuff I thought of the other day.

I'm planning on taking Friday off from work. Hopefully, I can get some decent writing in, since I'm going to probably lose some writing this weekend with the convention. Still not sure if I'm going up to Balticon Friday evening for the Meet the Guests shindig. Not sure it's worth the price of gas for that, but I'll make that decision closer to time. If I can catch up with perivayne, we'll discuss doing a reading or a signing and when.

At least tomorrow is my last day at work until next Tuesday. We'll be happy for what we can get.

(Oh, and I thought I'd break out the new Raven avatar for my girl Raven, the star of Harbinger of Darkness.)
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Words for Today

2783 / 1000 words. 278%

Progress on Harbinger of Darkness

5155 / 120000 words. 4%

Words for 2008

148555 / 366000 words. 41%

When I got into work this morning, I was informed that I was being transferred to one of my projects full time instead of splitting my time across two of them. Now, some people might have taken it the wrong way, but I think this is much better for all concerned. The project I'm on now is good at giving me specific deadlines and not worrying about things as long as I hit those deadlines. Plus, the manager I'm supporting is good at giving me very specific feedback to what he wants and doesn't want.

The other project, while interesting, was depending on me being more "self-motivating", which would be really cool if I was one of the developers or if I had been with the project from the beginning. However, as the tech writer, I have to work with the SMEs to develop the papers and I sorta need to know when they expect me to have them done. Otherwise, projects with no deadlines tend to slip so I can meet projects with clear deadlines. We were just a bad fit and while I'm pleased about the work I did for them, I can't say I'm heartbroken that "they don't have any work for me in the foreseeable future".

So, hopefully, with only having to answer to one manager, my stress level will go down and I can get back into the "I want to write when I get home" mode again.

And, in honor of this, I did write another 1000+ words on Harbinger of Darkness on my lunch break. I just didn't get a chance to type it in at home, so I can't officially count it on my word production for the day. I did, however, add 1616 words to Childhood's Tears tonight. I know I need to get started on the sekrit project soon, but after nights like this, it's going to be hard to put this one away to concentrate on the one that hopefully has real money attached to it.

In non-work/non-writing talk, I enjoyed going to see Prince Caspian with the family and dzeytoun. I enjoyed the story and some of the symbolism behind the various events. wishweaver and I have been discussing some of the different themes we saw in the movie and even if it's not "haute-cuisine" as far as movies go, if you're still talking about it a couple of days later, it's done it's job in my opinion.

Also, Daughter-unit is still geeking on her new computer and the manga drawing software she got, so we're counting this as "Mom and Dad did good." *grin*
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Words for Today

1616 / 1000 words. 162%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

41343 / 90000 words. 46%

Words for 2008

145772 / 366000 words. 40%

Came home from a boring day at work to find out that wishweaver and the daughter-unit had just gotten home from getting a bite to eat. The D-U decided she was in for the night, so Wish and I took off to go do "something". She joined me while I grabbed a quick bite to eat and then we wandered over to the pet store to get cat "supplies" and then off to Staples. The chair I've been using upstairs was slowly dying (it was a Target special that came with a relatively cheap computer desk), so I got a nice new chair with good back support and she picked up a FM tuner for her iPod, so I can recover mine. *grin*

We weren't quite ready to go home, so we went up to the local mall and wandered around doing some window shopping. We're going to be taking D-U back to the mall tomorrow with us, since we've made an appointment at the Apple store. The D-U has been using my old laptop (and I mean old, I think I got this one back in 1999 or 2000) and it's seen better days. Since she's really getting into art, especially doing art on her computer drawing tablet, Wish and I thought getting her a Mac might be the way to go. We talked to one of the associates and we're leaning toward a 24" iMac for her, but we'll let D-U make the decision (within reason) since she'll be the one using it.

Yes, we're a Windows family for the moment, but the art world belongs to Apple (plus we can install Windows on the Mac if we decide to not upgrade a few of her programs to the Mac versions). I have to admit, I've been tempted by the Macbook Air, but I need to get a lot more use out of my Toshiba before I consider buying any more computer equipment for myself.

Did I mention it was a slow day at work? I took advantage of the situation and wrote 2,372 words today. Of course, they were words for the new version of Harbinger of Darkness, but this new first chapter is insisting on getting written sooner than later. So, since I didn't have anything to add to Shattered Mirror tonight, I transcribed the pages I brought home with me, edited some sentences, added some stuff here and there and generally enjoyed getting to visit with my girl, Raven.

Tomorrow, I hope to get some writing done on Chronicles. I know Wish has college stuff to do and D-U may be playing with her new toy. (She's already talking about what she can do with Garage Band and iMovie, sheesh!) That may be my cue to slip out and hit the local coffee shop for a bit.

Ulterior motives? Me? I'm shocked, shocked you could make such an accusation.

(Your winnings, monsieur. Thank you, Andre.)
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Words for Today

2372 / 1000 words. 237%

Progress on Harbinger of Darkness rewrite

2372 / 110000 words. 2%

Words for 2008

142969 / 366000 words. 39%

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%

Yep, it's amazing how much writing you can get done if you turn off the TV and just go someplace quiet. Also, staring to write before 2200 hours is probably a good thing also. Now, normally, I don't do a lot of writing before 2130-2200 because I'm waiting for the family to go to sleep before I get started. However, since wishweaver has a cold, she decided to call it an early evening. I snagged my laptop and made a makeshift computer work station upstairs (old shelf and a desk chair), curled up in bed and started typing away.

