Cutting...cutting...

Chopped another page and a half from what I have, so far, on CK and rearranged a bit of the outline I'm following. I also added back a character I'd chopped because it worked better to have them in. Well, I hadn't so much cut them as reassigned them so all I had to do was assign them back to where they were to begin with.

I got another royalty check for The Lyons' Den. Not as much as last year, but it's something. Once I'm done with this first draft of CK, I'm going to read some online stuff about selling your books. I'm trying everything I can -- from the blog to Facebook to the website to getting other blogs to reference them...and it sort of seems to finally be making a difference...but I'm a long LONG way from Steven King territory.

I did a giveaway on GoodReads for David Martin -- 5 copies of the book shipped out for free to people selected by the website. The deal is, they're supposed to give it a review once they read it...but I'd gotten nothing, so far. Not sure if that means they didn't like it or they haven't read it. Being a paranoid writer, I lean more to the former than latter explanation.

It's muggy, tonight; I think I'll hit the pillows early.

Quick start...slow going...

After getting so much done on Carli's Kills, I've hit the slow zone...not that I care. It's slowly unfolding before my eyes, and Carli's helping clear out the unnecessary from the critical points in the story. So I go with the flow, for now...so long as the flow goes.

Zeke's doing backup for Carli, shaking his head when I get too verbose with him. He's not much of a talker, and I love to have my characters talk. But he's reminding me of a script I was writing with a man who'd escaped from Serbia, during the civil war.

We worked up 40 pages of him tracking some snipers, helping some local villagers capture one of them and exact their own revenge on him, and him then taking an American photographer hostage to force the authorities to release his brother. In all those pages, he had maybe twelve lines of dialogue. But then it shifted to America and we had no idea where to go with it.

I sort of did the same with KAZN -- until the ending, when the lead explains what's really going on. But there were some points where I went for pages without dialogue...so I know I can do it. I just need to keep my focus.

That's the hard part -- focus. I've been doing this for so long but have yet to figure out how to get anywhere with it in a way that I can actually handle. Sometimes I just can't get the passion fired up. It's so much easier to just sit and stare and wonder why I got nowhere...

As most writers do.

Quick note: Eric Cantor got canned. Apparently he was too liberal for the Tea Party in his district. Eric Cantor...too liberal? I cannot even begin to understand how anyone could think that. I'm happy he's gone; he is a vile excuse for a man, and the idea of Karma biting him in the ass is just too delicious. But the one replacing him is mentally ill, and that scares me.

But that's a large portion of America, today.

...And a bit with a dog...

Zeke got himself a puppy. Thor. He's the kind of guy who'd have a dog or two as companions. And any girl he likes would have to like the dog, too...and it her.

I added a few more pages, this evening, and dropped half of what I was going to transfer from book format. As the story's evolved, it's shed a lot of superfluous nonsense. First draft'll still be clunky, but tighter than my first drafts usually are.

Carli's also done something that surprised me, but I don't want to say what it is because I'm not 100% on it, yet...though she is. And she led me to a bit where someone gets pushed off a high place and falls to their death, screaming, then cut to Carli smacking a pool ball into a pocket. Our homage to Hitchcock.

I don't see this being over 100 pages long. I know the tendency these days is to make action-suspense movies 2 hours plus, but that's silly for a story this straightforward and clean.

At least, I hope it is.

CK Jumps Ahead

I spent much of today coordinating what I had for Carli's Kills -- shifting from book to screenplay format and revisiting what I'd already written as a script. Turns out I've got the opening 32 pages pretty much set, and the final 22 pages done, with a few bits in between and one section of the book part that still needs to be translated into Final Draft.

I'd forgotten I bought a license to use this image for the book's cover. but it so fits the story, I may use it to work up a faux poster or post cards or something to get notice for the script. I still want to use Logan McCree's face somewhere...though I've been looking at Alex Minsky a lot. I wonder how he'd look with blond or sandy hair? Maybe red-headed?

