Friday, March 31, 2006

That was a
blast. I began writing from 1pm and closed it up just now. I got some pretty good stuff. When I cut out the Castle scenes I had something like 63 pages. I currently have 14 so I have a long ways to go. Like I said, this is a very ambitious project and I'm quite excited about where it's going.

I never did get down to Pizza today because Anne convinced me to go Monday when she's off work, so I can go a bit earlier. I could go in with her right after work and put my name in but I'd be a bit late getting in. I'd be there at about 4:15pm and as long as I can put my name in then walk down to work and hopefully get there by about even 5pm. I'm going to rush for that and see what happens.

I'll have more to say on this when I get back later tonight.

e.Jim

I had a good
days worth of writing yesterday and Anne and I went into work, feeling good. She gets off at The Bay and I at Corona the next stop. Unfortunately the cheques weren't in yesterday but will be here today. So I ended up doing $645 and 2 $40 credit cards. I met my wife on the train on the way home and anticipated going home to catch the Oiler hockey game but got sucked into watching Jason and the Argonaughts movie. The warrior skeleton scene. Then I realized, I'm missing the sports scores. Yikes.

The good news is the Oilers won here at Rexal place 4-0 in Rolly's first shut out. Also, SJ lost as well, which is good for the Oilers. I'll check the standings in the paper later today. Anyhow, I'm about ready for bed and give Anne a nice back rub for a few minutes and listen to Coast. Should be a great show this morning. If I can stay awake.

That's all for now.

e.Jim

Thursday, March 30, 2006

I’m a bit late
getting to this, this afternoon. We’re getting to a high of 6* today. We’re already arounf 5. The snow is melting into the. It’s turning out to be a beautifull day out there.

Anyway, I’m going to get back to Et.
That’s all for now.

e.Jim

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

I found some
interesting things in the story I'd like to include and as I begin to discover the story, I'm finding out that this is an ambitious project to be sure. Much more so then when I first discovered in my original simple idea.

More later

e.Jim

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

another nice looking
day out there. My favorite time of the year. There’s no windchill even though there is snow on the ground (melting) the winds are light and as soon as the snow melts I’m going to start getting out there and do some walking around, with my new camera and take some pictures. A good time to go would be Sat after work when Anne is out shopping.

Windows Vista is coming out soon. Mark said on his forum that it was formally codenamed Longhorn. I don’t know too much about this except that Microsoft has identified 5 different types of users rather then types of hardware. The thing I’m wondering is what about someone who’s computer needs cross over from one user type to another? I just don’t have enough information just yet.

It seems Longhorn/Vista was codenamed after a popular bar in Whistler BC and even though the bussiness application won’t be out until November 2006 the Home edition won’t be out until January next year. Lots of time to wait for that. And yes, this is supposed to be Microsofts newest Windows operating system. Usually they produce one every couple of years but Xp has been the staple over the last 5.5 years. Apparently it’s supposed to take advantage of 64bit operating system, has Internet explorer 7 and Mark said he’s excited about it because now he can finally use his graphics card for other then just games. Vista might also include some touch screen features and voice recognition.

It also seems I neeed Vista Ultimate and if we get another prosperity cheque in Sept, then I will hold onto it and use it for when the initial release is here. I have no idea what the list price is but I’d imagine it’s going to be the same price as an Xbox 360. I’d say around $500 depending on the package you buy. But there’s lots of time for that. The most immediate thing I want right now is more Ram for my computer. It’s not a big upgrade but $215 more or less (mol). I also want to get a new printer/scanner as well.

Anne headed out of here just before noon to so some banking and to inquire about my t4’s and to get herself some KFC, as her money from home came in. Tooney Tuesday. I requested a big crunch chcken something. If she’s downtown chances are she could be inquiring there. She can’t pick up my T4’s or anything like that but she can at least let me know if they are in and I can go down early and pick them up and apply at Pizza.

If she comes in with the good news that my T4’s are in today, then tomorrow I will go in at 1pm get my T4’s and pop over to Pizza. If Pizza hires me on the spot then chances are I can start Wen, Thur, Fri. But I’m quite sure I’ll have to go through the training, which I think is on the weekends. I hope training say starts 3pm Sat-7pm and same for Sun. That way I can (uss) just go right after work and pop in and do the 4 hrs (?) and return home. I don’t know how many trainig days there are. But I think there are 2. If so, then I could be working there Tues, Wed, Thur, Fri- and if I can get 11am-4pm, for now, then great. That’s 4 hrs and I can go right into my job and do the evening shift. If something’s got to give, it’s going to be Xentel. But it will be after the April weekend. That’s of course if I can get those hours but I doubt it.

Okay I got a bit ahead of myself here and I didn’t get any writing done, other then bloging. But I’m going to do a bit of preliminary work on the next scene. I just got a great idea for the pirate scene.

e.Jim

that’s why my
bsl readings have been so high lately, because I’ve been taking my insulin around 7:30am as of late. So I passed outon the couch and got up to do the cbi (feed cats breakfast, insulin) and I’ll head back to bed. I got in at 1:30am and couldn’t sleep so I watched a bit of Seinfeld and then past out. I slept from 2am until 3 when anne came in and activated the tocuh lamp she passes by on her way into bed and that woke me up. The Sparky has to take over the bed so I went to the couch and watchd the weather channel and past out for an hour.

I’ve gone as far as I could go on the love making scene and I’m just writing the ending for this now before I go into the next. Scene. I’ll probably get into that one today later on, we'll see.

e.Jim

Monday, March 27, 2006

holy smoke, now
my bsl reading this morning was 18.1 It was that lemmon meringue pie at 11:30 last night just before bed that did it. I was in bed at 12:00 giving Anne that back rub until 1:am and I listened to Coast for an hour ready to pass out. I think I heard Anne come in about 3am or so. I think I got 5 good hours of sleep and I’ll go back for a bit more and get up around 11am. Hopefully this bsl will come down some more since I took my insulin but for now I got a bit of enegery and I’m going to try and write one of those new scenes fo Et.

e.Jim

Sunday, March 26, 2006

much better.
We think it was the raisins in the oatmeal that brought the sugars up. I'm now at 8-1. Anne returned from Superstore and bought me a baby back rib dinner and a couple of nice bake potatoes for us and beans with molasses. Ok, I know, Sugar.

Okay so much for the Primus phone. Our credit rating wouldn't qualify for something like that unless we put down a $300 deposit. IF we get another prosperity check from Ralph, then (Sept ?) she'll put some of the prosperity bonus money onto that. As for me, I'm hankering on getting a new printer. Depends on what's new for Sept. But after brunch I want to go over to Future Shop and see if I can get any advice on the camera and how to use it properly. Why is it this camera won't take regular AA batteries?

