Well, 11 days really but that's just being picky.

I set up some rules for myself for 2009. Not resolutions, which everyone expects to break anyway. I prefer to call them rules. I am following them with varied success. I'm writing them down here because it can be useful for someone besides myself to know what I'm supposed to be doing.

Rule 1: No elevator at work. This is in lieu of a rule stating that I would go to the gym more often. January is not the time to make a rule which requires driving somewhere in Iowa. It is much too easy to wimp out every time it snows. So instead I have ruled out the elevator at work. Two breaks a day, plus lunch, I must go up two floors to the break room. It's not a huge increase in exercise, but it's a start.
How am I doing? I only took the elevator once this week, because I forgot until after the doors closed.

Rule 2: No pop at work. Part health related, part money related. I buy two liters instead, and have a small cup before I go to work for my morning caffeine. A two liter costs maybe 30-40 cents more than a 20 oz, and I drink less per day this way. I really need to add in a bit about drinking more water instead, but I'm trying not to overdo things here. Maybe next year.
How am I doing? I believe I bought a can, one 20 oz and a 24 oz fountain drink at the cafeteria. I'm easing out of this one slowly. In my defense, I hardly slept any night last week and was having allergy problems so I really needed the caffeine.

Rule 3: I will spend at least 15 minutes a day cleaning. In theory this will eventually get the house clean and maintain it at a reasonable degree.
How am I doing? Well, I started last Saturday officially, because as a procrastinator starting on the first wasn't going to work for me. I failed on Mon, Wed and Fri. I didn't really time myself Thurs and Sat but I think I was about right. I'll clean both bathrooms before I go to bed tonight and try to stay on track this week.

Rule 4: I will spend at least an hour of my time writing. It doesn't matter what I write, I just need to improve my ability. I am not expecting to finish the third draft of my novel this year. My primary goal is to get in the habit of writing every day and to get better at crafting scenes so that when I do settle in to really take a crack at the third draft I will be a better writer. That's the plan.
How am I doing? I'm not. When have I ever succeeded at a writing goal other than a hard deadline? One thing I am trying to do is buy a used laptop from a former coworker so I can do my writing on a computer that is not hooked up to the internet. Maybe that will help. Anyway, I think I'm going to have to work my way into this one. I don't appear to have jumped in feet first.

Rule 5: I will do other things that will lead to improvements in my life. This one is pretty open. It involves going out to more social occasions so I can meet more people, make new friends and maybe start dating. It involves finding a new job, or at least deciding on a career path and getting some training so I can eventually do something outside of customer service. And we'll see what else comes up.
How am I doing? I have been very social so far this year. And I've looked around at job sites, though I haven't found anything. The nice thing about this one is that it's vague so as long as I put some effort in I'm succeeding.

Now I just have to get effort into the writing thing. Is it really that hard? No, it's just the most important goal, which makes it the hardest to focus on. Anyway, we'll see how this week goes.

Hello out there. I have decided that I need to get in the habit of posting on here more often. So starting today I'm going to post at least every weekend. Until I stop.

Today was a holiday-themed day. I went grocery shopping and picked up a turkey for Thanksgiving. With minimal effort I managed to find a free range turkey. This made me happy, and took so little effort that I think I'm going to try to buy free range meat as much as possible from now on. I can also get eggs from free range chickens at the same grocery store. And chicken broth. So this is going in a good direction.

Then I opened up the Christmas tree that I bought from the university surplus store when I first bought my house. I never opened it at the time. Probably should have, as it seems to be missing the trunk. I wasn't planning on putting it up until after Thanksgiving anyway, but I'm glad I at least looked at it today. It would have been very annoying to discover this the day I wanted to put it up. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about it yet. I only paid ten dollars for it so I can't really complain too much.

