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Jonathon and I have been fighting the good fight today. He’s been struggling with computer network problems. I can’t explain them, because I don’t understand them, but I know that my new computer cannot print without much time and effort. Darla, too, has been struggling with computer problems this week. The cable company is outside working on the main line. I think our business complaints may have forced them to fix some long standing problems. We’re hoping that that will fix at least the problems that Darla’s been having with the message board. But who knows?
I have an outline of the rest of the Merry book. We are in the end game, but its a damned long end game. When the books I wrote were five hundred pages or under, I could bull my way through the end game. I could simply do brute strength of will on the last fifty, or hundred pages, but when you’re end game is more like three hundred pages, there’s just no way to simply tough that one out. It’s like trying to run three marathons back to back to back. Just not doable. So, I have this outline. Six pages, single space, numbered thirty-two points. I know almost exactly what’s happening until the end of the book. So close I can taste it, but I can’t get there from here, because hundreds of pages separate me from it. I finished the outline last night to sort my mind through the plot, and it seemed so simple, so straight-forward. I planned on getting through the first six pages on the outline today. I have worked all day with only a break for lunch, and one personal phone call, and I have not finished with point 1. Yeah, that’s right, pages and pages and point 1 is still kicking my butt. Good pages, fun pages, but I feel stalled anyway, because I know I’m not even on point 2 of the outline. This is one of the reasons I don’t usually do detailed outlines. It always takes an amazing amount of pages to get through any point, that it feels like I’m not making progress even when I am.
For those of you who have been reading the blog. I have decided to ignore some of the personal stuff for awhile in the blog, at least. I can’t really ignore it in real life, but I do not need to rehash it here, nor do I need to inflict it on you nice people. So until I get my emotional crap sorted out, the blog will be about the writing, and business. Oh, maybe one or two political blogs as the vote gets closer, but for the most part I’m going to try and tone down the personal stuff. Too painful.
Speaking of business, we’re doing the wolf howl tonight at the Wild Canid Center. Me reading in the dark by firelight, with some questions and answers, then we get to walk through the dark in the woods to see if we can get the wolves to howl to us. No promises, sometimes they don’t talk back, but last time we were really blessed. All the wolves chorused through the dark, like being bathed in the singing of wolves. We’ll see what happens this time. Then back to the gift shop area for a signing. Limited tickets, and too my knowledge they are all sold. The proceeds go to support wild canid research, rehabilitation, and breeding programs, with an eye to re-release into the wild. It’s a very cool place, and a very cool cause. See some of you tonight.