I'm going to make a few crucial decisions Especially as far as the main characters in the story are concerend. I also want to go over to Furure Shop but at the same time, I want to write. I can always go over there tomorrow morning.

That actually sounds like a better plan. We'll see.

e.Jim

Saturday, March 25, 2006

going into work
was mild and the air was crisp. I took a look at my lodge callender and not only am I going to be at Aprils regular lodge meeting but also at the emergent meeting we have in place for Sat the 29th. Good stuff. This will make our 4th emergent meeting this year. So I mentioned to will that to Woll, as it’s far enough in advance and I confirmed it just now for the 29th of April. Good stuff.

Anyway, I had fun at work even sales on CHF came in slow. I ended up with $100 sale a $50 and some straglers but for an hour I got nothing. Mostly a lot of not homes. I ended up with I think $730, in that area. I came home and almost pat out on the train. My Northgate bus was there and that spead on out of the terminal fast and I was home about 2:30pm. I locked up and took everything off and went to bed. Could I sleep? No way. For about 40 min I tried. Sigh, the life of a working SF writer.

I figured, well, maybe I ought to just ly on the couch kick my feet up and see if sleep would come. I put that Electronic Playground on and past out for almost an hour. Almost as on cue, Anne comes in and that sort of put me off. Not her but she usually comes in about 7pm when she’s working on a Sat.

More later.

e.Jim

Friday, March 24, 2006

I had a slow
start tonight on BBB but then Will threw in St. Michales for us and I got a bit better turn-around pulling in $555 for a 3hr shift. Not great but like I said it was slow. We had most of the night just 4 of us and wanted to leave right after the break but we got out a bit early as well. Lowest turnout I’ve ever seen. Also the bank report was out and I got a bonus again. $22 bucks. That was good. I went and walked across the parking lot behind First Edmonton Place after work and as an after thought I decided to go into Tim’s for a Boston cream and a med decaffe. I ate my donut there and unraveled my headphones and listened to some music on the way home drinking my coffee on the train.

When I got off onto the platform outside taking that ramp down it began to rain. Very nice outside. When I got home, I rolled up the rim on the coffee and I won a free coffee. Excellent.
I’m about ready to resume the last bit there of the scene I did earlier and get ready to put that to bed.

e. Jim

that scene
took up to 3,271 words and I'm done with it. When I come home after work tonight I'll merge the scene into the document. I like the work I got today but the scene still needs to be revised and rewritten.

e.Jim

Thursday, March 23, 2006

I did a lot of
work on the synopsis and into Chapter 15. As I'm going, I'm also tightening up Chapters as well. I really need to augment a lot of scenes. Some I need to enhance totally. And other I need to add. Earth Tones might go 100k but that's all for now.

I had enough sleep, even though I didn't get into bed until around 5am. So I slept from 5am-11:55pm just under 7 hrs. Not to shabby.

Outside its overcast -4* =windchill. Anne just left about a half hour ago to take the bottles over to the depot and we are expecting a courier truck to drop off a black box so we can have our phone on line back, so we're waiting for the box, possibly today or even tomorrow.

Now when that happens and we have our landline phone online, I'll have a phone number to give them so I can apply for a job at Pizza. The only thing stopping me from doing that this week is we haminutesminuts left remaining on our phone. I really need my own phone but the thing is I would rarely need to use it.But next week, I will get that ball rolling and hopefully I'll be at a new job. I might not get the hours I need because I don't know how the operation is set up there. They may have 3 shifts all right, 9-3, 3-11, 11-4am. If that's the case I'd do the 9-3 shift but I seem to recall Lesley's husband on the #120 last year as I was going into work and he was getting off to start at the Pizza 5pm shift.

Actually for me, mornings would make more sense being diabetic because I'm up anyway and falling back to sleep is hard on me. If I'm going to start someplace fresh, I'd like to go from say 9-3pm and then, I head home to meet Anne and have a bite to eat and have the whole evening to myself. That would give me 6hrs, Mon-Fri, weekends off.

Anyhow I went and thought about something big overall as the overal story goes and I'm quite excited about the direction. Whabiggeste of the biggist themes in my life right now? Closure. Finding closure to events in my life. Those events that my diary can't always connect to, where it becomes harder to fill in the gaps. This is one of the reasons that motivate me to write. To help explore unanswered questions my diary can't by filling in the gaps. In the world of writing I can explore this through the eyes of the character. Dark intruder will be about finding closure in my life to an event that happened 25 years ago but sci-fi'd up a but.

e.Jim

I ended
up doing a lot more work on Et, tonight. I'm about at the half way through the story synopsis and I hope to complete this by the weekend and I can return to the actual rewrite type-ins. The book itself might contain at least 100k by the time I'm done. But that's all tonight

e.Jim

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Still hard at work
on Earth tones. Mainly the story synopsis. Now I see the value of having an outline and I'm a firm believer that the outline doesn't need to be etched in stone. The rough draft is like a soft mold of clay.

It's warming up out there and the sun is shining today but over the last several days we've had those S/E winds that give us the wind chill. So even though it may say +1 on the pixi boy, it feels more like -10. Even then that's not sever weather.

I got up at about 6:30am and did the cbi thing but I went back to bed an hour later after working on the story synopsis. It's interesting and I can see where I'm going to have to change the story dynamic. I ended up climbing back to bed about 7:45am and had trouble sleeping I think I got 4.5 hrs last night after listening to Coast last night, and lets see from 7:45am this morning, maybe about 3hrs in between bathroom breaks. So, I'd say I got 6-8hrs of sleep.

Anyway, I'm having my first coffee, it's a sunny day out there I feel pretty good for a Wednesday despite the Oilers losing last night. As for me, today I'm going back into doing more on the story synopsis and then book off the computer around 2:30 sss, and get a bite to eat watch some tv and then pack my things up and it's ready to go into work for 4hrs.

That's all for now. Sorry for any typos, this blogger spell check isn't working. Seems to be back working now though.

e.Jim

I got up
to Chapter 6 of the synopsis. I like what I have but the story needs a lot of work. I don't know if I should continue with the rewriting or place the synopsis on hold? I'm going to work more on the sysnopsis though and see how that pans out. I can always chage it as the rewrite continues.
More later.

e.Jim

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

I got up about
6:30am and I began working on a story synopsis for Et. The thing is I began by hand and I should do it in type font. I then realized that I was missing Chapter 3! The story is still there but I forgot to insert a Chapter 3. LOL. I might break the book down into maybe, 40 Chapters by the time it’s all said and done. Chapter 4 alone has s0me 30 pages in it. Way to long. It’s slow going but the synopsis needs to be done.

