Drat. I don't think I am allowed to post pictures.

Suffice it to say I did finish my novel, it was over 50,000 words, it did have a character arc, interesting characters and needs a rewrite.

And I did it in eleven days! Boom!

Let's see if this works.

44,000 words. 6000 to go. It's now 2:34 am. I have until midnight to finish. I plan to sleep twelve hours.

That will give me nine hours to write six thousand words, change my title, remember my name and password and upload the thing.

Tomorrow is all about why Tad will not touch my protagonist and then the final escape. Or is it an escape?

I had an odd experience today. My work often makes me laugh and cry. Today it had a totally different effect. Now I admit that a certain person was going on about wild goings on so I guess my brain was already down that path.

I was writing a story about a strange incident that happened to me in DC. Now in real life the hot Brit asked me what I was doing that night and I said going to home to write.

I got to that part and I started thinking about what would happen if I didn't go home. So I wrote this seven page love scene. I only stopped there as a dig at some other characters in the book.

Now I was listening to Counting Crows live concert in Paris in 1994 and I have this thing for hearing guys with nice voices speak French, or even say my name in a French accent.

I got into such a turmoil writing this story that I had to stop and play pogo for awhile. Some sort of shooting off rockets game. I know, I know, life is symbolism.

I have a feeling I am going to write a script right after this. I'll probably try and get the basics down in two weeks because I think PGL3 is on it's way to which I say a hearty hell yeahs! I miss me my PGL friends.

I might do Wrinkly Old Men on the Run.

Night all.

23,300 words. I am terribly tired.

Chris and I went over to Jeff's parents for dinner. Betty and Curt. They are very nice and articulate. Jeff was there too. Too sleepy to continue.

Night.

Writing

Up to 16,00 words. New plot point involving my protagonist breaking into a disabled boy's room and striking up a friendship. Too tired to type.

Shout Out

To all the supportive people at the Vine who know I can do this.

12,000 words.

Shout out to David aka Nick Cage. Looking forward to seeing you.

Great big shout out to Ads!

I have missed you so much. You're the inspiration for Hearts and Flowers, you gave me much craic and I'm so happy to hear from you.

I'm not letting you out of that Kitta promise!

Huge, huge, hugs and kisses.

Writing

10,000 words on Bluer Than the Night Sky. I've decided it's high concept. Catcher in the Rye meets Close Encounters meets One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. HA!

Junks

I'm in a peculiarly giddy mood. I posted Saying Goodbye at the big thread at the Vine and I cried a little but then I felt better.

I went for a walk today. Big whoop, around the block, but still.

It's not even midnight yet and I'm feeling like I got a lot done.

Parent teacher conference for Cam this morning. I think that went pretty well. His teachers are going to sign his agenda book and that should help with the not doing homework thing. He's reading at the ninth grade level, three grades up or wowever you say that. His math skills are also mad math skillz.

He needs more positive reinforcement and to not feel overwhelmed by school.

And now for some fun, I'm about to get the fig and the second Pogo badge of the week. Oh wait, my third because I got the super duper badge and the sweet tooth badge.

I had this kind of odd thing happen with Toxin by Robin Cook. I have been wanting hamburgers and I know they are evil so I read it again. But I just got as far as the horribly sad part and put it away. I forgot I didn't finish reading it. DOI!

Oh wait I'm sorry, it was a very interesting premise,

I wrote this thing after Danny died. It was originally for a writing challenge at PGL. I knew it was time for me to write something about his death but I wasn't sure what.

I logged on to PGL and popped into the writing forum just to see what was going on. Someone had posted a challenge to write anything about two people saying goodbye, knowing they would never see each other again.

I wrote a piece called Saying Goodbye. It was about me going into the hospital room after he was dead to say goodbye.

I got a lot of positive responses to the piece. A few months later I put it up at Zoetrope. I got kind of mixed responses. Some people thought my son was dead, I guess because I was talking about reading to Danny and taking him to the movies. It never crossed anyone's mind that he was in a wheelchair.

I went over there today to find a poem I wrote that I want to include in Blue Than the Night Sky. I found a comment by one of the administrators of Zoe. It said Interesting premise.

All could think is this is no premise, this is my life. But I did pit it up as a short story so I guess that's my fault. And maybe my life is a premise and I just don't get it

6200 words. To dream the impossible dream. Damn I am tired. started on sulfa drugs today. Could they be making me tired?

I had the strangest day. I was very happy earlier in the day. Then I got a call about a ridiculous legal problem that threw me into a funk.

I had this vision of me in a boarding house getting older and older, muttering to myself, not writing anything, but thinking I am.

I finished Post Office. It was sort of plotless. Almost like a long short story.

I sat down and started writing like that. As if I were talking to someone who was not going to judge me and would laugh in the right places. I wrote 2100 words without a whole lot of effort. It was odd.

