GreymatterIdeas

It is December 12th and I just finished the initial edits that were required prior to letting anyone else read the book. It’s taken this long mostly because I have been busy with another book project. This one requires actual research, so it will NOT be written in one month.
Overall, I’m pretty pleased with my efforts for this year’s NanoWrimo. I turned out a very passable manuscript. It, like any other diamond in the rough, needs a little polishing, shaping and cutting to make it shine. The only problem is, sometimes, you cut and shape and polish, but if it’s nothing but a big turd, you just have a shiny turd. Thankfully, this isn’t the case.
I have three people reading it, who will give me honest feedback and we’ll go from there.

See you next year…hopefully at a book signing near you!

I’m DONE!

50,097 words in 26 days! WOOHOO! I’ve only waited TWO years to be able to do this.

Of course, I haven’t read it yet, so it could be complete crap. Then again, it could be the greatest thing in the fiction world since Gutenburg invented the printing press. I’m betting on somewhere in the middle. I have to tell you, it’s been quite a wild ride. The first 10-12 thousand words flew right by. The story practically wrote itself. Once I got inthe 20’s though, it really started to drag…a lot. It was a chore to get to the thirty thousands.

The sad thing was, I had a rough idea of what was going to happen and about when it would happen in the book. The coolest thing about the experience, though, was the little surprises along the way. Things that just happened. My ending, for example. It is NOTHING like what I envisioned. But I like it (and not just because it’s done and over with.) It helps set up next year’s book quite nicely.

Yes, I will do this insanity again next year. Some of the things that worked well: headphones with music on or mindless things like Ice Hockey (regular TV or Movies didn’t work, because I wound up watching more than writing), writing in thousand word segments instead of 1667 word segments, writing once in the morning, then again one more time at night, writing multiple sessions on the weekend days (that really helped a lot).

Probably the best part about winning: NOT having to write anything tonight. The fact that it’s finished, for better or for worse, is VERY comforting. It was a lot of fun, but make no mistake, it was a TON of work to pull it off. At least now I can focus on other aspects of my life. I may edit it in January, or not. It’s done and I’m pretty happy with it, and THAT is really all that’s important…

To my brothers and sisters still slaving away at the word count…GO, GO, GO

To Diz, who turned me on to this crazy project…my eternal gratitude…I have a new title to add to the others that I possess…and that is, “Author”

This has been a very interesting challenge so far. I’ve hit some low points, where I was just spinning my wheels, adding words and dialogue just to increase the word count. On the other hand, I’ve had situations just fall into my lap. Things occurred that I just didn’t see coming. The good news is that I am currently at 41, 197 words. I will have two more writing sessions today and that should put me at around 43 thousand words. Another thousand on Monday and another thousand on Tuesday. That only leaves five thousand more words to cross the finish line by the time I go home for Thanksgiving on Wednesday.

In a way, I’ll be glad when this is over. It’s a lot to do in one month. I know that my wife will be glad when it’s over. Not so much the drain on quality time, but more the “I’ll finally shut up about how far ahead (or behind) I am.” factor. On the whole, it’s not too bad for a first draft. I’m planning on taking a month off from writing then start the editing process. At least I don’t have to do a lot of exposition on certain events; although, there were some that I thought I could go back and expand on, but wanted to preserve the rough draft.

Anyway, here’s looking at winning a competition that I have only waited TWO years to compete in to the end.

Cheers…

So here it is…day 16 of this crazy adventure. It’s a little harder than I thought it would be. The good news is that the book is going pretty well, the characters have developed nicely and I’ve hit the story’s conflict. I have one more portion to the arc where I reveal a secret, but you’ll have to read the book to find out. I finally (today) came up with a title. Unless I change my mind, it’s officially called “The Family Business”. That was actually the hardest part to this. Last years submission was easy. The title was the basic premise of the book. By the way, for the literary nerds among us, I have tied this book to last years book. Next years book will be tied to the 2008 NanoWrimo submission.
Finding time to do this hasn’t been that difficult. I usually put the headphones on watch something on Tivo- usually Ice Hockey. I don;’t know what I’ll do tomorrow, though. I’m on the last game (I had 9 at one point) that’s saved on the Tivo.
The other hard part about this is when you hit in the 20 thousand word section. The story becomes a little sluggish, you are trying to wrap up some character development so that you can get to the story arc, and you’re starting to think that this wasn’t the brightest thing you’ve ever done. My internal editor is still on vacation, so at least, I don’t think that it’s complete crap as well.
One of the things making it bearable is that I’m breaking up the writing day into several sessions- I try to write about 1000 words in each session, rather than doing a single marathon session lasting several hours. Each one of my small sessions takes about an hour, so from an ergonomic standpoint, that’s actually good. My stopping points occur at about the time I would need a break anyway. It still doesn’t help though. My wrists were still hurting yesterday, but I had to catch up. I went from a very early lead to being at least two days behind. You can see it it in my author profile, if you look at my stats. All of this from taking a single day off.
Anyway, I need to take a break from writing period, soi I’m going outside and playing ball with the dog.

