Tag: family

Rebellion

An explanation of the surprise Nichole walked into in the last post.  I’d tried to fit Joe into this as well, getting everyone together before things go to hell, but it didn’t work:  I had to keep the 3.5-way conversation as tight as possible, so his part came right back out.

We’re north of 43k words!  I knew Nichole would have a meeting with Mayor Johnson before she was seconded to the Nation.  Seeing here that his daughter – and possible successor, Teresa is present, I think the Army general, Tessmer, will be there, as well.  Four-way dynamics are easiest to write, and in my advanced years, I am all about easy!

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Whiskey

I’ve roughed out 900 words with Nichole, Bakke, and the chieftain.  But it’s late and I cannot begin to even make minor edits.  I’ll round it all out tomorrow evening.

I’ll be going dark for 36 hours after that as my family is off to Matsuricon, central Ohio’s 2nd largest animecon.  The panels look meh, but I’ll look awesome.

EA2

 

A Nasty Outbreak… of Plot!

I’ve left plenty of lampshades hanging, time to turn on the lights.  Should be no surprises for anyone following along; I don’t like surprising readers… I’d much rather have them get to the end of chapter (or entire book), put it down, and mutter, “never thought of it that way!”

Also:  when Teresa stood and said, “mess me up!” I broke out laughing.  I’ve no idea where that came from!  Hilarious!

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Doing Your Best

Some caffeine and alcohol in the afternoon helped me to lay down the rest of their dinner.  I’ve over 1k words beyond that, but it’s another day and back to political stuff with Teresa.  I hope to wrap it up tomorrow and then wait and see what comes next. I think there will be one more installment with Mac, followed by the POP back to ‘present’ of Nichole with the Nation on the move…

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Carbs are poison

They really are.  You can learn a lot from reading my stories.

Tired from DayJob but wanted to jot down the rest of the dinner scene before it leads into Mackenzie’s history.  The only problem is:  they’ve not shown me anything of her history!  I think the rest of her family is dead, but I’ve no real idea.  I got to the last line of the tiny entry of what’s below, walked away from the computer, loaded the dishwasher, made sure my clothes were ready for the morning… and:  nothing.

Tomorrow, depending on when my family returns, will be chaos.  I hope we can learn the name of Mackenzie’s brother, soon.

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Questioning Civic Orthodoxy

Taking to Americans, especially White Americans, about any form of government different than what we have now is a huge exercise in futility.  Europeans at least have a couple of thousand years playing about with nations and states.  Northeast Asia has had some clever mixes of despotism.  But here, it’s always “1776!” and “muh Constitution!”

It’s not just because I know history so well.  There are plenty of folks who know history better than I do but flinch as if shot when I suggest that our federal republic has outlived its usefulness.  I really think it has to do with family:  that fact that mine is so old and predates the Republic helps, but is not the only factor.  Still, having ancestors is a tremendous psychological cushion, as it were, when looking at our day to day crises.

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Silverfeet

As long-time readers know, if I “go dark” right in the middle of a narrative, it’s a bad attack of RealLife.  This was; again.  And, it was onto someone who does not deserve it:  God, the Fates… someone resents tf out of our naming our eldest dog Lucky Star.  At eight years old diagnosed with sarcoma; two nasal surgeries followed by radiation.

Now, less than six months later, his breathing becomes labored.  A week later, he is weak on his front legs.  Monday, he cannot walk.  Vet consult to consult to consult:  I shan’t bore you with details.  It might be a slipped cervical disc in his neck.  Anesthesia for an MRI/surgery has a good chance of killing him due to his congestive heart disease.  For  now, we’re throwing prednisone at the wall and hoping it sticks.

After eight hours in the vet ER Tuesday, I’m not really in the creative mode.  Fortunately, after my Lenten Exercises, it’s difficult to stop.  I was able to put together what’s below the fold over two days.  I’ve a quarter-page of hand-written notes about how to wrap up Part One.  My wife and girls are off to a major, but local, swim meet this weekend; we three old, dying, dogs shall sit about the house and eye one another.  I’ll type, too.  I appreciate everyone for putting up with me.  I’ll do better, soon.

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Friends and Allies

Chose the winning design for the cover of my next novel:  The Saga of Nichole 5:  Part 1 – Friend & Ally.  It still needs a little tweaking, so I shan’t roll it out quite yet.

In other news, I’m also getting back into the habit of writing.  I have to:  if I am about to publish a book called ‘Part 1’ I tanjed well better have a ‘Part 2’ lined up on deck and ready for launch.  Of course, I don’t.  Quite.

I hand-wrote about two pages of notes yesterday.  That’s something for a pantser such as myself.  Still, with all the RealWorld things I had to do about the house today, at least I was able to lay down a few words for Act I.

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Background;noise

Never really meant to go dark like that.  A few unrelated – that is, closely related – things happened at once I was left to manage them.

Firstly, the revised, re-edited, and re-covered edition of my first novel, “The Fourth Law,” is now loose in the wild!  I am once again thankful to my copyeditor for all her hard work.  In close relation to that…

At the suggestion of another writer, I am going to try serializing T4L on wattpad for a couple of weeks to see if it gets any traction.  So, if you’re too cheap to spring for the ninety-nine cents for the Kindle edition, and too lazy to post a review afterward, you can read along for free for at least another ten days.

While I was setting all that up, my copyeditor delivered the re-edit of “Echoes of Family Lost.”  I applied most of her recommendations – I’ll never say ‘Asian’ for ‘Oriental’! – and should have the physical proof copy of that in my hands tomorrow.  If all’s well, it shall be re-released by this weekend.

Not wanting her idle and, besides weekends, not having a day off since January, I made a four-day weekend out of this last.  I’ve been doing the work of 1.6 people since the end of December and I needed a tanjed break.  Besides sleeping until noon I also have nearly finished my editing pass of what was ‘Defiant’ and is now “The Saga of Nichole5:  Friend & Ally.”  I’ll need a cover for that so shall be setting up another campaign on 99designs in a couple of weeks.

Actual writing-wise, a year after I said I would I am finally typing out as much of the oral history of my father-in-law as I can recall, especially as regards his service in WWII and time in Hungary’s gulag.  Hopefully I can get all the basics complete in no more than three weeks… I still want to know more about Gary’s younger sister, Faustina.

So again, apologies.  I’ll try to do better in the coming days!