And this is going to be another one of those sort of posts right here.
I managed to stomp the worm, at least for now. It's dead, but it does regenerate, and it will be back in time. But on this subject, I do believe that I have an impenetrable force field. What is filling my head is all the things I want to do as an uncle, and how much I want to spoil that baby rotten (or at least until Colleen tells me to knock it off). There are ideas a plenty in my head, and of course there are things I can do now, too, which I intend to get started on.
I'm still making notes like crazy. Scene snippets and small chunks of dialogue continue to spring like a fountain from my head, and I filled a few more pages of that notebook today as soon as I got home. Today I started carrying a little notepad in my back pocket so that I can jot things down when I get a chance instead of trying to remember them all until I get home. And sooner or later someone will notice that I'm always writing stuff down and will be curious enough to ask, which will then lead to my saying, "Oh, I'm writing a book." Because right now nobody, except Cooter, knows (and so does Amy, btw) about my second job, and if I'm going to blossom into more of a social butterfly this year (and I will, dammit) I need to be more open with myself and what I do. I'm guessing either Jim or Christie will ask me about it first. Truth be told, I kind of miss the (small) celebrity that I got from both FMC and LSI for writing a book. People are generally impressed by that, you know.
It's kind of like my new job, too. At FMC I didn't feel as though I was doing anything too exciting, and what I did at LSI, as difficult as it was, was so arcane that I don't think anyone who didn't work there ever really got what I was doing. But now, I can say that I make guns, and that's something tangible that people can react to. Or, more specifically, I can say I assemble Mini-14 rifles. I've already discovered that girls in particular are more impressed when I say that than when I've told them what my job was in the past. There has to be a benefit to this, don't you think?
Speaking of that job, like FMC it's like the kettle of creation as far as having memorable people I can crib from, and in fact I've already borrowed three or four different lines for use in chapters. Just in my cell alone we have The Old Gunslinger (Fred), the Grumpy Old Bastard (Brad), the Aristocrat (Jim), the Pretty Girl (Amanda), the Tough Girl (Christy), the Redneck (Cooter), and the Quiet One (me). And that doesn't even include the Big Guy (Barney), the Stoner (Jordan), and the Weightlifter (Mark), the Spider (Bob), or our former cell-mates the Slacker (Eric) and the Entertainer (David). There's tons of stuff for use out of this bunch, let me tell you.
The Quote of the Week is, and this will probably be rare, one of mine. Jim has been bringing in cd's to listen to at work, and yesterday one of them was 'Bat Out of Hell' by Meatloaf, which was also one of X's favorite albums of like ever. And she and Crystal used to torture me with repeated listenings of it, to which they would sing along until my brain started to melt and leak out my ears. So, I mentioned my malaise with the cd, and why, and Jim offered not to play it, but I didn't want to be a party pooper. "No, I have to just accept that I live in a world where people will inexplicably listen to and enjoy that fucking record." No offense to anyone who likes Meatloaf or anything, but after 300 listens it gets *really* old.
While the worm is gone, I was struck with a stupid, unreasonable, but nevertheless slightly paralyzing fear this morning at work. It was along the lines of ... what if they have a little girl and the name they settle on is the one name, the only name, I really hope they don't settle on. I think you know the one. I know that out of the 10,000 possible available names that their deciding on that exact one isn't very likely. Besides, Colleen knows about you know what, even if we don't ever talk about it. She does still know. And I think she would know that it might upset me a little (and I really can't predict how it would make me feel). But at the same time, it isn't like I can ask them not to use a name. It isn't like I've reserved it with the trademark office or anything. I just know that *I* can't use that name if I do have a baby with someone, because in that case I do consider it already in use. Like I said, it's a stupid, unreasonable fear ... but I really hope they don't use it.
Naturally, I've been doing a lot of thinking about the book structure this past week, in terms of how it all breaks down into chapters and seasons, and I do believe I can pull this whole thing off in six seasons with an epilogue afterwords. Some of those seasons, like #4 and maybe #5, might be longer than the others by a stretch, but my brain has it seperated into six seasons, and it might just work.
When you see the Season Two packet you might notice that on the cover page this season has a title, unlike Season One, which doesn't for the simple reason that it didn't occur to me to give it one then. Having all the seasons broken down now, though, I've given each of the six sections it's own season title. And here they are.
Season One: All Hands on the Bad One
Season Two: Temptation's Wing
Season Three: All Hell's a Coming
Season Four: Until the End of the World
Season Five: Persons of Mass Destruction
Season Six: Survivor Type
Epilogue: Conversations With Dead People
So, checking in on my influences we have: a Sleater-Kinney song, a Down song, a title from the Preacher comic book, another title from Preacher, a title from the first volume of the Ultimates, the name of a short story by Stephen King from Skeleton Crew which is incidentally the book that first made me want to be a writer, and the title of a great episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Those season titles are really just for use now, and are very unlikely to appear in the published book. It's just for me and y'all to know.
There are scenes I want to include in the book but just haven't placed in their spot yet. For example, I know that I want a scene to take place in a pool hall with Kelly and Ben on a double date with their girlfriends (I didn't include names on purpose here just in case anyone reading doesn't already know where things are headed). I'm itching to include a character that just goes by "Cowgirl", but I haven't the slightest idea who or what she would be. I finally figured out a character for Jen, who'll be named Veronica (that's a great femme fetale name, isn't it?), but I don't have a clue where to plug her in yet. The idea of how she could be incorporated came after thinking about the one of my favorite story elements that hasn't yet been used in the book anywhere (if you want a hint what that is, the Libbyverse was virtually created around it), and the good thing there is that it isn't really a giant stretch for who the character is based on. Having said that, I don't yet know where she fits in the overall scheme.
And to wrap up, I'll leave you with my favorte print ad of all time. I first found this one in an issue of Game Informer, and it's an add for online gaming. You know, where you sign up to play against some other gamer out there in the void, and you might not know who you're competing against and such. I saw this ad and I think I chuckled over it for at least five minutes. At my old apartment I had it taped to the wall for a couple years (but it got damaged in the move and I had to throw it away). Anyway, see you guys again tomorrow.
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