So, some good, some bad. I'm looking forward to decorating for Christmas this year. I never had much room in the apartment. I can't really put lights up outside because a) I don't have a ladder and b) the only outdoor plug that would work is on the wrong side of the house for putting stuff up around the porch. I have a feeling that would be cold anyway. I think I'm going to put an unlit garland around the porch railing and call it good. Oh, the incomplete Christmas tree did come with a bonus few strands of white lights so I probably got $10 worth there. So I have plenty in the lights department. Just need something to hang them on that actually stands up.

I'm actually writing something. Anyone still paying attention?

Note: this entry should be read after the two immediately below it.

The group settled down to spend an uneventful night under the stars before making their way home the next day. However, as mere characters, they did not control the pacing of the story. And so it was that they were awoken, quite rudely, in the middle of the night by an earth shaking arrival.
"Fee, fie foe, fum, I know that rotten thief is around here somewhere!" cried a booming voice. Karah had never been much of a poet. Fortunately she had pretty good eyesight, and didn't step on the campfire, or any of those who had been sleeping around it. Instead she stood over them with her arms crossed and grunted unattractively. "Where is he?" she demanded.
"I don't know who you're looking for," Princess Maine said sleepily, "but the prince who stole your kingdom is in that castle inside the lake of formerly frozen fire."
Louie smiled gratefully at her, though she didn't know why. He sidled over to Rover and slipped a vial into the man's coat pocket. Unpicking a pocket was a little harder than picking one, but self preservation drove him to manage it skillfully. If the giant did recognize him, he figured, he could always point out that he had given it to a prince, which was her intention anyway. She was, however, distracted from such concerns.
"He's here? Well...he's a tiny little thing isn't he?"
"Probably smaller than I," Vermont offered, though he had no idea what was going on. It seemed to be the right answer, for the giant's face broke out into a grin.
"This might be fun," she said with a chuckle, and immediately strode off to the castle.
The little group looked at each other in various states of confusion and sleepiness, but they soon came to the unanimous and silent conclusion that whatever was about to happen back at the castle was going to be worth seeing. They hurried after the giant, coming to a stop at the edge of the woods, where they still might be hidden from any eyes in the castle. Not that the people in the castle could possibly have been looking at anything other than Karah at that moment. Her huge form blocked out most of the stars, and her features were eerily lit by the flickering purple fire from the lake. The flames barely came up to her ankles.
"This is nothing," she said with a snort. She stamped out a path to the castle with her massive feet, leaving sooty water in her wake. That made no sense at all, but after everything else they'd experienced, none of the observers in the woods gave it much thought. They watched as she neared the castle, reached forward, and snapped off the highest tower.
"Come out and face me, Rufus!" she called, smashing another tower.
"Oh my, is that who I think it is?" Rover asked.
"The princess your brother's wizard enchanted, yes," Maine told him.
"Princess Karah? I haven't seen her since her transformation. It's quite...complete. I think I need a drink." He reached into his pocket for a flask, but pulled out the vial Louie had put there instead. Without noticing this, he drank a good deal, his eyes still on the rampaging giantess. And indeed, it was a love potion. "I declare," he said boldly, "I must have this stunning creature for my wife."
