Temporary solution

I had a comment from someone a few posts back asking very politely to PLEASE hurry up and get "Vengeance of Pachacuti" posted so he/she could read it during the Thanksgiving break. Since Frontpage is not cooperating, and the break is rapidly drawing to a close, I am willing to e-mail the story to anyone who can accept attachments. It will come in a 174 KB Word document, and I have no idea if that would take a while to download on dial-up or not. Get parental permission first, for those of you under 18.

Any takers, e-mail me at elizabeth@dragons-roost.net and I'll get it out to you as soon as I possibly can.

Post-Thanksgiving

I only cooked for half the day yesterday, and everything but the cranberries came out great. I started to by a can of cranberry jelly, like everyone else in the U.S., but I'm the only one who eats them, and I've been making a concerted effort to cook from whole ingredients this year. In short, I reached for the can, thought of the high fructose corn syrup inside, and couldn't do it. There has to be a way to make them taste just as good without five tons of sugar. I'll have to research that.

Sorry, kids, I haven't been able to get back to Vengeance of Pachacuti yet, but I'm firing up my web server. Hopefully I'll have the beginning and the end up soon. It should not be this difficult. I think it's definitely time to switch HTML translators.

We've made progress with book 2. I knew it would be easier with him here. We have a rudimentary ending, which I'm confident will have me scrambling for my keyboard by the end of the weekend. There is still a lot of work to do, but we get 500 times more done when we're together than working over the internet, so I'm feeling hopeful. Six months ago I was to the point of hating the story and all the characters; now I'm excited and looking forward to getting my hands into the guts again.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Scott is here, Chad will be a little later, the bird is heading for the oven, and the hot tub is on.

For all my American friends, have a fabulous day and don't forget any blessings when you're counting them.

Brain clutter

Good news: I toiled for more than an hour last night to get Vengeance of Pachacuti to publish.

Bad news: Dragonsroost.net only published chapters 1, 3, and 4. Dragons-roost.net (the alter ego) got them all except the prologue and chapter 5. I haven't the foggiest notion why some parts published and others didn't, but I finally gave up and went to bed. I'll get back to it later today.

***

As it stands now, we still have Chad and Scott coming for Thanksgiving. They both called for the address yesterday so they could print directions. Since they are bachelors, their schedules are flexible, which means they might be here at midnight tonight or noonish tomorrow. I'll just plan dinner for 3-ish; that should be safe.

Eric has planned to take the kids and Chad to Best Buy Friday for MP3 players. Chad is Very Tall, so I told Vicky to walk behind Chad, hold onto his back beltloop, and peek around him occassionally. When the crowd gets really heavy, she is to ask loudly,"Conan, what is good in life?" He does a good Conan imitation and can quote the part about sacking your enemies and hearing the lamentation of the women in his sleep. :) He can also do Fezzik from The Princess Bride. He doesn't look like Andre the Giant, but he sounds like him in the "Everybody move!" part.

I'd drag Scott along to witness the festivities, but I'm making him stay home to work. We have a book to write, darn it! Of course, it won't be all hard labor. We can hammer out the plot in the hot tub. I just need to keep one hand dry to write.

***

I have enlisted Vicky's help in designing the symbol I mentioned a couple days ago. It will figure heavily into the story, and I told her that if we go through Lulu.com to get the book into the hands of our patiently waiting readers, we may be able to use her image in the cover art. She liked the idea of getting the credit for that! Of course, in her teen mind, 'credit' is synonymous with 'money', but I clarified it quickly. Hopefully she'll get a sketch done today so we can go over it with Scott.

***

My little brain is spinning, which is the best way to get nothing done today. That's not an option. I'm off to formulate a game plan. I know there was something else I wanted to add to this, but I have no idea what it was, or what the trigger was that made me think of it. It's much harder to remember things when you forget what made you think of it, but the surest way of remembering is to hit 'Publish' so I might be back later.

Technical difficulties

I have "Vengeance of Pachacuti" ready to go, but I'm having a hard time with the server. I'll have it published as soon as I can.

Plot kitties with damp feet*

Book 2 is percolating nicely. I have condensed the plot as we know it into a Word document, arranged by character rather than generic plot points. That allowed me to see how the plot points affect the characters involved. I got the idea from the trial version of WriteItNow, recommended by Holly last week. I bought the program but hadn't gotten the unlock key, hence could not save it, so I did it in Word and shot it out to Scott, who I'm sure will forget to read it until he gets here.

I've also had some ideas to add depth and interest. The latest was triggered by reading the word 'symbol' in a blog while *Ryan was playing in his water dish. We have a water fountain, and he likes to stick his paw in the 'waterfall', and then come sit on my lap and snuggle. Yes, sometimes I'm a walking towel. In any case, the reading of the word while hearing Ryan splash was enough to bring the idea out of the just-barely-caffeinated recesses of pink matter. I translated it into a reasonably coherent e-mail and shot it out to Scott. I'm sure, sometime tomorrow, I'll get a reply that says something like, "Looks good" or "Works." And he wonders why I get irritated with him. Bachelors.

Goal for today: Finish the grocery shopping for Thanksgiving, and post "Vengeance of Pachacuti" on Dragons Roost.