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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Retro 4/4

What do you get when you take CS Lewis’s ‘That Hideous Strength’ and cross it with… well… me?

You get Shadowlands.  Where quasi-human janissaries serve those dithering-fallen angels who could not make up their damned minds.

What happens if one of your overpowered agents wakes up… and turns on you?

Again, this is all here and there… take the walk to the pharmacy door of OTChi Kocchi.

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The Second Bridge, Coda, pt4

Question:  is there anyone, besides me, stupid enough to think that I would wrap things up tonight?  I really planned and wanted to.  It’s all in my head!  But it’s already 1.5L bottle of wine o’clock and tomorrow’s DayJob promises to be awful.

Part Five is it!  I swear!  Even if I have to wait three days and make it 10k words long!

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The Second Bridge, Coda, pt3

Ate dinner.  Put down 800 words.  No one else here.  Why the heck not keep going? So:  1200.

I’ll be wrapping all this up – well, sorta – in part 4.  Gary figures out what he wants to do with his life and we flick back to ‘present time’ with Lauren and Henge riding home after fishing.  I learned something very surprising about present-time Henge today!

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The Second Bridge, Coda, pt2

This is taking on a life of its own.  Just as most of my stories do.  I’m not letting myself get dragged into a discussion of biomechanics for pt3, so I’ll deal with that as quickly as I can.  Especially as I’ve heard Gary’s last words in the last scene.  I must return to the 2nd edition of Echoes of Family Lost and the copy-edit of The Saga of Nichole5.

I also must keep writing each day.  Tricky, that.

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The Second Bridge, Coda, pt1

I was just tooling around the keyboard, kinda thinking I’d write a story about Faustina.  I wrote two paragraphs.  Two days went by.  Nothing.  I looked at the third paragraph.

“I can turn this into a glimpse both into what happened after Henge was made, as well as a tinier glimpse eighteen months into her future.”

And…

“Who’s Lauren?”

I deleted the first two paragraphs and tried again.

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Empire’s Agent, pt.(7)

Back on track.  I re-re-read what I’d re-read yesterday.  I’m just a middle-aged hack, but FFS, that was awful!  Was I really drunk enough to write that?

I didn’t even bother editing it:  deleted.  Let’s try again.  Sure:  dashing Arpad is something of a player; nothing at all wrong with that.  Has he a history?  Well, lookie here…!

[Personal aside:  thought about this all morning.  Left phone upstairs in pharmacy while I went to eat lunch in ground floor cafeteria.  Rather than troll news sites, I spent the next forty-ish minutes thinking about this story.  Bits.  Pieces.  Glimpses.  Pic…

What?  Oh:  “picnic.”  My imagination opened like a carpet.  Arpad owes Lily a lunch at her hospital, but after that… they’re going to go on a little date… how, why, where… don’t bother me:  I’m writing!]

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The Second Bridge, pt.11

Wow.  All this in five hours.  Sorry, folks, I’m taking tomorrow off or else I’m dead.

I’m hoping to see something that takes me off in a new direxion tomorrow.  11k words here is, I think, enough.  I am SO HAPPY things ended up where they are.  Sure:  I can go full Will Deonne and have Henge’s nanomaterials disassociate her into a drift of sand on the floor, but I don’t think I will.

Sweet Jesus:  what will their children be like?!

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