It was not the most opportune moment for the spell to be broken. Holding two broken towers in her hands, suddenly Karah began to shrink. She had to drop the huge chunks of masonry and run before they crushed her. She slogged back through the lake, which was fortunately rather shallow even for a normally sized person, pursued by the witch's guards.
"I will save you, my love," Rover cried, and ran towards her.
The others, their cover blown as he emerged from the forest, decided they might as well help. Brandishing whatever weapons they happened to have been carrying with them the whole time but never previously mentioned and somehow were not removed by the guards when they were thrown in the dungeon, they rushed forward to meet the guards and the fleeing princess. They all met at the shore of the lake, conveniently, and battle ensued.
Fortunately, Rover actually did have some ability as a sorcerer, and gave the guards a difficult time. This was especially good for Gus, who didn't really want to fight other guards, and thought a few of them looked familiar from guard school. Someday he'd pull out his old yearbook and confirm that, but at the moment he was just glad the sorcerer's magic was keeping most of them at bay.
After several minutes, Prince Rufus himself emerged from the castle, along with the potato witch. Rover was no match for the witch, and she quickly overcame his defenses. Now the small party was at a disadvantage, and they were pushed back towards the trees. Conveniently, that's where most of them wanted to go, and more than one turned and ran. But Gus knew he could not run. The witch would find him someday. His only option was to finish this now. Karah also hated to run. Face to face with the man who had ruined her life, she wanted to fight. But at her normal size, she was a chicken. So she passed off her weapon to Princess Maine and disappeared into the darkness.
Maine looked down at the object in her hand and smiled. As the witch drew closer to Gus, the princess circled around behind her. Powerful the witch might be, but she was no match for a potato peeler wielded by a woman in love. In a struggle that was remarkably anticlimactic, the witch was reduced to a pile of starchy ribbons in moments.
Prince Rufus gaped, and ran back towards the castle as fast as his horse could carry him. The guards followed. The sun began to rise as Gus and Maine embraced, and Rover took off into the woods to find his new beloved. Elsewhere in the forest, Louie and Daphne found themselves in the fleeing company of Vermont and King Brage. As the witch's screams faded behind them, they slowed.
"So," Vermont said. "That was an adventure."
"Yes it was," said the king. He turned to Daphne. "You're not a princess are you?" he asked.
"No," she said. "I'm the messenger of the Ruby Holiness. What were you saying about a long-lost brother earlier?"
"Just that I have one," the king said. "He disappeared as a child. He was hit in the head by a practice sword, got amnesia and wandered off. Never knew what happened to him. Always figured he would show back up someday and show off his fancy birthmark and take back the kingdom."
"What kind of fancy birthmark?" Louie asked oddly.
"He has one shaped like a crown on the middle of his stomach," the king said.
Louie turned pale. "Like this?" he asked, pulling up his shirt to reveal just such a mark above his belly button.
"Oh drat," said the king. "What were all those years in king school for if you're just going to show up now?"
"Well," Louie said, "for enough money I might be willing to disappear again."
"That would be most convenient. As soon as we get home you can have all the money you want. As long as you promise to run off into the countryside and never come back."
"Agreed," Louie said with a grin. He turned to Daphne. "Want to run off with me?" he asked.
"What do you think this is," she asked, "a fairy tale?"

