1. Ethical Governance: We are the people’s servants and act in the best interests of our constituents, our states, the nation, and our neighbors around the world. Our participation in government is one of duty and not personal opportunity.

2. Equality of Citizenship: All citizens are afforded the rights and dignities of the law regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, language, religion, sexual preference, or economic class. Those that are not citizens are still afforded the basic rights of human beings.

3. Stewardship: It is in the nation’s best interests socially, economically, and environmentally to promote sustainable living. Healthy soil, water, and air are necessary to continue America’s prosperity.

4. National Sovereignty: Self-determination is the right of every nation. We shall take no aggressive steps to interfere in the self-determination of others unless such determination should threaten the freedom and liberties of our own nation.

5. Local Identity: We recognize the value of a union of states and believe federal laws should be enacted to address interstate issues or when uniform legislation brings efficiency or necessary consistency, benefiting the individuals and the whole. We accept that the needs of the individual state do not supersede the needs of the union, but vow to respect the boundaries of both whenever possible.

6. Ethical Economics: Economic prosperity does not justify the oppression, exploitation, or poisoning of our citizens or our neighbors around the world to maintain that prosperity. Cost is not measured only be the immediate expense necessary to maintain business but the residual expense of pollution, ecological deterioration, social instability, poverty, and a declination in health and its burden on the state. When measured against total cost, ethical economics is both financially and socially the appropriate choice.

7. Conscientious Governance: Frivolous legislation is a burden on the nation’s financial wellbeing, its government efficacy, and its citizenry. We will not enact legislation with the intent of manipulating the judicial process to promote our agendas or with the intent of acting outside the powers of our office as determined by the constitution, thereby reducing judicial obligation and allowing for a greater focus on more pressing issues.

8. Responsible Progressivity: The necessary evolution of American technology and industry should not come at the expense of our stewardship, but work in unison with it. Advancement should take into account this imperative and those responsible for previous pollution are tasked with restoring equilibrium.

9. Honest Interpretation of the Law: We will not bend the law to conform to our agenda or intentionally craft legislation in such vague terms as to mercurially suit our needs. We accept the dictums of the constitution and its amendment s as well as the laws and treaties of the nation. If these laws do not meet the needs of our constituents, states, or nation, we will enact new laws to address those needs rather than falsely interpreting existing laws for our benefit.

10. Social Obligation: We as citizens, as states, as a nation share a moral obligation to support one another through, charity, public service, and volunteerism. The well-being of our neighbors reflect the well-being of our nation.

I don't carry both my work laptop and my writing Eee PC to and from work. That's just too much. I only carry the former. So with the exception of a half hour this past weekend, I haven't been doing any writing. Work has just been too busy. I've been able to focus on work without the distraction of writing, so I've gotten a lot done (a lot being two words, Ken), but no writing.

Work gave my laptop to someone else who has a "family emergency" (and those quote marks are well earned) which means I get to bring my Eee PC along again. So this morning I scrapped a planned chapter and replaced it with something infinitely better. I'm glad to see that reading Charles Stross hasn't negatively impacted my writing.

I've been cranky for a couple of weeks now and I figured it was stress from work, which it absolutely is. The longer my work hours, the shorter my fuse. But I didn't realize how much an impact not writing was having on me, and I should have given that I've experienced this in the past. I wrote a chapter (a short one) and revised the succeeding one to account for these revisions and I feel GREAT!

I need to finish a flashback chapter (chapter 51, but I need to research when Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London were built. It was originally set in these locations but I think I've now moved it early enough that neither existed yet) but all other chapters 55 and earlier are finished and I've got the first paragraph of 56. I think I might have mentioned this before, but for as much crap as I give Luke about making French jokes, I make a LOT of French jokes. It's okay to make fun of the French. They've earned it. Just do it for the right reasons. Freedom Fries was embarrassing and stupid.

Anyway, yay for today! I had delicious coffee. I'm about to have delicious oatmeal. I'll have delicious Digorno pizza for lunch (spicy chicken and I added chipotle peppers and garlic) and hopefully will kick ass at work today. I hope I can be as productive on the trip home as I was on the way into work. Should wrap things up around chapter 70 I think I estimated in an earlier post? Didn't I? Or was it 80. Either way, I'm on 56. That should tell you how close I am to the end!

I mentioned this before, but Black Magic and Barbecue Sauce was summarized as a retelling of Hancock. There is no Jason Bateman or annoying French kid, but there is a person that is outside the normal human experience and feels isolated, alone, and apathetic. There is a former wife that he can't be with (but for totally different reasons).

