A Twist of Things to Come

So... I figured out how to easily convert just the scenes I needed in order to edit them together with digital video, so the long-awaited poll winner's video should be up on GeekaChicas sometime next week. Whee!

(I really barely know what I'm doing, but as one of my favorite poems says, "I learn by going where I have to go." It may be craptacular, but I'll be like Gir. "I made it myself!")

Speaking of website stuff, I'm going to revert to the old version until they work the bugs out. I found out today that if I edited something someone else posted (as I sometimes do if there is a formatting problem or what have you) it changed their article attribution to me. *sigh* This is some shite up with which I will not put.

Really didn't spend much brainsweat on the site today. jedi_diplomat sent in a cool article on Ubuntu 9.04, which I unoriginally titled "Ubuntu 9.04", and Pearce (aka yourprecious) has started a Trek RPG.

I just want to say again how much these women ROCK, and how blessed I feel to get to show them off.

***

Took the boys clothes shopping. Big Boy's voice is changing, and he's getting some puberty on him. Wow. He needed a new swimsuit and some shorts because he's grown so much. He also got a shirt that said, "Awesome ends with me." He's been very, very helpful to me around the house, held doors for me and generally been an ideal son (except for torturing his little brother).

He asked me to stay in my room while he made me something for Mother's Day. I'm looking forward to seeing what it is.

***

I wrote more on my completely awesome re-write of the shapeshifter story. I say "completely awesome" because it has finally taken shape in my mind, effectively negating all the wibbling I've done about it to you all. I know just how it needs to go, or close enough that I can sweat the small stuff later.

It felt great to write like that-- it really flowed. When I finish the new opening bit, I think I will post it here for you guys to see. :)

Today I really did feel like I could do it all.

With this:

	818
37
lab.drwicked.com

And then this:

	2424
111
lab.drwicked.com

The crappy first draft is done. By the time I get to the second draft, it will probably have an epilogue, maybe, but this is it for now. Last line: This time, he didn't care who saw him cry.

It's a bit gushy, but considering the circumstances, I think it's earned. I guess we'll see how it looks in the cold light of day. ;)

Or in bed. *shrug* Naughty Muse. Anyway, had a bit of a brainstorm today about the nearly-completed first draft. It means I will have to re-write the first part of the climax, but it will increase the relevance of a certain character who started off as a throw-away and became so much more. That's two novels in which that has happened. I start to write in someone who has a very specific function for a brief moment in the story and he becomes fairly central to the entire remainder of the novel. In Boyhouse, it was Laniel. I'm sure I had no freaking clue how important he would be when I first wrote him, because I still have the scribbled on scrap paper draft of his first scene. Oy. In the shape-shifter novel, it's the military guy I first named Richard because I thought it was funny to have someone call him "Dick." I kept trying to write him out and he kept coming back. Now, at long last, I know why.

My brain, she is a scary place.

Anywhoo, the stats:

	878
50
lab.drwicked.com

I've decided to call my muse Marve. Or Marva, sometimes. I think my muse is situationally transsexual. The only thing I know for certain is that he/she usually visits when I'm naked. ;)

***

On an unrelated but still creative note, I have a new drawing in the hopper besides the other two drawings in progress I have not yet completed. I'm going to put some time in on them over the next few days and see where that goes. They are all figures and all, more or less, illustrations. Every one is a challenge, though, so this should be interesting.

***

One final note. Do Virginity Pledges Work? Not surprising, really, but still interesting. No statistically significant difference in the rates of premarital sex for pledgers and non-pledgers, but the purity crowd were significantly less likely to protect themselves from disease and unwanted pregnancy. *facepalm*

	956
40
lab.drwicked.com

The hubby is sick, sick today, so we didn't risk seeing the in-laws and I got to write a bunch. I'm nearly done with the shapeshifter thing, and HMOWK is coming along, too. I'm getting very close to some things I'm quite proud of, there.

But, there's this thing bouncing around in my head. It's been there since I was a teen, probably, in one form or another. A mystery sort of thing. I do love a good mystery. I can sit and untangle knots or do logic problems for hours, and that is why I like a good mystery, I think. Never expected to have an idea for one, even though I knew that these characters I've had in my head for years belonged in a mystery novel. I'm just sort of remembering being a middle-class kid in an upper-crust sort of university, and all the little abrasive edges of things that flew around socially. Throw in some sweet Sapphic longing and a dead soccer player, and frak me if I don't have a mystery novel boiling away in the hind brain.

Crap. It's like I'm playing Genre Bingo in here.