I don't know if he's taking acting classes, is the thing. I've seen Logan act and he's good, but he's German and has that lilt to his pronunciations. Of course, Zeke's Nordic...and they're all on the Baltic Sea...and it'd be funny to suggest a bi-sexual porn actor as the heterosexual lead in a female empowerment movie.

I also finished Firefly, and I'm glad I watched it all. Gina Torres' Zoe would be a good role model for Carli. All business but hot for hubby...which I can see in a shlubby, geeky, blond-boy kind of way.

I think Carli and Zeke are ready for the story to play out, because they're giving me ideas on how to streamline it and add depth without extra pages. I'm going to try and keep the dialogue like what I wrote earlier -- very terse and secretive, yet revealing in what it doesn't say.

Tall order for a guy who loves his words.

Laziness...

Achieved nothing today except working out expenses for this week of trips...a 2 hour nap...and watching Gone With The Wind for the umpteenth time. Dunno why I did that except Scarlet O'Hara is one strong bitch when it comes to making her way through the world. Not even a bastard like Rhett Butler can keep up with her. Guess I wanted a touchstone for Carli.

Only Carli's more in control than Scarlet, and better able to handle herself when trouble comes. As it always does. I'm thinking of adding a bit where Carli gets grabbed from behind by a fellow soldier and she knocks his teeth out or breaks his nose with her elbow...and it turns out it was an officer. Of course, he says she attacked him without provocation and she  is drummed out or forced to resign or something. I'm not sure about this, yet...it's still in the vague background of the story...but it's leading up to something.

I was going to work this as a horror story with a revenge twist, but now I'm not so sure. That would intimate that Carli's a monster, and she's not; she's an avenging angel...and yet, the justice she meets out is fulfilled in a manner that's close to horror. At least, it is for the people who deserve it. Hmm...maybe she's got some of the devil in her, too.

No wonder Zeke's attracted to her.

Quickie...

Like an idiot, I left my MacBook charger at the hotel and didn't notice it until I was checked into the airport and ready to do some work...and couldn't find it. First I tried to call the rental car to see if I'd left it there, because then I could just go out and get it before my flight. They wouldn't even answer their phone. So I checked the Best Western and they said they found it. I'm hoping it's the same one. Thing is, they won't send it to me till Monday. So either I buy a new charger or I make do till then...and the little buggers are $80! I can use my desktop for a week.

Not much going on in Indiana. I drove around downtown Indianapolis and saw they have a little river-walk, of sorts, and some nice riverside museums and such, but they don't do a whole lot with the actual river.

I think of Austin with Town Lake (AKA: Ladybird Lake) as the model for a great riverfront. St. Louis has a good one, as does New Orleans. And San Antonio's river-walk will never be equaled, no matter how much the city tries to ruin it.

But overall this town hits me as one of those places I think most people would want to escape from. Wide and open and generic.

Since I was done with everything by noon, I considered driving down to Bloomington to see where Breaking Away was shot...but as much as I love that movie, I couldn't see doing it. The town I was in picking up the books was so much like it in the movie...I think I got satiated.

Now I'm waiting on my plane...which doesn't take off for another couple hours. I should be home about midnight, again. And I have done the outline for CK. It's a script. I'll shift everything over to Final Draft this coming week. Not sure what I'll do with it, yet...but that never stopped me, before.

First, however, I may sleep all day, Saturday.

En route to Indiana...

I'm sitting in Baltimore's airport waiting for my flight, and BWI just went down a major notch in my estimation. I can't buy a bottle of Dr. Pepper anywhere in this terminal, anymore. Fountain drinks usually taste more like Mr. Pibb (which I despise) but that's what I had to make do with. That's what my life boils down to, now -- whether or not I can find a bottle of DP where I am.

I didn't get home, last night, till after midnight thanks to gridlock on JFK's runways; I actually saw it building when I noticed flight after flight after flight lining up to taxi to a runway...and barely move. If I'd been on the 10:55 flight, I'd probably still be there.

