Brain Farts & Brothers

Okay, to start with today: I need to recant a little of the spouting I did about the wife yesterday. We talked last night and it turns out that some of what happened on Father's day was actually my fault. (Yea, I know: you could have knocked me over with a feather too!) Seems I actually did the chick thing (no, I am not PC and you should know that by now!) and told her it was okay to do all those things on my day when what I really meant was: "Are you frikkin' kidding me? I bust my ass for this family all year: you damn well better plan some special day for me!" Don't know what happened there. That is definitely not my style. I am usually as direct as they come (big shock, huh?) and I have no time in my life for that politeness bullshit. Must have been a brain fart or something.

Anyway, on to the writing: I finally got back onto "Fish" at lunch today. Did another two thousand words without much sweat. I'm still not onto the final chapter, this was an insert of a dream sequence into the chapter I had just finished. Yea, I know dream sequences are cheesy but they work in this instance. The MC has been having quasi-prophetic dreams throughout the book so it fits. I think this is what I needed. It sets up the last chapter with a touch of foreshadowing and the MC's misunderstanding of what the dream is telling him so when he hits the big twist ending he'll be completely caught off guard. (Least, I hope it reads that way!)

Did some more work on the synopsis last night, but only a little. Was out running with last minute errands all evening so I only got through the first page of re-writes. (So far the damn thing is three pages long. I'd hoped to keep it to one but that ain't happenin'!) And I do mean: Re-write! I have had to scrap everything from the first draft entirely.

So, I had a chance to talk to my brother Mick, this weekend at the graduation party. Don't know if I've mentioned it before but he's another "wannabe". He's older than I am and is -no doubt- one of the reasons why I am pursuing this twisted career path. He was the one gave me my first copies of "Lord of the Rings" and "Dune". Mick is a fantastic writer. He does mainstream and "literary" stuff where I stick to my SF& F but I love his work. He has a way of conveying deep emotion and shades of meaning that I truly envy. Me, I think I'm better with characters and a solid touch of humor (well, at least I think it's funny!) Anyway, I had sent him the first two chapters of "Fish" nearly a year ago to look at but I never heard back from him and forgot all about it. Turns out, his system crashed and he changed ISP's so he lost the e-mail without having a chance to ever read it. Last week, he was cleaning out his e-mail box at work and noticed a message he'd forwarded to himself a good while back and voila: it was my chapters. He'd sent them to work and never had a chance to open it. He read the chapters and was really impressed with them. We had a good long talk about writing at the party. We discussed the process, craft, and getting published. He was surprised by how much writing I've done this year. It was a nice change to talk with someone who truly understands the insanity of writing. Other than folks online, I don't know anyone else beside Mick who writes. it was good talking to him.

I'm headed off for vacation tomorrow afternoon. I hope to get one more post up before I go, but I figured I'd mention it just in case. (I wouldn't want y'all worrying about little ol' me!) We're splitting at noon for a four day break from the insanity of work and daily life. Beleieve me, it is MUCH needed by all of us! Even the boy has had a rough few months. A little R & R is in order.

Ah well, it's time to get back to work.

Later!