Completed, Done, Finished.

That's right! I just finished writing the sequel to "Mrs. Got Rocks". The sequel right now is titled "Load of Rocks." There are some little pieces yet to be written. Things that I find boring to write, so I skip over them. Like saying goodbyes at airports, so maybe a whole page of dialogue like that. It is times like that I wish it were kosher to write a paragraph and reuse it every time that situation occurs.
"Load of Rocks" will be done by next Monday, and then it goes into sit,stay mode to gel and then into rewrite. While that is happening I will re-work some spots on Mrs. Got Rocks and start the new adventure book, tentatively titled Joanne Dark.
Joanne Dark is going to take time to write, because I will have to have the writing partner write large sections of it, and I'm going to have to do some research on locations to take the story.
I can't get the book rights to the other story from my family to do that book that was supposed to be next. The one about my Uncle and Aunt in Burma pre and World War II. Good romance and adventure story. They were incredible people, and the story is just itching to be told. And such a movie it would make, oh my! I will be happy with what I have, it is a good tale, so far in my head and a little on paper. Writing partner was fairly interested in the story line.
Joanne Dark probably will take an entire year to write, at least that is the time line I see.
Hooray, the Rocky series is done!!!! It is was blast and a headache to write.

That Was the Funniest Thing I've Written.

This morning I am in the midst of writing a fairly depressing,morose,sad portion of the story. I'm feeling good about doing this, having some closure at the end of the story is a good thing. Then out of the blue the characters are saying the darnest, funniest things and for two pages I can not get these three to shut up and get back on track. Am I leaving it in..oh yeah, I am leaving those two pages in. I laughed out loud.
The mirror image of sorrow is merriment, happiness. I would not go so far as to say the characters were happy, but maybe comforted by their humor and their friendship.
Certainly an interesting development when writing sad, depression to have the characters force to the surface the basic human feeling of joy. I wish I could express that better.

She said, He said

I wrote the final three paragraphs of the second Mrs. Got Rocks book. I could not wait for my writing partner to read them. After all, what I did to the main character was his idea. When I asked him to read it and told him what I did, I was horrendously surprised at his reaction.
"You didn't." he said.
"Yeah, I did." she said.
"How could you?" he asked.
"You told me to!" she explained.

There is plenty to write between where the story is now, and the end that I have written. I'm about 90 pages from goal length.

Did writing partner like what I had written? I do not think so, I think he was so stunned at what happened to poor Got Rocks, that he felt nothing else. Or maybe, it was just a piece of bad writing.

Scream if it doesn't work!!

I broke down and bought a new computer tower. Wed. I booted up old faithful and I kept getting memory errors, one error after another. After having some sort of sinus headache thing going for a week, this was not what I was ready,willing, or able to tolerate. Let's say that the whole purchasing process was funny when I look back on it. I overbought memory and got plenty of buss speed, I also got stuck with MS Media for brainpower and I'm unhappy with that. I know how many salespersons told me how wonderful it was, how I would totally be in love with it's ability to handle all my digital camera needs. Well, let me tell you, I really wanted XP Professional Edition, but I'm not going to Dell to get it. So anyway for the last two days I have been trying to get everything set up and shifted from there to here and working.
The scanner just totally refuses to even speak in a pleasant tone of voice to the new machine, okay, so I can live with that. However, then the printer decided it too must be a butthead, if everyone was going to be a butthead. I screamed at it for several hours yesterday afternoon trying to get it to work. It had worked for a little while on Wednesday, so I knew that it could work. I screamed in frustration and said I will figure it out in the morning, like this morning. I worked on it for another hour, running all those diagnostic things, and back and forth. I decided that was enough, that I would delete all of it from the hard drive and re-install, that was the only thing I could see left to do, other than throwing the printer in the dumpster and taking the tower back to CompUSA. So since my airplane background says check all the wires first, in case something is broken, I started there on my way to uninstalled and re-installed. Yup, the thing wasn't even connected to the tower. Okay it is connected and lo and behold it prints. Amazing, and who didn't connect the USB to the tower, well, I tell you, it weren't me. He was born in Sept 1968. I may even allow him to live through the night. Good thing that he isn't here for at least another 3 hours.
Was it easy for me to do the USB, well after all the other stuff, yeah, I was sorta afraid of getting shocked, but I sure as hell wasn't unplugging the tower at that point. I like the new keyboard and Word is pretty cool to watch it correct a misspelled word all on it's own. I'm misspelling words, just to watch it correct them.
Next stop on the train..an external hardrive to get all the books off of the other hard drive and into the new harddrive. Haven't used the CD and DVD burner,ripper,slasher yet, but that was a must have for me, so once I get all these screamers down I will try my hand at that.
Have a great day and evening. I may get to write somethng here in the next day or so.