The End

Thanks for playing along, and putting up with my delays. AT long last it is finished. Hope you enjoyed it!

Note: This entry should be read after the one directly below.

The various members of royalty, and the carriage driver, looked at each other with expressions of indecision. King Brage thought, being a king instead of merely a prince or princess, he should take the lead. He had no idea what to do, of course, but that had never bothered him before. He had taken courses on faking confidence in king school, and had gotten his highest marks there.
"I think we should head down this hallway," he declared. "We should find the good guard, and then return here with him."
Everyone nodded. It was a good plan. He began to lead the way, pausing when they reached the end of the hall. Another ran perpendicular to it. Both directions looked identical.
"My brother is here," Rover announced while they pondered which direction to go.
"How do you know?" King Brage asked.
"His presence always gives me a headache," the prince replied. "It's worse on the left side."
"Then we go left," Princess Maine decided. "Rufus is allied with the witch, so she's probably that way also."
King Brage didn't like someone else taking the decision making away from him, but he remembered the princess as something of a difficult woman, so he did not argue. The followed the hallway to the left. More decisions about direction had to be made, and they continued following Rover's headache. Eventually they stopped at a wooden door.
"Rufus is definitely in there," Rover declared.
"But is Gus in there also?" the king asked.
"No," said a raspy voice behind the group. "Gus is in the dungeon. I'm going to kill him later. Nice of you all to stop by, so you can die with him."
They turned, and saw several guards surrounding a frightening woman. She was the color of a red potato skin, and instead of two eyes on her head she had several, scattered somewhat randomly around her body. Despite her strangeness, no one stared at her very long, as they were all busy being detained by the guards. Before any of them could think of a response, they found themselves locked in the dungeon. Princess Maine was quick to discover that they were locked in the same cell with Gus.
"Gus!" she squealed and threw her arms around him. "I'm so glad we found you!"
Gus looked less than pleased. He looked positively depressed. Which did not surprise King Brage, considering they were all going to die. He was a bit depressed about that himself.
The one person who did not seem unhappy was the thief. He grinned at Gus, and pulled the orange marker out of his bag.
"Would you like to do the honors?" he asked the guard.
Gus smiled back. "Of course," he said. He took the marker and unexpectedly drew a large circle on the floor. "I've been hearing some interesting noises down there," he said, smiling at Daphne.
He pulled open the trapdoor he had created, and they all peered down into the room below. A loud meow echeod up to them.
"Orville?" Daphne asked. "How did he get down there?"
"Doesn't much matter, does it?" Louie asked. "The real question is, will he help us get out?"
Daphne jumped lightly down and landed on the large animal's back. She whispered in his ear for a while. Eventually she called back up to the others.
"He'll carry us all, but only to the edge of the lake. But he can't go quickly, all together we'll be too heavy for that."
They all lowered themselves down one by one, and climbed up on the cat's back. Slowly Orville took them through underground tunnels, eventually coming out into the night. They all climbed down with relief, and searched for a camping spot out of sight of the castle.
Once they had settled down around a campfire, Prince Vermont turned to Gus. "Why does this witch want to kill us?" he asked.
"I don't know about the rest of you," Gus said honestly, "but she's after me because I'm a potato prince."
Vermont's eyes lit up. "A potato prince! Astounding! But you know you can't ever rule."
"Not if the witch kills me."
"No, not at all. There's no such thing as a potato king. There can only be a queen. Which will be convenient for my sister, should your relationship work out."
Gus blushed. "Well, that is convenient," he said. "I never went to king school, so I doubt I'd be any good at it."
"Then you do intend to marry my sister?"
"Um..."
"Of course he does, don't you Gus?" Maine asked.
"Sure, if you want to be a potato queen."
"I'd like nothing more."
King Brage sighed. "Now I'm short a guard and a princess," he muttered. "All I need now is for my long lost brother to show up and claim the throne.

Will the group escape the potato witch? Will the king's long lost brother be found? Will they ever find their way home? Find out on Halloween night! I know I promised tonight, but Halloween is so much cooler. And we're almost there.

"Daphne, what do you think we should do now?" Louie asked softly, so the others couldn't hear.
Daphne thought a moment before answering. "I'm kind of curious how things are going to turn out with this potato witch."
"Sticking around might be dangerous."
"So might leaving,in this forest. At least with this company there's a chance someone knows how to get home."
Louie wasn't so sure, given his experiences with members of this company, but he had to admit he had no idea where they were himself. Well, except that they were clearly beside the lake of previously frozen fire than surrounded the potato witch's castle. It was getting a bit warm.

"So what is your plan?" Rover was asking Princess Maine, which Louie thought was a very good question.
"We need to get into that castle," she replied. "We must rescue Gus, and if necessary fight the potato witch ourselves."
"An excellent adventure!" Prince Vermont cried. "But how are we to achieve this goal?"
"Are there any caves nearby?" Daphne asked.
"Yes, in fact," King Brage said. "We stopped at one yesterday. We didn't explore it, because of the horse."
"What horse?"
"There was a red horse figure painted on the walls. I happen to know that's the symbol of a very dangerous gang of thieves, so we avoided them by leaving the area."
"Show me this cave," Daphne insisted.

Daphne had a way of giving orders that made them hard to ignore, even for a king. It took only a few minutes to reach the opening. Louie thought he knew what that meant.
"So close to the castle, it must provide a way in!" he exclaimed.
"Wonderful!" Princess Maine exclaimed, and started into the darkness. "Let's go get Gus."
Daphne hurried to catch up with her. "Better let me go first, Your Highness."
"Why?"
"Thieves, remember? They'd love to get their hands on royalty. Let the...peasants go ahead and make sure it's safe."
The princess complied, and Louie and Daphne led the way. Louie found a candle in his bag, which helped them navigate the darkness. They entered a large cavern which was empty except for a very few dusty gold coins.
"The gang must have left the area some time ago," Daphne said. "They'd never let the coins get dusty if they were here. These must have fallen from their treasure as they left."

