aroslav: Blog

Let's all hope it's going as smoothly as possible. I'm actually writing this post on Friday, 10/15. My schedule at the moment is to get essential groceries today and get packed. All my clothes are in the dryer. Dinner with the family late tonight. Saturday bright and early I'm headed back to camp in Idaho.

But I won't be alone! My daughter has decided she wants to "see where Dad lives." She traveled across the state with me, followed by her mother, who are both here at Sun Meadow and about ready for breakfast. In a little bit, they'll take off for home and I'll hitch up the new trailer and head south for the winter.

It's a light travel day compared to what many people do when they travel with a trailer. A lot of RVers drive 500 miles in a day. Not this old man! It's about 190 miles from Sun Meadow to Wildhorse Casino & RV Resort near Pendleton, OR.

I'll spend Monday writing and tinkering in the trailer to make sure everything is riding smoothly and securely. Then Tuesday, I'll continue south to Homedale, Idaho. I'll spend two nights there, camped by the Snake River. That's 195 miles.

You see, when I pull out with the trailer, I've always followed the 2-2-2 rule. Never travel more than 200 miles in a day. Always arrive by 2:00 in the afternoon. Always spend at least 2 nights at the new location. I have no pressure that requires me to make the trip to Las Vegas in two days. (1100 miles) In fact, it will take me the better part of two weeks with stops in Winnemucca, Austin, and Beatty, Nevada along the way.

I completely tore apart the draft of Team Manager COACH! In the past two weeks. It went from 41 chapters and 143,000 words to 37 chapters and 126,500 words as I culled the filler I wrote. Then I started adding material to set up action I wanted in the last of the book and continue the story. It's now 39 chapters and 135,000 words, and I'm now able to continue writing the last five chapters or so that will finish this book. It moves along just like I wanted it to now. I should be able to finish it before I get to Las Vegas.

I hope so, since I'll get to Vegas just a day or two before the beginning of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I plan to write full-time in November on Bob's Memoir: 4000 years as a free demon. Hoping that I'll hear him talking to me on the drive so I have lots of adventures to play with. I'll be going for my 18th consecutive "win" in the annual writing celebration. A win means you've written 50,000 words on a new story. Piece of cake, no?

The stat history on the site says that I've written a total of 1,922,500 words over the previous seventeen NaNos. I plan to push that wordometer up over the 2,000,000 mark this year. Wish me luck.

I love stats. I keep an elaborate set of spreadsheets with my stats on it and update it daily. My personal writing stats for this year show that I've written 855,875 words so far this year. Don't know that I'll make another million-word year. It's not impossible, but I'm not holding my breath. Who knows? Right now, that's an average of 2,982 words a day. Of course, I deducted the 20,000 I cut from COACH!.

That's the news from the road between Worley, Idaho and Pendleton, Oregon. Enjoy today's reading material!

I'm 41 chapters into writing the third Team Manager book, which should start posting around the first of February. I'm happy with about 80% of it. In fact, the first 40 chapters have been through the editing cycle and Old Rotorhead, Pixel the Cat, and Cie Mel have all had encouraging things to say. It just isn't what I want!

It took me three-quarters of the book to discover what the book was really about and retitle it accordingly. But then, I realized the first half of the book didn't really support the dominant theme. So, I've stopped writing new chapters until I go back and rewrite the first forty. And it's going well.

One problem was that there was a lot of filler that was completely unnecessary. Detail that no one cares about. Who needs the time of the top seven runners in the cross country meet? Who needs to know who the high scorer in every basketball game was and who had the most rebounds? How much detail about the libero in volleyball needs to be written in order to understand the importance of a player? And how many times do I need to describe the same couple having sex?

I've edited and rewritten the first seventeen chapters so far and have cut the equivalent of two chapters (over 7,000 words) of stuff that just caused the story to get bogged down. I'm planting more suggestions of the theme and things that will develop in importance earlier in the story. I'm focusing the action on action and not on description. In all, it's the messy part of writing. I describe it to my patrons as the sausage grinder. This is where the raw ideas get ground into recognizable sentences and get packed into a story skin. It's not pretty.

Some years ago, I taught a class on writing and referred to the practice of 'killing your baby.' As writers we sometimes become attached to a precious little detail--a sentence that is exceptionally well written, a punchline we worked through seven pages to set up, a particular love scene--and the hardest thing we have to do is cut it because it doesn't really fit with the story. I guess this week, I've been playing Darth Vader and slaughtering a bunch of stuff I liked but wasn't needed.

Well, this is just me pissing and moaning. I'm 41 chapters into volume three and you all are just getting chapter three of volume 2. It doesn't make that much difference.

I'm also happy to be posting some of the short stories that I've uncovered under Wayzgoose's name in the volume called To Make a Long Story Short. The second story, posted today, reminds me of my college days back in the late 60s and early 70s. Today, it's easy to get up in arms over any drive to defund the police, because what would we do without them. But as boomers in our teens we happily declared "Peace, Love, and Cops are Pigs." How selective our memory is.

Well, next time you need help, call a hippie.

