A new move.

Two years since last post. I should get back to this blog.

This month Ellie and I moved back to Chattanooga. It was a good move... although very stressful. Our purpose is to build a house on Manning St. in the North Shore area. We move into a tiny house a few blocks from where we will build. Josie started a new school and seems to love it. Anna... well, doesn't seem to care one way or the other about the move.

Really tired so I'll get back to this when I have more time.

Where has my steampunk gone!

The more I write, the less my book looks like the grand steam punk trilogy I planned and more like a post apocalyptic coming of age story with a couple of dirigibles in it. I don't mean to sound disappointed, not in the least. But as I go along, I'm discovering that this is become something different and awesome! I also decided to write the rest of this in first person.
I know what it sounds like. A young adult post apocalyptic sci-fi coming of age story in first person with a teenage girl protagonist. Yah, that = Hunger Games, right? But I promise that is the only parallel.
Oh, sitting in that same sports bar as two weeks ago. Something about this place. Good beer, half price on all drafts, and quiet enough to write; it is my two hours of no kids and a nice surrounding. I can get 2000 words here easily. I could get more but, damn this blog!

Another Village Pub writing session.

After a week off from my mother visiting from Oregon. I'm trying to delve back into the post apocalyptic world of my character.
I told my mom I'd let her read my manuscript up to page 50. Well, a week before she arrived i went back, threw out 10 pages and rewrote the rest. I was yelled at before about this. But these changes make me so happy, erasing all but my grammatical worries about this manuscript.
What did I do? SIMPLIFY!!!
But, I think I pissed off my mom not having anything ready for her to read.
Today, I added only 2 handwritten pages, but they were good, in my opinion. Adds more action, less cutesy crap, and a bit more grit.
I'm on 3 pilsners so I should get home. Type this up. Besides the guys at the bar are wondering why I'm typing on my iPhone so much. Half this place is reserved for a singles group arriving in half an hour. Don't need to see that!

Cut and paste...

Well I was up to nearly 12000 words typed last night. Then I realized how a whole character didn't work out. So taking him out and some scenes dropped me to 10500. But that's ok! It works!
I do have about 3000 handwritten words to incorporate, hopefully tonight.

Pub writing.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog. I was using Thursdays as my mass writing day. I went to the library branch near my house and immediately hated it. I came home angry and remembered the pub down the street opened at 4. Drove down and wrote about 6 pages in a matter of a few hours. Downed only 2 pints... I'm working, remember! Still here and ready to go home. If only they'd bring the tab!

Designation: handyman

Actually the title should read: designation: screw this! Apparently my newer style round physic is not designed to bending over a tub and scraping caulk and mold all day. Also there is an old guy on YouTube that demonstrates how easy it is to scrape the caulk... I wanna punch that guy.

A Step Back...

Well. Went to the doctor today. Looks like I may have cracked a rib last week, maybe badly bruised. Doc says that he's not going to X-Ray because the treatment is the same. Take it Easy. He did give me a prescription for Hydrocodone.

Writing is slow right now. Trying to change directions a bit while not wanting to throw 90 pages away. It is a step back, but a necessary one.

Brief, yet again, but didn't want to forget about this new(ish) blog of mine.

Moving 'write' along...

Had our second writer's group meeting last night. Everyone had amazing pieces. I was a little apprehensive as I haven't done anything like this before. To my surprise everyone seemed to enjoy it. Everyone agreed that the story needed to have more "meat on the bones" ie. my sentence structure was a bit simple. Overall I am very pleased! I look forward to reworking everything and adding a few more chapters.

Other news. Anna's a bit fussy this morning. Josie is happy though.

(sorry had to be brief... may come back later and expand this blog)

By Jove, I finally did it!

Well, I am almost two weeks late turning in a bit of fiction for my writer's group.  I only sent them eight pages. One chapter and a tiny prologue. But I sent it nonetheless. Now I have another month to get the next chapter or so done. (by done I mean a viable first draft). I am very please with my story. Not so please with my grammar. Uggh. I have lots of writing to do to improve. But the big thing is I am doing it.

Not looking forward to work in 6 hours. The computers were down today and we have tons of next day orders to do. "Sure I'll come in three hours early!" Albeit, Andrea did send me home three hours early tonight.

Another day...

Father's Day laziness.