It's a theme not unique to Hancock but damn if I can't stop thinking about that. I started this story before Hancock was even released goddamnit!

You know, one of the things I find most satisfying is finishing I couldn't finish before. You know those chapters that are just so crappy that you have to stop writing them or they'll kill the entire process? But then yoi go back and delete stuff and go forward again and then it stops sucking and you finish it.

Yeah, that's satisfying. :) Did that this morning. Three more chapters like it and I'll head into the climax.

Wwwoooooooooooooo, the end is near!

Work has given me a loaner laptop. Morning writing will most likely cease for the time being. I'm conflicted about this. I'm at 86k, but I'm SO busy at work. This will mean I can get home earlier than 8:30. I just don't want to stop writing.

Oi.

So, now that I'm adept at using my audio equipment and getting to a point where my manuscript is almost complete (first draft that is), I've replaced the sample chapter on my website. I didn't realize it was still the prologue from Cause and Conviction. I thought it was the first chapter from Black Magic and Barbecue Sauce. So, I revised chapter 1 (this doesn't break the "no revision" rule because it was for a specific, finite project and didn't lead to any successive revision of later chapters) and then recorded an audio file. Sure an mp3 is as easy to copy and repost as printed text, but it's my voice and it's a lot harder to take credit for my words when I'm speaking them instead of you taking credit for writing them yourself. (That's a general you, and not directed at any of my wholly ethical readers.)

Once I'm done revising BM&BBQ, I'm going to revise Galileo Rocks the Baby (which has been in need of revision ever since I finished it, as I totally got off-point with all my Bush bashing--I now realize) and post the audio as well. I also need to write another short story so that my second short offering isn't the same as my novel offering.

So, on the website, I'll be offering audio samples instead of written samples of most of my work (exceptions are older stuff I don't want to record like Jigsaw, RPGA adventures, and Dyvers intercalary chapters).

So, if you want to hear Chapter 1 of Black Magic and Barbecue Sauce, there it is. I hope you enjoy.

Work is talking about giving me a laptop so that I can do work on the train. Now you might think to yourself that this is a dick move, but it's actually quite helpful. If I get a laptop, I don't have to stay at work until 6 or later and I might actually get home at a reasonable time.

What that means is that I won't be working on my manuscript, though. I've been trying to bust out as much as I can this week. I have 80,720 words, 6000 of which are from my previous short story (I checked). That means I've written 74,000 words since I started writing. I'm over the 2/3 mark. I'm looking at wrapping up around chapter 70 (if I end on chapter 69, it is in no way intentional).

I have finished chapters 1-48 inclusive, including finishing a weak chapter with Mickey and Christian and revising a chapter with Seth and Ahmed. I still have a few corrections/additions to make (that I don't count as revision because I'm not rereading those chapters, I just think to myself, "If Dawn is getting all this money, wouldn't she quit her job?" [The answer being no, because she's going to make a shitload in tips during the world series.])

So, will I meet my goal and finish my manuscript before next year (thus averting my abandonment of my chosen profession)? More than likely. Will it be in the next few weeks? That's looking more and more doubtful.

...now if I could just get Jen out of the bathroom so I could pee and go to bed!

So every once in awhile I'm struck by self-doubt. I've mentioned that before. Today, sitting in my car after finishing a chapter, was one of those times, though not as strong as it normally is. As I get closer and closer to the end of my story and the individual threads become more and more interwoven, I grow more excited about what I'm doing. I went so far as to say "I'm off to write a best seller" much like Billy Crystal said "Have fun storming the castle." Now, what I'm doing is better than some work that is published, but I question how hard a feat that really is. But after that, I question how justified I am in thinking my work is better than anything published. What if it just seems better but is really the usual drivel new authors think is great but really sucks?! So many times I thought I was being original only to find out I had fallen into a common trap of new authors and that a thousand authors before me had done the same things a thousand times before. What if what I'm writing is boring, cliche crap?! What if I am mediocre?!

Here are the things that freak me out the most. The white man helps the woman and the black man realize their potential (PC liberal guilt or a justified concern?). The man saves the woman (this one isn't entirely true because the woman was never really in danger, but he doesn't know that). The hero is a white guy; the villain a black guy (more liberal guilt). And the apathetic anti-hero comes around to save the day at the end (damnit, all my other stories end with everyone dying, but sure my first genuine offering has the guy saving the day. I wanted to do something different for me, but something different for me is the same as everyone else!).

Argh!

Okay, that is all.

