Saturday, November 09, 2002 :::
 

8045 Words
Getting closer to 10,000 words. Yay! Go me! Yes it's still crap, but oh well. It's more crap!

::: posted by Evie at 4:08 PM

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Friday, November 08, 2002 :::
 

An exerpt from "175 Pages of Crap" (obviously a working title). Lynn and Sophie are getting a tarot reading in Vegas. (c) 2002 Eve M. Wilkerson.

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"Nice to meet you," he replied. "I'm Destiny."

Sophie gave him the look she usually reserved for her clients when they tried to snow her with some particularly bad line of reasoning.

He grinned, which made him look even younger. "That's my name. My stage name, if you like. And no, it's not the name my mother gave me." He waved for them to sit. As they did, he gathered up the cards from the reading before. "So," he started, "is for both of you together, or individually?"

That was subtle, Sophie thought, grinning despite herself. "Individually," she heard herself say, before Lynn could reply.

"Okay," he said. "Would you like to choose your deck?"

"Uh..." Sophie was immediately lost.

"Why don't you use whichever you think is best," Lynn stepped in. "And start with her." She sat back in her chair, crossing her legs. "Do you mind if I stay?"

"It's fine with me," said Destiny, looking questioningly at Sophie.

Sophie shrugged. "There's not much you don't know about me already. Sure, stay if you want. But if you laugh at me I'm going to have to hurt you."

"Don't worry," the reader picked up the deck and shuffled once. "She won't. She's not the type."

"Hmph," Sophie observed. "Been doing this long?"

"Ten years," he smiled. "Long enough to have the hang of it."

"Hah! Did you start reading when you were fourteen?"

"I'm older than I look." His expression was serene as he handed her the deck. "Shuffle the cards until they feel done. If you have a specific question, concentrate on that while you shuffle. If not, just let your mind go blank."

"Yeah, me too." Sophie took the cards and fluttered them from hand to hand. She closed her eyes and let her thoughts drift. Images floated into her mind - her house, the client she saw on Friday, Daniel, Lynn, her parents, her old school... After a few minutes she opened her eyes and handed the cards back to Destiny. It's still a stupid name, she thought. Even if he is quite attractive.

He smiled as though guessing her thoughts. Then he took the first card off the pack and turned it over, laying it in the center of the table. He gave a little laugh. "Queen of swords. Why am I not surprised?" He glanced at her face. Sophie struggled to keep her expression neutral, but the truth was she had no idea what he was talking about. She found herself flashing back to her dream that morning.

"You're a sharp," he continued, with some irony. "Quite bright really, and a bit cutting with your words sometimes. You're in the business of communication, and this serves you well. People come to you with their problems, expecting you to solve them, while you're more interested in getting to the heart of the matter - the cause of the problem - so they can fix it themselves."

Sophie's eyebrows raised despite herself. She looked at Lynn, who was looking at her rather smugly, as if to say 'I told you so'.

He pulled another card from the deck and laid it over the first. "This is your situation. Five of Swords." He ran one finger around the edge of the card. "This tells us you are a survivor. You are living with a partial victory, and that isn't very satisfying. You want more than that from life." He drew another card, and set it across the first two.

"This is what crosses you. Ten of Wands. In this case, it could represent either something that blocks you, or something that acts like a bridge." He took a deep breath. "You feel overwhelmed, over-burdened. This can prevent you from accomplishing the things you want to do, but it can also motivate you to make necessary changes in your life."

He laid down another card, above the pile of three. "This position is called the Crown. It represents a higher power or influence beyond yourself, which has bearing on your situation. The Three of Wands here means you are looking beyond yourself for answers, for incoming information. You may be waiting for a business deal to close or for some situation or group of people to come in alignment in order for you to move beyond this." He tapped the Ten of Wands. "This is the situation you should be putting your energy into."

Sophie nodded, unconsciously falling into acceptance of his rather oblique advice.

He set down another card, this time below the stack of three, and laughed outright. "This is beneath you. It represents the foundation of your work. The Star in this position is odd but appropriate." He took in her frankly-uncomprehending stare. "The Star represents inspiration, particularly from a higher power, or your higher self. Having it beneath you is just a bit funny, that's all." Sophie couldn't help but smile at his infectious grin. "Never let it be said that tarot is humorless."

He laid another card to the left of the group of three. "You can see why this layout is called the Celtic Cross," he explained. "Hmm. This is behind you. The Six of Swords - I call this one 'crossing the water'." Sophie looked up, startled. "Yes, I know that's a euphemism for death. This card represents a journey you've made - a change from one state of being to another. You may not have even noticed, the change was so gradual." Destiny stared at her, unseeing, then he shook his head.

He laid another card, to the right of the triple stack. "This is before you. The Tower." He tapped the card, his lips pursed, his expression thoughtful. "It doesn't mean what most people see. The Tower is all about breaking down pre-conceptions. It's about radical change - meaning from the root. You have a life-changing event approaching, one that will turn your world upside down. In the end, it can be either good or bad."

Destiny laid out four cards in quick succession, in a column to the right of the cross-formation. He pointed to the first card at the bottom of the column. "This is how you see yourself."

Lynn laughed, and Sophie glared at her. "I thought you said she wouldn't laugh?"

