ROW80 Update - Jun 3

A Round of Words in 80 Days update:


Wednesday Day 59 - 0 words.  I think I've figured out which two days of the week I have to take off from writing: Sundays and Wednesdays, because on those days I'm scrambling to get the episode finalized and the art done. (Yeah, I keep thinking I will do extra work ahead, but it isn't working out that way.)

Thursday Day 60 - 1616 words.  All on The Man Who Stepped Up. I also did a ton of other things today, and I'm exhausted.  I got up early to take a friend in for an appointment, and then did a bunch of shopping, and I also volunteered to make fancy cookies for an event, so I did several batches of those, while watching In The Heat of The Night.  (Didn't see anything to hook into this book, but after today's writing session, I realize I need to rewatch The Coconuts. -- as I believe there will be a running subplot that begins with George asking "why a duck?" in his Joke Appreciation lessons.  And I realized there could be a weird Karla-ism clue there.)

Friday Day 61 - 1583 words.  A lot of work on The Man Who Stepped Up.  A little work on Episode 9 (and subsequent episodes, since I move stuff around as I find the right bit for the episode.


Saturday Day 62 - 481 words.  Ohhhhh, I did something very very bad.  I downloaded the free app, Lux USA to my new iPad. (It's a Risk knock off.)  This should have been a very productive day, but instead... I, queen of the Blue States, was locked in combat with Red (and Green and Yellow and Black) states for domination.  It's a clunky app.  It has no options.  You can't even quit.  If you want to bring a game to an end, you just have to play very very badly.

Now, to be honest, I am also coming up on Monthly Migraine time, and I was a bit clumsy and scatter brained today anyway.  Maybe it would not be such a productive day anyway.  But I didn't even do any freaking sketches. 

Oddly, I did pop out with the opening page for the next Mick and Casey story. That is, the one after the one I'm avoiding finishing now.  Just for  fun, here it is:

A Dark and Dusty Night

The night was definitely dark and dusty.  It wasn't exactly a full-out dust storm, but with the ground all dry, and the wind up, it was not comfortable to be sitting outdoors on a tombstone, waiting for ghosts, killers or resurrectionists to manifest themselves.  Frankly, I figured the ghosts and resurrectionists would likely stay inside on a night like that. I wasn't so sure about killers.

I guess I wasn't so sure about us either.

My wife Casey and I were sitting there in the cemetery on a hot, moonless, miserable night, having been hired to watch out for ghosts, resurrectionists and all -- but mostly resurrectionists -- after Tyrus Adams died suddenly and had left a will that said when he was laid to rest he wanted to rest in peace.  No digging him up for this or that.  And since there had been a problem with body rustling in Hoopers County it seemed like a cemetery guard was called for.

I'm not sure whether this opening is going to be a flash forward to the climax of the book, or just the opening. (They will be guarding that cemetery for an increasing number of issues as the story wears on.)

See you in the funny papers.