J. Timothy King's Blog

Between 11:59 PM tonight and 12:00 AM tomorrow morning, I write 2,837 words, simply by switching from the NaNoWriMo word-count tool to the one built into my word processor.

I have 7 more scenes to write to complete From the Ashes of Courage, and most of those are epilogue. Today, I penned over 4,000 words, straight through the black moment, and now I'm perched on the other side. I decided to stop for the day after the following paragraph, which just about made me cry:

"George, it's me, Gail....

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This year, we're making pies for our family Thanksgiving feast. All of my brothers and their families all gather at my parents for the day. C is making pumpkin and lemon meringue. But my favorite, I think, is still my own Lazy Man's Chocolate Pie. Hardly original, but still full of sugar and calories, and the combination of shortbread and chocolate makes it work.

Lazy Man's Chocolate Pie

1 shortbread crust (Get a pre-made crust, so that you don't actually have to do any baking.)
1 box low-fat...

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I ran into an interesting issue today with one of the characters of From the Ashes of Courage.

In brief, Gail and George divorced years ago, and they haven't seen each other since. Now, she's part of his life again, as a friend. George's father seems genuinely happy to see her and treats her with affection and respect. But George's mother is acting out, making her feel uncomfortable. One of the other characters explains that when a child's marriage breaks up, it can be hard on the parents...

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She's a headstrong, driven, single-minded businesswoman, a successful independent professional at only 29 years old. But she still feels empty. He's a fun-loving real-estate agent who made a mint in the boom market, now fast running out of money. And their friends set them up on a blind date, unaware that many years ago, they were once married to each other.

Now, both are taken aback by their feelings for each other at a romantic, seaside cottage on Ardor Point, and by the impact this will...

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I was writing pinkies-up for a few days, because I need to re-take Knife Safety 101.

I've been slogging my way through NaNoWriMo. I'll probably call this novel From the Ashes of Courage (or some variation thereof), because I think it reflects the theme and mood of the story: risking all in the face of defeat; and less Love Boat, more As Good As It Gets.

At this point, when it comes to NaNoWriMo, I'm about 15,000 words behind where I ought to be, and I don't appear to be catching up. This...

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The Little One was commissioned by one of her friends to draw pictures for a book about how to grow flowers. My first question was, of course, "How can you draw pictures for a book that hasn't been written yet?"

That was the Little One's question, too. But she drew the pictures, and explained each one to me. And I thought that made a wonderful little sequence all by itself.

So I scanned the pictures and am posting them here, with the Little One's words.

Enjoy!

-TimK

First…

You make the soil...

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I was watching an old Columbo episode, "Etude in Black," in which conductor Alex Benedict murders his star pianist Jenifer Welles, to prevent her from revealing their secret love affair.

As a musician myself, and knowing a little something about the piano, I thought it might be fun to rewrite one of the scenes of this episode, thusly:

Columbo: I'm very upset by this Jenifer Welles thing.

Alex Benedict: Yes. So am I.

Columbo: You know I was up half the night. I couldn't sleep. I kept going over...

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According to my writing spreadsheet, I'm on track to finish NaNoWriMo, but I'll need to come up with more scenes in the novel. I'm averaging 616 words per scene, which is around half what I had originally estimated. Not a problem, because I have a number of additional, unplanned scenes already on the back burner, as well as several related side stories that can be developed to enhance the main story.

I'm also discovering that this story is emotionally exhausting to write, because it's such a p...

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(This is part 2 of a roast of the Boston driver. Click here for part 1.)

Sign for a rotary in Jamaica Plain. © 2007 "Kingdafy" on flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The situation is exacerbated at rotaries. For those of you who may not be familiar with the Boston rotary, it is a complex, multilateral intersecting way, with no stop signs, at which everyone goes at the same time, and the biggest vehicle always wins. This is why so many Boston drivers, especially those from the suburbs, drive SUV's.

A rotary u...

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Photo © 2007 "spinster" on Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0

I've been absent here, because I'm working on a new novel. After collecting mounds of marketing data, I've discovered that I absolutely must write Confessions of a Veteran Software Developer— That's not a novel, but a true story of ...

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