(Yes, the upstairs is still in a state of flux with the remodeling, so all proper flat surfaces are currently covered with books waiting for the library to be built downstairs. MacGyver would be proud of my set up in here. *grin*)

Worked on Childhood's Tears tonight and hammered out 1132 words. I'm starting to drift back to my original outline for this story with this chapter, so we'll see what happens. Maybe it's because I'm working on four stories right now, but I'm noticing all of my stories are tending to drift away from the original plots. Not hideously so, but there's definite story creep going on. Well, except for Steel on Target, there never was an outline for that one.

Still, I'm making progress (or April and I are) and each story is shaping up pretty well so far. Course, we'll see how well they shape up once I start trying to get an agent for one of them. As soon as I finish one of them, probably Chronicles: Dragon Couchant, I'll start the rewrite to Harbinger. I should finish up one of the others about the time I'm done with that and start the CSD rewrites. This way I'll have stuff being written and rewritten/edited through the rest of the year. This way, I should have several different stories ready when I start querying.

But, right now, I need to get a good night's sleep. Running on four to five hours a night on average these past four weeks is starting to catch up with me. That's why I'm starting a little earlier on the writing - so I can finish earlier and sleep longer.

Yeah, even writers need sleep now and then. Go figure.

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Words for Today

1132 / 1000 words. 113%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

20172 / 90000 words. 22%

Words for 2008

60361 / 366000 words. 16%

I started working on adapting Childhood's Tears the other day when I realized I had lost the list of gods I had created years ago. Now, it wasn't that big a deal for the Chronicles because organized religion wasn't a major part of the story (or at least it hasn't been up to now). Still, I am setting up a competition between Rowena and one of the churches in finding ancient artifacts, so I needed to know who her opponents were.

I was able to spend several hours on Friday going through different web sites dedicated to ancient religions that weren't Greek, Egyptian or Norse to build my pantheon and think I have a good start. I may change up a few more of the names, but I've enjoyed reading about the different myths and legends. And, looking at these gods and goddesses, I came up with the story about how the continent sank, creating the hundreds of islands that my characters inhabit.

So, following up on zornhau's advice, I think I'll be writing this story, although I'm considering writing two versions, the actual events and then the legend that has survived 1500 years later. Both of which will have definite affects on both Childhood's Tears and Chronicles.

**rubs hands together gleefully plotting**

Still, I needed to finish the first chapter of Childhood's Tears, so I worked on it over the weekend. Given how I've completely blown my "goals" for 2007, I'm not going to bother posting any word counts yet. I'll take that back up in 2008. Still, I'm pretty happy with the chapter so far.

I've decided to set a schedule for myself though. I've got several projects going on, so I'm going to try and dedicate specific nights to specific stories. I want to work on Childhood's Tears, which I think would be a great introduction for Chronicles. I want to rewrite Harbinger and make it a stronger story and start resubmitting it and April and I want to finish Shattered Mirror as soon as possible. So, by dedicating specific times to work on specific stories, I should start seeing progress as we go along without getting bored with any one story.

Yeah, I know. Everyone says pick a story and write it, but given how many stories I have running around in my head, until one really grabs me and says "write me" (or until I get another pitch picked up for a tie-in which gives me a specific deadline), I think this is the best approach at this time.

Still, I have the first chapter for Childhood's Tears done. That's a step in the right direction. Maybe I can get several done before the end of the year.

I've been reviewing the first chapter of Harbinger of Darkness with input from wishweaver. There was something about it that just never quite sat well with me. I think all the work I did for that pitch to the U.K. publisher finally brought some points home on Harbinger.

I like the story. I think it's a strong story. However, now I don't think the first chapter is as strong as it needs to be to propel the reader forward. So, before I send this puppy out again, we're going to rewrite, revise and ensure it is as good as the rest of the book.

You gotta love those "aha" moments. I guess that's what they call "experience".

*sigh*

Upward and onward.

Looks like it's going to be a very busy next few weeks/months

( Yep, another irons in the fire post )

Nothing like being ambitious, eh?

All right. Ravencon is coming up this weekend.

Unfortunately, a gazillion things are all converging on me at the same time, so if I'm going to the convention there's stuff to do. To quote an old song, "There's a long way to go and a short time to get there".

Tonight, I spent 4.5 hours filling out paperwork for work that had to be done by Thursday.

By Thursday COB, I have to finish the history project (around going to class on Wednesday night).

Before I leave for Richmond, I need to review my Anime slide show for Ravencon and ensure it's on the computer AND on the thumb drive. Also, I need to remember to take the floppy keyboard for the palmtop computer so I can finish the first edits on The Price of Conviction while I'm at the show.

Plus, I need to finish up my lab assignment for class on Monday and prepare for a test on Monday night.

Also, I need to finish some edits on Shattered Mirror by Friday next week.

And, getting started on Demons and Devils would be a good idea.

Not to mention, getting back to submitting Harbinger to agents, and The Demon's Head to the short story market.

Oh, yeah, spending some time with family would be good.

*sigh*

Well, I heard back from the agent who was looking at the partial for Harbinger of Darkness.

Nope, I didn't get asked to see a full. She included a handwritten note on the form letter, which was a nice touch. I certainly didn't expect that.

I dropped her an e-mail thanking her for looking at the partial. I wouldn't do that just for a regular query rejection, but I figure if they go to the trouble to review a partial or a full, the least I can do is thank them. I know agents don't want to get into a tit-for-tat letter exchange with the people they have to reject, so I didn't expect a reply. It was more just a "thank you" note than anything else.

