Calliope 'n Me Down Like Peanut Butter & Jelly

Last week, perhaps because she had some advance knowledge that I was going to go through some heavy stuff, Calliope took a week vacation. Of course, I was also very distracted by the US Open, but the truth is that I didn't feel the fire, and I didn't hear that familiar sweet voice ("Come play with me."), and as a consequence I didn't get any writing done at all. I left Chapter 4 stranded in the middle where it was the last time I spoke on the subject, and I barely set foot in Borders. Well, no more.

Calliope has returned. Not only that, my focus on the book has returned with a vengeance. My first time back at Borders I hit the Laurel and Kelly telephone conversation scene, and finished it in one big bite. That was encouraging. It isn't a long scene or anything, but I didn't want to leave before it was done, and that shows me that I'm getting into the swing again. The scene is one I'm fond of because of the relationship between those two characters. Laurel is, of course, based on my little sister, but it's also a case where when the story became a novel that I amplified things a little bit. Laurel is to the point and in your face a little bit more than Colleen typically is (except for that one time I really pissed her off, which she doesn't remember), but on the other hand, in the book Laurel is caught in the middle of a family conflict (which I totally made up for the book), and if something like that were to really happen she would probably try to intervene some way or another.

Today I hit the first Kelly and Ben at the Diner scene, and again finished it in one big bite. Maybe this scene has just benefitted from my going over it a few times, but it fell together easier than spreading warm butter on hot toast. It does help that Ben is based on Dan, and I know the way he thinks and talks very well. This scene could have come straight out of one of our actual conversations at the Whatley Diner circa 1998 for all the give and take those two do in those pages. It has a great flow. It's really just Ben questioning Kelly about Alyssa and then the two of them going over the details with a fine-toothed comb, like Dan and me totally would have done in real life.

That leaves, for this chapter, only the Kim scene and the second appearance of Alyssa. If things continue at this pace (allowing myself two days for the Alyssa scene), I should be done with the chapter by this weekend before I head to Massachusetts again (because it's my birthday). That's the goal, so that I can then use my dad's better computer to print out a few copies. I'm hoping that this time, given the complete shift in the space-time continuum that's occurred around me this year, that I can get my mom reading that material again. She mentioned while I was visiting her during her recovery from hip surgery that she intended to start reading it again, so this seems like the perfect time to test those waters.

Overall, I feel better about the whole book enchilada than I have in ages. I think now that I'm playing in my own Bizarro version of the upper valley that things are pulling together a whole lot better. I think it holds up. And I'm just so proud of what I've done so far.

Welcome home, Calliope.