You know, since I've written my preface, I've referenced it in a few chapters later in the book. I'm thinking--and I'll have to wait until the draft is finished--that I can just scrap the prologue all together and keep the references as they do a better job of implying what happened without actually retelling that entire scene. I like starting with chapter one. I like starting with William Henderson and his suits.

As I type this, I realize I had already decided on a more poignant end with Cy and Dawn and an Epilogue would just ruin that so it's scrapped. Scrap the prologue too, I think. I'm 90% sure that chapter's going away.

I wrote today for the first time in a week. It wasn't a "I need to take time off and recharge my batteries by reading," week. It was a "Oh my god Washington, DC, was exhausting and work is kicking my ass" week. Technically, it should be kicking my ass now, but I wanted to write this down.

So for those of you that read the prologue, enjoy it, you probably won't see it in print.

I'm at the Smithsonian Museum of African Art. 15th century Portuguese missionaries distributed crucifixes in an attempt to convert the local Congolese. The crucifix became a sign of power for tribal leaders, as the cross was the symbol in local cosmology for where the real world and the spirit world meet. The statue I saw had no wooden cross or representation of Jesus, but was an African in a crucifix-like pose to demonstrate his power.

Struggling with the mythology of Aman'Brin, I had always thought to say Sign of theSpear, a moment when God-as-Man thrust his spear into the ground and ascended. It seemed to narrowly avoid saying cross for a religion that is steeped in Christian and Jewish samples. Reading this, I believe I'll use sign of the cross for the Amani south and sign of the spear for the Brinish north.

The largest library I've ever been in was my first university's library. Four floors, east, central, and west, and two half-floors (1A and 2A) that I would get lost in often. My second university's library was much simpler: two floors. My home town? Two floors. St. Louis? Two floors and a basement. Nashua? One floor and a basement. With the exception of St. Louis (where it was just one branch in a larger system), every space was full of books. It wasn't anything like the movies where they have rows of desks and all the books are on large shelfs along the walls.

Today I went to the Boston Public Library. Holy hell! It's like nothing I've ever seen. At first I couldn't figure out where to find the books! Everything was statues and sculptures and murals and marble. There were two lion statues in honor of the 2nd Massachusetts infantry that fought in the civil war. There was a French mural discussing the Muse.

I wanted to take lots and lots of pictures. I was less impressed at how few books they really had. I couldn't help but look at the shelves and think, Nashua has more books than this! Then I turned a corner. What? The library continues on for a city block? Oh, okay, so there are more books. I get what you're saying.

Wow. Just, wow. You know those rooms in the movies where there are rows of desks and a vaulted ceiling that's at least two stories tall? Yeah, I walked through that today.

 So the two flash back chapters I was writing (one of which is crap--maybe they both are but are good enough to last until revision) have grown to four. Some of the things I wanted to have happen in those chapters require their own. The problem with that is I don't know where to fit these new chapters. The flashbacks are placed to have optimal emotional impact and relevance to the current storyline. I just don't know where these new ones should go. And I worry about having too many flash back chapters as I don't want them to clog up the regular storyline.

I'll figure it out eventually. This is the drawback of writing in Open Office rather than Word. It has no Outline view. And since I'm writing on an Eee PC, the screen is only large eough for me to see half of any giiven page at a time. It makes organization a bitch. (This is actually a good thing most of the time because I just ignore structure and write. But in those moments where I actually want to make significant structural cchanges, I have to look at it on a different computer. One time I had to port it over to Word just so I could use the Outline feature.)

Anyway, here is the chapter I mentioned the other day. It falls into just constant dialogue, but I like it and look forward to the final version of it come revision.

( 33 Excerpt )

So yesterday when I said I should be up to 50 except maybe some odd chapters in the 40s, what I really meant was I was up to 39 with intermittent chapters in the 40s and 50s and mapping up over 60. Yes, I totally meant that the entire time. There was no error. Carry on. Nothing to see here.

The last couple of days I've been hitting these massive dialogue surges where the humor is too good to give up. I don't want the pacing to slow down, but the second half of the chapter is nothing but dialogue (and I do mean nothing but). I'm going to leave it for revision, but since it's happened two days in a row now, I'm a bit nervous that this might be a perpetual thing, maybe a sub-conscious attempt to accelerate the writing process so I can get to the end. I don't know.

