Kyle Michel Sullivan's Blog: https://www.myirishnovel.com/, page 215

First hints of winter...

Driving from Buffalo to Washington was nice, for the most part. The only bad moments came from drivers who seemed unwilling to consider others on the road and a jerk who ignored a "lane closed" notice until he had no choice but to move over, then forced himself into my lane two cars ahead of me. He was in a Mercedes, so I guess manners don't apply to people like him.

Anyway, I came down the 390 and along the 15 to connect with the 83 to hit Baltimore and then did the Washington Parkway into DC. It's hilly till you hit the Susquehanna River, and the trees are starting to turn Fall colors. Now instead of huge blocks of greenery, I saw the beginnings of patchworks of red and gold and orange and brown and crimson and yellow and even some blue. It's nowhere near its peak; my hope is when I come back from Seattle into Boston and drive up to Portland, Maine, I'll get the full effect.

Damn...that's a week from tomorrow. I'll be taking lots of pictures then, I hope. Today was not a day for stopping, however; I wanted to get to the hotel by dinnertime. As it was, I didn't eat till 8pm...but it was a damn good 5 cheese lasagna with meat sauce. Which is amazing considering my hotel is not on the street it claims its address is on...and which GPS led me to...even though all the street signs say it's a different street.

I'm somewhat used to streets changing names from one block to the next. And part of Robertson has numbers in the 200s on one side of the street while on the other side they're in the 800s, or something like that...because on one side is Beverly Hills and on the other is Los Angeles. But to claim a street is what it isn't? That's fresh.

Sometimes when I go to other cities I feel as if I'm participating in an absurdist comedy.

Simple things...

When I write a first draft of a script or story, I tend to throw in everything I can think of to keep the plot moving. Comments. Actions. Details. Directions. You name it, I got it in there. Then during my rewrites I tend to cut back. Trim out the unnecessary stuff and aim for lean and mean. I don't always make it...but that's my goal.

Of course, sometimes everything just falls together...like it did for HTRASG. Curt exploded out of me and I did very little in the way of cutting him back or even trying to rein him in. Fact is, once his story was down on paper, the only thing I was doing on the rewrites was making sure his voice was consistent.

With LD, it was the opposite; I wanted the story to be chaotic, like Daniel's mind. Ace's patois was a deliberate part of that, along with his snide commentary about everything and slow revelations to himself of what's going on, so it took a while to get close to being right, and even now I could rework it. It's not a simple read...even though I honestly thought it was...but it works.

With OT, I seem caught in this never-ending spiral of rewriting and trimming and adding and smoothing and adjusting and clarifying and back to rewriting and trimming and on and on and on...and I have no idea when I'll be done with this round. I got through the second chapter, today. That's all. And tomorrow I'm driving down to DC so won't be able to revisit it till I get to my hotel, which will be late. So I don't know what to think about what's going on with it.

BC took me years to write, but that was a pretty heavy book about a tragedy that I did not want to be a tragedy. But I got the first two sections done. Then it took me years more to figure out how to do the last section, one I knew was needed even though the first two sections seemed fine unto themselves. But it was finally completed...and I use that to remind myself that eventually OT will be, too.

My process is not the same for every book or script I write. Some are born ready to run; others need lots of special care and therapy; others are just a pain in the ass and will never be happy with themselves.

Looks like Jake's story is one of those high-maintenance ones.

Line by line...

I went back through chapter 1...the intro to the story...and trimmed down some more. Not a lot, and some was just consolidating or restructuring sentences to made the reading smoother. I'm also working up a step outline from what I have written so I can more easily cross-reference what I've done. Relying on remembering what it is just isn't hacking it.

Man...I'd been honing that logical flaw in the story from the outset, and to be this far along in the writing before I noticed it has made me pretty damned unsure of myself. I know I'm prone to trying to make my work perfect and getting so lost in it I can't see the glaring issues, even as I polish up the minimal ones, but this was one instance where I should have handled it earlier. Before I send this out for its second beta read, I want it to be as close as possible to the final product.

Long day at work getting ready for the next round of jobs...and then the Seattle Book Fair...and another job popping up, not to mention my plans being changed on me by my boss so that I'm going to be on the road longer. I'm actually at the point where I have no firm idea of what I'm doing the rest of October and November, just highlights.

Sometimes I feel cross-eyed...

Returned to sender...

Back home. Tired as hell. 203 boxes weighing an average of 50 lbs each are now ensconced in a safe place to prepare for travel, and I ache all over. Next week's jobs will be simplicity, in comparison.

I tried to work on OT during the train trip to Buffalo, but finally had to doze for a while to keep from drifting too much. I did make it through the first section...of 4. Lots left to do, and now I'm paranoid I might be missing another logical flaw. I guess the story was too complex and detailed and...really...fussy for anyone to notice. Positive aspect is, I'm now hiding what the new detail is in exactly what the problem was.

Not gonna be a long post; I need to shower and sleep.

I have to stop thinking...

I just realized I have a massive logical flaw in OT and have to go back through it to correct it. Damn. Damn. Damn.

I think I think too much.

Done...

I finally got through this rewrite of OT and now can begin polishing it up to make sure it's consistent. I dropped the total page count by 24 and the words down to just under 119,000. It's a bit leaner and much cleaner, if still pretty complicated, but I think the ending is completely earned, now.

I need to have an honest page count before I can find out what the cost is to make the book as a hardcover. At 520 typed, double-spaced pages...I think that'll work out to about 350-400 pages in a book. After this next polish, I'll reformat it to see what it comes out as, because I'll need to add some blank pages for the back of the section headings. I'm also doing it in block form, this time, to make it look more professional.

