Month: August 2008

Here it is. Me looking professorial, the Endowed Chair literature for this year.

Catherine

I’m sitting in a coffee shop in a campus town to the south, working on HH:PW. Yeah, it’s a poser thing, but I did have to come in for my Russian lesson, and we do have a teacher cookout at Bryon’s school tonight, so here I am. I had a most scrumptious vegetarian Indian lunch, and I can’t do that at home, so there are advantages.

***

It occurs to me that the reason I haven’t heard from the agent I mentioned in earlier entries is because I haven’t sacrificed a body part. I didn’t have to sacrifice a body part for Cats Curious, it’s true, but when Drollerie accepted Sister Night, Sister Moon it was the day after I had my gall bladder removed that I received the offer. What do you mean you don’t see correlation?

A couple of other things. Three instructors at Kirkwood had a piece appear in Indelible Companions, so we will probably be having a reading sometime in the near future. I’m trying to get a well-scanned copy of my endowed chair announcement in here. Bryon gave it a try at school, but it’s not the best. We may go to the trouble of hooking the scanner all up at home, but I sort of hate to do that to him, so we’ll see. You’d think Kirkwood could just post it somewhere, but no…

***

Right. Hercules. Yeah. On the surface, it looks like I only wrote an additional 300 words, but I cut about 500, so it’s about 800. I’m making note of what’s more final, and what’s more tentative as I go. I’m feeling very much on track.

Word count:

33,828 / 75,000 (44.0%)

Trivia: Tina was spot on. Hercules used a spear. What happened after Hercules caught the boar?

And today, a snippet. This is the second part of the recess wrestling match. Enjoy.

Mike and Tony made crowd noises, roaring above the boos George and Alex put out. “And in this corner, two hundred sixty pounds of crazy, hairy pig, the Wild Boar!” George danced around, his arms extended in front of him in parody of great girth. Alex chewed on a fake cigar. “Boar, take out that fake Hercules,” he said.

“I’m gonna make me some ham steaks,” said Tony.

Continue reading “Herc-o-meter: My First Endowed Day”

Today’s writing work: first draft of Stymphalean birds, begin the revision of the Hairy Pig (Erymanthian Boar) recess wrestling match.
On the cutting room floor: Tony’s English class.
New hotness: interspersing Leo’s practice with Ernie Boar with the kids recess wrestling. Insert Tony’s nemesis.

Tomorrow’s plans: work on Stymphalean bird expansion, continue work on Hairy Pig.

LOVE Scrivener’s ability to highlight the places I need to revise in the outline.

***

Word Count:

33,510 / 75,000 (44.0%)

Trivia for you: What weapon does Hercules use to flush the Erymanthian Boar out of the thicket?

Herculean Wisdom: Tony always thought that saying school started in the summer was a bold faced lie. Before they had run away from home for the year, Mom and Dad had loaded Tony and Bianca up with long sleeved clothes and jeans. Bianca wanted to wear her new school clothes, but school always began in the summer, when there was no air conditioning and students puddle into oozy, drippy frog monsters who are supposed to be interested in learning something, but in reality want to go swimming in the black lagoon.

Remember this when you’re dressing for the classroom this week or next!

I managed to write tonight. I’ll confess, my heart wasn’t in it. I’m becoming more and more enthused about the project, but something personal took the wind out of my sails tonight. This thing comes up every once in a while, and I suppose the only reason to bring it up here is to make note that we have to keep plugging away as writers, sometimes when we don’t feel like we want to. If I can stow this some place for my next project, this awful heart wringing, and remember it when I need it, it can make for a very powerful story indeed. It’s just not what I need right now while I’m writing a light-hearted book for children.

It’ll be perfect for Mark Twain’s Daughter, the short story I want to write about Susy Twain’s death from meningitis. Samuel Clemens isn’t the total loser my own parents were, but to suggest living with him was easy on his daughters is, well, there should be parallels that I can use. Method writing.

Okay. This is not the entry to talk about Hercules in. So, I’ll be back to spam you with another entry shortly. Meanwhile, I guess the salient point is that we can use it all in stories, even the baggage we have that may not be fair, right, or our fault.

Moodily and Broodily,
Catherine

32,478 / 75,000 (43.0%)

A few more words tonight, moving us toward the Stymphalean birds labor, and an introduction to Leo’s workplace and his interest in Diana. We’ve also introduced Hannah, who has secrets of her own.

Toasted now. Must stop. Tomorrow will finish this scene, and work on the wrestling match/recess match with the Hairy Pig. This should be a good time. Hope to also begin Tony’s main conflict at school.

Catherine

Well, I’ve revised the first two scenes, and I’ll work on the rough of the Diana/Hercules zoo scene tonight.

Here’s our current word count:

31,560 / 75,000 (41.0%)

The Lernean hydrea did have 9 heads. Mochi Monkey and Yvonne both had the right answer.

Next question: what did Iolaus and Hercules do with the immortal head?

***

I thought you might enjoy reading part of the first scene of the story.

***

“It had nine heads,” said Nonna Sofia. “If you cut off one of the heads, two would grow back, and one head was immortal.”

Tony stopped wrapping the noodles around his fork. Nonna Sofia’s homemade spaghetti had the right amount of bite. Tony’s nose savored the fragrant tomato sauce. His fork clanked a clam shell as he moved it, and his attention refocused on dinner. Surgically precise, Tony plucked one end of the shell up and licked the tangy sauce off. Nonna offered him crusty bread drizzled in whole garlic lumps and butter. While his parents were in Europe, he was going to get fat this year. Fatter, George would say.

Continue reading “Herc-o-meter: Revisions!”

Julie Rose has a soundtrack for Jeff Sypeck at Writers and Their Soundtracks.

And the next installment of Blood is Thicker than Water is up at Las Habladoras. Yeah, I know it’s Wednesday. Welcome to the fall semester. 🙂

Today’s word count.

31,378 / 75,000 (41.0%)

This is mostly the addition of the new master outline, as I had one of *those* days at work. It’s the first day back, and the unregistered students are like woah…I have to go in tomorrow, but I plan to run away at noon and work on a couple of scenes from 12-3. Dangit!

So, some trivia. Since I’m rewriting Tony’s fantasy of the Lemaean Hydra tomorrow, can you tell me how many heads the hydra had? I also plan to rewrite the scenes establishing Tony and Bianca’s relationship, and write the first draft showing Leo’s interest in his boss Diana. A tad ambitious, but that’s what I want.

See you tomorrow!

I received my beautiful little Endowed Chair brochure yesterday. I’m going to try to get the picture from it into my icon mix. I look like some professor.

Tomorrow is supposed to be my first day off for writing, but I guess I have to be here to field student traffic. That’s sort of anti-climactic really, and I’m cranky about that. I want my Endowed Chair, and I want it now.

So, I guess this is me, suggesting for the second time publicly this year, that I could consider another job if my writing life took off, if I had enough to pay for those insurance/retirement things.

The rest would just be me being cranky, so I’ll stop now.

Catherine

Right. So, the master outline for Hulk Hercules is done. Hoo and hah.

It’s got subplots and action. It’s got romance. It’s got historical perspective. AND it’s got wrestling.

Tomorrow we begin again with the writing, so look for a Herc-o-meter near you.