So, I was quite surprised (and pleased) to get a reply back. Even though she didn't accept Harbinger, I'll definitely keep her in mind for other projects down the road if I don't place Harbinger elsewhere.

Before I started my writing session tonight, I went out and dusted off the Harbinger query letter. Fired off a query to an agent tonight and will start going through my list of agents I'm interested in trying to land over the next few days.

No, I didn't get a rejection from the agent I sent the synopsis and three of Harbinger off to back in September.

Trouble is, I haven't received anything.

I realize it's only been a bit over 100 days, but I've decided I can't just sit back and wait to hear something. Now, it's possible that the agent has tried to reach me and either the e-mail got lost in the bit bucket or (more likely) the SASE I sent wound up being misfiled at the Annapolis Junction PO. Still, I was encouraged to try this one agent because they were new and hungry to build a list and they came recommended by another writer I know and trust.

Perhaps I'm being a bit harsh. O.K., I'm being harsh, but I had given myself until the end of the year to hear something back. Then I waited another week and a half to allow for the holidays. Still nothing. Finally, against my better judgment, I sent as polite a nudge letter as I could, simply asking if they had tried to contact me because I've noticed some of my mail had been winding up in the person just below my P.O. Box's box and I'd been receiving theirs. Still nothing.

So, now I start querying in earnest and see what happens.

If I hear from the first agent, believe you me, I'll still be tickled pink. After all, this is my first attempt to get an agent and I don't expect it to be my last. Even if it's a rejection, at least I'll have something. Oh the joys of still being a newbie in this business. I know just enough about it to drive myself crazy.

The good thing, I still met my goal for the evening. Not by much, but 1055 words is over 1000, so I'm pleased that I was able to get my thinking organized enough to meet my goal. I had a lot of fun writing a bridge scene and I think the little tit for tat between Pulaski and Data went pretty well. She seems to have a knack for knowing just how far she can go before Picard will drop the boom on her.

Time to put the toys away for the night and get some sleep. Here's looking forward to a productive writing weekend. I hope to finish the Shattered Mirror bestiary on Saturday. Always helps if we know which specific mythological characters we're discussing in our story and who's version of them. Plus, I think we need to populate the town a bit better. More places for the protagonists to hang out when not kicking bad guy butt.

Words for Today

1,055 / 1,000 (105.5%)

Progress on "Shadows"

3,499 / 10,000 (35.0%)

Words for the year

15,660 / 365,000 (4.3%)

1) Complete two 80,000 word fantasy novels. - Not even close. I did get about 15,000 words written on original stuff. However, between revising and rewriting Harbinger and all the writing I did for college (which I added up the other day and it came out to about 200,000 words), I had a productive year writing . . . just not marketable stuff, yet.

2) Complete 15 hours of English classes at college this year with a minimum of a 3.0 average. Completed 12 hours with a 4.0 average. That sounds like a reasonable compromise there. Down to my last two classes, huzzah!

3) Acquire an agent for my novels. I have an agent looking at a partial, but if I don't hear anything by next week, it'll be time to start sending out more query letters and trying to jump start the process. I know people say to wait 90-120 days for a partial, but we're definitely in that window now, so there's not much point in holding my breath any longer. But, I'm still keeping my fingers crossed I'll hear something . . . even if it's a rejection. Rejection is better than not knowing.

4) Submit two proposals for licensed work. Done and done. Plus, three more ideas for licensed work percolating in my brain for other work. I don't intend to do licensed work the rest of my life, but it's still fun working in other people's sandboxes.

5) Read two new books a month. College sorta interfered here, but when I look back on how much time I goofed off reading writing bbs, reading LiveJournal, reading college texts (O.K., that's not quite goofing off), reading the few comics I still collect, and watching the occasional video (although I am so far behind on my anime collection), I could have easily met this goal. Bleah.

So, it's a mixed bag of accomplishments. Still, I'd rather set goals and miss them than just float through a new year. It's sort of like my writing style. I'm definitely a "plotter", not a "pantser". Now, do I always follow the outline? Oh, hell no. But, I need a place to start before I start wandering down rabbit trails. My life is sorta like that. I need ultimate goals, no matter what path I wander trying to get there. (Helps overcome my natural inclination to be a lazy sod.)

Here's wishing everyone the best of new years and we'll try to post the 2007 resolutions tomorrow.

A recent post by ineti made me think about how I construct the worlds that I’m building for my current works in progress. Without going into excruciating details, I’ll address one of them:

I knew going into Harbinger that it was going to take place in a city-state. It’s a pretty urban setting for a pseudo-medieval world, so I used two main sources to begin designing it. One was Francis Geis has written a series of highly useful books about Medieval Life, one of which is aptly titled, Life in a Medieval City. Obviously fantasy readers don’t want to get bogged down in minutiae, but it’s always a good idea to be as accurate as possible. I drew out a rough sketch of the town based on what I knew needed to be there for the story and filled in a few city street names and developed a few specific areas that I knew I’d be returning to in the story for consistency.

I also needed to know the area beyond the city-walls, so I turned to the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, made available on-line by the University of Texas-Austin. A highly useful source of information. Using their historical map section, I found some pictures of medieval cities and noted how the lands were set up and then extrapolated what I needed onto a map of the area within 20 miles of the city-state. I added in the docks, the farmlands, a large forest to the east of the town where my gypsies lived and other basic information that townspeople would talk about.

