Getting slower

Nothing on SBs till tomorrow, at the earliest.

I hit over 60K for NaNoWriMo, which is officially over in an hour. Worked on some stuff in Derry when Brendan's 12 but due to turn 13 in just over a month. I took an hour to try and find out if Derry had a bus depot in 1968 like they do now, or if the Ulsterbus just went to a certain spot to pick people up, like it still does in the smaller towns. No luck so I worked around it. Something to add to the list of things to find out.

Right now, I'm just waiting for money. I have a check coming from the SB group and one from the publisher I did so much work for, but he's poor-mouthing, again, and I'm thinking I'm about to get stiffed -- for nearly $6600. At the same time, he's talking about me doing more work for him. If I do one more thing for this guy before I'm paid in full, I'm a worthless pile of horse-hockey.

Life in the slow lane

Due to yesterday's technical difficulties, I'm working on POS, right now -- reading and making notes for the first section of the story, the part in Derry while Brendan is growing up. This is the scariest part for me, because I know so little about it outside the events that made international news. I'm skating over things like what people ate and what games the kids played until the British Army came in and took over the playgrounds for their tanks and APCs; I'm still digging for this information and may see about contacting people associated with NICRA to ask if I can pick their brains, once I make my next trip.

But before I go I want a first draft done, and this section is the leanest when it comes to what I've written. I probably have 3, maybe 4 chapters left to complete the Houston section, and Brendan's return to Derry is about 2/3 done. I did find a great site detailing the Irish census of 1911 and showing just how crowded the Bogside area of the city was, even back then. So back to it. Even if I'm writing crap, at least it'll be done and available for correction once I get better information. Hopefully I'll learn more about everything once I get to NI.

I learned I have a fan of my writing on FaceBook. And I now have reviews of all my books on Amazon, and overall they're very positive. Gives me encouragement.

58,400 words

And nothing done on the SB script. Technical trouble. So I worked on another chapter of POS in Houston and once I'd finished it, finished reading a book about a gay vampire detective in NYC.

And now I'm brain dead. Think I'll go to bed early, tonight; tomorrow's shaping up to be fun.

Tired

Yesterday was rough, bouncing back and forth between POS and the script for AAAS, which is now undergoing its 9th draft at the other end then will be sent to me to polish and prettify. Quickie storyboards tomorrow, if all goes according to schedule, so I'm vaguely waiting for Brendan to awaken to let me know what's next with him.

It wasn't an easy night, last night, either. My brother was up and down either going outside to smoke or making himself something to eat...at 2:30 in the morning. My space is right next to the kitchen so when he opens the fridge, I wake up. Plus he seems to be building this habit of coughing as he goes by...like at 6am as he popped out for a cigarette.

This is how it goes for couch-surfers...or in my case, cot surfers. I've been here since December 2nd of last year, and nothing about it is changing till the beginning of January, at the earliest. I never thought I'd be in this position at this age. The one true positive about this is...well, two positives are...my mother's health is better and she's back on schedule with her doctors. She may even begin physical therapy and have her gum disease addressed, soon. It only took me all year to get her back in the habit of keeping her appointments. And I finished 3 screenplays and 3 novels and am well on the way to having a 4th novel in first draft, one that I've been trying to get going in my mind for 20 years. Plus I've managed to live off my piddly savings and occasional jobs the whole time without too much whining. I don't have any other life, but...

Oops -- mom's up. I need to take a run to the store. Or maybe I'll just walk it. Give my brain time to reassert itself.

56,700+

And another Houston chapter done, a meandering talk with a friend named Jacob that segues into what it was like to be a Jewish boy in Texas in the early 60's, when good "Christian" people had no problem referring to Jews as Christ-killers, especially since so many were helping in the civil Rights Movement in the South, at the time.

Feeling a bit brain dead...and Brendan's contemplating tomorrow's journey.