Louie nodded and picked up the coins, slipping them into his bag. They moved through the cavern quickly. Daphne chose a side exit, and led them down the twisting trails as though she knew exactly where she was going. Years of living in caves must have given her a heightened sense of direction underground, or she was really good at faking it. Either way, eventually she led them to a dead end.
"Now what?" the princess asked.
Louie spotted something behind a rock. "Aha!" he cried. "An orange marker!"
He quickly drew a door on the rock wall, and opened it to reveal a long dark hallway on the other side, with stone walls lit at intervals with torches. The entire party hurried through, closing their dorr behind them. Louie put the marker into his bag.
"Never know when that will come in handy again," Daphne said with a smile. "Okay," she turned to the others, "we got us here. Now it's your turn to come up with a plan."

Hi there. I know I don't post much, but I'm here to make an update. Mostly to let you know what's going to be going on for the next couple months. I'm planning on taking the time during the month of October to improve my writing abilities, focusing on quality rather than quantity of words. So for the next month I'll be trying various exercises and working on scenes from things other than the novel, as well as the chapter of the novel that I've been stuck on for a while. This will include the final few installations of the saga of Louie and Gus and friends, and hopefully that will be satisfactory. There will most likely be no more choices for readers to make, so that I can work to the ending. I may post the results of other writing exercises here also if they're worth sharing. Then in November I'm going to get with the spirit of National Novel Writing Month, and finish the novel by Christmas. Then I'm putting it aside to work on another one before I go for the third draft, so I don't get bored.

Other than that, not much to report. The cats are doing well. Eowyn even graduated to Purina One for sensitive stomachs, so I don't have to pay for prescription food anymore. Work is busy but hopefully will get better soon. How are you all doing?

"Well," Louie said to Erastus Smith, "what is your idea?"
"We must establish a link with the world outside."
"Anyone in particular?"
"Family members are easiest."
"I don't have family."
"I have several sons, and the princess has a brother. We will try for one of them."
"And how do we establish this link?" the unknown wizard asked skeptically.
"We have to meditate. Everyone empty your minds and think of nothing."

Louie tried to comply. He breathed deeply a few times and realized he was thinking about his breathing. Then his mind wandered to what Daphne might be thinking, and then he realized she was probably thinking of nothing like he was supposed to be. By that time his feet hurt and that was distracting. He heard the carriage driver say a few words in a language he didn't understand. Suddenly an image of King Brage wandering through the woods appeared in his mind. That was odd.

"Did anyone see a relative?" Erastus asked.
"I saw my brother," the princess answered immediately. "He looked lost."
"We must guide him then," Erastus said. "Do what I do, and when I say the words again, he should be drawn to us."

The carriage driver led the princess through a complex set of maneuvers, including standing on one foot and tapping her nose and crossing her eyes, individually and altogether, which Louie felt certain had to be some kind of joke. But when Erastus repeated the nonsense words he had said earlier, the room let off a satisfied hum. It lasted a few moments, and then it was gone. Nothing else happened.

"Well, that was effective," the strange wizard said sarcastically. "Can you only get one note, or if you stood on your head would it hum a tune?"

"Now we wait," Erastus said.
"Who are you anyway?" the princess demanded.
"I believe my name was Prince Rover."
"Rover?" Daphne asked with a snicker.
"My father was very fond of his hunting dogs, and named us after them. We didn't mind. They were good dogs."
"Wait, then do you have a brother named Rufus?" the princess asked.
Prince Rover sighed. "Indeed I do, if his scheming ways have not led to his death by now."
"I don't think they have," she told him.
"Really? Is he your enemy then? That would make sense. I think he's the reason I'm in here, anyway."
"I believe he has a sorcerer working with him who's related to the potato witch, and she's probably the one who put us here."
"Amazing. So we should be allies. Say, is anyone else feeling warm?"