Cheers

BEEP BEEP BEEP
The following is a test of the “Nanowrimo 2008 challenge update”.

The story line is going well, the word count is up by almost a full day (currently 13,133 words out of 50,000 in thirty days), and I have developed some different facets of my main character. All in all, life is pretty good. I know that I will finish it this year, and I have high hopes that I wil be finished before I leave for my mother’s house for Thanksgiving. I realize that that is a full three days work of writing, which is 5001 words, but if I can get ahead again this weekend, like when I started this project, then it is very possible. On the plus side, I have surpassed where I was last year by a little over 2500 words. I am official more than 1/4 done with my second novel attempt.
My work process is as follows: Put on something in the headphones or watch something on Hulu.com for background noise (music in the headphones works better) and write. When I reach a stopping point I put a line underneath and what the current word count is. I then log into my profile and post my updated word count, as well as an excerpt. I copy and paste the entire section from the recently finished session into an e-mail that I mail to myself to a yahoo account. I log in just to verify and to move it into the Nanowrimo folder that I set up. Next is to copy the entire Word document into my USB drive from the laptop. Lastly, I FTP the word document up to one of my websites, just in case.
I know it seems pretty paranoid, but I’m not taking ANY chances with this much work.

This concludes the test of the “my brain is tired of writing, even for Nanowrimo”. We now continue with your regularly scheduled program.

I started right at Midnight Friday (actually 12:01), and logged the first day’s word count in an hour and fifteen minutes. The next morning I logged another hour or so. It was very hard to turn my brain off and go to sleep. It wanted to still work on the novel, but I knew that I was really tired and would be starting up again in the morning. So far so good. I solved a few problems on the fly, and at the conclusion of the first day (three sessions and 4333 words later!) I have introduced new plot problems. That’s OK, though. It’s just a first draft and can be complete crap. I gave myself permission.
I am noticing though, that the characters are really trying to get their story out. It hasn’t faltered yet, but it’s not exactly completely coherent, either. Kinda like when a kid tells you a story and he’s really excited. That’s what this is like.
My hands hurt though, and I’m tired, so I am going to sit in the hot tub, then go to bed really soon. Considering that I am 2600 plus words ahead of schedule, I can do that.

So my friends, goodnight and God Bless…

I can’t believe it’s only 15 days away!!!

For the uninitiated, NaNoWriMo is short for Nation Novel Writing Month, where the idea is to write a complete first draft of a 50,000 word novel…in 30 days. It is very possible to do, even quite fun, as the characters you introduce begin to take on a life of their own. The website is http://www.nanowrimo.org. Sign up now while you still have time.

I have been harboring my idea for about three months (although I didn’t know what to do with my principal character until just recently) and can’t wait to get started. I won’t tell you what it’s about just yet, but the first line is “It was a dark and stormy night.”

Yes, this is paying homage to Charles Schultz/Snoopy from Peanuts. This was (usually) the only line you ever saw Snoopy type when he was writing his novel. ( A side note: here is the complete Snoopy novel. I was looking for the comic strip to show you , but this is even better…http://www.daysofleisure.com/writing/the_complete_text_of_Snoopy_s_novel:.html)

Anyway, I plan on being quite busy for the next month or so (until Nov 30th…) and I will keep you posted on the progress from time to time. The only other thing I can tell you is that my character lives in the apartment building that was the central setting from my NanoWrimo 2007 entry, which I will finish later. One cool thing that will take place is that my character will have a conversation with one of the characters from the previous book, but it will be from her perspective. In the previous book “The Apartment” the same conversation will take place, except that it will be from his perspective. In this fashion, I will tie the two books together.

And so, my friends, I bid thee farewell…as I go my way deep into my imagination….only to come out the other side in 30 days or so…who knows what goodies I’ll have to share.

By the way, for those interested in tracking my progress, here is my author profile…http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/232858. Excerpts will be posted here occasionally as well as an updated word count to see just how close I get (or when I cross the line!!)

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States, the official poverty line for a family of three is $17,600. For a family of one ( a single person), it is $10,400 a year. What would cause this?