Back to bed.


e.Jim

Monday, March 20, 2006

anyway, I slept
on the couch all night because Anne moved the dresser cabinet against the wall and the cats have only one way to do this, over my head. Literally. I knew that was going to happen. So I figure I’d cut out the middelman and if I wanted to get any sleep at all, I’d go sleep on the couch. I slept until 8:30am.

that was a near disaster. Anne and I left out of here and caught the bus to Churchill station, then she decides she wants McDonald’s breakfast. Okay, so we walk through that whole lower tunnel are area down to Edmonton Center food court and I popped into “Grand and Toy,” as I wanted stationary but couldn‘t find what I was looking for. Man has that store shrunk in size over the years. I haven’t been inside Edmonton Center in a long time.

Then with breakfast in hand we finally made it over to Canada Place but Anne had got a head of me and came back with a “They are not taking any more numbers today." Okay, so we had out breakfast there on one of the cushioned seats. I went over to Revenue Canada and they were serving 45, I was 55 and I had a ten-15min wait. There was no place to sit down as most of the seats were taken inside, so I sat by the decorative fountain outside in the mall and I could see the numbers on the sceens from there. Anne joined me and at 54, inside and a bit of a wait they didn’t have my T4’s in yet. The clerk explained it to Anne that not all personal T4’s are in. So, she gave me a phone number to call and a letter with last years tax information to use as a refrence. So like I said, that was a near disaster. If it’s there they can even fax it over to Anne’s place of employment she can pick it up and we can be on our way the next morning to file.
If we can file before April 30th, then all the better. It still doesn’t help our subsidy though. AHC subsidy qualification is March 31st. That means we need to not only file before March 31st and submit it electronically but they have to process it and send us back the letter of assesment before March 31st. It’s not like AHC will start taking money from my cheque right away. They usually wait until middle of April. By that time, I hope to get out of this job I’m in and if we get this phone hooked up by Friday, next week, I’ll be at Pizza. Or hope to be by the end of the month.

Anyhow I slept on the couch last night from 3am until 8:30pm. I got a good 5hrs sleep and took my insulin late. I like doing it that way. Taking my insulin around 8am.

I’m going to try and do a bit on Chapter4 today and watch wrestling at 7pm.-9 and then work on the Chapter from 9-11 to watch the news. That’s been my big adventure today.

e. Jim

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Anne went to get
us a nice Chinese dinner. It was great but she had a hard time getting there and back with it. I just realized having my shower that I can’t do anything about Pizza tomorrow because, Anne hasn’t the cell phone loaded up. She’s anticipating Pirmus to send us a box that is supposed to hook up to our modem on Friday. I don’t know.

We’re up and out of here early tomorrow to Canada Place and I hope to get my T4’s there. If they have them. That’s another reason why I want to get out of that friggin job of mine.

I also did Chapter 2-3 rewrites this afternoon. One Chapter/day. If all goes well, I should have the first rewrite done by the Good Friday weekend. Then comes the second rewrite. I;m going to do 3 of them. Eventualy just one as I get better.

e.Jim

I took a bsl
reading just before 1pm and I’m currently at 7.9. That’s not bad. I went to bed at about 3:30am and passed out. Other then the times to get up to the bathroom, I had a great sleep. I woke up about 11:am and slept until 12:30pm with a bit of a headache.
I’m going to begin the type-ins after brunch and that’s going to be nmy big project over the next couple of months.

Spring arrives here officialy at about 11:40am tomorrow. If things work out okay, tomorrow I’ll be off but I’ll be at Canada Place seeing if I can get a copy of my T4 and do my taxes before head office scoops out more funding for AHC.

Debbies argument for me having problems with my T4’s is that so is Loney a fellow diabetic that Used to work with us a year os so ago. Thing is I’m currently employed there. I’m still getting pay cheque. My current mailing address is even on my pay cheque. Yet in the “Company’s wisdom” they felt compelled to still mail my T4’s to my old address. Why are they doing this? The only reason I can fathom out of all of this is I’m probability the only one under Albert Health Care subsidy.

Robs been trying to get me to work more hours for years. The moore people he has the more he can play the heavy and control people. That’s why I only work evenings. Less Rob. So he probably feels that if AHC can take more money out of me I’ll have to work the difference in order to recover this. AHC after March 31st will be deducting $44 bucks off my cheque, every month. Now I don’t make much money there during a week and if I had a choice (which I do) I’d rather work somewhere else.

So guess what I’m doing tomorrow after Canada Place? I’m going to run down to Pizza and fill out the application. Sure I get bonus money here but I’ll get bonus money and plus have my weekends and evenings off for the playoffs. Not only this but Pizza is an in-bound call canter, and maybe what they will do is have my T4’s done right for next year. Also, by working at pizza it’s a fresh start. The only reason why new people work at my call
center is because of the weekly pay cheque.

With Pizza, I can work my own hours. I like the idea of working from 11am-5pm. I’d take Sat-Sun off and work the full week. 6hrs X 5= 30 and if the medical plan qualifications are like where I work now, then I’d work the xtra hours. Maybe one day a week over, say work until 7pm get home at 9pm. They might even start me off at $9 bucks/hr. I could be getting $510/2 weeks after taxes. I’d get $250/2weeks to fool around with. That’s not to shabby.

Anyhow, after brunch, I’m going to begine work on Et. That’s all for now. Probably more for this afternoon.

e.Jim

Saturday, March 18, 2006

The big story
of the day is the huge dumping of snow we got overnight and still coming down. The roads are almoat paralyzed out there driving wise. I was even late getting into work. I'm glad I did come in though. I received a $10 cash bonus for the most credit cards at the end of the shift. Only fitting. Getting to the lrt station was difficult because of all the snow. Even getting out of the bus at Clairview station. Will (our night manager) was on the bus as well and I got in just around 2:40pm. It wasn't cold or anything like that.

Anyway, I did some more work on Et and I cleaned up the alternate alien scene. Next comes Sheringons office and the cave scene. Then there's the snakes but that's all for now.

e.Jim

well the first day
of Spring is March 20th. That’s just before noon actually. However we’re supposed to get a huge dump of snow on the city overnight. High winds etc. This morning isn’t looking very good when I go into work. But it’ll be easy. I’ll be out there about 8:50am to catch that 9am bus and then once I’m on the bus and on the train, the train only takes 10 min to get downtown. There will be free coffee and a donut waiting for me and I’ll have a few minutes to listen to my tunes and wake up a bit. Hopefully the shift will be over before I know it. I’ve already got Mon booked off as I’m going to down to Canada pl to get my taxes done. Or at least get my T4’s.

