Today in Idaho

Governor DeSantis travelled to Boise today to address our legislature. We were chosen with purpose. Idaho is strongly, let’s say “Red.” Idaho also has a balanced budget amendment.

DeSantis wants the US to have a similar amendment which isn’t a bad idea. The way he went about it is what concerns me. DeSantis framed the possibility of calling for an Article Five Constitutional Convention.

This part is frightening. Nobody knows what guardrails there would be and it has never been done before. Once convened they could throw the whole Constitution away and create a new one. Consider that whoever is in power would be in the driver’s seat for this theoretical event. Personally, I am against either side pulling this off.

What is means to me personally is that I need to get busy and finish this:

I have two or three chapters to go, and am debating one tiny change to the cover.

Forging ahead

We had a great Thanksgiving at our son’s house. Turkey two different ways, a glass of good whiskey, and the grandkids were awesome.

Old What’s Her Face came home and cooked her own turkey and sides yesterday. She said she wanted leftovers, but we had the full dinner anyway… again.

I committed myself to being a vegetable. I have way too much happening in my real life to push hard right now anywhere else. We watched a Lethal Weapon Marathon, another segment of The American Revolution, and even some Guardians of the Galaxy.

Today, felt like some of the burden wore off, so I sequestered myself away to work on my manuscript. I didn’t add a lot, but I really like what I added.

Most of it involved my antagonist. I don’t write a lot of bad guys directly. Most of the time it is a shadowy figure that never gets real page time. This time he gets a face, name, and dialog. I am having a great time with him. He is coming together like a combination of William Fichter and Walton Goggins in my mind. Feels right for a covert government agent.

He brought a wicked smile to my face as he finally assembled some of the pieces that will lead him to my main characters.

I am heading toward the conclusion of Article V, but am in no hurry to finish it. I can’t really afford the peripheral things like covers and formatting right now. Still, my brain wants to keep working on it.

Things will change on the money front. I may have to save up over time or something, but I’ll get this one out there.

Not sure if I will manage any more tomorrow, or not. I will call Mom, and have breakfast with Old What’s Her Face. After that I’ll see where the wind blows me.

One bonus is the remaining pumpkin pie. I think it’s calling to me right now.

Another writing day

Sundays are never great, but I can usually score a couple of hours. Today, I jumped back to Article V.

I managed to get around 1800 words down. I didn’t subtract it out, but that feels accurate. It’s only chapter two, so I’m still introducing characters and quirks, a bit of setting. That kind of thing.

I did throw in my favorite Easter Egg today. Night Bump Radio took a caller about the drones that haunted the east coast for a month. I love the idea that this show is on satellite radio and available to anyone in our world.

My characters are looking for the Beast of Bray Road and think they might have caught a glimpse of it. At least one of them is pretty excited about it.

The main plot will get up and running soon, but what I got down today just feels right.

I stopped just before the main plot falls into their laps, so that preserves some excitement for next week.

I wish all writing weekends went like this one and last weekend. I’ve been doing this long enough to know it won’t last. Beginnings are always fresh and exciting.

Back to work tomorrow for me.