More work on the Wannoshay novel, though a lot of my morning was spent reworking some scenes in "Redemption, Drawing Near," which are chapters 1 and 5 of the novel put together as a (short) novella.

It's all good stuff, which it HAS to be, because its the first chapter, so it must kick ass. It's almost there. Just needs one more round of polishing. Thanks to David, Jay, Sarah, Tim, Greg, Jason, Alex, and Scott and everyone else for their invaluable comments on the story (I know Scott's read it twice now!). Who said writing was a solitary occupation?

Look for my wordcounts to start jumping now that I've got (almost) all of my prep-work and fact-checking done on the early chunks of the novel.

Now I'm ready to get back to Joshua and his little chat with "Johndo" and the other Elders (when we last left them, the Elders were getting ready to blast the ka-ka out of the second wave of aliens coming to Earth). Fun stuff! Have a great Saturday night (I have a date with a foxy lady named Elizabeth). Later!

Now Playing:
"The Rising," Bruce Springsteen

Now Reading:
Snoopy's Guide to Writing; Rangergirl, Tim Pratt

Stories out to Publishers:
19

Today's Words:
1,500? Hard to tell... plus 1,750 from Thursday

Novel Words:
90,100

Words for 2002:
146,000

Today's Quote:
After the grisly spectacle of the arrival of the first Late Ones in Earth’s atmosphere, and the Late Ones’ subsequent return to the sky, the next twelve hours of June 13th were surprisingly, unnervingly quiet. Fortunately, Father Joshua McDowell slept through most of it, not waking until half past two that afternoon.

He found himself in the University of Iowa hospital with no pain in his chest and what felt like fifty balls of cotton stuffed in his mouth. Both sensations were the result of the medicine and operation that must have occurred after his collapse outside the decimated mother ship. Once he had downed three cups of water from the pitcher at his bedside table, Joshua was able to start following the news of the Late Ones. He feared for the worst, and expected to see a series of recitations about the damage caused by the attack of the Late Ones.

Instead, the news focused on the arrival and the image of the first, unfortunate aliens burning up in Earth’s atmosphere. Joshua wasn’t sure which was the better situation to wake to.