Tues I want to work 1-9, Wed 1-9, Thur 1-9, Fri 1-8:30, Sat 10-2pm. This way, I’ll have 31.5hrs. I should have $100 and if there’s any bank bonus money, then great.

I was able to hook up with Debbie the office girl about my T4’s and sure enough head office (Calgary) Still sent them to my old address. Now they have to wait 3 weeks before they can issue me out another one. If they can get the address right. It’s on my paycheque sure enough.

Anyhow, I can’t sleep. I was listening to Coast there for a bit and past out and I had a power snooze there. I’m up for an hour and I hope I can sleep without the cats bothering me until 8am.
This weekend is going to be busy for me. Later this morning of course I’ll have my job thing to do for 4hrs, then home to have a bit of a nap, if I can. Then tonight, I found Sat night main event wrestling on A channel (City tv) and that’s on at 9pm. Then Simon & Simon and Knight Rider (unless their repeats.) I also, want to find time to watch the news and ther’s an Oiler hockey game on tonight as well. Also, I want to spend some time doing my writing. Sunday, is Annes birthday dinner and we’ll be traveling to the Saw Mill resturaunt from 3-7 by the time were all done going there eating and coming back. If I’m lucky, I’ll have Sun night to do some more writing. Hopefully I can do Chapter 15. I want to write the original Chapter 15 again. I’m taking Monday off and Anne and I are going down to Canada Place and I’m going to try and get my taxes done. I hope. Then she’s getting us Pizza Hut (mmm) for Raw and hopefully I can get some more work on Et. But that’s all for now.

e.Jim

Friday, March 17, 2006

I decided to do
the infiltation scene anyway and after I wrote it, I agreed it was a necessary fit because it helped to tie in some lose ends. I’ve got a bit more to do on it. So this means I’ll probably have Chapter 8 and 9 a bit longer to make room for these two senes.

Anne says it’s pretty chilly out there what with the windchill and all. Even though it reads about -7 when you factor the wind it feels more like -18* and this has been going on for a few days now. Welcome to St, Patricks day. But March always goes out like a lion. Anyway, it’s off to do the job thing. I got my $80 bucks but I don’t think I’ll be buying anything with it. I want to maybe save that or most of it for my lodge dues, in case I don’t get the $100 pension money. But I want to work some extra hours next week anyway.

e.Jim

I got woken
up by Anne leaving out the door about 9:20am as she went out to do her thing. I figured I’ll sleep until noon but then after I was just about ready to pass out the stereo from below came on and woke me up. I had enough sleep from 3:30-6:20am, almost 3 hrs. I went back to bed after the cbi thing and I slept from 6:30am until 9:30 when Anne got up. There’s 3 hrs there. I got 6 hrs plus some rest until the stereo came on and that woke me up.

I’m good to go as far as sleep is and Anne won’t be back until noon. So I have a coffee I’m working on and I’m going to work on Sheringtons office scene a bit more. I don’t think I’ll need the iniltration scene. Rick should know about that overhearing the Nazi’s from before.

Anyhow, I’ll post this and get to work on the book.

e.Jim

Anne got her
back pack alright. Whew.

I'm still writing those two scenes. Sheringtons office scene is done. Now the infiltration scene is underway.

I had a great night at work. I ended up doing $915. Just a $100 short of just over a grand. I even got my pay cheque and everything was there. My full hours and my $30 bonus. I didn't get a bank bonus this time around because I banked only $2,100 but that's okay. I'm taking Monday off next week I'm going to put some hours in for the afternoon as well.

As for right now, I'm just about ready to finish my beer and have my shower. That's all for now.

e.Jim

Thursday, March 16, 2006

just a quickie
here. I've been working on a couple of scenes that are crucial to the story and a last minute scene just this afternoon that sprung up. This book might have 100k in it after all.

I've had a rough 14hrs what with leaving my wife's backpack behind after I got off the bus just out here. Fortunately it's in the transit lost and found. More on that latter.

This has been a week post for me today but I'll be back latter tonight. Oh and wouldn't you know it, to add insult to injury this week, the building maintenance has shut off the water so we get no water for showers etc. Nice.

e.Jim

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Well, lets see now:
I ended up in bed by 1am and listened to a bit of Coast. A good show this time. I passed out around 2am and woken up by Anne when she came in around 3 am but getting back to sleep after that was hard. I think I rested from 3-5 when the cats woke me up. I could sleep so I worked a bit more on Et and realized I missed some basic mechanics to the story. Mostly based on geography and distance. I think I came into bed about 7am but I couldn't sleep. The cats were in and off the bed add getting up to pee and Sparky and Silky both up on the dresser jumping down beside my head. That was enough. I got some rest but when it was 8am I decided to watch a bit of Lonestar and came in about 9am. I think I slept from maybe 10-just before noon. I wanted to get up to watch the news and put my feet up on the table but I slept right through it. I feel okay now though.

I can see where Chapter 15 is going to need a major rewrite. It's the last chapter in the book and ties up most of the lose ends.

Anyway, I want to spell check this and post it and check on my Blog haunts get ready sss and off to work. Well it's Wednesday. The worst day of the week for me is Wednesday.

Just a quick edit here. Spring is 5 days away, but you wouldn't know it by looking outside here. I think after work on Sat I'm going over to Future Shop where I bought the camera and see what's wrong with it. I find it difficult to believe that I can get only 8 photos from two double AA batteries. I've got the Canon Power shot A520 4.0 mp. There are some good shots outside here worthy to place on this blog. Does anyone know anything about this camera? I place two AA generic batteries in and it still reads need batteries in the back view screen. I'd appreciate any comments about this. Thanks.

I've been checking the stats lately and I'm getting an average of 2-3 of you reading this. Just want to say thanks. Except for this entry most of what goes on here takes place first in my daily journal. I've kept that up since May 12th 1980. So it's no big deal to transfer that to here anyway.

e.Jim

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

I gave it a
good shot. I was exhausted around midnight and I elected to have a break from back rub tonight and I got it. I really tried to fall asleep and I did for awhile but Anne forgot to close the window cover for me and with the street lights blaring into the room I found it really hard to sleep. I had the radio on and I was listening to “Hopalong Cassidy” and I past out and Coast came on. I might have had an hour sleep. If that. I shut the radio off and tried to sleep but failed so I came out to the living room where Anne had shut everything off but was watching tv very softly in the dark.

