There's a lot...

I've read through everything I've written for P/S and I think I have about 45 or 50% of the story in place, mainly in the first part -- Derry -- and the last part -- Return. The Houston section is fairly sparse, but I do see the structure in it. Still, it meanders too much and doesn't resonate, yet, though the meanderings will wind up paying off, in the end.

It's funny, but the part set in Houston is the bit that most intimidates me, now. I lived in the city from 1985 to 1993, before moving to LA, and know a fair amount about it...but Brendan's story takes place between 1973 and 1981, and I'm not sure about where the city was in its redevelopment, at the time.

This sketch is from the middle Seventies, as I understand it. I first went to Houston in 1973, with some cousins to watch the Astros lose to the Mets in the Astrodome, so we didn't go downtown or even drive around much -- which was silly because I had a '68 Charger with a 318 and a slapstick tranny...and it purred all the way there and back. It was a great car...that got broadsided when I was en route to work, one morning, in San Antonio. I was nearly knocked into a house. Destroyed it...but the car protected me.

I'd had a Bug before that, which I did not like. I got rid of it when I found the Charger, and only bought it because it was so cool. I knew I'd look good in it instead of like a poor relation in the Beetle. Man...if the wreck had happened in that VW, I probably wouldn't be here.

Funny how sometimes you do make the right decision, even if it is for the wrong reasons.