Speaking of the end. I hit 70,000 words today and I still have a lot left to write. At 2k per chapter, that should mean I only need 15 more chapters, but I already have 20 more mapped and that's not even to the end. I'll probably end with 25-30 more chapters (so end around chapter 70 or so). This means my 100,000 word count I had been aiming for is going to get overshot. I'll end with 125,000 or thereabouts. I had really wanted to keep this at the 100k mark. That felt like a sweet spot. I thought it would increase saleability as well. Hopefully that extra 25k won't be too detrimental. This is the story as it has to be told and while I'll clean up bloat from extraneous word use, I'm not inclined to cut any chapters. I've been mostly frugal to this point and what chapters exist out of the main plot arc are necessary character development.

I wrote one yesterday, a post-coital short chapter, that I quite enjoy. I may post it if I have the time. I think it really humanizes Cy and establishes his relationship with Dawn as genuine.

I took a few days off last week to read (Gabaldon's third Lord John book) and recharge the batteries. That got things going at the end of the week. It was slow starting, but picked up on Sunday and today. I have one more chapter to add down in the early 20s and then everything is finished up into the 50s (there maybe one or two stray chapters needing completion in the lower 40s, but I can't remember). At the beginning of last week, I thought I was hitting a mental block. A fear of finishing the novel. I'm not actually afraid of finishing it, don't be silly. It's just that roadblock everyone gets. Why isn't everyone a writer? Because everyone can't finish their stories. Anyone can start one (not necessarily well) but not everyone can finish one. How many people tell you how they want to be a writer (or worse that they are a writer) and that they have a drawer full of half-finished stories.

Listen buddy, if you can't finish the story, then you haven't told a story. A beginning isn't a story, it's a beginning. You need a middle and an end.

With that breakthrough I had in response to Ken's response, things are all of a sudden becoming connected in ways I never imagined. I've worked in the economy and the housing decline. Dennis gets his comeuppance. And I've even tied the English lieutenant from the first flashback chapter to characters later introduced. Hot damn, this is turning into a great story! If I were looking for a book to buy, I would buy this one. And I'd tell all my friends to buy it too.

...keep that in mind next year.

If you read enough writers' blogs or journals, you learn that there are generally two types of writing processes. You can create an outline at the very beginning (or otherwise determine the entire story up front) and then write to that. Or you can write and come up with the story as you go, letting it grow organically. I most definitely fall into the latter category. I tried to outline before and it didn't work. In fact, I was so stifled by the outline and how poor it was, that I never even started writing much less finished. I think I've mentioned that in the past.

Well, something I do do is chapter mapping. It's kind of like outlining, but not as formal. I write, I see where it leads me, and as I go, I'll be able to see what chapters are coming next. I'll write the main characters for that chapter and, if I need to, I'll write a brief synopsis of what should happen (or some catchy dialogue that I don't want to forget). This normally provides for the next 3-7 chapters worth of work. Sometimes I won't remember what was supposed to go in a particular chapter and delete it. Or the idea was crap and I delete it. Or the story has moved in a different direction and I delete it. But it still helps to have a general sense of where I'm moving to. More often than not, I'll actually realize I need more chapters and I'll add in extra stuff between what I've written and what I've mapped. I know chapter 20 of my current manuscript started out as chapter 8, so that should be an example of what I mean.

Well, I reached the tipping point this weekend. I saw the story to its near completion. I didn't map 3-7 chapters. I mapped 30 chapters. I may add a few here or there, maybe delete one or two I'm unsure of, but I now see the entire book from its current place to the lull before the climax.

This has pros and cons. Pros, my mindset has changed. I'm no longer starting a novel. I'm working to finish a novel. That is a whole different feeling. There is investment now. I can't back out or make some excuse not to finish. All I can do now is finish. And it's exciting, to see the story in its near complete form. The idea I had made form, similar but different.

The cons? I'm not actually on chapter 60. I'm on chapter 31. I don't want to be on chapter 31. That means I still have a book to write! I thought I was almost done with this thing and now you're telling me I'm only half way? Ack! I want to be done now! Where are my accolades? Where's my praise? Where's my name on the best seller list. What is the writing you say I have to do. Goddamnit!

If the Lumaghi's necklace was worth so much, why was security so lax? Did the acqaintance overpay? Pay double? Did they not know what they had? Did they think no one would know?

 I had lunch yesterday with Collin, a proofreader at my work. I mentioned during conversation one day that I was writing a novel and she said she would like to see it. I gave her the first two chapters. She edited them and yesterday we had lunch to discuss her feedback. One of the most striking comments she offered was she felt I was not properly presenting the humor in the story's inherent religious irony. Not only did Cy live through religious history, he was a part of it at one time. I was exploring that, but perhaps not as directly as I might have. Pondering her statements, I devised a prologue and epilogue. I wrote the prologue last night while I waited for Jen to arrive for dinner before the play (incidentally, Miracle in Naples is a fantastic show).