Anyway, I got up and ended up watching tv for awhile. She suggested maybe if I watch some tv. Like Paladin etc, I’ll be tired enough to come strait to bed.

I watched “Paladin” and “The Lone Ranger” and then the “Rifleman”. I love those old westerns. They don’t make shows like that anymore. Good writing. So after the last show, I decided, okay. Lets try for bed. It was 4am and I still couldn’t sleep. 4:30am and that’s when I cam back out here to see if I could do any work on the last Chapter rewrite. I gave it a good shot, writing something by hand but the writing was getting stupid already, so that’s when I came in here. Anyway, I’m about ready to go do the cbi thing.


Speaking about the last chapter rewrite, I began to see where I may have to re write the whole thing. I’m going to tale out the aliens because that was getting really stupid. The book already has about 86k in it and the snake’s scene is a good 2k in there. I might get lucky and have the book around 90k after all, which was the original idea. Cbi and I’ll try and get into bed by 5:34am.

e.Jim

Monday, March 13, 2006

I might have had
5hrs sleep and after supper about 8:30pm I had a power snooze so I think that might have had an affect on my sleeping habits.

I’m currently right into Earth tones and like I said above after this it’s Dark Intruder. I’m hoping the 2nd rewrite of Et will be a lot better then the first one. Now I see the value in planning for an outline and with DI I’m going to outline, scene by scene and establish a time line. DI takes place over a weekend and distance isn’t really a factor. I also have a 10k outline that I developed into a short story. Anyway, back to the rewrites of Et. Oh, I also need to work the phrase “Earth tones” into the overall story as well.

wow, I ended up completing Chapter 14 and all that’s left is Chapter 15 and that’s minor. I’ll be done by March 15th. I started Jan 23rd also, there was some down time where I had a few weeks off not doing anything. So if I just buckled down the rewrite could have taken a month to do. I could have completed it in January. The next book will be a lot better because mainly I will have a plan.

e.Jim

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Anne did a garbage
drop and a bottle run just now. I'm looking at Chapter 14 and I don't want to watch the news at 11pm as I'm all tv'd out from watching Daniel Boone and the Oiler game.

I need to find that clipboard so I can do these type-ins on the weekend as the story takes shape. The direction and concept's are still the same but I'm tying up more lose ends. There is enough hack and slashing going on and I bet I took out more then a few k worth of words.

Damn this is bugging me. Lets get to this now, while I have the free time.

e.Jim

wow! You don’t
want to depend on them but about half way through Knight Rider I took a gravel and then we did a brief back rub listening to Coast. Great show last night on the Phoenix Lights case 1997 coming up close to 10 years now. March 13th. Anyway the gravel allowed me to pass out and I was asleep by 3am. I could have gone on to listen to Art’s guest all night: Peter Davenport. I like listening to this guy same with Dr. Michio Kaku. I even like listening to Hoagland. Coast has a lot of good shows on but tonight their scraping the bottom of the barrel with Evelyn Paglini, sorry Evelyn. And Sunday they have another downer show, on Angelic visitations. Please.

Getting back to the gravel pill, after Coast I passed out and woke up at 6am. I did the cbi thing and went right back to bed. I was that tired. I slept up until 12:20pm and laid in bed dozing in and out of sleep for a bit and laid there stroking the cats and Anne woke up. I’d say I got a full 8 hrs and a bit. I feel pretty good right now and I have my first coffee in my fav Tim Horton’s cup and ready to complete Chapter 12 of the initial rewrite.


Also, I’m going to re write Lb when I’m done with Et, and do lb in the 3 act play format. After Chapter 12 this afternoon at 5pm I’ve got an Oiler game to watch. They are playing I believe in Minniapolis. I’ll probably just be starting supper when the game is over. Other then that lets see what I can do to tackle the last 6 pages of Chapter 12. Onward.

e.Jim

Saturday, March 11, 2006

If all goes well
I should have Chapter 12 done by tomorrow before brunch. I've got some great things in this story and some twists and surprises. I'll have these first rewrite done before or on next Saturday.

Then I do the type ins and I figure that should be done by Easter weekend. Then I go onto round two and do the 2nd rewrite. During this time, I want to get all these scenes done in story board format. I'll use index cards to mark the key points such as pov and tense and subplots and all the other great mechanics the story will need. I figure the type-ins 3rd rewrite. Should be in May. If all goes well. Finale edit and polish should be in June. I think I should have test readers in July and August. Once the esult are in and anything corrected I figure if all goes well, The book should be ready to be sent out November first including story synopsis, cover letter and the first 3 Chapters.

e. Jim

uggh, I’m up
and barely awake. I’ve got a wake me up coffee here and before I head out the door to work. It’s only 4 hrs. The only reason, I’m not at Super Saturday today is because if I show up at work today and Monday, I qualify for that $31 bonus and that’ll be a significant gain on my net pay next week.

Still snowing out there. Must have been coming down all night. Getting to work even in the snow, wont be that bad going because all I’m doing is just heading out to the bus stop out here and the train to Carona and that’s about it. Other then walking to the, just about across the street.

Anyway I didn’t get much sleep last night. Anne got into one of her moods and stormed out while I was trying to explain something to her. But it blew over and I listened to a bit of Coast for awhile and I couldn’t fall asleep. It was 3 am and I just lay there listening. When Anne came in I got up to watch a bit of tv and then did the cbi thing and went to bed to try and get some sleep, even if it was for only an hour. That’s about all I did get when the alarm went off at 8am. That’s all for now.

e.Jim

Friday, March 10, 2006

There, that's
more like it. I've been working on a very exciting scene for Chapter 12 in the early part and doing it long hand as part as the revision process. I only hope I can read my chicken scratch when it comes time to write this thing. This book has more potential then I gave it credit for and I'm having a lot of fun with it.

Well it's off to do the job thing and hopefully when I get home, I can Finnish this scene and commit it to type over the weekend. This is a "big" book. Lots of stuff going on. That's all for now.

e. Jim

the evening had
been up and down. Okay as far as Anne and I into work, ok. At work I tried to get my cheque but Dale was under the impression I wasn't working Sat but Mike went and got it for me later in the shift. I was a bit po'd because Will never thought enough about me to put me on taps instead I got to do Comedy Fest again. However the good news was I ended up getting a $30 bonus on my next cheque if I work all my shifts. That means no Super SaturdUnfortunatelytely. But if all works out okay and I get my bonus next week, then I'll be looking at a net @ of $210. So, If anything over $130 is mine, I should have close to $80 bucks. Also, Anne is going to give me $100 out of that pension money when that comes in.

