First post of 2010

Being sick and procrastination go hand in hand, and to prove that, i will now take a half hour pause simultaneously blow my nose, and listen to Russian pop music. My only consolation is that i will be listening to this as a write, it's something. See you in a few decades worth of minutes.


Back, and only the span of a dog's potty break, and my cigarette separate us. Doesn't the mucus membrane of closeness reverberate all around us, anyways.


Today, i devote my mental meanderings to Chapters 19 & 20. One of the things that worries me is my reliance on dialogue. It's one boast i will allow myself, i think I'm pretty slick and witty with the conversations between my characters. Reminding me of this woman i knew, she happened to be handy with narrative/acting directions, but her dialogue was the pits, a handful of fuck you(s), and yes pleases litter my memory like a bad night of boozing and crouching in the bushes.

Ah yes, conversations, i donated a chapter back in the mid-section to conversations, but thankfully, I now know they are going to be divvied up, and scattered to where they are better needed, like towards the end. That little convenient nugget, and my rough outline for the rest of Chapter 20 has saved my ass from possibly having to write two hundred more pages. Chapter 20, depending how much i get done this weekend, should be completed no later than the end of the month. There's a little bit of counting my chickens before they are hatched, but the worry is more not less. I still may need to flesh out Mark Tavers a bit more, he probably needs one more chapter to get his personality through, the trials of an unwieldy cast.

Hmmm, that would be four chapters within a hundred pages, it does seem a bit tight. AH well, hope springs eternal, especially if you're a voter. One chapter for Mark, one for Jake and Chad (which is started), one for the conclusion of the events at Southern, and the last chapter at O'Hare. That doesn't even count the interludes, but these are usually short, or they should be short, God knows i try, but sometimes these things write themselves.

I'm not sure if i've really hashed out what was in Chapter 19, but it's another Government under the stairs chapter, and so is Chapter 20, predominately. I'm going to go into 20, and see if i can squeeze in some bits for Mark, and save myself a little effort. Putting both chapters together, the split between action and dialogue is 50/50, that shouldn't change too much if i end the chapter with a little traveling.

I'm getting better at talking about the project without giving up any of the secrets. But as they say, spoilers on, but you needn't worry, it won't be too bad. Rebecca Fastet is in Chicago to study/bag Mark Tavers before he becomes to comfortable with his abilities, joined by Christie Reyes, they meet up to go over the case, and the various anxieties that go along with battling your victims ghost and superpowers. At this point, i don't know if Mark will be alive at the end, but it doesn't really matter because there is more involved than a wiz who can talk to and control machines, imagine what he can do at an airport, and you have part of my last chapter. BUt there's more, Rebecca knows about the door buried deep in the bowels of the Terminals where the pilots stash their belongings, and are treated to discounted bacon and eggs. Through these tunnels, deep down where the furnace boils, warming a small city, is the door. The door Rain/Ozma is desperately dragging Jake Fastet towards, but what will he think when he sees his mother waiting for him. It is another reason, she's in Chicago, knowing that the calamity down at Southern will not contain him, and the only thing to do is wait for him to show up, and the door will open.

Dammit, I'm talking about the end of the book, and not the chapters, good job. But this is something I've been free with since the beginning of the book. You realize after the first fifty pages, i hope, that while documenting what happened down South, Jake and his fictitious partners in magic and virtue are making their way up North to Chicago in order to begin the next leg of this journey. Forced to recount his misadventures to a person he doesn't believe in, his trip back up North, covered in the interludes, is discomforting to anyone traveling a virtuous path.

But that's not the point, as you can see, i have very little control over these things. Once again, I'm all over the place, and can't get my topic straight. For those who have heard me speak in public, you'll know what i mean.

Rebbecca uses scientific wizardry to access the special project the downstairs president wants her to see. They've finally gotten some control over their pet monsters, and have burrowed a tunnel from underneath Washington DC to some Podunk coal mining town in Northern Virginia, YEAH GEOGRAPHY CLASS. Don't tread too deeply in the coalmines where the zombies roam, but i lie, they aren't in the coalmine, but you don't really need to know too much. A bit of action, commentary, and some lore, good stuff. And remember disgruntled reader, it's only a device nothing more. Once the show is done, Christie walks in, and they begin to go over the Mark Tavers case. There is a lot of recriminations over Christi's attitude, but she has just been mugged my a ghost, and is very stressed over the constant threats to her life by means she's not used to, she's used to be shot at with bullets. To face the antisocial verbal and powered retorts of Jake Fastet has left her disgruntled. Rebbecca, who still desires to use her cover when confronted with her son, talks her down.

BLAH BLAH BLAH more good vibes, or machinations/exposition, and presto, we're ready to get to work, maybe. The end of the chapter is a little unclear, as they discuss each of the projects, we'll flash to the victims, and get a little endtimes mojo going. That's really all there is to it as i hobble towards the airport, and try to figure out who'll get there.

With the events of my last interlude, i've left myself a window to winnow some people out, not permanently, but just long enough to have a clear concise ending.

Let me just leave it with a few more words. Last night, I worked late for dinner and a movie, we saw Valentines Day. What a large, disorganized cast of characters, and I'm sitting there waiting for each of their storyline's to be tied up. That old friend paranoia stopped by, but i told him to get lost. As otherworldly as it may be, i still have a plot, no matter how many people are involved. Just not as many people that were in Valentine's Day. Who was the kind of rugged man? That was Ashton Kutchner. Oh, nevermind.

I'm done.