Much Improved

I can't say as I slept great last night, but I do feel a bit better today. Perhaps this cool weather is suiting me well. That's a bit of a joke as it's been "rainy" the past couple of days, and by rainy, I mean I heard thunder last night and I think I noticed a wet sidewalk not due to a sprinkler today, but I'm not sure. I am sure that two days ago was the first day in about 4 weeks where the daily high did not break 100 (it was 98) and today the high maxed out at 92. I took advantage and went to the grocery store, knowing I wouldn't evaporate on the way. The last I'll say on the matter, is that opening the doors late at night to let in 81 degree fresh air, is not that refreshing. At least the refreshment level did not justify the number of bugs that manged to find their way in even with the lights off.

Yes, I sit in my apartment all alone late at night with the doors open and the lights off.

I called Moose while I ate breakfast this morning. I was complaining about my lack of inspiration of late. I was also complaining that I didn't think the pacing of the story was going fast enough. He feels it is going fine by the way, but I still feel as though I need to move things along at a slightly faster pace. There are a lot of major events I am skipping, but seeing as this is a sort of 100 years war kind of thing, I really can't cover it all directly. I'll wait to see what my two alpha readers have to say before I worry about it enough to lose any sleep on the matter. Wait...

I did manage to push ahead and write close to a thousand words today. In fact, I finished the second book of this novel. I wasn't expecting to be quite so inspired today, so I called Moose back and we talked another 93 minutes. Now mind you, when Moose and I talk, it's like two friends talking over a round of explosive diarrhea. You just never quite know what's coming out and in what state of matter it will take form, but suffice it to say we talked about a lot of things and not all regarding the book. Most notably, he's trying to get me to start playing an online game, so we can team up at it. Despite it's freeness, I wasn't buyin'. I told him I have a tendency to make games a habit and my addictive personality makes me waste too much time at them, so I keep the number I play in close check. In particular, one at a time. Since I am already playing a game where I am in charge of a little battling alien, that's enough for me.

I did discuss my idea for the next book and the next character. I made him name her because he complains about the names I come up with. I keep telling him they're just place holders and he can come up with anything he wants. I vetoed his first try, a Vulcanesque name. I wasn't buyin' that either. I can't stand those stupid Sci-Fi names with apostrophes in them. I accepted his second attempt, Hedra. Without much prodding, he was very good about honoring my convention that female names end in a vowel. Actually, almost all of them end in "A", except, Vertu. I didn't realize this until a couple of months ago. Apparently, my subconscious thinks names ending with "A's" or vowels sound more feminine. I certainly didn't think of it consciously, but now that I have noticed it, I'll probably stick with it.

Now that I have a new character to construct, for some reason I am excited about starting her story. I normally take a day off between books to catch my bearings to find where it needs to go, but I did a lot of that this afternoon, so I suppose I'll start writing, "The Programmers" tomorrow. I have in about 3400 words for the week, so I guess I have a good shot at hitting my 4000 word goal. The way the week started out, I wasn't expecting to get there, but maybe luck was on my side.

Speaking of luck, I am surprised at how prolific my blogging has been this month. I had expected a decrease due to my daily viewing of the Tour de France. Perhaps my lack of writing motivation has guilted me a bit and I made up the difference on my blog entries. If that is the reason, it seems I need not have felt so guilty. I know this week is not going to be over 5000 words like the last three weeks, but I can live with the 3400 I have now considering the writing week I've had. The fact that I may yet hit the weekly goal is just icing on the cake.