On my cheque this time I got $168 and Rob put the $12 bonus, which is okay. Anne said I can have that $20 I have here and when she gets her first cheque in April, which isn't lodge week, but I'll have enough time between then and now to get the $90. Anyway, we got off work at 8:30pm, those that did $240 get to go home with pay, which I did the $240. I was a bit po'd leaving because I thought I was off taps and I had my say to Will before I left but he said he only had 2000 numbers, so I can't really complain. And he asked me if I got my cheque and yes. So I felt better leaving and back doing Comedy Fest I guess tomorrow. He said I'm still a tap shooter, No problem there. CF isn't that bad of a campaign. Im thinking lodge nights to go in that Thursday morning have a nap and then go in. I was doing that before and Rob seemed to be okay with this.

Also, this evening, we had (Thur) Bill Clinton here giving a speach on American /Canadian relations. I was on the train as the attendees were just getting out of Rexall place. It was his first time here in Edmonotn.

Anyway, I did end up watching wrestling and enjoyed it. Anne made us a nice hamburger meal. I had a great time and also I have 6 pages to go, for Chapter 11. Like I said, if all goes well, I'll have Chapter 11 done by today and I'll start on Chapter 12 and get that done Saturday and I hope even get Chapter 13 done Sunday. Maybe even, have the type-ins done by the end of March. The 2nd rewrite including type-ins, April. Scene and pov breakdowns in May. Grammar done in June. Anyone that has been reading this blog for any length of time knows I suck at grammar but to me grammar is part of the editing process. But I should be in the polishing and finale edit in July. Test readers Aug/Sept. Agent cover leter in Oct. I'll nbe aggresively marketing the book in 2007. Like I've said before.

e.Jim

Thursday, March 09, 2006

that was a pretty
good session of rewriting. I cleared up some plot mechanics and some other things that made me go huh?So, I'm relatively pleased with all of this and I'll do more tonight. Not sure if I want to watch wrestling but we'll see how it goes.

Chapter 11 btw is almost done. I should have it completed by tomorrow or even this evening if things go well. Then, I bring out Chapter 12 and that will be my project for the weekend.

Sleep wise, I went to bed last night after Adam-12 and I got woken up by Anne poking at me to see if I got enough blanket and that was at 4:45am so I got up anyway to do the old cbi thing. I went back to bed just after 5am and slept until the frigging cell phone went off just before 11am. Other then to get up and pee, I figure I had 5.45hrs and 1.5 hrs before that. So just a little over 7 hrs but not all at once. That's the problem with beidiabetictic.

Anywatonightiht I pick up my pay check.

Anne and I talked bout doing our taxes on Monday because if I had to wait for my place of employment to send out my T4's they won't get here until Spring. So, I'm going to let the boss know Saturday afternoon that I won't be in Mon because of business. And I can while were waiting for our number I can run down to Pizza and apply.

That's all for now.

e.Jim

I had one of those
Wednesdays. We ended up doing Comedy Fest. I ended up doing $100 bucks and I don't care. It sucks and really brings my line hr down. It's boiler room telemarketing. I ended up with $365 today and that young Mike was taking totals from recaps and missed me. I didn't have time to piss around so I handed my recap on the clipboard he was carrying and walked out. Also, a lot of us tap shooters were doing Crime Watch, which was a tap campaign and and they made a big deal doing $1000 but I wasn't asked to do it. Which pissed me off. Today wasn't very good on me but a fellow at work, Richard whom has the same Rush Mp3 player as I do went and sold me his headphones, which were fresh out of the box. He paid $3 bucks for them at Wallmart, so I asked if I could buy them from him. They sounded great. Anyhow I was glad to get out of there.

Okay, for rewriting, I'm going to do 10 pages/day. For type-ins, 10 pages/day. I don't know what my next rewrite will be, because the type-ins are not done yet. But I figure I should have the first round done by April 16th. I figure the 2nd round including type ins should be done by the end of May. If all goes well. I forgot to do a scene/pov breakdown and that will take June. Then place everything into the 2 act play format: should take July. Grammar: should be done in August. Finale edit and cover letter: September. Now if all goes well, then I should have the book done by the end of Sept. I hope. Then I'm going to do a finale reading so I think I should have test readers by the end of Oct. If all goes well, then I hope to have the book go out to agents byt Jan 2007.

Of course, I'll have "Lodge brothers" done up and also "Dark Intruder" by then as well.I should have Lb at the end of the first rewrite, DI by the first draft by this time next year. but that's all for now. Pardon the typos.

e.Jim

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

I stayed up
a bit to watch Adam-12 and went back to bed after that. I think I was fast asleep around 2:45 and sure enough, 2 hrs later on the nose, I get woken up and I'm thinking, It's 6:45, once my eyesight adjusted and I noticed the kitchen wall clock. I realized I had 2 hours sleep.

Today, I'm hard at work on ET. I forgot to include prologuege and an epilogue. I can use Chapter 1 as the Prologue and add an epilogue near the end.

e.Jim

Anyway I had
a slow first half doing new campaigns for the police Association, called "Comedy Fest" it's not my kind of thing and I mostly sold sponsorships. I did a lot better with deaf ice hockey. I still ended up with $380 but the first half we had noo taps and were working with semies and cold.

I was glad to get out of there and the train home.

This afternoon I made a brief dent in Chapter 11 of "ET" and if all goes well I hope to finish it in the next few days and Maybe 12 and 13 as well.

More later.

e.Jim

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

I completed the
rewrite of Chapter 10 just this afternoon and I'm well on my way to Chapter 11 and I had to introduce a critical piece of fore shadowing in order to make the story work. Well, it is speculative science fiction. if all goes well, I hope to complete Chapter 11 this week. Chapter 12 -13 on the weekend and complete the 1st rewrite before the 15th of this month and I can use the balance of this month for type-ins, before the 2nd rewrite gets underway. I think it's going really well.

e.Jim

Monday, March 06, 2006

I had an
average night on the job. Nothing exceptional, as I did $515 on the night. Not to shabby. Anyhow, wrestling is on soon and after that I’m going to clean up the rest of Chapter 10 and get ready to do 11.

That’s all for now.

e.Jim

Because Anne
was so obsessed with the laundry and all we didn’t get to bed until 3am. The cats kept on pulling out the cord to the dryer, delaying this even more. I ended up working on Chapter 10 instead. It’s kind of hard to sleep when there is a dryer hose leading through the open window bringing in all that cold air. Anyway, we finally got to sleep around 3:30 and I got woken up at about 6:15 and I went to do the cbi thing. I got 2.15hrs sleep and after my insulin I went strait to bed. I was in bed by 6:30 and I passed out right away. I woke up around 10am to pee and went back for another 1.45min. I got just over 7hrs sleep all in all.

