The first story that came up today on Yahoo’s list of news was about the election violence in the Phillippines. I glimpsed the story the other day, but didn’t really read through until it came up again this morning.

There are a lot of things wrong in America; I don’t think the staunchest patriot going would deny it. But no matter how angry we get at those on the opposite end of our political spectrum, we go to the polls, we vote, and while we may dispute the results (and do, frequently, one way or the other), when all is said and done, we live with the people who win and wait for our turn next time. I suppose that if there was truly a major problem, we might resort to physical action, but mostly we listen and talk and dispute (mostly) peaceably.

I’m thankful for a lot of things as we get close to Thanksgiving, (actually, I’m thankful even when Thanksgiving is 359 days away); one of them is that I live in this country, with all its faults. I do know how lucky (blessed, to be more accurate) I am, back in the US!

Except that I don’t seem to be using them very well.

I hereby vow that in future, I will do my very best to completely spell out what I mean. There have been several things that have happened recently, misunderstandings that were largely due to my apparent assumption that people can read my mind (actually, it’s possible that the real misunderstanding is that I have a mind to read in the first place). I have, by nature and training, a telegraphic, minimalist tendency in my writing. When the subject comes up (in my mind, that is) I have to wonder if my mother was scared by Ernest Hemingway when I was in utero.

I think I’m explaining myself, and then people come back with a completely different response than I could ever imagine — and it’s usually because I didn’t say enough, or I left things unconnected on paper because the connections in my head didn’t make it when I wrote them down or typed them out.

Ergo, I promise in future to say more precisely what I mean and at the same time hopefully not surrender to verbosity for verbosity’s sake.

Did that make sense?

Well, LFM is on hiatus.

I think, if I am at all able to complete Nano, it will be with short stories. I’ve about six ideas, including one WIP and one strong concept I’ve storyboarded. That ought to be enough to hit 50k, if I can get cracking on it.

Ergo, back to the keyboard again.

This is a public apology to a lady known in the Combat! community as Bayo.

I’d been working on this story (Best Laid Plans) and I asked her, because I knew she knew French (and I figured that included Cajun because of her fine stories) if she’d look at the story and let me know if I’d made any blunders in that direction.

She not only did that, but she also came back with ideas on concept, corrected my punctuation and made some other suggestions, most of which I took, a few of which I didn’t, and generally she made the story a lot better.

She also suggested that when I made all the changes, I should get a final beta. It’s kinda hard during Nano, so when I posted for assistance (even going so far as to try to bribe someone with a vignette or drawn sketch) I got no takers.

Finally, I gave up trying to get another beta, and I posted the story. When I did, I explained that it hadn’t been betaed — by which I meant that I couldn’t get a final beta. Without going back and looking, I think I said it had been gone through initially, but I know I didn’t explain well enough. I also know that I hurt Bayo’s feelings quite wrongly.

Bayo, this is my formal apology to you. You deserved better from me and I truly regret any hurt I caused. Mea culpa.

I’m also beginning to think that when the Lord lets me make blunders of such magnitude, He’s trying to tell me something. Maybe I need to consider whether or not I should be writing?

Well, I’m almost to beta point on one story and the other one’s cranking (the Cajun letter thing). I still question whether I’ll get my 50k on Nano, but I am already past 25k, so there’s still hope.

The problem is with Tom’s current condition, I can’t really do much writing at home, I certainly am not going to write during the work day and I want to work out at lunch. Doesn’t leave much.

I need to find a place for my writing, even after Nano, so that I get some done every day. Somehow.

Well, I’m back to not writing Last Full Measure. I mean, I haven’t given up on it or anything, it’s just not coming well. Just because. It’s very frustrating.

BUT! I did manage to knock off the first draft of a 3,500-4,000 word short story. Caje graduates from college and then he and Theo enlist. Denis is NOT a happy camper. Although I realized that I (may) have to go and fix the almost-ending, because one of the few canon things we know about Caje is that his parents saw him off. At the train. I sent them off with Grandpapa, Nonc Pierre and Marcel (with a quick appearance by Helene). At the bus. (*le sigh*) Unless he got a short leave before leaving for Europe and THEN his folks saw him off at the train. Hmmm. Have to think about that and do a little more research on whether once you finished basic you got time to go home before being deployed. How ’bout that? Any WWII experts on the ETO out there?