I've Got Connections!

The story is now in one piece, connected. The scanner takes longer to fuss with than just sitting and re-typing into the computer..I can do three pages to it's one . The scanner doesn't edit and re-write as it puts the text back onto the computer. It makes me feel very smart,talented,multi-taskable, and also worn out just having to re-do the whole thing.
Onward and upward back to the story. Re-typing is going for the gold of three pages a day. What do you mean that will take forty-one point six days? What the hexx else do I have to do?
Going to build coffee in the new maker and start writing new words.
Your Friend Jackie

Promontory, Utah

I feel like I have control of the two railroads about to meet in Utah to join West and East. Well, not quite, talk about arrogant! But I worked into the night and I'm within inches, not pages but lines of having the story back into one piece.
The rest of the day I'm going to try to talk the scanner into scanning 125 pages of text back onto the word processor. If it is it's usual stubborn self, then I'm retyping it in over the next week.
Hee hee..and hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work I go!
Sincerely,
Your Friend, Dopey the Dwarf

The blazing coffee maker

I just counted. I have 187 pages of the story complete. The two sides are not as yet connected, but there is not such a big gap between them. There is alot more story to what would be the recovered pieces. I'm actually past what I lost in page count, but the story is not together though much more extensive that the first go round. Like this is the second revision before the first.
Still haven't found the computer that will do the job for us...but I did find a most important writing tool. A new coffee maker. The old one was taking 45 minutes to make three cups, this one makes 11 cups in less than 5 minutes. Maybe that is why I got so much written this past weekend and blazed through the pages this AM.The old lady who writes is grinning.

The Knuckles are Dragging.

My knuckles and fingers are kind of sore, I've typed so much today and I still have not got the two parts of the story connected. I've typed so much today, I'm wondering why I'm typing now. A cool down from exercise period, maybe?
What I did to the Callaghan character today!! Whoo whee..is he in big trouble. Sometime over the weekend, I'm going to somehow rescue his wonderful body, though I'm not sure Rocky will let me wriggle him out of this.
I tried to buy a computer today. Admittedly I'm not the brightest bulb in the box, but I can't figure out that Dell website. I know what I want and I just can't seem to find it. Do I dare call and ask to speak to a human being.? I think I really need to just go get a 'puter in a box that is all put together and pay and go. I can just order a Dell key board separately, I think, maybe sort of. DS2 is ready to start his own design business on the side until it gets big enough he can do it full time. And I'm tired to death of battling this wonderful old faithful for every word, every log on every day. I lose one more page of writing and I will probably sit down and cry.

Don't shut down the brain.

Getting there, today I finally am at the point that connects the old part of the book that I'm recovering and the new part of the book that I'm winging on. This transitional part should be about three pages long and is something that I actually saw. It should not take any time at all to write. This part ties in and locks down the part that I've already written about it in the 20 pages of new stuff. Confused?? I know what you mean! To make my brain even wilder and unable to focus on the task, I came up with this intriguing idea for the next book. I've been trying to write a historical novel for three books now, some day I will get the damn thing out of my head. In the meantime, was working through scenes on the Rocky's story and this idea pops into my head. Is it a historical, somewhat romantic novel? Not even. The thing looks like it is going to be another adventure story with a very current political angle. Though the main character is a historical figure that the modern day character may channel or something I haven't worked out yet.. The book will be what Brian calls Superman vs Godzilla. Maybe I can write the historical romantic novel on the blog, and get rid of it. Brian wants to write Superman vs Godzilla one day. I've got enough problems without taking on Godzilla, whom I love.
Have a wonderful weekend. Write ON!

That is so much better.