Finally, I drew out the entire Empire that Sagras (the city-state) is located in. Once I started building the basic outlines by filling in the coastline, (Sagras is a trading city), and adding in the natural borders of the empire, it began taking on a life of its own. One idea led to another as I filed in the geographic and political features of the empire. It’s not one of those fancy maps like you’d find in a gaming supplement for Battletech or Grayhawk, but it does well enough. As I get time, I’ll probably go back and tweak it some and break out the colored pencils, just because I’m a map geek.

As I finished the map of the Empire, I saw places where my main characters could be from, where they could go if the story develops into a series, where their enemies (current and future) might be from and also possible political changes in the future (again, if this develops into a series).

So, like Ineti, I started with one small map, then drew an overlay and then another overlay and found there was more story there than I originally imagined when I started kicking this idea around two years ago. It’s amazing how a little research leads to a whole raft of story ideas simply by putting your ideas down on paper and looking at them.

Been a busy week, both at work and at home. Luckily, I think I've gotten some good stuff done over the past few days.

Been going back over the last few chapters of Harbinger again. Just some minor tweaks, but I'm going to go over the last two chapters with a fine tooth comb once again. I'm happy with it, but not satisfied with it. Not quite certain if that makes sense, but it's how I'm feeling right now. Hopefully, I'll finally get to the point that I can just set it down and walk away from it for a bit. At least, until I hear from the Agent yea, nay or maybe. . .

Spent some time talking to April tonight about Shattered Mirror. She's revising the prologue and Chapters 1 & 3 again. We discussed where we want the story to go for the next few chapters and decided we're going to rearrange the story a bit. We're swapping Chapters 1 & 2 and adding in another chapter to be #3. The current Chapter 3 will become #4 and we've plotted out #5 and #6. We also came up with an intriguing idea why the fae and cold iron get along so poorly as well as working some more on the mythology and the ground rules for both the realm of mortals and the realm of fey (some of it is based on mythology and legends, some of it is definitely out of our own imaginations). April suggested some ways to take it darker, but we're not going "quite" as dark as some people's YA Urban Fantasy stories. There's nothing wrong with their stories (Can't argue with a Nebula winner, now can we?), but that's just not our style of writing.

Finished the draft of my Fahrenheit 451 paper for class tomorrow night. Hopefully, wishweaver will have time to take a look at it tomorrow before class to catch any errors in syntax or logic before I turn this one in. Need to jump on my Catcher in the Rye paper since it's due next Monday night. Plus I have my mid-term exam coming up for the Short Story class next Thursday.

Did manage to take some time to go to the Maryland Renaissance Fair yesterday. Wasn't feeling all that well, but we'd been putting it off all season and since this was the last weekend, I couldn't exactly beg off now. Picked up new book from Page After Page called Codex Wallerstein, subtitled "A Medieval Fighting Book from the Fifteenth Century on the Longsword, Falchion, Dagger and Wrestling" by Grzegorz Zabinski. I haven't had time to peruse it in depth, but the few pages I've seen look quite interesting and there are copies of the original illustrations accompanying each different maneuver or technique.

Also, there was a group called Fight School demonstrating Broadsword, Bastard Sword, Sword and Shield, Rapier, Rapier and Main Gauche, Florentine with Rapier, Rapier and Target, Shortsword and Quarterstaff. While obviously choreographed, it was educational to see how the fighting techniques morphed from one to the other as they moved forward in time until the seventeenth century. I'd love to spend some more time visiting with them and seeing where they get their training and information from, but the next-to-last day of the Faire is probably a bad time to do so. I'm definitely making plans to try and spend some time with them next year though.

Oh yeah. The Chiefs won, so all is right with the world for another week. ;)

Was very busy this weekend and got a number of things accomplished. Not necessarily very consequential things, but things anyway.

wishweaver had been down with a cold most of the week, but started feeling better on Friday afternoon. (Good timing, eh wot?) We hung around the house and did a little visiting with our Writing Group on line, but it was more of a meet and greet session than actually critiquing anything new. Right now, most of us are busy revising things rather than working on new stuff, so there's less impetus to post. Hopefully, we'll have some new stuff for the next time.

Saturday was mainly a shopping and visiting day. Wish took me to one of the local yarn stores where we picked out some yarn for a scarf she wants to make for me. She thought since I was going to be wearing it, I probably should get a say in what colors went into it. The yarn we picked out has a lot of black, red and dark blues in it. I could have chosen some more colorful yarn, but I wanted something that would go with the majority of the jackets I wear to work in the winter. Hard to go wrong with darker colors.

After having lunch, we hit the infamous Costco. Unfortunately, (or maybe fortunately,) their selection of office supplies was dismal. However, I did find a WD 500GB external hard drive for a bit over $200. While it's possible I could beat that price on-line somewhere, it was nice to know the cost of external hard drives are coming down. I want to move all my music an pictures off of my laptop's HD. Sure, I know the laptop has a pretty big hard drive itself, but still, after the disaster of 2005 when my hard drive was corrupted, I don't want to take any chances. All my writing is backed-up on flash drives, but I'd be happier if all my music and pictures were backed up somewhere too.

That evening, Wish and I went to the mall to do a little preliminary Christmas shopping. We gave each other some ideas about what we'd be interested in and also spotted some really cool things for the daughter-unit. As we were going past the Bose store, we laughed remembering when they used to have a 36" flat screen TV that they sold for $15,000. Now, we could pick up a 35" flat screen at Costco for under $1000 and a 65" for less than $3,000. There are advantages to not being an early-adopter.