Louie was sweating heavily all of a sudden, so he nodded. Then he looked as Daphne pointed to one of the walls. It was melting. Flickering light could be seen through the thinning surface.

"What is your brother doing?" Daphne asked the princess.
"How should I know? It was his ritual." She pointed at Erastus accusingly.
The carriage driver remained calm. "We must stand close together, link arms, and sing," he said.

That sounded ridiculous to Louie, but everyone else was doing it so he linked one arm with Daphne and the other with Prince Rover and sang along as Erastus led them in a rousing version of kumbaya. The smell of roasting marshmellows filled the air as the walls melted around them. Louie was not sure why the walls should smell like that way, exactly, but then he saw two men holding sticks into the flames that were now visible, and realized that marshmellows were indeed present.

The men were quite startled at the appearance of people within the flames, and backed away in surprise. Erastus spoke some more words, and the group began to float towards the men. It was a good thing, too, because they had begun to sink into the water that was below the flames. They floated through the flames without harm, landing on the bank. Only then did Louie recognize one of the men as the king.

"Vermont!" cried the princess, obviously recognizing the other man and giving him a big hug. "You saved us!"
"I did? Well, that's wonderful! But really all I did was knock on the door of that castle there, to ask if they'd seen you. This was a lake of frozen fire at the time, but, well, it thawed."
"Rather suddenly," the king broke in. "We got a bit singed, and then we didn't know what to do so we stopped for a snack."
"Well, melting the fire was the right thing to do, and you saved us," the princess insisted.

Louie found the reunion heartwarming and all, but having survived he really wanted to get going. Preferably to somewhere with no magic, or fire, and a lot of money. But his curiosity threatened to get the better of him. He tried to deny it, but it called to him like a hungry cat who wanted breakfast.

Should he:

a) Get out of there as quickly as possible,
b) Stay and help find Gus, or
c) Ask Daphne what she wants to do?

Writing every day does work. The only way to get done is just to do it. I always thought these sounded like oversimplified answers from people who didn't have a natural tendency towards laziness to contend with. Turns out it's the truth. It's just a truth you don't realize until you've done it.

In honor of the fact that I didn't give Karen anything for her birthday last week, I am offering her this gift instead. And the rest of you get to benefit to. After an extremely long hiatus, they are back! And now, without further ado...

