It’s F’n Friday! October 21, 2005 – Posted in: Aberrant Normalcy

A client of mine called this morning to reschedule so I can stay home and work on the new web page and finish my !@#$%^& novel already. Whoopee! I am at the point in the novel where I can see the end, kind of like after a long road trip, and you know you only have fifteen miles to go, yet they seem the longest of all. Primarily, my frustration has to do with making all the plot lines resolve without seeming forced, and also I want the end to be spectacular by all standards, so much effort is going into its setup, and as the French say, its denouement (literally, an unraveling). It reminds me of this film I saw in high school. To simulate a nuclear chain reaction, some scientist placed two ping-pong balls each on a hundred mouse traps. Then he threw a ball into the room and watched all of them spring in an explosive reaction. My novel is at the point where the first ball is falling. Once it hits the trap things will start to move very fast. Enough talking, I should just get to writing!

Current word count according to Microsoft Word: 123, 770 words.

My estimated word count upon completion: 150,000 words +/- 10,000 words.

Length of time to craft the first draft: (estimated) 16 months

Number of people who have read it so far: one (me)

Number of people who love the plot: one (me)

Last night my friendly neighbor gave me several organic steaks from Fresh Direct in his ever increasing bid for sainthood. I’m not a big beef eater, but since organic meat has a lot lower chance of giving me a defective prion, I’m going to savor these cuts. It’s what’s for dinner.

Yesterday I bought Lucy the cat this mouse on a string. It hangs from the door on a small bungee cord and “chirps” when she swats at it. She’s been unable to resist attacking it for several hours, in between bouts of sleeping and eating. Since it’s near the bed, she’s somehow invented these acrobatic flips as she jumps on and off the bed while simultaneously attacking the mouse. Sometimes, from exhaustion, she lays on her side while still swatting at it. I suppose that’s the cat equivalent of lying down to watch TV.