Today was pretty much a hang around the house day. Our roommate, mollymorrison and her boyfriend were around most of the weekend. Watched some football . . . sigh . . . and then spent the evening doing my homework for Tuesday night. I'll be working on my Fahrenheit 451 paper in class tomorrow night, so I didn't see a point in rushing through a draft tonight. I know pretty much what I want to talk about and will slam out the rough draft in class.

I have been working on Harbinger most of this weekend. I've thought about the last few chapters and am revising them once again while I wait to hear back from the agent I submitted my synopsis and three to a few weeks ago. I like the minor changes I've made to the story here and now just need to finish polishing it and get back to work on something new. I'll probably spend about an hour working on some edits before I call it a night.

All right, back to work.

Actually, the last day of the convention was the most relaxing for me. I packed out of the room, stored my stuff at the front desk and headed to the convention center. Ran into Haley Garwood and visited with her in the Dealer's room for a while before going around to find the were-guild . . . I mean, the presents for wishweaver and the daughter-unit. I picked up some nice tee-shirts (A Dragon reading books for Wish, a Cowthulu tee for my daughter and a "Girl Genius" shirt for myself). There was another tee I'm going to have to order from them (they were out of my size by Sunday). It's like those I (heart) something shirts except this one is black with red letters that says "I (Godzilla) Tokyo". What can I say, I'm a sucker for the big guy.

After a while, I ran into Les Haven, the pro coordinator, and he hooked me up with a ride out to the airport. Unfortunately, they were leaving at 2:30, so I had to cancel out of my only panel on Sunday. Probably just as well, I was starting to feel pretty brain-dead by that time after all the Saturday panels. Caught up with some friends and just hung around the con until about noon. Then it was back to the hotel to get my stuff, wait for my ride and watch some football.

Arrived at the airport so early that they wouldn't check my bags at the self-serve counter (no more than 5 hours ahead of your flight, in case you're wondering). So, after getting my boarding pass, I had to go stand in the regular line and they had to contact their supervisors to see if they'd let me check my bags that early. Luckily, they agreed to take it. My gate was only four from the security checkpoint and there was a sports bar next to it, so I hopped up on the bar stool and immediately wondered what the hell was going on . . . Arizona 14, KC 0? That had to be a misprint. No . . . once again, the Chiefs have decided that I need to die of a heart attack well before I reach 50. I must say, the final score made me very happy (Chiefs 23, Cardinals 20), but as wishweaver will tell you, I take my football a little too seriously for her taste.

After the game, found a place near an electrical plug and finished up my college homework while we were waiting for the plane to arrive. Once we reached altitude, I turned on the iPod and listened to Boston Blackie solving crimes and telling bad puns all the way back to D.C.
.....................................................................

I probably should have taken Monday off too. I went into work and since we couldn't go to the client spaces to work, one of the people thought I should read the project requirements documents and the System Architecture Document (there's a reason it's called the SAD, people). OH, MY, GOODNESS. I was reading through these and I had to keep wondering "And this has WHAT to do with my position on the project?" It was a painful day and I wound up taking off early just to save my sanity.

At least class went well Monday night and I turned my Animal Farm paper in. I don't know what kind of grade I'm going to get on it, but at least the teacher liked the title of my paper.

Now, I'm doing some minor tweaks to the finished Harbinger manuscript and hoping to hear back from the Agent. Well, I'm really hoping the Agent will reply asking for the rest of the manuscript. Heck, I'm hoping I'll get positive request from all my currently submitted proposals and such, but that might be a tad optimistic.

Back to the grindstone.

0750

Time to take the daughter unit to school and the synopsis and three to the post office.

We have reached the Rubicon.

Now the waiting starts and the next project gets underway.

Heard back from two of my three beta's tonight. Got their comments, critiques and general thoughts and am much heartened by the input. Lots of very good suggested changes (probably accepted about 70% of them) and I think the first chapter is much stronger than it was a couple of nights ago.

That's the chapter that gave me fits because there's a reveal at the end of the chapter that I've had to dance around. They had some good suggestion on how to pull it off and I'm happier with the way it reads now.

My last beta (one of my college professors) promised her feedback by Wed Evening. I'll incorporate her suggestions, let it percolate overnight and come hell or high water, this synopsis and three are out of here on Friday.

Personally, I think writing the synopsis (even with an outline already in place) was harder than writing the frelling novel.

Sigh.

You know, I always considered myself a very confident person . . . cocky at times.

Now that I'm getting ready to send in my synopsis and three chapters to an agent, I'm definitely getting a case of nerves.

The synopsis is out with my last two beta readers. Once I hear back from them and review their suggestions and correct any errors they find then it's going to be bundled up and shipped off just as quick as I can get it out the door.

I think I'll be less nervous once it's gone. Then, there's nothing else I can do to it. It either sinks or swims and either way, it's time to work on the other proposals/stories/classwork I have staring me in the face.

Still, I'm probably more nervous now than I was standing on the berm in February 1990, knowing that less than three kilometers away was Iraq and a whole bunch of people with weapons pointed my direction and that in less than 24 hours, I'd be going over the berm into Iraq with the rest of the 101st. Maybe it was a little too surreal, or maybe I was just younger and more invincible then.

Now, I'm nervous.

_____________________________________________________

Speaking of classwork, it was rather bloody in my Ethics in Literature class tonight. We got the first batch of papers handed back and well, the class average was a 2.2 out of 4 for a class of 22 people. (1 A, 2 Bs, 16 Cs, 2 Ds and 1 F) Based on some of my classmates' body language, I have a feeling there'll be some empty seats next class period.