And Team Manager is off on the second book, SPRINT! I'm happy to start this book as if it is simply the next chapter in the story, three days after SWISH! concluded. It's off to a strong start with Dennis and Natalie walking to school "the morning after" and facing all the embarrassing questions from their girlfriends. Then it's off to the gym to find out how many new girls there will be in the locker room this spring. Dennis gets some new responsibility. It's a SPRINT! to the finish!

Enjoy!

Among the happiest is SWISH! that posted its last chapter this morning. Kind of sad to see this go, but happy that SPRINT! will start on Monday. I'm a very happy camper.

I'm also happy to say that SPRINT! is available today in its entirety on Bookapy. So, you don't even have to wait. That was kind of a happy beginning for the first of October.

Now, I need to get dressed, close up the new trailer for a couple of weeks, and haul the old fifth wheel to Seattle where a dealer has said he'll take it to sell. Another long trip across Washington. Those next two weeks will be fun-filled and entertaining, as I get foreign objects inserted in my body, meet doctors I've never met before, and get my teeth scraped to see what I've been eating the past year or so. And then there's the fun part of getting the truck tuned up and ready to travel south.

I'll be back in Idaho in two weeks and will hitch up the new trailer to go to Las Vegas for the winter. I'm looking forward to actual fun then.

Looking forward, I'm only a few chapters from finishing writing the next volume of Team Manager, COACH! I'm pleased with the progress. I'll spend the rest of October outlining and researching Bob's Memoir: 4000 years as a free demon, so I can start writing on November 1 for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). There's always something new to be written.

During my move from one trailer to the other, I've also uncovered a batch of old short stories and essays, many of which aren't bad and just need a little cleanup and expansion. I know short stories are kind of anathema on SOL, but I'm happy to have found these and will be starting a Wayzgoose book of short stories sometime soon. I expect to post them as I get them rewritten, so there won't be a regular posting schedule. Fun!

Okay! The sun is up and I need to get packing. Enjoy the end of SWISH! and the beginning of SPRINT!

I got the message on Wednesday that my new home, a Lance 2465 travel trailer, had been delivered to my dealer in Yakima WA. I drove over on Thursday and picked up the gem. I'm thrilled! It's truly everything I imagined it to be. I've not yet moved all my stuff into it because I'm not sure I want to mess it up, you know? I've made three trips to Goodwill with donations in the past ten days and expect a couple more trips this week. Maybe I can get rid of half my junk!

I tell you, it's a great 72nd birthday present. I expect to be in this trailer until the carry me out on a gurney. May that be far in the future!

It's hard to believe there are only two more chapters of Team Manager SWISH! left to post. But don't worry. Team Manager SPRINT! will begin next Monday! (a week from tomorrow) When the last chapter of SWISH! posts on Friday October 1, the eBook of SPRINT! will also be available on Bookapy.

I'm currently writing chapter 39 of the third book in this series, Team Manager COACH! I thought it would be only 40 chapters, but the story isn't ready to quit yet and I anticipate around 45 now. It just isn't as far along as I wanted to get.

I'm in the rapid planning stages for my NaNoWriMo novel, coming up for development in November. I met with my "Story Consultant" last night (an interesting way of saying "invited for birthday dinner") and we had a blast brainstorming some of the scenes that I'll be writing.

I've declared my November WIP to be Bob's Memoir: 4000 years as a free demon. Perhaps you've never heard of a demon named Bob. Well, it happened like this: Back in about 2,000 BC in Knossos on Crete, a Minoan prince (Drakomaxos) wanted an air conditioned house so it would "remain cool year round." He employed a local mage to work an enchantment on his house to cool it. The mage, Pinaruti, was an inept adept. He had all the books with all the spells that he had created over the years and that were passed down to him by his own master when he was an apprentice. But Pinaruti had a weakness for alcohol and always took a little wine to settle his nerves before working a major spell.

Only a bottle or two.

Pinaruti decided the best way to make the house cool would be to summon a powerful demon to infiltrate the walls and keep the house cool. In attempting to summon Beezlebub, Pinaruti slurred the name to Beetlebob and our friendly demon had his start in the human world. Sadly, for Pinaruti, the reality of having summoned an actual demon so shocked him that he died of heart failure on the spot, his body forming a convenient bridge from the heart of the summoning circle to the outside world. A bridge that Beetlebob happily crossed.

Now, the happy-go-lucky (mostly lucky) demon travels the human world, enjoying the company of women (and occasionally men) of every age; and occasionally, working a spell or two of his own. These spells seldom turn out exactly the way he planned (just like Pinaruti's) but they usually turn out okay. Sometimes surprisingly so.

So, there you have the makings of my NaNoWriMo work in progress. A little spooky. A little sexy. A lot funny! Probably, a Devon Layne novel.

During November, my Patreon $10/month patrons will be able to read over my shoulder as I post what I've written each day. Don't miss out! It's often as much as six months between when I write a story and when it gets posted here.

Now, I need to finish emptying the fifth wheel (just a few items like my socks and underwear, the bottles of alcohol, and whatever it is I stored under the front bin. Then I have four days to finish moving into my new trailer before I have to head across the state again to Seattle for the annual doctor appointments.

Wish me luck!