   WOW! What a useless day I've had... and I LOVED it! Anna was in a good mood. Except for a 15 min butt explosion (sorry, seriously sorry for that one) she was a happy baby.
   Ellie and I split a bottle on Montinore Estate Pinot Noir.  It was good, not great, but not bad. I'll probably have a mild wine headache in the morning, but that is acceptable.
   My writing time was not very fruitful today.  I expanded on the already typed portion, not the handwritten parts.  Stella, my main character, needs MUCH more depth to her. But I also need to stop worrying about it for now and get the plot moving.  I'll mold her later.
   Tomorrow I need to type out at least fifteen pages.  For now I need sleep.

Vacation adrift...

   My vacation... Two days off spent partying in Chattanooga with an old friend. Canceled. Geez. What a bummer. I made plans around the vacation like taking Josie to her grandfathers. Still did that. Not gonna cancel on him just because my friend canceled on me.  And Josie was very happy.  She gets to watch fireworks tonight being the final night of Riverbend.

   I did hang out for a couple of hours with Neil, my best friend. Then I decided to hell with this! I'm going back to Nashville, tail between my legs. Met up with Alan at the Gold Rush.

   Good night, had fun.

   Today, after a mid day nap, I'm going to tackle a few hours of my story. I've got an idea for a plot changer! Can't tell ya, sorry!

The grass grows greener...

...in Oregon, but I am actually talking about my yard.
   Good Lord, I haven't mowed the back yard in three weeks. It HAS to be mowed once a week or bad things happen, like the mower clogging up... over and over and over.
   I'm sure my neighbors were pointing and laughing at my failed endeavor to groom my lawn.  It was like this: half a loop, unclog the mower, repeat.
   Garden is looking good. Beans, peppers and weeds!
   Well, no writing tonight. Played video games and going to bed.

The River's End

Several years ago I fell short of completing a series of short films I was working on. Thought I would share what I cut and pasted the exisiting material into.  Sorry about the NIN and Sigur Rós if your not fans.

Everyday is exactly the same

   Don't let my chosen title make it seem as if I'm down.  Quite to the contrary.  Although my days off (Sunday & Monday) seem quite same: watch the kids, take them to see mommy at work, bring them home, nap-time, mommy comes home, dinner sleep.  Every time!

   Today I sat down and started typing away at my story again.  So far, I'm at 90 pages handwritten and a whopping four typed.  Woohooo!

   Yesterday I attempted to write to no avail. baby screams, three year old sleeps; baby sleeps, three year old breaks something, baby screams again.  (sigh)  Parenthood: the blessing that's a curse, or is that the other way around.

   Okay, going to get both of them down at the same time.  Then, should I nap or should I write. Write! Yes! ... but I'll probably nap.

Day one... reprise?

   Yesterday marked the first meeting of a writers group I joined. So far we have four other members: Rai, Katharine, Margaret, and Eliza.  Rai was not available for the meeting but she left a few notes for discussion. In a quick sum up, in two weeks we may present any of our works.  No more that 30 pages per meeting and can be anything from prose to poetry. I am excited, I needed this fire under my butt to get motivated. I plan to present sections of my Young Adult novel at first and maybe some flash fiction. Our next meeting is July 9th.  This gives me plenty of time to clean up the first several chapters.
   In other news, Anna is currently in rough sleep, and Josie is taking a faux nap.  I am going to take advantage of this right now.  Nap time. Then I start on lasagna for dinner, though I will not be present for. I am going to work on the mountain of large orders at work. I've been allotted three overtime hours. Not much but every bit counts.

Strange Day of Hives and Hangovers

Yesterday I invited many friends over for a cookout of hamburgers and hot dogs. Had a really fun time, maybe a beer too many, but fun nonetheless. Josie had a blast and had a friend to play with. My next door neighbor, Donald, brought over his moonshine cherries.  I had one.  Yummy!  Yep, and allergic! The last time I had these yummy tidbits was a few days before Labor Day. I spent the next day in a walk-in clinic.  Well, lucky for me today, the nurse called to tell me to up my Zyrtec and add Benadryl.  Oh, on the side, I had a handover too.

I'm standing at 31 handwritten pages right now.  If I didn't have to be at work at 5:30 AM I'd stay up tonight.  Tomorrow will have to suffice.

Blog Day 1

It came to me after three beers.  I should blog.  In my mind as a writing tool... for myself.  Maybe, someday I will let others read this or link it to whatever.  For now, here it is....  Blog Day 1.

One thing I should announce about my day is that Ellie and I discovered the sex of our baby.  We are having girl number 2!  Maybe I'll add some pics soon, they did give me a DVD-ROM of everything.

I started Civilization V this week, quite possibly the worst thing I could do.  I finally get over years of writers block (probably brought on by Civ IV) Only for that to be released.

Well, since I don't really know what I am doing here yet I'll end everything now.

Hopefully this will work out better than my last journal.