Version 6

The Triple-A-S script is now about to hit 7th draft and is up to 3 1/2 pages, which is WAY too long. We'll need to start cutting and condensing like crazy over the next couple drafts, and maybe even through the preliminary storyboards as I figure out what can be shown visually and cut verbally. Then it still has to be approved by the client before a full set of SB's is done. Then it goes to the geeks who will make amazing images bring life to our work via Flash and Flip and Fiddle and whatever else this style of computer graphics art is called.

I stayed up too late, last night, making notes on POS. I stapled a couple pages together and wrote out a basic time-line, and now have lots of post-its on them to jog my memory when more writing is done. Brendan's trying to decide if he wants to go through this issue or that moment, still, so I'll have to wait. Without complaint, too, since it took me so damned long to get around to letting him tell me his story.

Little shit just smirked at me.

Do I sound crazy, yet? Give me time; I'll convince the world of my psychosis -- hee-hee.

Back to the grind and glory...

I took yesterday off from writing and had just one real meal of the day -- which was PLENTY. My mother and I met my brother, Shawn, and sister-in-law, Melissa, at a restaurant called Ryan's in New Braunfels, and we were joined by her son and daughter-in-law and a friend of theirs. Kelly was out late, the night before, so decided to stay home; he made it to work this morning, but it's dragging on him.

Ryan's is a large buffet-style place, one of those all-you-can-eat-for-one-price joints that actually encourages you to stuff yourself. The food was all right and the one big positive on it is, they don't salt or butter their veggies; you get to do that to your own taste. Normally Texas joints layer on the salt and butter to the point I can't eat at some restaurants, it's so heavy. The one big negative is, they jammed so many tables into that building, it was hard to get around, especially since nearly every single table was jammed with people.

Today, I'm back to the script job and may begin preliminary storyboards to work out how to trim down the narration. Brendan's taken a bit of a lie-down, as well, and is currently figuring out his next revelation. I have a feeling it'll be furthering his run in with the KKK. I have some of it written, but it's not working for me, yet. No real connection...and that's a growing part of this story -- the connections between people and places and things, even from thousands of miles and entire worlds apart.

SB Project

I sent in a new 3-page version of the script for the storyboards, which is about a page too long. It's been shifted to first person and is more specific; I just need to figure out how to keep it as detailed as it is while cutting it down. Maybe using images to take the place of words more. I dunno. We'll see how this one comes across. It's not unusual for me to do about a dozen drafts of a script like this before everyone's happy.

I got my winner's certificate from NaNoWriMo, already. It was a PDF and I printed it out. Now just need to get it framed and add it to the numerous other winner's certificates I have on the wall.

Seems I've started something with the characters in my head, now that I'm working on "A Place Of Safety." They want their stories told, as well. I've worked up a dozen more that I could put into book form not to mention completing the final chapters of "Bobby Carapisi" and "Rape In Holding Cell 6." Looks like the rest of my life is planned out...and screw film. Even with all my awards and good finishes in competitions, I still can't even get agents to respond to me. Oh, well.

Quick add -- Happy Thanksgiving. No long sermons on the meaning of it all. Just --
Greet
Eat
Chat
Sleep
Enjoy.

Letting something else sit...

To give me a break away from the job script and get some perspective, I worked up a mock for a book cover on "A Place Of Safety" -- which is how it's decided to be titled. And it does feel a bit more complete.

Now off to get Kelly then back to the script.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Happy Turkey to all and to all a good bite...of it.

Job

I got a very rough first draft done of the script for my storyboarding. Now I'm waiting to get feedback on it. It's to anchor a visual enticement for becoming a member of The American Association for the Advancement of Science, and right now the thing's just a basic collection of information in the order I'd present it with some gobbledygook to connect it. But during my research, I found this great quote by Maria Mitchell, the first female astronomer in America, to cap it off -- "We especially need imagination in science. It is not all mathematics, nor all logic, but is somewhat beauty and poetry." Doesn't hurt she was once a member of AAAS.

Hmm...Brendan's getting itchy. He wants to talk about Honoree...and I think I know why, the little scamp.