I saw something a friend wrote earlier saying he writes certain things because it brings a smile to someone's face. He's right, it does. Reading that brought a smile to my face. I'm going to think on that and try and get some sleep.

Only 48,000 words to go. A friend says I can do it. I'm always touched when someone has faith in me.

Dixie Chicks Cowboy Take Me Away is the song of the moment. Right, time to sleep, work in less than six hours.

Edited to protect privacy

Writing

2000 words by sheer force of will.

I named my boys Dakota, Fender and Gibson. The moms are Savannah and Shiv. Unless I come up with an even cooler name for Shiv.

And now to try and sleep. This flu shot is hurting my arm and I've got the chills.

Oh yes I also wrote and submitted my column to the Shank.

I plan to use the obscene phone call I got today in the next bit of F and H. Boom!

Oh y'all have to check this out. Great fun.

http://thesurrealist.co.uk/slogan

I've gotten slogans like The World's Writing Marketplace.

Look For The Writing Label.

And with my most popular screen name, backgroundgrrl:

Come Fly The Friendly Backgroundgrrl.

Ha ha ha ha ha! I wonder if that's why I dream so much about flying.

Geo with the Less Fattening Centres.

Y'all know I am reading blogs out of Iraq. I swain, I could totally think that everyone who writes a blog in Iraq is twnty-four. Salom Pax, Riverbend, Sean of Turning Tables and some other blog I read maybe three lines of.

Enough fooling around. To my novel! AWAY!!!!!

(is there anything more pathetic than self deception?)

And you - just remember if you wrap yourself in daffodils I will wrap myself up in chains.

We're such crazy babies, little monkeys, we're so fucked up, you and I..

Shout out to everyone else because I just got very, very tired

All y'all who make my world keep on spinning and make it a brighter place, thanks, I could've done it without you but oh man would it ever have been boring.

Shout out to loansbyguru

lots o love to lbg for introducing me to cheeseburgers in a can. A grrl's got to learn something new every day, right?

Shout out to question and ben

Guys, when is the pay per view, iron cage death match?

Shout out to jason

Kill Bill, Kill Bill, Kill Bill!

Shout out to McC

For so much wisdom and letting me see the forest.

Shout out to Spittle

If a grrl's got to miss her idol and be sick hundreds of miles from home you are the perfect companion. You, my friend, are the king of the rain. And so much more.

Shout out to khouriana

You know just what to say and when to say it. Things will get better. They have to. Love and lurv.

Shout out to stony and lily

For sharing 26,000 posts. Free Petunya! Butt nekkid vorpal!

Shout out to Chris, Matt, Ben

For PGL, my home away from home. Bring it back, dudes.

Shout out to:

Fisher and Big Rhino and chow and everyone who believes that grrls should have fun.

Shout out to edgewyze, rollerfink,and safetydancer

For oh so much but mostly for the strangest journey ever and Mitch the Badger.

Shout out to filmie

For understanding and letting me cry on your shoulder. You're only the second guy to ever let me soak a shirt with tears. And for saying there's always a place on your set for me.

Shout out to charmpri

For believing and Disneyland.

Shout out to dfogg/caleb the innocent/life is beatiful

For everything but mostly for how to grow.

Shout out to the real live preacher

For forgiveness I can live with. For saying what I needed to hear without even knowing it.

Shout out to Missy

For carrying messages and just being a great friend.

Shout out to Alex

For telling me the three date thing was not in stone and to never do anything I didn't want to do. And for giving me a look behind the scenes. Now if only my mail didn't bounce back.

Shout out to Will

For always giving me excellent advice and making me think, think, and then think some more.

Shout out to ZC

I'm not allowed to be maudlin so I'll just hold my breath until you come home.

Shout out to the Voice of Sensitivity and Reason

Ignore the naysayers and take care of your cold.

Shout out to vorpal

Seraph I would not be here if you hadn't kept me here through sheer force of will.

Remember the night of the bird? Your response was the moment when I thought things might be okay. My love for you knows no bounds. Neither does his.

~franny

Shout out to Hil

My evil, or least flirty, twin. Sistah you rock on.

Shout out to Sues

Sister from another mother I adore you. Music festival or bust next year, okay? No Neil's getting in the way. If I need to I'll bring him along. *swoon*

Shout out to Sandy

Alex Trebeck is an idiot. Dude at Time Warner is an idiot. Let's face it, nearly everyone is a muttonhead. But we'll keep on keeping on until they come crawling to us.

Shout out to Carolyn

Remember you belong in the service of the Queen

and you deserve a little (a lot) more

big hugs for you every hour until you need them a little less

Shout out to Donna

Baby girl I'm sending those healing vibes your way. The erotic shapechanging story is waiting for your beautiful drawings.

Shout out to Monikka

You can never get my blog to open so I could say all kind of rotten things about you but I wouldn't. Cooler than cool one, thanks for the jokes, the tears, the appreciation of my poetry. Don't let THE MAN get you down. ;-)

Shout out to pao

Aint no friend like a ninja polar bear friend. There aren't a whole heck of a lot of polar bears who would keep me company for five hours so Neil could draw me the best Morpheus.