I believe that acceptance of minimum wage jobs (State of Florida is $6.79, Federal is $6.55) is one part of the problem. Minimum work means minimum pay. In this economy, business owners are trying to stay afloat. They are cutting back the fat and trimming the dead weight. This often means that they will cut a minimum wage position and make the remaining employees pick up the slack, especially if there is minimal effort being expended on the employees part.

So how much is minimum wage paying? Let’s do some math…$6.79 x 40 hours a week is $271.60 x 52 weeks a year equals $14, 123.20. I’m sorry, that’s gross pay…don’t forget taxes.

Wait a minute … I have basic math skills. 14k is higher than 10k…that’s true…except that when you pay rent, it’s POST taxes. Ditto for your power bill, your gas in the car etc. .
“Well, it’s still more…even with taxes.”

Yeah, I know. However, 14123.2 /12 is $1176. After you take out $500 for Rent, $100 for power, $200 in gas, $50 for cable, $50 for cell phone (and we’re being cheap here on these last two points…), what are you really work for? Paying bills? Yee haw!! By the way, don’t miss a month of paychecks. You’ll be headed for financial ruin in a New York minute.

So, what’s the answer? Better jobs through better education. An alternative is to take on more responsibility at your current job, if a career change isn’t in order. Of course, I wouldn’t do this for the same amount of money. Imagine if we did actually apply ourselves. A $6-7 dollar an hour job becomes a $10 an hour job. How’s that math hold up? We go from $14k a year /$1176 a month to $20k a year/$1733 a month. Can you use an extra $600 a month? I sure could…

The next thing that would happen is that , with more money at our disposal to cover basic needs, we could actually save some back for a rainy day. This way, if something happens to your job, you could survive a month of no paychecks. Or you could plan for your retirement.

Some skeptics would argue “well, I’ll just get another job…ya, know…work two jobs”. OK. You do that. If the second job is part time, you won’t make enough to make it worth the hassle. If it’s full time, you won’t survive the experience. There are only 24 hours in a day. With 8 hours taken up at one job, another 8 taken up at the other job, you only have 8 remaining hours to eat, shower, relax, do your hobbies/watch TV, drive to and from the two jobs and sleep. Not a very good combination, in my book.

Or we could make more money for the 8 hours a day that we DO work. I make three times the minimum wage with what I do. It’s not always easy or stress free, and it requires additional skills and well-above-minimum work, but it’s financially rewarding. The choice seems really simple to me.

Have I been at the poverty line? Sure…and the view’s not too great. Am I going back there? Not if I can help it!!

My birthday was Monday, July 28th. I am 38 years old…and falling apart. Allow me to elaborate.
Most birthday celebrations (at least when you get older) tend to get spread out over the weekend, or in my case, over the week.

So I was supposed to go out to dinner with my wife, son and mother-in-law (amd her new friend) on Monday. However, the weeekend before, I caught some sort of chest cold and didn’t really feel up to it. We postponed until Thursday. My aunt and brother were to take me out on Tuesday; however, there was some biker thing (Chrome Divas- a riders group that raises money for charity) that she had planned and could we do it Wednesday? Sure, no problem.

I went to work Tuesday and was a little weak by the end of the day, but it’s to be expected right?
Wednesday, we go out to dinner to a new restaurant and I decide to try Thai food. I had the Larb. Not a typo. It sounded ok, plus it’s just a fun word to say. “Why yes, I ‘ll have the LARB.”

There was a range of spiciness that you could have it in and I chose medium. Now, I like spicy food, but apparently MY definition of medium and their’s is just a wee bit off. It was good and I took some home for lunch the next day.

About 10:30 pm the stomache cramps started, in the middle of my abdomen. By midnight, I was on the tiolet, thinking that Thai food didn’t agree with me. By 1am, I threw up, hoping to feel better. (I HATE throwing up, but I was miserable. I wound up praying to the porcelain god about three more times and at 6:30 woke my wife up to go to work. I told her “I think I need to go to the hospital.”

I had had maybe a half hour of sleep for the entire night, due to the stomache cramps. I never could find a comfortably position. She said that we would spend forever in ER and to wait until 8am and call the regular doctor. I got maybe another hour of sleep, just due to sheer exhaustion.

8am rolls around and she calls and has it on speakerphone (Thank GOD). The nurse asks if there was any blood in the vomit and my wife said “no” and I said” yes about 2:30″. The nurse immediately replies “Go to the emergency room NOW”.

We get in the car and head over to the smaller hospital ( a better choice, since I would probably STILL be waiting to be seen) and walk right in. The first question is a bit unnerving. “Do you have a living will?”