Today, what time I have left before work this afternoon is to get as much done as I can on Chapter 10. I want to finish it by Wed and work on Chapter11 and complete that by Fri. Hopefully work on Chapter 12 for the weekend. Maybe even have the first rewrite done by March 18th. That’s be great then I can do the type-ins for the rest of March.

That’s all for now.

e.Jim

Sunday, March 05, 2006

whew. I
finally completed Chapter9. And even then it’s not fully fleshed out. But after “Lodge brothers.” I’m going to write “Dark intruder.” Then it’ll be the “Ace Valorous” as a trilogy. Ace 1-2 have already been “written.” After Ace of course is “Rouge behavior.”, which also has been rough draft written. I’m not planing to start anything new beyond that. I have other ideas of course but beyond that, I’ll work with what I have on hand. As if that isn't enough.

e.Jim

I ended up
going to bed just before 8am but I couldn’t sleep for an hour. It was around 9am, I couldn’t sleep so I got up watched Rawhide, North West Passage, and Roy Rogers. I read a few of those articles on the heroes journey and Anne got up to make breakfast and I began to do a bit more work on Chapter9 of “Earth tones.” Anne made a great breakfast and I just concluded watching the a rare Sunday afternoon Oiler hockey game and the Oilers hosted Nashville and won in OT 3-4. I like that.

So I just finished making a coffee and tomorrow I’m going to go into work a bit early tomorrow afternoon. I’m going to fill out an application at Pizza and see if I can get some afternoon hours. Say work there from 1pm-4:30pm and this way walk from there into my other job. So I’m going to do that and leave out of here about 12:30pm head down to Pizza and get there for 1pm and see if I can work there for the above shift, say 4 days/week. And if Rob wants to know why, “Just something to fall back on. It’s also something different. It’s an inbound call center etc.”

Okay. I’m just going to blog this and get back to work on Et and Chapter9. I’ve been struggling with this for quite sometime now so I hope to complete Chapter9 at least today. So far I’m having a pretty good weekend despite having to work Sat morning at the job.

e.Jim

Saturday, March 04, 2006

Anyhow Anne made me
some chicken fingers and oven fries. Good stuff.

I had a slow start on the job pulling in $395. No credit cards. On my way through the parking lot behind First Edmonton Place, I decided to pop into Tim Hortons and get a Roll up the Rim to win coffee and a donut of some kind. They were without honey kruners and had a slim stock. Not even any chocolate elcalires. I got some kind of a donut and a double cup medium no creame or sugar decaffe and headed down the stairs to catch my train.

I knew there were xtra cars on the train tonight because of the Oiler game and the Oilers won tonight, 3-2 against SJ. They play Nashville on Sunday afternoon and that game is on tv.

I'm currently editing cutting and slashing and adding stuff to and away from Earth Tones. My goal this year is to have it ready by the end of the year. That means rewrite, editing, and cover letter. It goes out the door to agents Dec. 31st 2006 until I find one. If that doesn't get picked up then it goes out unsolicited. I'll keep marketing a book until an agent picks it up and I get picked up by the Bigs. I think having it ready by May This year is a little short sighted on my part. There is still a lot of work to do yet on it.

Anyhow, Anne is going to set my alarm for 8am, I'm going to get up do all my stuff and get ready to head into the job thing. Otherwise, this weekend I'm mostly going to work on ET and I might get a bit of LB done for tomorrow. If I can get 2 k done, so be it. Add the Oiler game Sunday afternoon and my writing, that should be about it. Not much going on. I'll Blog of course.

e. Jim

Friday, March 03, 2006

uggh. That should
be reading last sentence above "Friday aftrenoon shift." Anyway, it’s -12 out there but with the windchill it’s really -20. Seems March is coming in like a lion.

Coast wasn’t bad last night for the first part up until 2am and then George got into open lines “Your scariest moment.” So much for that. I shut it off. I tried getting some sleep in bed but the cats kept jumping on my feet. After 3-4 times of this I couldn’t sleep. I watched tv and went on the computer. I got in at 5am but again the cats were climbing in bed. That stopped an hour later at about 6am so, I’m lucky if I got maybe 5hrs of sleep today. In a few menutes I’m going to head back to Underworld. Or Earth Tones as I call it now. Or ET.

Anyway, it’s bus pass and insulin buying time part of the month. Anne had just mentioned that she’s going to go on her own Monday to the free income tax place they have set up for low income when they open Monday March 6th. The thing is my place of employment hasn’t even sent the T4’s out yet and Revenue Canada has no way of knowing until the Company files and that could be anytime in March. Now because Anne and I require Alberta Health Care or (AHC) subsidy in order to get HC subsidy I’ve got to receive a Letter of Assessment from Revenu Canada that I submit to AHC but they need me to file my income for Revenu Canada. So what’s the big deal? Firstly the subsidy deadline is March 31st. After that my company deducts $44 bucks a month off my pay cheque. With the hours I keep (and I'm not realy complaining much) Health Care in Canada is not free and subsidy or not AHC doesn't cover everything but it's better then nothing yet $44 off one of my weekly paychecks is a signifacant ammount and a real shock to the system especially when they deduct it durring rent time. If it wasn't for AHC though I'd have to pay out of pocket $40 bucks/month for insulin. Since I'm subsidized by AHC the insulin only costs me $2 month. Tests strips are covered by Alberta Monitoring only for the first $550. My Doctor wants me to test 4 times everyday. I've been getting by with at least once or twice even. Unless your on Welfare of course HC in Canada is free. But it still takes up to 8 weeks to get an MRI and even longer fot other specialists. HC is a mess and thanks to "Socialized medicare"waiting times are crazy. I file with my wife every year so I cover her HC subsidy off of my pay cheaque. The min is I think $15k/year. If you make over $15k then you don’t qualify for subsidy and AHC is $38 month for single and $44 for family. Over the last couple of years since I became diabetic I’ve been enjoying working part time hours. Lately not even that. And since that time, I’ve got a new computer (even though its as slow as hell), an Mp3 player, a 512mb media card, a new digital camera and most importantly the time to write.

Since that time I’ve been able to not only go to my lodge once a month, but also I wrote the rough draft of 4 novels and a couple of short stories and I’m onto my 5th novel with Lb. I could not do any of that if I wasn’t married and working full time. A lot of people at work are jealouse of my lifestyle. I owe Anne a lot. But because of me she’s also able to have an easier lifestyle. Sure I don’t bring home a lot every Firday night and there’s nothing preventing me from working more hours if I want but being diabetc and having scoliosis with 2 metal rods in my spine makes it difficult to put more time then the hours I do. If any of you that have been reading this blog for any length of time you already know my sleep troubles and the problems I’ve been having. I’m lucky if I get 5 hrs a day. Sometimes I’m lucky if I get 3hrs. Now, I’m not blaming anyone. My health problems are my own fault and I can live with them.