The recovery writing is going as good as I can reconstruct. Even as I write that, I feel that writing a book backwards,sideways,front, back and middle wise may not be the way that "real" writers do this job. Makes me kind of crazy in a put down sort of way. I make this jigsaw puzzle and then work it together. I felt this way until yesterday evening, when I visited Diana Gabaldon's webpage, to see how soon her next book is expected. Well, I was working my way thru her fax, and found that she works in pieces and bits and then blends them into her wonderous, huge, yummy, adventure historical novels. I feel so much better. I would feel infinately so much better, if I could physically write a 900 page anything,but that is why there are the Gabaldons to keep me reading. I love historical novels, since the first one I read in elementary school. "The Silver Chalice" by Thomas B. Costain. My mother thought it was a religous tract, so I was allowed to enjoy in peace. Speaking of what I read. When I was a Sophmore in high school, I tried to read "Peyton Place", by Grace Metalious, somehow my Mother knew what that one was about and I didn't even get to read the "good" parts. I was forced to give it back to my buddy Adrienne. I digressed, what I'm supposed to be writing is a historical novel, but this Rocky person keeps butting in and I keep writing this adventure thing. I have only written two pages this morning on the adventure thing. I need to make a meat loaf for dinner and make words. Write on!!

Rollin,Rollin, Rolling...

Twenty pages..ten of new story, ten of reconstructed old story. Two files being switched back and forth between old and new. It is harder to reconstruct the old, than writing the new.
I was laughing at myself this morning, by writing the ending while I'm writing the middle,maybe I will finish before the middle is complete. That makes no sense at all, must be one of those thing that think perfectly nice at four AM, and are totally fruit loops at a quarter to eight.
I had to calm myself down I was so upset at the loss of the book, so I've been working really hard getting a wool hat knit for Craig for Christmas. It is the swatch hat, two hats in one, which will be nice since it is in wool. He will use it this January up in the mountains. I will try to refrain from reminding him not to loan it out, give it away, sell it or send it sailing down the Klamath River on the way to the Pacific Ocean. It is a medium forest green and on one cap of the reversible I have just put a couple of rows of garter stitch on the plain knit. One the other hat side I put a varigated green,brown,blue,cream three rows of "lice" and then two rows of purl garter stitch. The cap even got an unsolicited good comment from the other son. I'm back centered emotionally and writing away.
This week the data goes to the agent on the mystery story that I finished before the Got Rocks series.
Rollin,rollin,rolling...theme from "Rawhide"...you aren't old enough to remember that TV series.
Back in the saddle again.
Write on.

.

Screwed, Blued and Tattoo'd

I really did it this time. Last night I deleted the whole book. Yuppers, all 180 pages, every living, breathing 43000+- words. I don't even know how I did it. I was writing along and I had reached for the shift key with my right hand. I missed and I think I mashed the keys to the right of the space bar. Whatever...the screen kinda did a burp, and I just happened to look at the toolbar, and I had about 420 kb's logged and then there was .9kb on the toolbar. It went from 1.5 spacing to single spacing. I type each day with a different color and after the burp I was in black instead of Saturday's teal blue. I'm sick, sick, sick.
I had 125 hard copy pages printed, so I only have to recover around 55 pages. That is a lot of words, even if I already know what happens.
55 x 240 words per page = 13,200 words to redo.
Excuse me while I go throw up.

I've Got It, By Gad.

I was so stiff and sore after my walk yesterday, and sunburned, after dinner I was just dragging. I hauled myself into a full tub of hot water and a new bar of Green Apple Soap, and I soaked. I soaked and woke myself up with someone snoring with the sound reverberating off the tiled walls of the bathroom. DS2 says I'm going to drown one day falling asleep in the tub, be that as it may, this old babe has never taken a sleeping pill in her life. Anyway, it and a long sleep in a bed fixed the sore muscles. As I was just at the spot between awake and asleep, you know the one, I got the ending for the book. I have written what, three books and a screenplay now, and each of them has been plotted out on paper well ahead of time, with characters all tidy in a row. Not this sequel to Mrs. Got Rocks, the ideas just seem to be coming into place when I need them, I hadn't even begun to worry yet about how to close the thing. I have nearly 150 good pages out of what I want to be 350. This whole ending scenario is going to be long and involved and I can see it being around 75 to 100 pages. I'm going to have to plot it out on paper, otherwise I know I will forget something. Today is going to be get a dentist appointment day and plot out the ending day. And somehow over the weekend every surface in the apartment got covered with stuff. That will have to go somewhere, or I will be having a snit by the end of the day.
Tomorrow, I want to make a batch of Honey Butter Soap, I need to get some made for DS2 to take with him to India, they are proposing leaving in December. I don't know how long they will be gone, so I'm doing the 18 bar mold for him. I doubt that he will need to take that many, so the rest will be for us.
I also need to make some peppermint soap or some Creamy HoneyedMint Soap. I searched through the whole soap stash last night and there is not one bar of minty soap. I think tomorrow and Friday are going to be writing and soaping days. I can't ask for anything more. Well I suppose I could, but why be greedy.
Have a wonderful day.