Class discussion was good though, even if Aristotle and Frankna did kick my butt in the reading over the weekend. There were a lot of interesting points brought up in class, talking about morals and virtues and utilitarianism. Now, I just need to get the rough draft of my essay on Animal Farm done before Monday. (sigh)

I'm not going to try and cover everything that's happened since my last post. I'll just give you the high points:

1) College

Started college on the 28th of August. I wound up having to scramble to get into The Short Story, which is showing signs of being a very interesting class. We've covered The Fox and the Grapes, The Creation Story from Genesis, The Story of an Hour and The Lottery the past two weeks. (Wound up doing this weeks homework assignment in the Hartsfield International Airport . . . more on that later.) It looks like my Ethics in Literature class is going to be a lot of fun also.

2) Dragon*Con was a blast.

The good: Had a great time at my table in Artist's Alley. Met a lot of really cool people who were either sitting with me throughout the show or else were stopping by to visit. Picked up some GREAT sketches for my con sketch book to include an absolutely wonderful Donald Duck sketch by Don Rosa. Had a chance to visit with Bill Hollbrook of Kevin and Kell fame again as well as another sketch. I'm going to have all of his characters in my book eventually. Sold several copies of Troubleshooters Incorporated and Chronicles of the Sea Dragon, my two comics, and the Ultimate Hulk anthology. If I'd have had any paperback copies of SCE #63 Echoes of Coventry, I could have sold a ton of them. The Trek fans sounded very interested when I told them about the story idea.

I had a great deal of fun watching Tee Morris trying to absorb his first Dragon*Con. Well worth the price of admission right there.

Great panels. I thought Anime 101 went well and the two Sunday night panels were well-attended and well-received (I think). Most of the feedback I got was positive, anyway. I'm hoping they'll invite me to do my panels again next year. The comic panel went well, although not quite as many attended it and the Star Trek panel was good, but suffered from Monday afternoon blues (tired panelists and small crowds). Still, my hat's off to the track coordinators . . . Great job, every one of you.

Having a blast in the Draco Vista party suite. It was a ball getting to meet all the various podcasters to include the Raving Scotsman. (Ian, you magnificent bastard, you!)

The bad: Not getting to meet relevantpink or Tracy Hickman like I had hoped. Just too much to do with the table in Artist's Alley and too much ground to cover. I still managed to pick up a picture she'd put in the Art Auction and have it here beside my computer.

Waiting an hour at the baggage carousel in Atlanta waiting for my luggage to appear, then finding out they managed to blow up one of the drinks I'd brought in my suitcase all over my white shirts. Got to spend a couple of hours in the lovely laundry rooms in the basement of the Amerisuites hotel rather than seeing Dragon*Con (it was almost 6pm by the time I got my badge on Friday . . . a tad too late to set up in Artist's Alley that day).

Going to the Art Show Reception only to find out most of the artists had skipped out. While it was fun looking at the art, I love visiting with the artists . . . which is hard to do if they're not there!

The bag with all my stuff for sale disappearing on the flight from Atlanta to Baltimore. Considering I arrived at the airport almost five hours before my flight, you'd think they could get it on my plane, no? It finally arrived sometime Tuesday evening.

3) The Big News
Opened my e-mail at work on Tuesday to find a letter from an agent I pitched Harbinger to back in July. She liked the pitch and has asked for the first three and a synopsis (which I'm feverishly revising one last time).

I had to walk around the halls of where I work three times to calm down enough to get back to work. :D

I realize this isn't a done deal by any stretch of the imagination, but it's hard not to be excited. As I told someone, all this means is my tee shot hit the fairway. There's still a water hazard (synopsis and chapters) and a sand trap (full manuscript) to surmount before I hit the green (contract). But, as they say, I'm at least in the game and not standing outside the clubhouse door looking in.

OK, it's been three days and I'm still officially geeked. So, sue me. ;D

I think I've bored you all enough now. Go do something creative!

Editing continues.

Doldrums are setting in. I want to get this done, but I want it done right, so it's slow going, searching for those unnecessary words, verb tenses, etc. That and working on the infamous "show, don't tell".

One thing I'm trying with Harbinger is using an old comic trick. Where it feels like I'm using too much exposition to push the story along, telling what the character is doing and why, I'm adding more "thought balloons". Let Raven explain what she's doing and why, as she's doing it. Don't pull the camera back for a wide shot as we see her do X, Y and Z. Move in tight and see it through her eyes, without shifting from 3rd limited to 1st person. Besides, if she's anything like me, (and since I'm her author, so she probably is), she has a habit of talking to herself when she gets nervous. Sometimes out loud, mostly inside her head, but by talking to herself, she helps reason out what to do before she does it.

So far, the feedback I've gotten on these types of scenes from my writing group has been pretty positive. Makes the scenes more "intimate" is one comment I got, which is good. That's what I'm going for.

I did (finally) finish Chapter 20. Even with the edits, it's still a whomping 4786 words long. I cut 354 words out of the chapter. I think if I'm remembering correctly, this was the second longest chapter in the book. I'm about halfway through Chapter 21, but I think I'm stopping for the night. I do need to add in a scene in this chapter that isn't there now, so I'm probably going to lose a little ground on my trimming of words, but there's still 7 chapters to go after this one.

7 days 23 hours to go on the self-imposed deadline to finish Harbinger and then off to Dragon*Con to relax. I'm counting up all the people I owe drinks to here (Tracy Hickman, Tee Morris, kradical, terri_osborne, and probably several others I'm forgetting. Normally, I don't think of a convention as a place to "relax", but after this month I think it's going to be a very enjoyable weekend.

