13 August 2002

It's very strange having no internet connection. Library indices, Amazon lists, recipes, all kinds of things are gone, to say nothing of the e-mails and journals I'm missing. I was talking to the DSL people yesterday morning, and they gave me the package tracking number for our new DSL box. "That won't do me much good," I said, "because we don't have connectivity for me to go to the website and look it up." Oh. The DSL guy hadn't thought of that, that if his product was not functional and his other product hadn't arrived, I wouldn't have connectivity. Duh. So I got a toll-free number, which I will be using again this morning, because the mailbeing did not attempt to deliver the package. Around 6:00, we thought perhaps he/she was not late but had skipped the package delivery entirely. Sure enough, three rejection letters and a packet of information about Timprov's health insurance had arrived. As I said last night, I think, Mark says I'm not allowed to maim the mailbeing when he/she shows up today. He's so closed-minded.

I've also had the problem that when I finish writing a journal entry, my end feels like it's done. Usually posting it is such a negligible process that when I've written it, you can read it. So somewhere in the back of my head, it felt like you-all could absorb my journal entries from psychic vibes in the ether or something. Ah well. We'll use dial-up if we need to, temporarily. And Jeff offered to run a back-up for us, so once he and Sarah get back from their honeymoon, we should be able to fix it so that our messages will spool, and then I don't have to fuss about that. That fixes the problem for next time, though, not this time.

Mark will be home this afternoon (to receive the mailbeing, who will certainly come!), but I'm going out, groceries, post office, bank, library, and a few other errands. Hoping to get a few library books that will once again help with research on the Not The Moose Book. And then the transition back to the Not The Moose Book from the new project will be fairly smooth, I hope.

I have 41 pages of new project right now. The official deadline is the 31st, but as Timprov pointed out, there is no way I'm going to want to be working frantically on this thing through the first three days of WorldCon. So the 28th is my deadline, more or less. Fifteen days. That's got to include at least a couple of editing run-throughs. Less than a fortnight to finish writing a novel I had barely started a week ago today.

No problem. As I've been saying, it's a short novel. And I'm going on it. It's just there, it comes, it flows. Sometimes I just sit here and bounce and smile while I'm typing, because the whole thing is right here, and I don't know that I hate long short lengths after all, if the story is right for them. Of course, being able to consider this a short YA novel rather than an adult novelette or novella (depending on how long it gets) may be a psychological aid. I don't know. What I do know is that it's fun, it's flowing, I love my characters, and I think I'll have choices, options, lots of ways to market this thing when it's done. And I think the Not The Moose will feel better when I'm done with this one, too.

I've talked about working on the NTMB so much here, and then the combination of DSL outage and being out of town for Sarah's wedding has meant that I've got a really sturdy start on this one without you guys really knowing a word of it. That feels kind of strange, actually, and once again I think it's because I've mentally classified it as a YA novel rather than as an adult novelette/novella. I write all kinds of short stories that I don't talk about here, but novels, not so much so.

It's thematically similar to the other place books, while being fairly different in execution. I think people who have already read Fortress of Thorns and The Grey Road will be able to spot some constants -- but Noë is definitely not Charlotte or Miri. She's not as certain of herself as either of them, for one important thing. Jonah is much more of a sidekick character than any of the boys in the other place books would stand for being -- some of the characters are minor, but not sidekicks. Also, Noë and Jonah are significantly more alone than the kids in the other place books, especially at school. They haven't found a geek crowd. It's just them against the world, at school, and the "against" is quite clear. Max is the most similar, I think, the most similar to Nicholas: bright, efficient, not very concerned with means, protective in places where perhaps he ought not to be.

It'll be good. I really do think so.

Okay, well, most of you don't know my hotmail, so there it is, if you have anything that needs saying before DSL goes up, or if you just wanted to say hi, or if you had comments on "Another Hollywood Miracle" that you wanted to share before the hour got too late. Or if you wanted to forward your bounced messages back somewhere I could get them. I'm going to pop on and post this, but then I should be off again, working on this novel before I run my myriad errands. Have a good day. I wish you far fewer communication woes than I've had.

(And if you're a Gritter, wish your grandma a happy birthday!)