"Darkies"

There are still people around who refer to African-Americans by that term. I met one, today. That she's also a Tea-Bagger should come as no surprise...nor should the fact that she's elderly and has a black maid. So what was my reaction? I changed the subject.

I'm torn about that. I mean, the woman was a client and she's old so nothing I say will change her mind and might get the job cancelled. But still, I let this woman's casual racism pass without comment. And why did I do that? To be honest, I wanted to understand why she thought such nonsense, because by this point I'd already learned she's lived in other countries and traveled extensively. So as I packed books, I got her to talk about her travels and her life and history...and I came to see that she was probably the epitome of an "Ugly American." The type who think the world revolves around them, and that their way is the right way and nothing else matters. God, the things she said about the Japanese along with quick snide references to British Jews and the Chinese. I felt like I was living in 1954.

And now all her friends are dead, as is most of her family, and all she has besides her two dogs and a beat-up cat is Fox News, where everyone thinks like she does -- "We of the upper-class white race are entitled to whatever we want because we're better than anyone else." And I pity her. I could write a character like her and make you feel for them, I think, because they're so displaced in the world of today, it's actually sad. Not sad enough to want to go back to how things were -- no, that I'd fight like and animal -- but these people are lost and will never be found, even after they die. And they just cannot understand that.

What mitigates my sadness is that there are so many of them across the country -- even in positions of leadership. Look at the governors of Texas and Arizona and the Sheriff of Phoenix. Look at Haley Barbour and Lindesy Graham and John McCain, not to mention Rush Limbaugh and the ever-growing psychosis of Glen Beck. They honestly cannot see how diseased they are. It's more than sad and disgusting...it's scary, in too many ways.

Nice long drive...

Much of which took place along the Susquehanna River, and if ever a stretch of property needed to be refurbished, this is it. There is this beautiful, wide, shallow stretch of non-stop rapids and gentle meanderings that is so picturesque, it hurts. But you think you can find anyplace to stop and look out over it and contemplate the perfection of a natural wonder? Not along the 11/15. It's non-stop roadway where you're only supposed to go 55 but everyone goes 70 and there's a concrete barrier along the center of the road to separate traffic.

I finally stumbled upon this odd little parking area on the river side, but only by exiting the roadway to try and turn around...then noticing the entrance directly across four lanes of traffic, which you have to take your life in your hands to cross if you want to reach it. But I did. And parked. And followed a narrow dirt road curving a short way down to the riverbed. Apparently, it used to be a boat launch...but that'd have to be a shallow boat, because the water wasn't even a foot deep there.

I got pictures and will post them when I get home. Oh...and there are no signs telling you about that parking area or access to the river. I just got lead there by the fates.

I also had to cut across massive traffic to get back onto my route to Maryland...but this time my LA driving skills came in handy. I pulled across two lanes onto a yellow lined area along the median then waited for there to be enough space between the cars headed south for me to floor it and make that SUV peel rubber as I worked my way back into traffic.

This really is a shame. The whole Susquehanna Valley is so elegant...where it's not overbuilt by strip malls and slathered with traffic lights in the worst possible manner...one place where some very tight zoning would be a blessing.

No notes on POS, today. I think I'm still drained...wait...no, here comes one now.

Unbowed, unbroken...

And nowhere near reality, at the moment. I got the final segments of this one section done and Brendan is actually relieved it's over with. I caught him smiling. Now we can go back and work on happier bits of the story. We have 517 pages with 118,036 words on them and I've printed up the new ones and put them in the folder for rewriting, later.

I have no idea if this section works or not; I'm too close to it. But it's not time to show it to anyone. No at all. Parts happen a bit too quickly and other parts linger too long. All I can say is, it works better than what I'd originally come up with and sets the ending up, better.

I honestly haven't anything more to comment on, right now. I'm writed out. And Brendan's off to himself, resting for a change. I like it better when he's happy.

Off to Maryland, tomorrow, and the NYC. Dunno how much I'll get done...but it'll be fine.

Think I'm turnin' rushin'

I'm hopping over to LA for a quick packing job -- 2 days -- then back to San Antonio for a visit and maybe a hop up to Dallas for another bit of work and back home on the 4th of September, just as things are getting in gear for a book fair. Ah, me -- travel; it's what I wanted. Why'd the TSA decide to make traveling such hell?

Tomorrow I'm working on POS. I need to, now. I've got it built up and it's time to just do it. I'll have to get ready for my trip, but I don't take much and this time I'm driving so no having to deal with airport security. It'll actually be easier in many ways.