I'm easing into it.

Good Monday morning, I'm easing into things. I wrote ten pages yesterday and last night. I wanted to get a bit ahead because this morning I have to take a hike into the wilds of the streets of Las Vegas to go to the Post Office to mail a package. First given: I don't drive. Second given: the Post Office has the least customer friendly hours of almost any company in the world. I love the new automatic scale do it yourself powered by credit card machine. I hate how Americans love to dismantle them to see what makes them go. Loves them so much that the post office has to lock them up after 6pm at night. Just the time those machines would be the most useful is when they are not available. Yeah, I'm not dumb enough to think "they who destroy" just want to learn how they work.
My little printer who works his little butt off for me, failed the postal office test for printing the "quality" of label for the at home do-it-yourself. I did not have the heart to tell that to little Epson. So hi ho hi ho it is off to hike I go. Have I ever mentioned trying to take a bus to the Post Office, oh my dear! This Post Office is about 2.5 straight miles away. To take the bus I have to change buses twice, and the buses run once an hour, so last time, I had a three hour one way, I walked home. The bus does not run down the straight shot street from the strip to the post office, like twenty miles you can see straight shot street..swoop. No, not, don't even think. The bus runs in the other direction, so it is half mile walk to the first stop, then change bus, another two mile ride, change bus then another two mile ride.hen another half mile walk to the post office. So I'm walking, even these old legs will make it faster than that.
So I'm easing into it, and will try to get back here before it is scorching hot out.
The result of course, is all Epsons fault for not making a printer even a cheapee, that will print the Post Office spec. postage. So I'm easing into it. Have a great day..write lots.

Jeez, it is Friday again.

Remember yesterday ,about selling my antique bed. The lady backed out, she was supposed to pick it up today. Better she back out then give me a bum check. I'm still going to have money to go to the dentist, my sister is sending me some of my inheritance money. For now I still resemble the Beverly Hill Billies, and I'm glad I did not go to the dentist first...but the money should be here maybe Monday or Tuesday..and then I will call the dentist. The bed still needs to be sold. So, the antique dealer will probably look at it over the weekend or early next week. The monster bed will cost between six and seven hundred dollars to ship between where it is in Cali and here in Vegas. It is worth in the area of 1500 or more bux. The closest I can date it is between 1870 and 1900. Any bidders?
Yesterday, was a fun writing day, I wrote five pages just like they were flowing through my fingers. Good funny stuff, I laughed out loud. Kind of a section where the character says, "There take that!!" So by the time I wrote myself out I had about 10 pages finished. The story is around 150-175 pages now. Overall I think it is good, a little more humor in it than the first one with the Rocky persona.
I could not get the damn pictures to load on the blog. All was not lost, I finally got the photos to email feature to work. I spent many too many hours yesterday trying to do the impossible dream with Mr. Clunker Computer.
Happy Friday, write lots, and just try smiling with your mouth closed.

This and That/Soaping and Antiques

I promised when I started blogging there would not be pictures on my Blog. The big reason is that my Digital Camera did not appear after the move to Las Vegas. The small reason is that the blog is about writing an adventure story. What shall I photograph today, my hands typing or me looking for inspiration on the ceiling?
Today, I am going to attempt to post some pictures of my soapmaking. Good thing I'm a better soapstress than a blog photo tech. I'm willing to try anyway.
I need to make a batch of peppermint soap, I am down to almost no peppermint soap. I make two peppermint soaps, the one I want to make is the Creamy Honey Mint. A mixture of three mint essential oils,honey and yogurt. If I have whipping cream in the freezer I'll use that instead of yogurt. Lovely soap,refreshing with the mints,smells so good and clean. The moisturizing of the honey and cream does not leave the skin gooey like slathering on the moisturizer or body lotion after the bath.

I sold my antique bed. My older than the prairie, been in the family for a lots of years bed. Cast iron, weighed a ton,the conciever of children,comforter of mothers,well earned rest stop for husbands,refuge for reading under the covers kind of kids old bed. Why did I sell that bed? I broke my @#$%^ eyetooth off at almost the gum line, and the bed will pay for the dentist. Am I angry? #$%^& do bears sleep in the forest? Wouldn't it have been nice to sell my old bed and take a cruise or better yet buy the new computer I really need.Did I mention that I was angry?

