Down from the Mountain

I've had a great week so far in the mountains, more productive than I'd expected. This picture is supposed to make you jealous.

The novel, Lauderdale, is coming along well. This first draft of it has 100 chapters, though they're all short and, anyway, a first draft will be long anyway. That's what editing is for. I'd set for myself the goal of finishing chapter 64. I'd picked this number because I'd actually already written a scene from the chapter back in October, primarily because I was concerned that one of the characters, based on and resembling a real person, came off as a silly old man, which was not my intent. I wrote this scene to redeem him while I was still writing chapter 40, and closing the gap had been my goal.

Last October I'd written chapters 27 through 46, which was pretty damn good for three weeks I thought. In the time since, I'd managed to write a whopping two and a half more chapters. With 100 total, this meant I was still shy of halfway finished. So Monday when I sat down to write all I really needed to do was finish chapter 50; then I could say I was halfway done. Instead I finished chapter 52. Tuesday I went hiking and didn't start writing until after dinner, and was trying to watch the American Idol final, and I still managed to get through chapter 56.

Wednesday I spent all day writing, up until five or so, and finished chapter 61, and then later in the evening I finished through chapter 63, a strange chapter covering only one day in the timeline, but for which I had made no notes. I'd blocked of December 10th as important enough to be its own chapter, but had written no notes as to why it should be so important. I actually like what I did with it, enough that it's more likely to stay intact than some of the other chapters that did have notes.

And this morning? This morning I did 64 and 65 before lunch, and, feeling thrilled that I'd done in three and a half days what I thought would take a week, decided to come down from the mountain and drop in at the internet cafe.

I've been down the mountain other times, of course. I go to a little gym here that has a decent daily rate, so I've done that every day. Monday I went shopping. Tuesday I went hiking. Yesterday after I went to the gym at 5 I had dinner at a cajun place that makes the best bread pudding I've had in years. Mm-mm. So it's not like I lock myself away from all human contact. I think the idea of writers hiding from humanity to work is a bit silly. I may not be using the interaction I have with people up here to write stories, but without daily human contact I think I'd find my muse getting bored and wandering away. Then where would I be?

Ahem. As you might expect there another topic I wanted to discuss. Namely: Taylor Hicks won! I don't freakin' believe it. I'm amazed. I'm happy--I mean, I hope it's what he wanted. I'm sure it is. It was a really spectacular finale show, by the way, for those of you who of course had to watch anything but American Idol last night. Best finale show I've seen in four seasons, by far. And I was reminded of a few contestants who left us too soon.

You see, by the end, I was a little bored with Katherine McPhee. She smiled too much. She smiled like a crack fiend during blues songs, and sad songs, and all sorts of songs that it wasn't appropriate to smile through. I missed Mandisa. I missed Bucky. I missed Melissa McGhee. And they were all back last night! Hooray!

Melissa really did leave the show too soon; the little that she did get to sing last night was an absolute breath of fresh air--her voice is wonderful. I hope the extra exposure might help her get work singing. And Mandisa was back--and let me tell you, when all the women were singing together, it just proved how powerful her voice was in comparison to all the other contestants. She makes McPhee sound like Alvin the chipmunk. And there was Bucky, too--Bucky'd sort of crept up on me there, the one guy who definitely got better with every show and, surprisingly, left after his best performance. I hear he's been talking with the country group Sawyer Brown. Good for him.

And now we have to put up with "So You Think You Can Dance." Spare me. My little tv will be back to nothing but DVDs and the Simpsons in syndication until next year. And you can all tell me I'm a loser, and I really don't care. The country's going to hell whether I watch American Idol or not, so I may as well.

Congratulations, Taylor Hicks. Now I'm off to the gym, then back to the cabin for more Lauderdale. I have my own little dream to live.