To continue…

Chapter 14 was completed yesterday, and this morning it became Final. It now joins the rest of Act III in the “done” section, and creates a bridge to 15 and the beginning of Act IV.

108 thousand words in a row now. Well on my way to Turtledove.

Chapter 17 received attention yesterday as well, and just now became Final. Another 8 thousand live there, and once chapter 16 doubles itself tomorrow and builds on the 6.7K already inside it, only two Chapters will remain.

I can feel it. It’s almost finished.

It’s strange, seeing the finish line. In one sense, I’ve been writing this book most of my adult life. In another, I haven’t even started, since once I put my “pencil” down, I have to pick up my pen.

Today was full of surprises, as the Protagonist finally was reunited with a part of himself. I was not expecting that to happen quite how it hit the page, even though I wrote the “stage directions” for it almost 9 months ago. Chapters 14 and 17 also have in them a character (several, actually) not seen since much earlier in the text. The return(s) was warranted, and I hope I handled it properly.

I looked at Chapter 16 in passing today, when I decided to add in a bit of backstory I was not entirely sure whether or not to include in this book. That section is almost completely untouched from the original story treatment, and there are parts of it (16) not in keeping with the story that has developed since I began. Now that I have finished 17, I may also make a few changes to 15, but I believe the minor tweaks I added tonight may have taken care of that.

There is an errand I need to run tomorrow, and tonight I’m turning in “early” as soon as I’ve completed my dinner. I am setting the alarm again, as I want to get as much work done as possible.

So If I don’t answer any messages, now you know why.

In other news, I forgot to eat on schedule again, and lunch was further delayed while I enjoyed the very non-plan environment of Mike’s Chili Parlor.

Had another conversation about and around the book, work (or the lack thereof) and life with Friend Strando. Afterwards, we did a little office shopping before rolling into Safeway to collect my fruit for meal #2.

I ate it as I crossed the bridge and back to the work, and decided mid-span that the rest of what was in my bag would be meal #2 tomorrow.

Hours later, Meal # 3 went down hard and fast and I’m still so very, very hungry. I’m going to wait the requisite time, and then say goodbye to Henny Penny.

I’ll eat her eggs tomorrow.

Today I watched the Critic’s commentary on the first Matrix disc, and then listened to the 3 hour music selection on the companion Revisited disc. very interesting, and both definitely influenced what I wrote today. Oddly enough, the last time I watched these movies was in November, when I was engaged in the primary creative push for this book.

Go figure.