I have procrastinated long enough, the coffee is almost ready and I can not think of another excuse to wiggle out of posting pictures. Please do not hold your breath.I will not take responsibility for any holding breath deaths.
Have a wonderful day. Write lots.

I'm from Grizzly Country

The weather is turning nice again, and I decided that I had no excuse for not getting back into the walking routine. I hitched a ride over to the neaest big casino, early, and planned to play video poker for awhile, have coffee and walk back.
I have a favorite machine to play, actually I have several, but I like this machine the best, though the love for the most part is not returned. When this machine pays, it pays. But getting it to that point is a pain in the butt and expensive pain. Like a colonoscopy. So I settle in with my coffee and drop in my limit. You have all ready finished the sentence. Yes, she just wanted to play nice yesterday morning. Every three of a kind, she seems to follow with a full house, and then ditto, ditto. Every time the score was racked up, the machine would let out this little growl,snarl,hum noise.Finally, after being growled at for about fifteen minutes, and also not being intimadated by most machines, I let it know that I felt it was being quite rude. This machines are supposed to flash lights, make music, jangle bells when they payoff, not this growly thingee ma doosy. Next time it did that, on three of a kind, I bent down and whispered into the area that was grumpily humming. I whispered, "I'm from Grizzly country, missy, you don't scare me. The next hand I got four kings,paid 150.00 and the machine did not growl at me.
I walked home with 200.00 bucks, breakfast,two coffees, and a diet Pepsi. The machine was still growling when I left. I was not pressing my luck.
So this morning I am back to writing. I have not written since last Friday morning, I have pooped around with some maintenance and editing but nothing new on the board.

Pulled Up Them Socks

That is what I did yesterday, I pulled up my socks, rearranged my flip flops and told self, that any more Drek outta my fingers was not getting the bacon earned. I mean I chewed a new path through ego, work ethic,talent and any other thing I could chew on. The result almost 5000 decent storytelling, plot advancing,edited,spellchecked and revised words. I know that is not a lot of word production. Hah, that was three quarters of what I had produced the five days before. To speak nothing of the words being usable. I guess I'm back in the writing flip-flops and as soon as I finish my salad snack I'm back working on this new technique that I learned. I was reading a famous mystery novelist latest book for the second time, I really like the way she writes, when out of the blue I saw the composition of her book, how she wove that character around. Wow, I went to Faye Kellerman, Jonathan Kellerman and Tom Clancy and somewhere in each of those books they used that same technique. I had never noticed it before.I tried it and shoot, that works really good.
Technically the manscript is one third written to the first draft stage, but I'm probably going to throw out at least ten pages and/or rewrite them .So let's just say that by the end of business today, I will be one third through the sequel to Mrs. Got Rocks.

It is Friday

It is Friday and I'm glad, and I do not know why. This morning's production includes one load of laundry, not even put away, one man's shirt ironed, and 1330 new words written. The laundry is cleaned, but still not trained to fold and put itself away. The shirt is all ready out the door covering the youngest son, and each and every one of the words is drek,crap,junk and I'm going to puke boring.
Then while producing that junk it occurred to me that I cannot spell the easiest darn words. I can spell some extremely darn words that no one uses in every day life, but not something as easy as the word "difficult". Paradigm, I can spell. Have you ever, ever heard anyone in normal everyday conversation say paradigm. Me either, I rest my case. Thank God, it is Friday.

Coffee is dripping.

Yesterday the Yarn Harlot gave her blog the news that her lap top had failed over the weekend. Her manuscript with a deadline two weeks away was on the laptop. The new bookette was not lost because Stephanie Pearl McPhee had run a backup the week before she went on tour. Well, I'm here to tell you that there was smoke coming out of my feet as I raced into the supply desk for a ream of paper and did a print out of my new manuscript.
One might ask, why I didn't just do a backup disc or all those other wonderful ways to save data. 'Cause little old Hewlitt Packard is pushing ten and he don't do backup discs no more..well, he does but they are unreadable, when he is finished. He writes backup discs in a language from another galaxy. So I printed out my seventy-seven pages of new stuff and breathed a sigh of relief.
The sun is almost up and the coffeemaker has stopped singing "Pufferbellies", so I can go to work.