I also had a neat encouter (via email) with a lady who is a college professor and Cajun, who did a paper (which she e-mailed to me since I couldn’t find it on the ‘Net) on the Cajun soldier in WWII. I have already found a short story idea in it, along with lots o’ neat plot points which I figure will come in handy as I progress in the GA universe. Besides, she also offered to answer questions if I had any as I go along. I’m sooew heppy! (from Robin Hood: Men in Tights)

On the Sansa: “In Her Eyes” by Josh Groban

Well, it’s been about six weeks since I commenced The Great Experiment — or maybe the great Life Change. I joined Fitworks and have done a pretty good job of working out consistently. I’ve made major changes in my eating — wish I could say I hadn’t made any fumbles, but there have been fewer than usual.

I also tried not to have any major expectations about how quickly things were going to change, but folks, I am frustrated at how the scale is not going down. I had a long talk with one of the personal trainer staff at Fitworks and she made some suggestions and told me to stay the course. (I kinda felt like I’d hit a time warp and stumbled into George Bush [Sr.]’s White House — remember the sketch with Dana Carvey and Jon Lovitz on SNL? “I’m being beaten by a man who can’t speak in complete sentences!”) She said that I should be at a tipping point soon, when the muscles I’m building and which outweigh the fat that’s leaving should start help me to burn calories.

I didn’t expect overnight results, but after six weeks, I hoped I’d see more. I know I’ve lost inches; I don’t smash people when I sit in bus seats and my clothes are DEFINITELY looser. And I know that this is one case where size counts — no one knows what you weigh unless you tell them and if I’m smaller that’s a victory, but for me it won’t be real until the numbers are smaller.

On the Sansa, “Kiss From a Rose”, Seal

Well, broke through the writers block last night. About 3,000 more words (and I’m still WAY behind). Now I’m in never-never land. This is where I break from how I plotted out LFM originally. I had to “kill some darlings” last night. I really liked the way it was before, but since I’m sending Denis and Pierre rather than Charlotte, Pierre and Amelie, the whole train thing either has to go, or it has to be substantially rewritten.

Grumble.

Anyway, it was good to write and feel right about it rather than writing by rote. Really! >:)

And MM (our Mad Moderator) wrote a really cute and funny short-short about the squad getting downtime because all of us Nanos having to come up with plots and things to do with the squad. I guess she must have read my novel excerpt!

“Rabid” Caje fan out! (hee)

Nano has become something of a trudge at the moment, or maybe a forced march.

I’m working away, but I can’t exactly say what I’m coming up with is inspired. I suppose the important thing is to keep at it and worry about editing it later, but even the keeping at it part has been rough. Maybe I’m just not a novel-length writer, just a novel-length short story writer .

If I had another good short story idea, I think I’d put Last Full Measure aside in favor of it. Or, there’s always Spiderweb.

Well, we’ll see what happens.

In the course of learning any new language, the real breakthrough comes when you start thinking in it.

On my way to the gym the other night, I was trying to come up with French lyrics for Josh Groban’s In Her Eyes (or at least the chorus) when I stopped for gas. I went into the little store to prepay and suddenly realized I was within the length of a synapse from saying “cinq en sept, s’il vous plait” instead of “five on seven, please” to the guy who was behind the cash register. I can’t exactly say this ranks up there with “Je pense, donc je suis” or “La coeur a ses raisons, que la raison ne connait point”, but it was cool to realize that I’m starting to internalize the language a little. Bon pour moi, non?

Superklutz alert: I tripped over a bag in the living room on the way out the door yesterday and did something to my Achilles officially. I’m now in a half-cast and on crutches at least temporarily while it’s determined if it’s just a strain or if it’s ruptured. Lucky me.