Here's to us and Percival and Jake. May we live long and prosper and attain the hammock and lemonade.

Shout out to ffin83

Ad you are a dear and you made me laugh through my tears when I needed to laugh the most. xoxo

Shout out to Mac

Part of the reason you are such a good friend is that we share a loss. But even if we didn't you'd still be someone I strive to emulate. Strong moral values combined with compassion is very hard to top.

Shout out to my favourite scamp

Kenny the Rooster you brighten my days and always make me smile. We all need a good scamp in our lives and you are as good as they come.

Shout out to Kevin

My very dear friend Kevin wants to review movies. I think that's a terrific goal and he'd do a splendid job.

So Kevin I suggest the Green Man Review to you. I plan to send them a sample review when I have a spare hour or so (yeah right.) If you like fantasy or horror you should like the Green Man Review.

That second link is to the review page.

Writing


This is funny. I wrote this outline in the big thread at the Vine. I started writing tonight with a sort of fatalism. I'm already way off from my outline. My characters have supposed to have very dull lives upt till now. They're supposed to be called Chaya and something else I forgot.

They're now called Savannah and possibly Pus. Pus is playing the drums in her backyard wearing a bikini and Savannah hates her.

Pus' name used to be Rainbow Sunshine Forest Moon Dawn Sunset. Her parents were hippies.

I'm rather proud of all this.

Sadly less than 500 words. That leaves only 49,500 to go. I can do it, on my head!

Health

Carolyn thinks I might have whooping cough. That would certainly explain the insane amount of time I've been sick, why my lungs are clear when I'm coughing til I can't breathe and why I vomit after coughing so much.

I was reading about it last night and was surprised to see that it's Bordatella Pertussus (or some spelling that's different.) Bordatella is kennel cough. I haven't even been boarded out. Now that's funny.

Writing

I lost all of Other People's Blood. Pretty funny. So now what? Two weeks left to go to attain 50,000 words. I haven't the heart to try and recreate what I had so it's on to Fisticuffs and Handbags. How many words per day? Too many is my best guess.

No writing tonight. Reading instead. I'm reading Alathea which is about a woman painter in London in the mid 17th century. It's not bad.

Next up; Post Office which was very kindly sent to my by my friend Hilary. Then it's her script and some fascinating other stuff she sent me.

Cullen and I scared the hell out of each other last night as we went over a site that listed signs and symptoms of being abducted. I needed some good questions for Mike to ask Danielle. As a result I kept waking up screaming. Very entertaining for the neighbours I am quite sure.

I wrote like 200 words in five days. I just don't get it. I thought that the freedom of not worrying about getting it right would be conducive to lots o words. I was wrong. I still agonize over my writing.

I turn off my computer, dead tired and as soon as I try to sleep I have words running around, dialogue and other things that, if they were polite, really should come to me while I am trying to write.

Today I am writing abut Mike and Danielle's first meeting. She's going to tell him about what happened when she walked into the white light.

Oh that should say 2100 words in two days of course.

Writing stuff

I'm stopping at 2100 words. I'm about 1900 words behind. The funny thing is that I would ordinarily be happy at 2100 words in a day. I'm so tired I found myself staring at the screen thinking "something needs to happen now." Ya think? Doi.

Sleep stuff

I dreamt I was working on a project with Neil. It was very cool. And then Adam Duritz stopped by to see how things were going. As often as I dream about that man I wonder if he dreams about me too and wonders who the heck I am. Or maybe he knows from my posts at the counting crows site. Yeah, I am 14 for sure. No doubt about it.

I'm going to try and fall asleep before six am. That's the goal. We'll see,

Sleep stuff

I went to sleep at 5:30 this morning. I had the craziest dream. I was on this game show. It was one of those dating shows but it was for parents who had a disabled child who had died or the spouse of a disabled person who died.

It was so strange. What would you call that? Who wants to date someone who's been through hell and back?

I got into this big argument with this woman about the nature of neural function. I was going on and on about action potentials, the disynaptic/post-synaptic inhibitory reflex, how much calcium and sodium an axon needs, how the impulse bridges the synaptic gap and I was using the entrance to get between the bar as a model for the synaptic gap.

The thing is, yes, Danny's SMA was caused by nerve failure. His anterior horn cells never functioned properly but I have never argued with someone about it at the cellular level. Especially not for a game show.

Then I was talking to Chris from England who was sitting next to me. I told him that I didn't like any of the candidates and could I just date him and he said he didn't qualify. Then I was in this parking garage talking to this really nice guy who's two little girls were disabled. It was crazy.

Writing stuff

Started the new novel. 500 words so far. I figure I need to hit about 2000 a day so I guess that's not too bad. I'm already having to fight the impulse to go back and change things. This is going to be so good for me. It's also going to be a huge challenge.