"Where are we?"
"Somewhere dark."
"Daphne?"
"Yes. And you are Louie. I hope that’s your hand, but even if it is you’d do well to move it before you die. But it is still dark."
"Very."
"Does this help?"
A tiny spot of light appeared, and illuminated the face of a frightened princess. "Has anyone seen Gus?" she asked.
“Gus?”
“The guard,” Louie explained to Daphne. “Let me think. There was a lake, and pirates, and a dead monster…”
“That all feels like a very long time ago,” Daphne interrupted. “Where have we been?”
“Somewhere outside of time,” a voice said. A man moved into view wearing a standard issue carriage driver uniform. The princess shook her head at him.
“That’s not very specific, Erastus,” she said.
“Indeed,” came another strange voice. And suddenly there was light. Lots of it, in a variety of colors and seeming to come from all directions. In the midst of this disorienting display, Louie tried to get a better understanding of his surroundings. They seemed to be in a very large room made of stone. “They” consisted of himself, Daphne, the princess, the carriage driver, and Wolfette. The man who had just spoken was coming towards them, and the flashing beams of light that filled the room seemed to originate with him. That made his features hard to discern, but Louie could see that he was tall, thin and dressed in black robes.
“Mimomumamer?” the princess murmured.
“What?” Daphne whispered back.
“We’ll find out soon, I suppose,” the princess said without answering, and stood to greet the man. Daphne and Louie stood behind her.
“Welcome to nowhere,” the man said as he came close enough for them to see his face. It was nothing remarkable, as far as faces were concerned. “You have been in limbo for what might have been a year, or only moments. One cannot tell in this place. I should know, I’ve been stuck here for… well, I don’t know how long, which is the point. But much longer than you have.”
“How did we get here?” the princess asked.
“Probably by magic. You don’t have any enemies with powerful magic do you?”
“Well, Gus did make the nymph angry, but then she agreed to help him…” Louie couldn’t remember much else.
“He was going after the potato witch,” the princess said. “Could she have done this?”
“He fought the potato witch, don’t ye remember?” Wolfette chimed in, speaking for the first time since everyone had awoken, or whatever it was they had done a few minutes before when they first started speaking. Louie didn’t remember waking up, but he didn’t remember anything from directly beforehand either. It was rather disorienting, like being part of a story that had been abandoned for a while and then picked back up in a non-contiguous spot. They all turned to the pirate, who seemed to recall things that the others did not.
“I’m sure I would remember that,” the princess protested. “Any danger to my Gus would be hard to forget.”
“But I was there,” Wolfette said. “Gus headed off for the lake of frozen fire, and the captain figured this would make a great story so he offered him the services of our ship to cross our lake and go on his way. We were going to drop you all off at the shore to go looking for the witch, but as soon as we dropped anchor there she was, screeching her threats at us. The guard jumped into a boat right away and headed for her… and come to think of it that’s all I remember.”
“Gus could be in danger! We have to help him!”
“How do we get out of here?” Louie asked the man. Not that he was eager to face the potato witch himself, but the area they were in had a limited appeal, and no visible exits.
“If I knew that, would I still be here?” the stranger grumbled. “Though I think there is one ritual we might try, that requires a group of people working together, and a feather.”
“If we are trapped within an item of magic, some rituals could be extremely dangerous,” the carriage driver spoke up. “We can only escape such an item by forging a link with someone outside.”
“When did you become an expert?” the princess asked him.
“I don’t know. Suddenly I have an infinite supply of knowledge about magic and magical items. Some of it doesn’t even make sense. There’s information floating around about how to make a necklace that will be useful for a tengrem, and I don’t even know what a tengrem is. And there’s something about an inter-dimensional castle. Nonetheless, I am certain that we must proceed carefully, because something about this place makes me think we are inside something.”
“Well, I’ve been a wizard for…at least as long as I’ve been in here, which is an admittedly undetermined amount of time, and I’m pretty sure this ritual will work.”
“If we’re inside something, can’t we just break it?” Daphne asked, kicking at the floor.
“No! We have to forge a link!”
“No! We have to have a ritual!”
For some reason, everyone looked at Louie. He did not know why, and understanding the complex reasons why everything always comes down to the decision of the main character would not have helped him anyway. What should he do?

1) The strange wizard's ritual,
2) Whatever Erastus Smith's newfound knowledge suggests, or
3) Avoid magic and try the physical escape method Daphne suggests.

Current Mood: chipper

Is it too much to have a werewolf on a space pirate crew?

Bearing in mind that this is pure space opera, and is making no real attempt to be anything other than entertaining, of course. Couldn't be a standard werewolf, as the whole moon thing would be awkward during intergalactic travel. Maybe I'll make him some kind of half-alien instead, with regenerative abilities and possibly some shapeshifting. It is sci-fi, there can be aliens.

I seem to be embracing older cliches, while trying to stay away from any Firefly similarities. I think I need a robot.

I decided to attempt to write a short story about space pirates. It goes well for a few paragraphs, and then I get stuck on terminology. I've never written anything that was set in a spaceship before. I keep seeing Serenity in my head. I want to try and get the ideas down first, but I keep getting hung up on this. Anyone know where I can find some good generic terms for parts of a spaceship, and futuristic weapons? I can always flesh out the technology of this universe later if I decide the story is worth revising.

Cause it's talk like a pirate day, but my cold prevents me from being any more creative than that.