This set of jobs in NYC were rough, but got done on schedule...and that's no thanks to my Google Maps navigation. En route to my packing job, yesterday, it seems I got caught in a delayed program that didn't tell me to do stuff until it was too late for me to do it. I wound up heading the wrong way on the 678 and it was telling me to go straight, but that would have taken me right back where I came from, so so I ignored it and got off and turned around...and then it kept on like nothing had happened. I finally shut it down and started it up, again, and it was happier. Coming back it was good, too.

I have to admit, the damn thing does come in handy. The street I needed to turn on was surrounded by construction and had no sign to designate it, so I'd have missed it had I not had the navigator yelling at me to turn left here.

I have gotten more done on the outline for CK, though not as much as I wanted. Last night, I was so tired and so upset about my dinner being crappy, I couldn't really think until I had some raspberry sorbet from Pinkberry. Self-indugence works. Then this morning I had two cups of tea before I got on the flight to Baltimore, so I was able to work on the plane...and figured out some better lines for Carli and Zeke when they're doing their emotional dance. They're turning into very taciturn characters...in a good way, I hope.

The more I get into it, the more sure I am it's gonna be a script, first. It doesn't seem to want anything more...which is unusual, considering what the stories I connect with usually want done.

Well...unusual for me.

I know where Taylor Swift lives...

...in NYC, and if she paid $22m for that penthouse, she's got WAY too much money. I was made privy to this information (even though I really don't care) by the man whose books and memorabilia I was packing. I was done and waiting for the driver to show up to get them, and the client was tossing a fit because the guy was running late and couldn't find a parking space...and somehow that came up. I think because he was trying to let me know he was worth a lot of money because his loft just doubled in value, thanks to her.

But I gotta tell you -- I took one look at that building, and looked down at the entrance to it, and looked at the other buildings, and I thought, "Bitch, you got took." But then again, we are talking about a city where townhouses sell for nine-figures...and I do mean nine. The penthouse on top the Woolworth Tower listed for $110m.

That one, I can almost understand. It's an iconic building and is remarkably beautiful. I even made reference to it in my horror script, Darian's Point -- Thomas, the lead male, is a successful architect in Boston who wants to design buildings like it. Oh, I should note: DP is set in 1910, when the building was still in the idea stages. I also hear it's a 5 level penthouse (UPDATE: It's 9 levels!!!). But still...the notion of spending that much money on a place to sleep is just ludicrous to me.

Must be why I still live like a college student.

Too pooped to piddle...

Gonna sit in a tub and dream about taking early retirement...and wonder if I do CK like a bodice-ripper, if I could make enough money to live comfortably in some other world.

Carli's kills were all for love...

Would this work as a cover and quote? Will women buy it in droves? Or men? Should I set it in 19th century England or the Middle Ages? Maybe Viking times; give Game of Thrones a run for its money.

Do I sound loopy enough for this?

Non-stop week...

I'll be in NYC Monday - Wednesday then in Indiana Thursday and Friday. Racking up the miles and points. Worst part -- I have to get up at 4am for my first flight. Gag...I am NOT a morning person. I wouldn't bother going to bed only I head straight to the first packing job from the airport; don't even check into my hotel till after I'm done for the day. Lots of DP tomorrow.

I've set myself a task for the week -- to have a solid outline for Carli's Kills by Sunday. I worked up a very loose 15-line one while doing laundry and saw where changing Zeke's situation in the story works better. Once it's done, then I can let it gestate while I dig back into Owen Taylor. Should be easy enough. HA!

I'm still locked on Logan McCree as the image for Zeke -- except for him not missing a leg. Alex Minsky did lose one in Afghanistan and now models -- both underwear and regular clothes -- but he's all dark-haired and I see Zeke as blond or sandy. It's important for him to be as close as possible to my mental image.

Still, this is a good one for Zeke. Totally. Plus Logan is German and has haunted eyes.

Hmm...it sounds like I'm swinging strongly back to making this a script...