Current Harbinger final draft status:

70,476 / 100,000 (70.5%)

Benadryl is a great thing to have when you have an allergic reaction. I had a small reaction to something I ate this weekend, and started slamming my medicine as soon as I felt the first tinglings in my lips. Well, it stopped the swelling and they've returned to normal.

That's the good part.

The bad part is, Benadryl makes me drowsy. I didn't exactly fall asleep, but I was woozy most of the weekend. So, I've been typing in the morning and taking the paper pages up with me at night to try and red-line before I passed out. Seems to be working so far. I'm only about half a day behind on Harbinger, with this evening still to go.

Chapter Eighteen wound up taking more editing than I anticipated. Only cut 209 words from the document, but that's misleading. There's a large chunk of the chapter that's not there anymore. Trouble is, I filled it in with other information I think moved the story better. Chapter Nineteen fared slightly better, but it lost 550 words, coming in a a svelte 3811 words. Nice little fight scene to end the chapter winding up with one of the bad guys spearing himself on Raven's sword. A fitting end for a most unpleasant person. Unfortunately, he's not the warrior Raven's going to have to face towards the climax. He was smart enough to let one of the others fight her while he stood off to the side and observed her fighting style. (I love a ruthless villain.)

Yes, I'm having fun with this story.

Oh, yes, I did get my self-assessment written yesterday. Not the strongest piece of writing I've ever done, but I didn't really do much last year on the first contract and I just started my current contract in May. It's tough to get meaningful "accomplishments" in just three months. (shrug)

I start college in two weeks. I do need to get around to getting my books one of these evenings. I think it might not be a bad idea to at least be able to recognize their covers so I know which ones to take to class. ;)

Current Harbinger final draft status:

65,690 / 100,000 (65.7%)

Well, Chapter Seventeen is in the books. Didn't trim a lot of words off the total (a mere 208 words), but rearranged a section in the middle of the chapter, putting more emphasis on Raven's relationship with her unwanted apprentice Alexis. Raven knows she's in over her head now and there's nothing left to do but go for broke.

I'm actually surprised the writing went so well today considering the idiocy at work. No, I didn't have any rude techs or anything like that. It was just one unusual question after another. Normally, after lunch, it's pretty quiet, just monitor the system until I have to write the afternoon reports. Well, today, I wanted to listen to a CD. No big deal. Seems every five minutes, either someone was calling looking for Bruce (the other guy I work with), who was at the other building, or else people were asking me to do odd things like "can you take a group of screen shots and paste them into a Powerpoint presentation for me. I'd like a collage of all the various things the system can do."

That isn't "quite" in my job description, but there was no logical reason I "couldn't" do it. Then people started coming over and saying "Hey, it'd be a great screen shot if you could do (x)." Well that'd be great if I knew how to do (x). I don't play with the actual program as much as I probably could. I spend more time monitoring the input/output than playing with the interface. Maybe when the other person starts on Monday for the Analysis Center I'll be able to spend more time getting intimate with the system, especially the upgrade. I'm still trying to learn about the "operational system".

Needless to say, I took a bunch of screen shots and now they want to use each shot as an individual PP slide instead of a collage. Whatever makes them happy.

wishweaver and I went out to Mad City Coffee after dinner to get some writing in (for me) and studying (for her). She's trying to get prepped to take the CISSP exam this fall and is a "tad" nervous about it. I thought it might be nice to get out for a bit rather than having the usual house-related distractions. The carrot cake was outstanding tonight, but that wasn't the neatest thing I found. One of the featured coffees tonight was "Blueberry Cobbler". It actually smelled like blueberries and there was a faint blueberry taste to the actual coffee. I don't think I'd want to drink it on a regular basis, but it was a very nice change of pace treat.

Think I'll hit the sack early tonight. Need to get my self-assessment done tomorrow. Bleah.

Current Harbinger final draft status:

57,754 / 100,000 (57.8%)

Have I mentioned I hate writing self-assessments. I have difficulty walking that fine line between self-aggrandizement and self-depreciation. Make yourself look too good and people start digging to see what you're covering up. Talk yourself down and you may talk yourself right out of a decent raise. Bleah. Oh, and I did achieve my major training goal for the year (and the 12 hours of A work at college isn't going to hurt), but I didn't meet some of the other "suggested goals" for the year through no fault of my own (at least, that's how I see it). So, this year will be a crap shoot as usual.

At least work in general has been very pleasant this week and an old friend of mine is transferring onto the contract on Monday. That'll help out a lot. She'll be going through training the first month but just having someone else to help me cover the desk will be a big help. Bruce has been getting sucked into more and more meetings over at the main building. While I can handle 90% of the stuff that happens, he's got the experience and longevity on this contract I don't have. You can't put a price on institutional knowledge. No SOP can cover everything.

Finished Chapter Sixteen tonight. Took a little longer than I thought it would. Good thing I started it last night. Trimmed it down to 4192 words (a savings of 331 words). My rough estimate says I've cut about 6800 words out of the book so far in the first 16 chapters, and I've got some longer chapters waiting ahead for me. Looks good so far.

Oh, and taking kradical's advice, I posted for a roommate over on the Dragon*Con LJ last night and had a nibble by noon today. So, I guess I owe Krad a drink at the bar with the savings. Feel free to remind me when you see me.

Current Harbinger final draft status

53,885 / 100,000 (53.9%)

After the way I hacked on Chapter Fourteen, Chapter Fifteen was a pleasure to edit. Of course, it's the shortest chapter in the book, transitioning between the first half of the story and now pushing the story toward it's climax. For those interested, I only cut 60 words out of the chapter, but when you start with 2204, there's not much fat there to begin with.