"I can be wrong, you know," Destiny smiled gently. "I would guess she knows you pretty well if she thinks The Hermit is amusing in this position." He looked more closely at the arrangement on the table. "It's interesting though that you see yourself as the Hermit - the lone figure casting light in dark places, while others see you as the Three of Pentacles - the master craftsman. That should tell you something right there. Other people value you for the work you do. They respect and seek you out. You, on the other hand, see yourself alone and friendless. Isolated. You may want to reconsider your position in the world. Try seeing yourself as others see you."

"Huh," Sophie replied noncommittally. Lynn continued to smirk in an annoyingly self-satisfied manner.

"Here are your hopes and fears," he continued apparently unperturbed. "Three of Cups. That's all about fellowship and the enjoyment of the company of your peers."

"And finally, here's the outcome. The Fool." Destiny paused and sat back from the table, folding his hands in front of him. "This card is extremely fortuitous, in terms of personal growth. The Fool is the beginning of an endeavor. He's the brave adventurer, stepping blindly off the cliff, trusting in providence to keep him from harm." He smiled. "You are in for the ride of your life, girlfriend." He gathered up the cards, looking at her quizzically. "So what do you think?"

"I think," Sophie replied slowly, "that you've touched on some interesting points, and I'll have to think about this. And I'm sorry I didn't take notes." She stood and pointed to her chair. "Your turn, Lynn."

Lynn obligingly took the chair while Sophie wandered around the shop. She didn't really want to hear Destiny's interpretation of Lynn's life. In fact, she didn't want to be there at all. "Hey," she called to her friend. "I'll meet you back in the room. Okay?" She left without waiting for Lynn's answer.

::: posted by Evie at 8:11 AM

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Word Count: 5787

Small progress was made last night. I'm getting tired of whining about how disappointed I am in my failure to reach 10,000 words by day eight. I suppose the answer is to either a) stop whining or b) write 10,000 words. I think I'll choose option b).

Sophie is still in Vegas. She still has to meet her first vampire and have a little chat with the tarot reader. It's sad - she wants to go home. I can relate to that.

::: posted by Evie at 8:02 AM

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Thursday, November 07, 2002 :::
 

Is there a plot in there somewhere?

Wrote just under 1400 words last night, bringing the total up to 4880. Go me! Lovely, lovely progress. Not really enough to get me up to where I need to be, but I'm counting on this weekend to get in more writing-hours. Doing a couple of hours after work is being surprisingly easy, and honestly it's about the best I can do. This is good - it gives me a better idea of what I'm capable of.

Soon I will be done with the parts where I know what's going on. I hope I will get some idea of what happens next.

Read some interesting bits about first reproduction rights yesterday. It made me decide to take the story-in-work down off the web until I decide whether or not I want to try to sell it. That's several edits down the road, of course, but I don't want to reduce my options this early in the game.

It amazes me just how much good fiction is available for free on the web. It made me think about a report I heard on NPR last week, discussing the future of popular music. (Techno-Pop "Part Six: The Triumph of the Amateurs" If the link doesn't work, search NPR for this title.) Rick Karr (quoting Roger Linn) says that in the future "There'll be fewer professional musicians, he says, but more people making music - and the triumph of the amateurs will be complete." This because the cost of good home-recording equipment makes it possible for a semi-pro musician to make high-quality recordings at a very low cost. And the Internet allows for cheap and easy music distribution - whether via an archive like MP3.com or downloads from a personal website.

And this made me wonder if the same future is in store for fiction. As more people write good fiction and make it available for free, consumers don't have the same need to pay for the content. Instead, they need a way to filter the gems from the crap. Someone needs to write a crap filtering program. There's a project!

::: posted by Evie at 10:17 AM

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Wednesday, November 06, 2002 :::
 

More progress has occurred

I wrote 1500 words last night. Which is much better than a kick in the head, or nothing. That brings the total up to 3500 words. If I can continue to increase my production, I may make it to 50,000 words by the end of the month after all.

It was raining this morning, which is a welcome change from scraping the windshield. I've loved the dry, leaf-crunching kind of autumn we've been having so far, but the rain is really a relief. The only real drawback is that now the walking trail I usually take at lunch will be a sea of red mud, slippery and not so pleasant.

No takers yet on the "fix me dinner and tutor my child" request. *sigh*

::: posted by Evie at 8:17 AM

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Monday, November 04, 2002 :::
 

I hate my life less. I might settle for being maimed.

2070 words. That's progress, right? :::whimpers piteously:::

I am reminding myself of a story one of the NaNo writers told about Harlan Ellison - that he wrote a page, pulled it out of the typewriter and put it up on the wall. And refused to touch it again. I'm holding myself to that - I promise I won't even look at what I've written so far. Any changes I want to make, in back-story or character or whatever, I'm just going to do it.

"Editing is for December," she told herself firmly.

::: posted by Evie at 10:23 PM

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I hate my life. I want to die.

Why did I ever think this was a good idea?

More to the point, who would like to clean my house, make me dinner and help my child with his homework so I can write 5000 words tonight?

Well?

::: posted by Evie at 2:41 PM

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Sunday, November 03, 2002 :::
 

Progress

1200 words. It's being extraordinairly difficult, but some kind of story is finally being squeezed from my fingers. I sincerely hope this gets less painful as time goes on.

::: posted by Evie at 9:05 PM

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Day 3

225 words. It's a start!

::: posted by Evie at 2:50 PM

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