Leto Armitage: Blog

One consequence of being new to this grand experiment in writing is that I don't know what I don't know, such as how the holiday season is likely to disrupt my writing habits. To say it has been frustrating would be an understatement but the bad for writing has had it's good points in other ways. But it is also why I'm up as everyone else is asleep and trying to get the thoughts out of my head.

This is a long way to say that chapter 33 is not happening as quickly as I would like but it is definitely still in progress. This is roughly the halfway point of the overall story and I'm very much looking forward to the next several chapters as I hope others are as well.

My first draft of chapter 32 is done. yay! I feel like this one will take several passes so it will still be a few days before I can get it to proofers but a first draft is a good milestone. I'm really happy with how the second arc is shaping up.

To address a few questions I've gotten over the last few chapters, in no particular order:

- The story is not going to turn dark. The events at the end of last chapter have setup some new challenges for our triad to face but they will do so.

- We meet Robert's mother! She's ... special. Not as special as Lavi's grandmother but I haven't figured out how to get her into the story yet but really want to.

- The drama of Melissa and Lavi versus the cheerleading coach evolves and while it will take a while for details to come out Mrs. Richardson is going to really regret pushing this conflict.

No smut in this chapter, just life but there will be plenty in the future.

So, I've been a negligent writer. Real-life and the things that pay the bills have dominated my life this week. It hasn't been a bad week, in fact, there have been some really good things happening this week but it has been really busy. That means I have not done a good editing pass on chapter 31 of the Pool Girl but it has been on my mind. In fact, a few plot points that will affect things through the rest of the story probably settled into my mind during those quiet times when trying to settle down to sleep.

Tomorrow I promise to make tangible progress. :) Today, today is Friday and I'm going to try to have another good day as I hope everyone else does as well.

Chapter 31 - it is fully first draft complete. I'm going to let it sit a day or so then give it another pass and then send it to my ever-patient proof reader, Pertinax. In this chapter, our little family reaches New Orleans. It is a fairly light-hearted chapter with some setup. It feels short to me but is a healthy ~7k words. I want to put this out though and be able to spend some time on chapter 32 where ... well, things happen.

I should finish going through messages and I should be writing the next chapter but I was thinking this morning about how much Lavi would have to love Halloween and I decided to write a little flash-forward because I couldn't stop thinking about it. It's more of a vignette than a story but in honor of Lavi's second favorite holiday (after her birthday) here is a scene that will be in a future chapter, probably 35-ish. It also hasn't had Pertinax's eyes on it so it may have more errors than usual but I wanted to post it today.

Right after I hit save here I will post it into the queue. It's just a tidbit but I hope you enjoy.