The Awakening of Adonis, John William Waterhouse
Finished Chapter 2, 4,384 words. Word count for Sweet Taboo = 44,843/60,000. I’ve done some cutting, and completely lost track of the new writing so I’m sticking to the overall count versus what I’m aiming for in this draft. And I expect the final word count will be more than 60,000 anyway.
Hide and Seek, James Jacques Tissot
Winter is still holding onto to Spring’s skirts, and I, for one, am ready for warm, sunny, gloriously hot summer. This week (except for one fine day when the temp was in the high seventies and everything was bathed in balmy sunshine) the wind scrapes all with its killer edge and the palms are shivering. I finally made some progress with Chapter Two this morning, getting a part of it to come together. I’ve got this ebb, flow, flounder, ebb, flow, flounder thing going on. It’s the flounder bit that gets on my nerves, but I think I’m going to have to learn to live with it, live in it, and write through it. I’m beating my way along, like a hardy little boat on a rollicking sea.
Nevertheless, despite the ebb, flow, and flounder, I’m hoping to gain some momentum soon. This is, afterall, a rewrite!
Catalan Landscape, Joan Miro
“Alrighty then! Looks like you finally got a little something done this morning. Way to go!”
“Tone it down okay? All that bubbly is making my head hurt. Why don’t you sit down and stop jumping around like that?”
“Hey baby girl I’m just keeping the faith for you ’cause I keep tripping over your psyche lying prone in the swamp, and the sky is always black, gray on a good day, and it’s always raining.”
“Oh spare me. I know what you’re really thinking.”
“I’m thinking you need to move on to Chapter Two and stop dancing around with Chapter One. That waltz is getting old.”
“Do I look like a word factory? Push the button and out it comes? I’ve got to get my thoughts together. Gimme a break.”
“You’re always on break! If this was a real job, you’d be fired!”
“Can we say ‘meow’!”
“Look, I’m trying to steer you right and you’re forever wanting to negotiate. Remember what Yoda said?”
“Yoda’s not real, y’know.”
“Neither is your writing career.”
“Get out, bitch!”
The Soul of the Rose, John William Waterhouse
“So how’s the re-write going?”
“It’s not, but no worry yet. Writing takes patience.”
“Nice that you’ve got a title now–”Sweet Taboo”–not bad, but maybe something better’ll come along later.”
”Yeah thanks.”
“Think you’ll have it finished before I die?”
“Keep it up and you’ll never know.”
Irises, William Morris
“So what’s going on with A Lamentation of Swans?”
“You really want to know or are you just poking me in the ribs to see me wince?”
“It’s a wonderful story, a good book. I’m curious why you’ve abandoned it.”
“I have not abandoned it.” Said with great indignation. “Just giving it a rest.”
“Weeds are growing around it.”
“It’ll keep.”
Carthillon Cliffs, John Brett
Finally got a working title for the Deidre/Randall novel–Sweet Taboo–from The Best of Sade cd. Don’t think this will be final, but it will do for now. What I want to do when I return to writing Sweet Taboo is get the proper voice and tone going, the proper words and sentences. They don’t have to be perfect, just right. There is a larger exploration beckoning my thoughts about Sweet Taboo. Something to do with Deidre. I don’t have the words or even clarity of thought about it yet, but something good is waving at me from way, way in the back.
The Pool of Bethesda, Robert Bateman
David Morrell in Lessons From A Lifetime of Writing states “contemplating a novel…is like studying the horizon—it recedes infinitely.” Last week seemed like nothing but fail, but I know that’s only resistance rearing its blistered head. Driving into work on Monday, traffic was so slow I had time to score the book, i.e., put together a song list for when I get back into the writing. So far, I’ve pulled songs from Sade, Michael Jackson, and the La Femme Nikita cd. Sade’s songs provide a wonderful resonance to Deidre’s and Randall’s story; her smoky contralto underscores the subtext. The list:
Your Love Is King, Sade
Sweet Taboo, Sade
Is It A Crime, Sade
No Ordinary Love, Sade
Nothing Can Come Between Us, Sade
Kiss of Life, Sade
By Your Side, Sade
King of Sorrow, Sade
Pretty Young Thing, Michael Jackson
Beyond the Invisible, Enigma
The Love Thieves, Depeche Mode
Fear and Love, Morcheeba
These are a great musical backdrop for writing Deidre’s and Randall’s relationship, the first part of the book.
Pandora, John William Waterhouse
Monday started off with a bang–to Junior’s rear. I was stopped at the traffic light before the freeway and when the light changed, the guy behind me was a bit too eager and a tad inattentive. Junior’s getting repaired now and I’m doing the zombie run in a Toyota Camry. Dealing with the accident discombobulated my routine, keeping me from becoming further acquainted with Neo, but I can tell you this little writing tool is well worth it, if you’re so inclined.
It has a host of features and functions, including the ability to change font sizes, from small to extra large, depending on how many lines of text you’d like to see on the 2X6 inch screen; you can navigate up, down, sideways, by character, by word, by page, it saves automatically the moment you start typing, you can highlight and cut and paste, it gives you character, word, and page count as well as the percentage of memory used in each file, and it can be connected via USB to computer or printer for downloading you file and printing. The manual is slim and straightforward.
Also, the advanced model comes with IR technology (and other goodies) allowing you to send to printer or computer wirelessly. I have the basic model, which came with a handy-dandy USB cable, but that IR thing is pretty neat. The Neo’s easy to use and, frankly, what’s not to like? It’s the bee’s knees, imho. Scoot over to Alphasmart for a look-see.
Not much done on the Deidre/Randall novel this week so far; I’m wrestling with Chapters 2 and 3, and I’ve given up making the March 31st second draft completion deadline. Wishful thinking, really.
Bottles, Dante Gabriel Rossetti
For those who’re curious about the Neo from AlphaSmart, just a quick note–it’s a great writing tool! It’s light as a piece of paper, no kidding, and offers all the usual key manuevers you’d find on your computer keyboard. I don’t have time to go into much detail at the moment, but will give specifics later. I worked on it the whole weekend, and the only learning curve for me is remembering the key commands for doing stuff. I bought the basic model. And, oh yeah, sending to your computer and printer–easy as walking! More later, d 
The Arming of Perseus, Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Got home last night to find my Neo waiting at my door. Yay! So I’m going to spend the weekend getting familiar hands-on. Looks like it’s going to be a beautiful sunny day. I’m taking the Neo and my story binder to the bluff overlooking the beach. We’re going to have a good time! I’ll let y’all know what I think of the Neo. Happy writing, d:)
