Derry, Northern Ireland

Derry, Northern Ireland
A book I'm working on is set in this town.

Friday, November 20, 2015

Upside down..

I've been totally out of whack since I got to Hong Kong. The flight left at 1:20am and arrived at 5:30 am local time. I did a fair amount of writing, but after a while I zoned so dozed, a bit. I cannot sleep on an airplane. Hell, I can't even sleep with someone else in the room; I'll doze and wake up and doze and wake up all night. But that little bit kept me going till 1 pm, so I could get everything done that needed to be. Then I crashed until almost 9 and had to eat in the hotel because everything else around me was closed.

I stayed up to work on UG some more...like till 3am...then took a nap before heading over to the book fair venue for the move-in. I really like this venue -- the Hong Kong Maritime Museum. It overlooks the harbor, is a nice open space, and since the restrooms are downstairs I caught a glimpse of the exhibit on Chinese junks...and want to see the rest. But I was beat so came back to the hotel to nap, some.

Letting Dev be his own little devil has made the story more dynamic...at least, to me. He now bounces between regret at what he did to Reg, to anger at being treated like scum for doing it, to confusion as to why he cares about what he's done since he never did before.

At first, he thought Reg was like a vice decoy out to mess with someone over what Dev considers nothing, but then he learns Reg was trying to help catch a serial killer by putting himself in danger...and it messes Dev up. He hated cops thanks to how they brushed off his father's physical abuse of his mother as well as himself and Colin, his brother, but Reg's action have jolted him out of that...as regards him; Dev still has a visceral dislike of the Chief Constable trying to question him. I'm still playing it cagey by having his earlier assaults be against men who've wronged him or his brother in some way...so all kinds of roller-coastering here.

Officially, I'm up to 46,000 words and maybe halfway done, but I'm still in the process of shifting Dev's attitudes over what I've written so I'm only just over 40K. I'll make the challenge number, but I don't think I'll have the book done by the end of the month.

Last night I had a nice meeting with a friend of my buddy, Brad Rushing -- Scott Hessels, who is an artist living in Hong Kong and commissioned by Hong Kong to make conceptual kinetic sculptures. He used to work in film but, like many independent filmmakers, was barely etching out a living. Then he shifted to sculpting moving image and programming works of art...and now he's being exhibited all over the world. Fascinating man.

We went to a bar called 208 on Hollywood Street, -- an Italian pizzeria with 2 for 1 Peronis -- and sat and talked. I had more beer in those 2 hours than I've had in the previous month, but it was fascinating. He's led a much-more out-there life than I have.

Unless you consider the books I've written...

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