Yo ho and a bottle of rum, and all that!

Best not to pretend I'm going to update regularly. I'll just go for occasionally.

I have hit a major stall in chapter 4. I'm not sure what it is. G's starting to get out and explore the city today, which is a different point of view than the way it was originally written, but it's still not going all that fast.

In other news I may be catching a coworker's cold. I'm trying not to. Flonase does help, at least with nasal symptoms. I'm not entirely sure it isn't allergies anyway. I think it may be time to fill that Singulair prescription. I'm supposed to be testing its effectiveness on my allergies, but since allergy season has been over since the end of June I haven't bothered paying for it.

I have a myspace account now, for anyone who is interested. Likely it will be devoid of content for a while longer, but it does at least have a picture of me as a blonde. This picture is about 8 years old, and really should be updated.

I don't suppose there is any other news. I work, I sleep, I eat, I write (or at least pretend to), I Sim, I browse the internet, I take long walks, I take care of cats, I roleplay on occasion... that's pretty much my life.

So, about that updating concept...

Well, I took a bit of a break from writing while my friend Beth was in town, but I have finished the second draft of the first two chapters. They are far from perfect, but my idea for this second draft is to make the major story edits, and go back and clean up some of the details later. So they are good enough. Single spaced, the first chapter is 15 pages, and the second is 11.

Chapter 3 opens with a funeral. I'll get to that tomorrow.

That was a nice idea, but not going to happen.

Still, I do have progress to announce. I'm past 4700 words. I wanted to finish chapter 1 by last night, but didn't. I did have my roommate read over it and gove feedback, and edited the first three scenes of the chapter with her feedback and my own concerns in mind. Now I'm working on the fourth scene, which is a cross between an entirely new scene, and something that occurred much later in the story last time. I need to figure out what the changes are going to be. First of all, the characters are approaching the setting from a different direction. In fact, the entire thing is in a different location geographically, though still within a gypsy-like camp. I got the physical description in, as they approached. Now I'm stuck getting into the action. One of the characters isn't present this time, because he's introduced later in the book, so the dialogue will have to be entirely redone. I imagine the dancing bit will still be in there. Maybe I should skip to that.

Anyway, chapter one by the end of this week without fail!

Current Mood: optimistic
Current Music: Willow soundtrack

As of today I'm past the 3,000 word mark. Yay! F. and I. are traveling together. I'm adapting a scene that used to be much later in the book and moving it up to join with the one I'm currently working on. It will be much altered, but at least not totally new, so I'm expecting that part to go pretty quickly. But first I have to get there. And I have to decide how much I. is going to say along the way.

After the moved and altered caravan scene, there may or may not be a new scene with A. at the end of chapter one. Chapter two will open with the scene that introduces E. which will be revised, not rewritten. Then I'm not sure about G. He and I will have a talk about it.

My characters and I have been having some good chats this week. They think I'm crazy, but they tell me useful things anyway. I realize I must be careful who I tell about this.

I have managed to get the second draft past the 2,000 word mark, and almost through the fourth page. This is all new stuff, as I've drastically changed the beginning. Once I get to what will probably be the second chapter, I can pull in scenes from the first draft that simply need to be altered rather than completely rewritten. Meanwhile, I've got a couple more short scenes in what I am for the moment calling chapter one. It looks like Chapter One will be almost entirely from F's point of view. Then Chapter Two would introduce three more characters, all from their own point of view. Although it's possible that A's first scene will actually be a new one that ends Chapter one. It has always bothered me that even in the last draft the first few scenes are all about F, and then suddenly the POV starts changing every scene. Would that bother you, as readers? The structure and order of scenes may be changing a lot anyway, but I'm just curious.

Anyway, stuff's getting done. And it's actually kinda fun.

Well, I just had a major breakthrough in story editing. It will completely change the first few scenes. Well, not so completely, as the tavern and two of the characters involved will be very similar. But I think this might be enough inspiration to get the first scene done. I'll let yu know tomorrow.