Samuel, Lou, Dan and Ciss get a ride out of the city, their hovel decimated by the zombies and the geemo chihuahuas (can’t believe I finally spelled that right). “The troll” makes another appearance and Samuel’s secret weapon saves the day (or night, as it was).  Had a lot more dialog was in my mind which may get back into the story, but we’re in the “vomit onto the keyboard” phase, which is the longest hurl I’ve ever had.  We may reach 50,000 words on this one, but that’s not really the point: the point is telling the story.

Been away from writing here with business on other blogs, it felt good to get back to writing for an hour.  Now it’s time to do battle with the ailing sump-pump – digging up the line and finding out where it failed.  Hoping for coolish weather as I grab my shovel.

It’s looking like the first draft is going to exceed the 42,000 word goal I’d set myself.  I was busy busy, with work, home, schooling, scrimshaw and more taking my time from writing, hitting The Dip that Seth Godin speaks of, avoiding committing to writing a couple of scenes yet knowing they had to be done.  As the weekend loomed closer I worked into the night, using the pomodoro timer and sticking with it, moving from writing to cooking dinner, writing to answering emails, writing to writing the scrimshaw.com newsletter, to experimenting with a couple of audio files of the “Survivalist Log” (preliminary mp3 here – or you can read it here).

Sometimes I think I take the “Idle hands” proverb a little too far, between parenting, writing, scrimshaw, work, garden and house, I don’t have idle hands unless I’m asleep.

The scenes I was in the dip about were several actions scenes right in a row, toward the end of the book, although there is one more ~5,000 word chapter to go before it gets put in a drawer for a few weeks and C.D. and I plot out the beats for the next book or two or three.

We’re at 41,888 words, averaging 1,000 words per hour with some minor interruptions.

I’ve been so busy with other things I haven’t had a chance to write much. Graduations, recitals, gardening, scrimshaw, etc.   Have just gotten the fifth post for the survivalist POV side story out though. The story is from the last survivalist near the Meadow. He writes down his adventures in a log book kind of like his diary. Going to the “Survivalist Log” will lead you through the story post at a time, or you can go through the following links that will open in a new page:

• Excerpt 1
• Excerpt 2
• Excerpt 3
• Excerpt 4
• Excerpt 5