But Brendan's ready and wants to get it over with, and I don't blame him. And something I've found is driving helps my mind sort out issues in a story, so I'll have lots of note paper with me. I know some people use a tape recorder to make notes to themselves on stories, but that just doesn't work for me. So long as I can read what I write -- and that's not always the case -- I prefer something on a slip of paper. Guess I'm just lost in the past, when it comes to that...or stuck in my ways...or technically clumsy or something.

Travelin' in circles -- sheesh

This was not a good day. I'm now driving to Maryland with boxes and packing material that we had in storage so as to get rid of them, meaning I'm leaving Sunday (450 miles), spending Monday in Maryland then driving to NYC (200 miles) and staying there Monday and Tuesday nights. Then I'm heading back to Buffalo (400 miles) to turn the rented SUV in so we don't get hit with a week's charge instead of 4 days. At least it'll be through pretty country, for the most part.

Of course, this messed with my plans to visit with friends who are coming to New York, so I went ahead and bought a plane ticket to hop down Friday and come back Saturday; that's the only way I could afford it and, to be honest, I'll have a HELL of a lot to do on Sunday to catch up with myself.

Then I pissed off a customer by misspelling his name in an e-mail (It's Stephan with a PH not a V, thank you, and DON'T call me Steve). As I was trying to assure him I wasn't some idiot who can't spell and that I would handle his job just like he wanted it, apparently I assured him too much and pissed off my supervisor, who felt I was being too compliant and detailed in how I would handle things.

Then all plans about San Antonio got changed because a packing job in LA looks like it's happening and the best time to do it is before then. Thing is, I found out I need to be in SA the 27th, so I'll have to make sure it's all right if I head for LA on the 24th and pack on the 25th so I can fly there on the 26th. What's good is, Southwest works with you on re-scheduling, without much extra charge ($7.50, unlike US Airways and Delta and United who charge you $150 just to change the ticket then hit you with additional charges for flying different days).

So...August will be my away-from-home-a-lot month and expenses through the roof. So much for saving for taxes. Maybe in September...

It was a scramble to get everything arranged -- and not all of it is completely, yet -- but my hope is to use this time away to keep writing. I'll have my laptop with me and the fact is, 75% of POS has been written on it so it feels more appropriate than my desktop, for some reason. I got rewrites done on RIHC6v1 and BC while house-sitting in Austin because I was off to myself. And I did a lot of work on RIHC6v2 while in a Motel 6 by Buffalo Airport, waiting to hear if my apartment application was accepted. And I've done some solid bits on POS while waiting in an airport for my flight. Seems I've turned into a gypsy scribe.

Oh -- when it comes to rewriting...well, actually I'm in non-stop rewrite mode. I've already have ideas about how to deepen and intensify Brendan's actions during this rough section. Notes are being made, even as I type.

So why am I typing instead of notating?

I'm a travelin' man.....

Hopping down to Annapolis, MD, driving a car one way to JFK to drop off (after I drop off a shipment) then packing another shipment and then staying an extra day to see some friends who'll be in NYC before I fly home on Saturday. I got a feeling by the 15th I'll be dog tired. And then I'm headed for San Antonio on the 25th for 6 days. Then it's back to Buffalo to prep for the Bologna, Seattle, Toronto and Boston Book Fairs, which take place over the space of of 6 weeks. Hong Kong isn't until the beginning of December, then it's quiet until February...unless there are some more packing jobs. I'm still trying to get one in LA set up but the people on the receiving end are being difficult, at best, so it may not happen.

I worked more on my article and found some things that needed changing. Now it's burned to a CD and I've got hard copies printed out, and I'll send them a copy of the article in an e-mail...and we'll see what happens. It'd be interesting to be published in a scholarly journal. But you never know -- they may laugh me off the face of the earth.

POS is getting close to boiling, again. It's been on simmer for the last few days, but it's about cooked and I need to just dive in and see what happens. Once this section is done, I'm heading back to the first section, in Derry before Brendan goes to Houston. This is how it looked about 1980, when the city had begun to rebuild itself.It still looks a bit like this...just with about double the number of skyscrapers.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

NYC's off till next week because I may have to go to the Baltimore area to pack and ship some books. We'll see how that goes. It slammed in all of a sudden and I spent much of the day pulling together prices and possibilities as to what the costs will be while handling the phones all by myself. Not that it was all that rough; it was just distracting.

Well, I wasn't in the frame of mind for POS so this evening I finished my article for RBM Journal and slipped my illustrations into a copy of it...but I don't think I'll send it off, tomorrow. I need to verify some things, and one of the illustrations comes across as too big and clumsy.

