Getting there

It's odd...but yesterday I got the feeling I'd passed the halfway mark with "Place of Safety." I filled in more about Brendan being in Houston -- he's not crazy about the heat -- and learning what's going on with his family back in Derry, putting me at just over 46,000 words and making up chapter 2 of part 2. He also fixes a car owned by his aunt and uncle and rewires a steam iron, setting up what he'll be doing while he's there, and discovers that he's been banished from Northern Ireland...which will add to the tension when he has to return.

But until yesterday, I'd been thinking this book would wind up being 110-120K; now I'm thinking 90,000...and I'm not sure how I feel about that. It seems short, which is silly. I won't know if I've done right by the story till this draft is finished, I've stepped away from it for a while and gone through it, again, with a fresh eye. I guess I'm just so used to thinking of it being longer, anything less than that is me not doing enough when reality is, 90-100K equals a 300+ page book.

Okay...this does not sound like it will be an easy day. Already my mother and brother are yakking at each other and fussing about and making a lot of noise, and that's on top of me already having trouble getting going. Yesterday I nearly had a meltdown with mom when she asked me to pack up some frames and put them in storage...which I did...and which then began to shift into completely rearranging the living room furniture! I talked her out of it, but in order to keep from losing it when she wondered about doing something else, I locked myself in the bathroom and shaved. Then I set up my sign, sat down at my laptop and started writing. And she left me alone. Don't know if I can handle both of them, though. I may run for someplace to just sit and work and try to be done with the challenge, today or tomorrow.

As regards going to NI for research, if this money comes through that'll have to be in January; I have a couple of possible bookfair jobs lined up for the first half of February.