I'm not sure if I'm going to use it. If I do, I'm not sure if I'll keep it at the beginning. Maybe later in the middle. I don't know. What do you think?

Version:1.0 ( Prologue )

I haven't posted an excerpt for awhile. At leasts, it feels like I haven't posted an excerpt for awhile. I don't actually know when last I did and now that I'm typing, I'm disinclined to go back and check. There are a few reasons why I haven't posted any. The first, I didn't want this journal only to be a reposting of my rough drafts. I have thoughts, questions, ponderings, and experiences about writing I'd like to share, along with the occasional private comments as well. So I thought I'd chill on the excerpts.

Another reason is that I don't want to post the entire manuscript online. Sure I value reader comments, but this is being written for market. As it's a free journal, I don't want people reading the story here. And worse, I don't want people reading it and thinking the first draft is fully representative of the final product. Now given, once a story is complete, I lock the posts to friends only, so newcomers can't see the old stuff. But until then, I like to keep things spicy.

Third, I've been pumping out content wicked fast so it's actually hard to post content consistently. And since I recently revised chapter order to better fit with the 2006 baseball playoffs (which I wanted to do from the beginning but didn't know MLB had revised their website to make the information so available), a lot of the order wouldn't have made sense anyway. I'm going to pass 50k words next week. I'm almost there now, actually, but I have a busy weekend so I don't think I'll get any writing time. Next week for certain.

And fourth, I'm just damn tired when I get home. Work is too busy and I don't have my writing laptop out any way. When I get home, I only have a few hours before I go to bed and do it all over again.

Anyway, that's all to tell you that I'll be posting two excerpts today, one in this post and another in a second post. Though there are a lot of newly available chapters, this one is going to be a flashback I wrote to show Cy when he not only accepted but believed he was a god. Otherwise, there's a chapter when he's an immense asshole. I really enjoy it and it will have huge repercussions later. So, here you go:

( Carthage )

So there are a couple people I want to send a finished manuscript to for proofing and criticism. I hate to send out a first draft, but at the same time, revision immediately followed by revision kills enthusiasm. Maybe I can do a spot check on the worst parts. I don't know. That's a ways off still, but that date is approaching and I need to be prepared.

I mentioned my Punic chapter on Saturday. I spent most of the day researching. Not Diana Gaboldon levels of research, but clicking numerous links on Wikipedia research (9 tabs open simultaneously).

Now, you just rolled your eyes. Stop that. There are two reasons why you shouldn't shrug your eyes. It's an easy thing to pick on Wikipedia but the ease of access and the level of accuracy in relation to the total content included makes it an amazing resource. Yes, it should not be used as a primary source. That's why it requires references. But it's still amazing, so stop picking on it. Second, I am intentionally modifying history anyway, creating a "what we think was versus what really was" type of situation because there are people still alive that actually lived it. And how much has our perception of the 80s changed just in the decades since, much less 5000 years ago. So, any inaccuracies in Wikipedia are irrelevant because accuracy isn't my goal. An appearance of accuracy is.

So, knock it off. :)

Anyway, I'm really pumped about this part of the book. It's funny, because this was the only flashback chapter that I listed without knowing what I was going to flash back to. I knew I wanted him to meet an acquaintance from the past, but had no idea who or where that would be. When I had Matty throw in "remember Carthage" I figured I should probably do something with that. And bam, here we are. We get to see Cy when he's still parading around as a god (and acting like one too). (Acting like one = douchebag)

I also made my cover page, dedication, and acknowledgments this weekend. I was intentionally not doing this, but broke down as I realized I needed an acknowledgment about the history as some historical pedant would have whined and I would have had to kick him in the junk. The reason I don't do this is because I love seeing my title/name together. I immediately materialize it into a book cover and then I spend time staring at a near-empty page rather than writing. But it's there (and I am excited about it).

Oh, and out of all that research, more character development came out! A whole different relationship with Matty and Cy. Something I'll have to actually work on to make fit given his current relationship with Dawn (once Christie but whose name changed because I had a Christian and a Christie and that's just too much Christ). And after this morning's song war where Jen was trying to get the theme to Inspector Gadget stuck in my head and I was trying to get Bumblebee Tuna stuck in hers, I came up with an entire scene about Bumblebee Tuna that I think will be a welcome diversion from the drive of the main plot (and flesh out a character that isn't getting as much attention as I would like).

Edit: I also like Mr. Whiskers so much that I keep having ideas for LoLcatz pictures at the beginning/end of the book. "I'm in ur novelz, stealin ur scenes."