You know, there's nothing like wading through 400 pages of double-spaced Courier New to really make you feel like you're ALIVE!!!

That's what I've been doing the past 2 days as I connect all the dots and add consistency to my novel The Wannoshay Cycle. I'm checking dates, checking ages, checking birthdays, fixing timelines, and making a list of occurrences and characters for each chapter.

It may sound tedious as hell, and, well, it IS, but it's also my novel, so I'm gonna be anal as all get-out about it, that way when folks read it they're not distracted by dumb details that I didn't get right. I want people to get sucked up in the story of my group of characters and the alien Wannoshay.

And I'm also starting to flesh out the last 5 chapters, which exist mostly as notes, half-finished scenes, and lots o' white space. But the beauty of my little getting-to-know-you chore with my novel has been that I've been able to look at the book with fresh eyes, and the ending has pretty much written itself (check out my quote for a taste of it).

I'm still a little leery of the battle scenes I've got to concoct in the next 2-3 chapters, but I think I can handle 'em now.

And that's all for today. I'm a bit brain-fried, so I'm gonna go read or maybe even -- gasp -- watch a little TV.

Have a great xmas and solstice and hanukkah and kwanzaa and any other holiday you prefer! Thanks for dropping by this year, and get ready, 'cause next year's gonna be even better! Later.

Now Playing:
"Live Monsters," Big Head Todd & the Monsters

Now Reading:
Stories by friends; Rangergirl, Tim Pratt

Stories out to Publishers:
19

Today's Words:
0 (edits)

Novel Words:
88,900

Today's Quote:
“And somewhere out there,” Skin said, pointing at the scattered stars above them, his voice hoarse from one too many shouted Happy New Year’s, “there’s a ship with our friends on it, and in who knows how many other places, there are other ships out there with people on them that we don’t know. At least,” he said, hoisting his boy Randy up onto his shoulders with a grunt and reaching for Lisa’s hand, “we don’t know them yet.”