Anyway, I could go on and on here but this could turn into a rant and I have a rants and whines Topic on my website but nothing is there just yet.

Right now, I mentioned I want to go back and work on Chapter9 of ET. ET is facing some major rewrite changes and I have about an hour left here and I want to get into it as much as I can before work. More later.

e.Jim

I got up at
about 3:15 after maybe an hour sleep no thanks to Silky jumping omn my feet and waking me several times so I decided to get up and watch the rest of the Lone Ranger and The Rifleman.

I also did a bit more work on ET as well. I’m going to complete Chapter 9 this weekend and buckle down on that I think before I move on with Lb. Anyhow it’s about time to do the cbi thing.

Wow, 7 returning visitors yesterday. I think that’s a record. Oh also, I figured out this week it’s only 19.5hrs because I missed Yesterday. And only 22hrs if I include the afternoon shift tomorrow but I’m not going to make it.

e.Jim

Anne came home
a bit late and made me some soup and a grill cheese. I ended up working some more on Earth Tones, or ET and if all goes well, the book should have about 80k. I hope. Then I have to rephrase it into my 3 Act play format. I'll be along way away from getting it ready for an agent. I'd say by the fall of this year. Even then, that's pushing it.

e.Jim

Thursday, March 02, 2006

What makes
the inner child thing a bit silly is the I haven't developed a thick skin. My day jub is fundrasing and I take hundreds of rejections everyday. lol

e.Jim

I took this earlier from a link from Tams blog:





Your Inner Child Is Sad



You're a very sensitive soul.

You haven't grown that thick skin that most adults have.

Easily hurt, you tend to retreat to your comfort zone.

You don't let many people in - unless you've trusted them for a long time.

How Is Your Inner Child?



e.Jim

Anne and I had
a talk about this and I’m really considering returning to work for the morning shift. I’m staying up way to late not getting to bed until 5am and even then it takes me half an hour to an hour to fall back to sleep on somedays.

Not just that but traveling time makes getting to work a lot easier since we moved offices and I can get my Tim Hortons coffee on the way home around 1pm if I need it. Morning Tim's is way to crowded.

I figure, if I say, go in say: Mon 5-9pm, Tues 9-1pm, Wed9-1pm, Thur9-1pm, Fri 9-1pm, Sat 10-2pm this will give me still 23.5hrs. And if I’m having a good day say on a Mon I can work the afternoon and that will still get me 27.5hrs/week or anyone of those afternoons. This will allow me to do several things: Firstly I can always have a power snooze from when Anne leaves at 3:45pm-5pm. Secondly it will allow me to have my evenings off. Third; I will be able to attend other Lodges. Most importantly it will give me the ability to have more time to write. Also, the playoff’s are starting soon and after missing them for a whole year, due to the CBA lockout, I’ll be able to enjoy watching the Olier games etc. Also, Anne will no longer need to worry about the other bus pass thing. Also, I can put a Mon or Friday afternoon. I’m also, thinking about working until say 3pm everyday so Anne can get the bus pass when I wander in at around 3:45pm. Rob isn’t going to be too happy about it but as long as I’m there Sat and or Friday nights, he’s okay with that.

Anyhow I ended up doing 1064 words on Lb for the day and tonight it’s lodge night.

If I’m going to make the change to mornings, it will be next week. Monday morning. It will be tough on me at first but it’s easier to get to this office even if I have to stand, it’s not that bad getting there. I can even take a bus if I need to. The #2 bus leaves out of there at 8am. So if I’m out there say at 7:30am up at 6:45 and that’s the time I should be taking my insulin. I can take the #2 bus right downtown. As long as I’m there by 8:40am. The lrt is still my best bet. If I’m feeling to tired I can always call in and do an evening shift. The more I think about this the better I like it. Just before when I was in the RAH recovering from my dieabetis I was doing mornings and adapting quite well. I only started the night shift immediately after that on July 8th. I was in there for almost 10 days enjoying a bit of a holiday. That was the only time I ever took a holiday from this job. What I like most about this proposed schedual is it will give me about 6hrs to myself where I can apply the time to write.

Anyway, it’s off to the lodge tonight. I’ll be calling Neil about 10 min. So that’s about all the bloging for today.

An update: I called Neil and he's not going to be able to make it in for tonight, so I will instead ellect to go to March madness "Super Saturday." Coming up on the weekend of March 11th and I will if I decided to do mornings again then I willl be attending almost every lodge night.

e.Jim

After Lb,
my next novel project will be "Dark Intruder." DI was a short story, I wrote 10k long in the fall of 2003. It's the premise for this novel right after Lb. I didn't get much work on Lb yesterday. The writing is going slow. It's mainly that the ideas are tough to come by. Of course I'm working without a safety net of an outline. When I get to write "Dark Intruder" the novel I will have much more of an idea how to proceed, especially through the middle. Act 2 is the toughest but like in the story I didn't have any sub plots and I've got a few ideas for some of them in the DI novel. Also, I'm still working on rewriting "Earth Tones" as well. I wanted to have Chapter 9 done by this weekend but that isn't going to happen either.

Anyway, work on the job was slow going as well. We were working on the "Deaf Ice Hockey" campaign and when the numbers were slowing down we moved over to "Alberta Easter Seals." I ended up though getting a $30 credit card and a $100 sale as my last call for the night. That was a nice way to round out the evening. I had a total of a ho-hum $485. but I had a candy bar there because my bsl was going down and I took some time off the phone just after 8pm. Oh and I was talking with a nice old lady in Calgary. I was really getting tired of those $10 taps from DIH.

It was nice walking through the parking after work and since the Oilers were playing tonight the City would put more trains on the lrt. I got home about 9:30pm. I could have watched the Oiler game on TV but I was down memory lane there about an incident in my life back in 1980 where the DI story takes place.

Anyhow more on this later.

e.Jim

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

It's begining to clear
up out there. We end up with about 20cm worth of snow and that's a significant dumping.

Anyway, I managed to change the name Of "Underworld" to the title of a story that had been accepted for publication back in 1994. I'm now calling the story "Earth Tones." I think "Underworld" or the title has been done a lot before. So I changed the WIP bar to reflect the change and the new title of the story.

Back to Lb.

e.Jim