Time for some Woodford Reserve

Today was my flex day. I started off with my usual surf through social media, read blogs, etc.

Then I turned my attention to the Lanternfish manuscript. I always read my last chapter before starting, and managed to correct a couple of typos. (Probably missed some, too.) I do this to get back into the story.

My goal was to have them sail away from their stop in Giapon by the end of the morning. I kind of made it.

This is because there was a lot to do. Serang needed to appoint officers on her inferior ship. None of the people aboard like each other, but she made a good start with them. Its sail pattern is inferior, and its going to have a hard time even keeping up with Lanternfish or La Girona, and they aren’t fast ships.

This led to some team building when a new sail pattern required construction of additional sails. They used people from all the various factions and Serang made them work together.

I also planted a little surprise for James in the form of a gift from the shogun. He isn’t interested in his new teenage concubine, but his adopted son sure is. The hopes are that some of this tension can carry my story while they sail the arctic waters. This new character will get a bigger moment later in the story.

In an emergency, I have a loose idea for an encounter with a monster that will happen outside of James’s view. He will only get a report from the root monsters after the fact. I need to figure out how to drop enough clues as they call the monster Waltus, so readers can figure out it was a walrus monster. I’ll only write it if I think the story could use it.

At the end of my day, Lanternfish and La Girona were still tied to the dock. Serang’s ship, called a turtle boat, was being pushed away from the dock by some pole men. May sound lame, but I’m counting it. They’re leaving now.

Research said the turtle boat was a real thing, and seems to have some connection to the Korean Peninsula. I also got lucky with names again. While Giapon is an old reference to Japan, Goryeo is an old reference to Korea. These make good names for my fictional locations.

I ended my fiction at 2900 words. My next section will be finishing the repairs while at sea. James wants to get the natives away from Giapon, and hopes to avoid a revolt over taking them away. It was a good day for me.

Grinders is still chugging along. I contacted two more hosts for next week, and already heard back from one. I prepared that post and sent it out. It’s a post about my antagonist, so I think it could draw some real attention.

Tonight it’s Woodford Reserve on the rocks. Back to the paycheck job tomorrow.

A small list, with lots of hours ahead

My flex schedule leaves me with a two day weekend. I won’t get a flex day again until next Friday. This is the worst part of the schedule, and the 10 hour days kind of suck at this point. Then I’ll get a couple of three day weekends. To make the suckage worse, North America changes to Daylight Savings Time this weekend. That means I get to wake up an hour earlier for the next seven months or so.

The adjustment isn’t that hard, and I kind of like getting that extra hour of daylight when I get home. I’m also not looking for sympathy. I started with that to give you the idea that my available time is limited this weekend.

I have to get my truck serviced tomorrow afternoon. That blows a small hole in plans too, but they have a nice business center and I might be able to do some projects while I wait. We also want to squeeze date night in at some point.

Fewer plans are the way to go on weekends like this. I only have one, and anything else is gravy. It all involves blogging.

I have two guest posts I agreed to host next week, and I need to assemble and schedule those. I also have a habit of sending out an advance link, but that only takes an extra minute or two.

There are two or three folks who have returned the questionnaire for Lisa Burton Radio. I need to work up as many of those shticks as possible this weekend. If I can do that, and get them sent back, I’ll consider this weekend a success.

That’s it. Might not sound like much, but it does take some time and a bit of creative energy.

Should I get lucky, I might take a glance at my work-in-progress. It might not involve any more than moving the plants I’ve already made around, oh and maybe changing a character’s name. I don’t like my villain’s name and may try again. That will mean a long search to make sure I fix it everywhere.

For the rest of this evening, I’m enjoying the company of my old friend George Dickel.

Off the Hook?

I’m writing this from the comfort of my easy chair. The house smells like corned beef, and the semi rye bread I’m baking right now. I’ve got my Pandora radio on a station I call “Dropkick Murphy’s”. Old What’s Her Face* made some Guiness brownies to have after dinner. We’re all ready. I even have a bit of Irish whiskey ready. ( the spelling has been a debate for years. The current rule is to add the ‘E’ if the country has an ‘E’ in it; thus IrEland.)

I didn’t get to the writing cabin until after 8:00. Lisa** was dressed in her lab coat with the bloody paw prints and black tights. I pinched her rump.

She snapped around and asked, “What the hell was that for?”

“Saint Patrick’s Day. You aren’t wearing green,” I said.

She made that thousand yard stare that told me she was Googling. “Well you could have told me. I’m trying to pass for human here.”

“But then I wouldn’t have gotten to pinch you.”

She ran for her room and changed. I fired up my iPad and hung a sheet over Doubt***. I didn’t need him today. I wanted to write without doubts today.

I followed my task list and helped my main character, Patty, gather her team. They had to concoct a scheme to fool her parents, and it seemed to flow.

Lisa returned in her green corset dress. She’d weaved a choker out of shamrocks, and carried in the beer horns. They strutted around the coffee table while she filled them with Smithwicks. She raised a horn and said, “Éire go Brách.”

She doesn’t need to drink, but since it’s a holiday she took part. We finished our beer break and went back to work.

I kept writing, and scared the kids a bit. They put their plan into motion, and set up the next phase of the story. School days are working out to be an annoyance for them, but a blessing for me. It helps to drag the answers out, and builds a nice tension.

When I stopped, my word count was at 57,147. This is 2991 for the day, and 4277 for the weekend. Hopefully, it’s enough to get Lorelei**** off my ass.

I think I’m going to hit my 80,000 word goal for Will ‘O the Wisp, but I’m not certain.

Now I need to get my submission ready for critique group. This is the first time I’ve shown them anything in first person, and I hope I didn’t blow it too bad.

* Old What’s Her Face is not my wife’s actual name

** Lisa is the main character in Wild Concept. It’s available on Amazon right now. She’s a robot, and helps me at the writing cabin these days.

*** Doubt is a raven. He was a gift from my Muse.

**** Lorelei is my Muse. She’s pissed over my low word count lately.