EXCUSE ME?? Just how serious is this? Do you know something that I don’t?? (Apparently it’s a standard question. It just shouldn’t be the FIRST question.) We are doing paperwork in 10 minutes, getting medication for nausea and pain in 30 minutes and seen by the doctor within an hour. I love this place.

He asks where the pain is and I show him. He presses on the left side saying “does this hurt?” “No” He presses on the right side, same question and I damn near came out of the bed in pain. He orders a CAT scan to check the appendix.

Meanwhile, the nurses are doing an EKG ( which I’ve had before) and drawing blood and a variety of other tests and things. The pain meds are working pretty well. The CAT scan…that’s new to me. Apparently, it involves filling your large colon with a dye to look at your appendix…uhoh, bad news, we have to CLEAN the area first. Hello ENEMA. That’s a surprise. I’ll spare you the details, but suffice to say that they push a very large bag of water up your butt to clean things out. Consequently, a large bag of water comes out, when you’re done. Fun times!!

CAT scan results confirm what the doc suspected. My appendix hates me. It got inflamed and has to be removed…today. If it bursts, which could happen at any time, then things get a WHOLE lot worse. Like death. He pages the surgeon; I’ll be in OR in a couple of hours.

Turns out, they’re really busy in OR, but we’ll take you to a room while you wait. Private room, all of them. Did I mention that I like this hospital? Surgery takes place about 7:30 pm and they’re done in a hour. Another hour in recovery, then back to the room. What they didn’t tell me is that they put a cathetor in. Luckily, they removed it while I was still unconscious. Good thing. I don’t really care for those. As it is, it burns when you pee for about the first day after they remove the cathetor.

Now, I’ve never had surgery in my life (that I can remember). This is some scary stuff. There are all sorts of complications that can occur. You could not wake up. There could be an infection. Any number of scary things. Guess that’s why they ask about a living will…Luckily, my wife and I have talked about what I want. Nothing formal in place (although I DO need to get a will revised.)

Family is there when I recover, which is good. I get out of the hospital the next day (Friday), after the surgeon clears me. While I liked the hospital, I was a little tired of the vital signs being measured every hour, and the constant taking of blood, and the restrictions of the IV. I was ready to go home.

Saturday morning. We should have been in Cedar Key yesterday, not home like this. I guess it’s a good thing that it didn’t happen a bit later; we would’ve wound up in Shands instead (NOT a good hospital). I haven’t had a shower since Wednesday morning. I reek …a lot. The good news is that I can take a shower today and remove the bandages and see the puncture wounds. The bad news is that I am in pain. All over. The abdomen still hurts, but so does my legs and shoulders. Weird!! I’ll take another pain pill and have some solid food and take a shower, now that someone is up that can help me.

Some Birthday Week…..

My wife had an appointment this evening for permanent makeup (basically a tattoo). The lady doing it was soliciting opinions about a new boyfriend that is being a little bit flaky. My answer was basically that if you are not happy with yourself, then how can you expect anyone else to like you? (This was in regards to the boyfriend, not her.)

The simple fact is that while human beings are social creatures who like to form communities (some more social than others), the opinions of others shouldn’t weigh as heavily as some people allow. It is this fact that I am trying very hard to impart to my son, especially when he has had a bad day at school where some dillweed made fun of him because he doesn’t conform completely in his dress or hair (e.g. a mohawk, blue highlights, a rat tail).

My fatherly advise has always been that the ONLY person’s opinion about him that matters is HIS. He has to live with himself every second of every day of his life. While it’s true that the opinions of parents and family and good friends ARE important, we don’t live inside his head. He does.

In my 38 years (Happy Birthday to Me!) of tromping around on this planet, I have discovered that people who like themselves, who are comfortable in their own skin, tend to have more confidence and tend to be happier people. This in turn yields the possibility of finding someone to be with, since you know yourself well enough to know what you truly like and what you don’t.
People who aren’t happy with themselves tend to replace one bad relationship with the next, poisoning their thoughts with ” I don’t deserve someone this good.” and other variations on this same depressing theme.
Sadly, some folks never resolve this core problem. They either replace mates, replace jobs, replace friends, houses, cars…you name it. The fact is that you can’t run away from your problems when they’re in your head. Some people won’t accept the fact that maybe the problem is with them, not with (fill in the blank).
The solution to this dilema is first, to accept that YOU may be the problem and second, to change what you don’t like about YOU. By change, I don’t mean change your set of friends to another set of loser friends. I mean change the TYPE of people that you hang out with. If you hang out with negative people, guess what you become?

True happiness CAN be achieved. It just starts from within. The rest will come in time…