It's a long article, nearly 5000 words. I may suggest they break it up since the illustrations take up a fair bit of space. And while I currently have them grouped together in various spots, I think I'd prefer to wrap the text around them...I just don't know how to do that in my version of Word. Maybe I can do it at the shop's since that version is so much newer. I'll test it out, tomorrow.

I'm feeling nudges from Brendan. I think he wants to get this part of the writing over with. I've figured out how to make the link between the last bit and the middle bit work better; all that needs to come now is the central section...the one I'm halfway done with.

I don't think I've worked Brendan out completely in this part, yet. Some of his actions seem too easy. Of course, I moved one bit to later and will do more rearranging...hmm...it's almost like he's unable to control this part...as if it just comes out in any order and it's up to me to make sense of it....make it work. That's funny -- asking a schizo like me to make sense of something.

Drained

I spent the day working on my article for "The Journal of Rare Books and Manuscripts" -- all about how to properly pack books, maps and art for storage or shipping, illustrations (by me) included -- so I have nothing to dig into now I'm ready to work on POS. But then again, I got so much done this weekend, I may have sapped my brain too much by that, as well. After all, how much creativity is needed to discuss how best to tape up a box and lay in bubble-wrap?

I printed up the parts of POS I was working on -- 60 pages worth. I find having an actual sheet of paper in front of me and a red pen in hand helps me find errors and typos more easily. Anyway, it was a lot more than I thought, so I'm not surprised I'm a bit blank, right now. There are still some bits missing and I think for the link between two bits to work, I'll need to change an aspect of what happens in...well, I don't want to give it away, yet. Maybe not till the novel's in printed form.

Tomorrow night will be taken up with getting ready for my drive down to NYC -- yes, drive. I'm renting an SUV and taking some boxes with me. It's just under 400 miles and I need to be there by 4:30 so it'll be a bit of a rush to get off Wednesday morning. This'll be interesting. The only time I ever drove in NYC before was 30 years ago and after midnight, when the streets weren't so messed up.

Man...that was not a nice time for me. One of the few occasions in my life where I became a full-fledged asshole. I know WHY...but explanations don't excuse my brutally selfish actions,and they cost me a good friend. What's worse is, it took me years to realize just how badly I'd acted. Not very reflective of me. 'Nuff said.

I won't get much writing done while I'm there. I'll only have Wednesday and Thursday evenings to check out the city, so POS gets put aside till Saturday...which may not be a bad thing. It'll give me time to recharge my creative batteries.

Breaking my own rules

I know I shouldn't be focused on word or page count, but I'm now over 500 pages and at 114,171 words on POS. And I'm getting the feeling it will wind up being about 200,000 words long, even once I'm done editing it and removing all the repetition. It's odd how I get a notion of how long a script or story will be, and then it winds up that long and nothing I do to it from that point changes it. It's like everything's written across my psyche and all I'm doing now is finding the correct way to arrange the words since they come to me in quick sequence, sometimes.

I've been focused on Brendan's return to Derry, but only because of this one section that I had to back into. I'm close to done with it and now just need two links for it to be complete. One won't be all that hard; the other will be a bastard...but it'll be the worst part of the story for Brendan, and now maybe the rest can come out more easily.

I'm making a trip to San Antonio at the end of August. One VERY positive aspect of flying around all the time is, I built up enough miles to qualify for a free flight. So I'm using it. The thing is, I had to leave on a Wednesday and return on a Tuesday -- rather bizarre...but if it makes for an easier flight, so be it.

Oh...maybe I shouldn't have said that, not after Chicago. Because I'm changing planes in Baltimore. Uh -- oh, hell with it -- too late.

Productivity galore

I'm working on two different sections of the same part of the third book of POS. Sounds complicated but it isn't, really. I have two chapters, back to back, that are slowly filling themselves in -- one from start to finish; one where I'm linking the beginning and the end (because the middle is the hardest part to deal with). Overall, I got 14 pages done and I feel good about what's in them. They'll still need to be worked into where they fit the total scheme and timeline, but they're solid enough for now.

So I jaunted up to Niagra Falls, Canada and had a birthday dinner at Tony Roma's -- and spent a LOT on it -- then toodled on back to finish adding bits to one of the sections.

I don't really feel like writing any more, so I thought I'd share some of the places I was in, this month.

First up -- Iowa City, IA. This is the Iowa River drifting through the U. of Iowa.










And this is downtown Milwaukee from the breakwater.





I passed over the Mississippi, too.









But nothing from Chicago. Airports tend to be dreary places...and O'Hare at 3am with stranded people wandering about was just too creepy.