I want to get back to posting my word counts, for two reasons. First, it encourages me, and posting them here keeps me honest. Second, well, I think Dr. Wicked deserves the free advertising. ;) I've already made up my mind to donate a portion of my next sale to the site. *shrug* I was raised to be a tither, yanno. This one was for HMOWK:

	762
34
lab.drwicked.com

This one was for the Shape-shifter thing (almost done!):

	751
43
lab.drwicked.com

This one took a little longer because I had to use the 'pause' feature when Big Boy's teacher called to tell me how miserable he was, and could I pick him up and spare him the wait for the school bus? (Of course I did. Poor baby has homework on top of all the studying for two more finals tomorrow.) I would love to keep him home tomorrow.

Life takes precedence over art, naturally, but at least I got Mobius and Lethe a tad closer to their big finish. Just a tunnel collapse, some self-mutilation and the great escape to go!

No, not a bizarre sex joke. I mean, I know I sometimes make *nudge,nudge* jokes about which stud nugget I have locked up in my basement, but I don't have a basement. And really, a sex slave would just be another person I'd have to clean up after.

Perhaps I've said too much. ;)

Seriously, though. By "men in the basement" (or perhaps "persons in the basement") I mean my subconscious. They do the heavy lifting on stories when I'm not thinking about them. In fact, NOT thinking about a story obsessively is a necessary part of my process.

In both of the larger things I'm working on now, I had an issue. in one, it was about how to tell a particular part of the story without putting myself to sleep, much less any poor readers who might wander in by accident. In the other, I had the bones of the plot all mapped out, and thought I knew exactly what was going to happen, but for a few niggling details that wouldn't quite fall into place.

I banged my head against both of these situations, even wrote sections of both stories in a few different ways trying to connect the dots. Trying to force it.

Within a day or two of giving up in disgust, a few interesting things happened. First, I was pouring myself a glass of water. I do that several times a day, actually, so it's not a big deal, but I was thinking about the water, and the glass, and trying not to splash. From absolutely nowhere, I realized that I'd written a certain planet as a dwarf planet, kind of an overgrown asteroid, which meant that its gravity would be much less, solving an issue I had anticipated (and totally gotten stuck on) in the next bit. The basement folk had already laid out the solution in part I'd written earlier (and already published so, wow, it will *really* look like I knew what I was doing when it comes out) but the memo hadn't gotten all the way to my conscious mind.

The other thing was a face and a name that came to me just as I woke up day before yesterday. A germ of an idea that solves all my problems with the shape-shifter story, including titles for all three books in the series. Five FREAKING months I have agonized over it, after three months of trying a couple different re-writes, and Oh, a hundred thousand words circling the drain. The Basement Folk were just waiting on me to let go if it. Once I got it out of my worry machine long enough, the story elves polished it up and left it on my freaking pillow.

Oh, GOD, how I loves them!

I've managed to make some improvements to my home environment, so that the shared spaces are mostly neat. As tempted as I am to haul boxes of "stuff" out of the office and chuck them, I suppose I will wait until my Beloved is back.

Then I will nag him mercilessly until it is done. ;) Seriously, it should have been done while he was home the last time, but we did not accomplish much. I still have not done the filing. Perhaps if I do a little handful every day, it won't seem such an unpleasant task. Heh.

I've listed several small clearing-out tasks in the task manager of Outlook, scheduling one bite-sized bit of cleaning each day for the next two weeks. They are all centered in the kitchen. At that rate it will likely take months, which we don't have, but if I attempt a massive stuff reduction while on my own my wee ones will feel neglected, and i will likely get cranky. I think this baby steps approach is best for the harmony of my home.

***

Monday I mentally worked myself around to re-writing Shift as two separate first person narratives, but before I had a chance to actually get started, I began to waffle again. This re-write is killing me. If I chuck the third person limited pov, I wonder if it counts as a re-write, or a whole new novel. Argh! Let me not think on't.

HMOWK draws ever nearer to a close. At least that is something I can still write and not second guess every damned thing. ;) Plus, people still seem to like it, and I've gotten comments from new people. That's always nice. I should enjoy it now, because they are all going to hate my guts in a week or two. >;D

***

Big Boy emailed a (girl) friend of his, and asked her to his birthday party on Saturday.

So, I guess we're having a birthday party Saturday. O_O

Probably I'll just have cake and ice cream and take the lot of them to see Kung-Fu Panda, which was the plan, anyway. Only now it might be more than just family and one friend. Not that big a deal, but for a moment I had a rush of panic. Oy. (We want to have a big party when my Beloved comes back, to celebrate our birthdays as well as his return, so he doesn't feel like he's missed everything.)

***

Making dinner for friends tonight. Made the boys pancakes this morning. Life is good.
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