I'll probably work on Chapter Sixteen a bit before I call it a night, but I consider it gravy time now. Anything I can do to get ahead is probably a good thing considering I do need to take some time to do my "self-assessment" for work very soon. Yep, we're coming up on yearly evaluations. Jump, skip, squeal for joy . . . or something like that. Between the assignment where I didn't do much because they forgot I existed and then only spending a few months on this assignment, I'm not counting on that promotion they were mentioning last year. As long as I get a Cost-of-living adjustment, I'll be happy.

Not much else to report. Think I'll read a couple of bulletin boards, relax a bit and then plow ahead on Chapter Sixteen.

Current Harbinger final draft status:

49,693 / 100,000 (49.7%)

Dragon*Con is 17 days away.

I'm still debating whether or not to try and find a roommate for the convention. I'm staying at the Amerisuites, about a block and a half away from the convention hotels. It's not like I can't afford to stay in the room by myself, but it might be nice to split the costs with someone else (more money for the dealer's room and the bar . . . "Priorities, man!"). Although, at this late date, I don't think there are many people going to the show who don't already have lodging identified. Oh well, either way, I wouldn't be chuffed.

Went through the big "dramatic" chapter tonight with a fine tooth comb. Even though the official record will show I trimmed 302 words from the chapter, that doesn't quite describe it. Sections were rewritten with reckless abandon, paragraphs trimmed out and others inserted in their place, weak phrases propped up or pruned away and in general, it was made into a much better chapter.

kradical posted the S.C.E./C.o.E. listing for 2007 on his journal. Congratulations to meharet and to terri_osborne for getting picked up! Great job you two.

Current Harbinger final draft status:

47,549 / 100,000 (47.5%)

Well, didn't get as much done as I had hoped tonight on Harbinger, but I did get Chapter Thirteen done. Luckily, it was a short chapter, so it went pretty quick once I got going. Took another 304 words out. Considering the finished chapter is now only 2217 words, I'm going to look at parts of Chapter Fourteen and see if any of it would make sense moving it into Chapter Thirteen or if a short chapter is appropriate here.

I've noted a lot of my chapters tend to be rather short. I tend to go between 2800 words to 4000 words for a chapter, (obviously this one is a tad shorter than that). At roughly 250 words a page when it's printed, a 2200 word chapter will only go 9 pages, which is quick, although I have read books where the chapter is only a page. I wonder some times if the chapters are a little choppy because they're short. I know people will say, a chapter ends where it ends and not to worry about an arbitrary number of words. Still, I wonder if readers prefer shorter or longer chapters or does it matter.

Yeah, I know, more stuff to obsess over instead of obsessing about finishing the book. Sigh.

Our roommate, mollymorrison had a friend come up tonight, and I introduced her to Rurouni Kenshin (one of my favorite anime series). We watched the first two DVDs tonight and I think I've corrupted another new anime person (cue diabolical laughter here).

18 days left to complete 15 chapters. Going to be close.

Current Harbinger final draft status:

44,360 / 100,000 (44.4%)

Had a very odd incident at work today. Still not quite certain how I'm going to deal with it.

On my current contract, I'm assisting with a help desk. Now, this isn't your typical IT help desk (thank goodness). My company is fielding a new system and my job is to monitor the system, ensure information is being fed into the system correctly, help users get accounts on the system when the self-registration doesn't work, reset passwords, produce a few reports and when something does go wrong (whether a user identifies the problem or we do), we contact other technicians who respond to the problem. I'm not a techie and never claimed to be.

Anyway, today, around 2pm, I noticed we weren't getting information from a specific feed and apparently hadn't been for quite a while. My supervisor and I went through all the steps to isolate the problem, inspected all the logs (no errors reported), checked a back-up system, etc. In other words, we did our job first to ensure the problem wasn't on our end. So, I had all the information ready to go and called the source's help desk. All I wanted to do was inform them about the problem so their techs could look into it when they had the time. It wasn't a showstopping fault, but it could become one or it might be a sign of a bigger problem (lord knows they've had a ton lately on their end).

The help desk person was (as usual) completely in the dark about what I was talking about, but she said she'd have a tech call me back so we could hash it out. OK. No big deal. I went back to my work and started wrapping up around 5pm when the tech called back. Before I could even begin to explain what was going on, the tech (some very young punk by the sound of his voice) informed me if the problem had started that early in the morning, why did we wait until 4pm to contact them, since most of their techs were gone for the day? Then he informed me they were up to their asses in alligators (my paraphrase) and if I wanted help desk support, I had to call before noon. And then he hung up.

So, the young snot has no clue what the problem is, never gave me a chance to explain all I wanted to do was put in a trouble ticket (you know, the kind of things a HELP DESK is supposed to handle) and was just rude in general. Well, either Bruce or I will be making a call over to the help desk in the morning and having a little heart to heart with a supervisor. I didn't want the kid to "fix" the problem right then, but I thought he ought to know he had a problem. Bastage.

And of course, the kid wouldn't give me his name. . .

Blargle.

Anyway, I had a pretty good evening with editing. Finished Chapter 12 tonight for Harbinger by excising 269 words from the chapter. It's now a svelte 2924 words and I introduce the last major character in the book on the last page of the chapter.

Time to listen to a little more music and then hit the sack.

Current Harbinger final draft status

42,143 / 100,000 (42.1%)