I better do some research on other books in hardcover to see how they work, and I should start publicizing the book to stores -- like Mystery Pier in West Hollywood, and other books shops that sell mysteries. That'll be a lot of work, in and of itself.

The packing job is almost done, thanks to the two helpers I had. They doubled my speed so that I only have 8-10 boxes left to pack. I'm not going in till 1, tomorrow, so can do some other things in NYC...in the rain. It's pouring, right now, and is supposed to tomorrow, as well. Hope it doesn't on Thursday; that's the pickup day.

Now I'm ready for bed...

In the Big Apple...

Had a nice trip down on the train and got a fair amount done on OT, but the last two chapters are proving to be difficult. I started to change them then decided I liked them more the way they were so now have to go back and start all over on them. The way the story's currently structured, it's more of a shock when the big reveal happens if I leave it as is. I think. I got some good reactions out of it.

Still, I have trimmed down another 8 pages. Not as much as I thought I'd get rid of, but getting there. And I got rid of another secondary character who really just confused the issue, so this streamlined the explanation and clarified it a bit. And I'm cutting one character out of the next to the last chapter; she just wasn't fitting in naturally.

Tomorrow I'll be working long and hard; I'm afraid this job will turn out to be a brutal one -- packing 7000 books in the space of 3 days. I'll have help, but it's still daunting. I'm sure I'll be beat by the time I get back to the hotel...but you never know. I might get a little done on it.

I want to try and do a straight read-through on the trip back to Buffalo, Thursday...if I can manage to get done by then. Pickup for the shipment is slated for that morning and my train's not till 3:40. So I've got three evenings to do these two chapters. About 40 pages. Then I'll have Friday evening and Saturday to make any corrections, because Sunday I'm off to another round of pickups and packing jobs. I'd like to get it out for another beta read by then.

I can be so optimistic.

Homeward stretch...

I'm finally at the point where it seems all downhill in the rewrite. I've got about 140 pages left to go, then I can put it aside and wait for the trip back to Buffalo to read through what I've done and see if the story still makes sense. I've trimmed a lot and removed a subplot that seemed like it was just a bit too much...but I'm always worried I may be cutting to much for clarity's sake.

I'm considering getting rid of another bit that's maybe too confusing, but I'm not there, yet, so I may keep it. Jake does seem a lot more proactive in this draft; helps that he's not stopping to lecture on gay rights or history or injustice. Now that it's been pointed out to me, his pontifications come across more like irritations that were tacked on by some writer from the 19th Century. Amazing I convinced myself they were deep. There are still some, just not as many or as condescending.

This is why I like getting serious feedback. I can easily fall in love with my words and think I'm the best thing on paper since Tolstoy. You'd never know one of my favorite writers is Jay McInerny, who's got a clean crisp, economical style...normally. I also like Hemingway's spareness. You'd think I'd emulate them instead of Dickens at his worst.

A short film my buddy, Brad Rushing, was cinematographer on is doing really well in competitions around the country. Pony just won Best Short at the Hollywood Film Festival -- its 16th award, if I'm counting right. That is so cool. Doesn't hurt that Brad's an artist when it comes to using light. He's done so many music videos that are classics -- like Moby's We Are All Made Of Stars and Brittany Spears' Toxic.

You want to see quality work? Check out his website.

Short weekend...

Sunday I'm off to New York on Amtrak. That'll give me eight hours to relax and have nothing else to do but work on OT. I like riding the train, especially down the Hudson. The seats are comfortable and well spaced. You've got power. The scenery's lovely. I'd do it all the time, if I could. But it does take the whole day. On the positive side, it's ⅓ the price of a plane ticket...and I can take any food I want, not to mention my knife and other tools without having to check a bag.

I used to like flying, but Southwest has changed their schedule to where it's practically useless and JetBlue now charges you for a checked bag...which I have to do because I carry a knife and blades with me to packing jobs. Every time I've flown United I've had a problem, American once ripped me off for $400, and Delta's just ditzy. I don't know what's going on with the airlines, but they seem intent on making you wish for high-speed train travel all across the country. I even prefer to drive to NYC, which takes about as long as the train but is more expensive.

I'll be doing that the following week -- driving to Washington DC then up to New Haven then home, and the week after that is Seattle and coming back to Boston so I can do a job in Portland, Maine. Then driving over to Boston and maybe up to Burlington, VT and home. Then Hong Kong for the book fair.

Yeah, no way can I do NaNoWriMo, this year. I'm nuts but that far gone...though I could use it to finish Underground Guy, maybe. It'd be fun to get two books out this year. So maybe I am that far gone.

I tried to find out what the cost would be to set up The Vanishing of Owen Taylor as a hardcover, but Lightning Spark is being obscure. I know that in order for me to make any money on each sale, it has to retail for $29.95, which is high. I have to really think about that.

Jesus, some guy's singing through his nose on KCRW and sounds so whiney I think I'll turn the damned thing off.

Pink grapefruit juice...

I love the stuff. Not a lot at a time...like an 8 oz. glass is the limit...but Ocean Spray has a good one that's got beet sugar in it. Not pure but damn tasty and better than a coke. I'd stopped drinking it when I began taking Valsartin. Supposedly, it interacts with the body in ways that inhibit certain medications, but I recently read it doesn't do that with mine so I got a bottle, have a glass before dinner, and it's great.

This doesn't really count as a grapefruit diet; I think you're supposed to eat half of one without sugar or anything and then moderate your food intake. It likes you to eat bacon and eggs, but no hash-browns or carbs of any kind. I remember Elizabeth Taylor used to do this diet when she was getting too heavy, and it trimmed her down a lot.

Problem with that is, I've also read that Valsartin contributes to weight gain...mainly in fluid. I've been trying to figure out why I can't drop the excess pounds even as I cut back on how much I eat. I got down to between 1800 and 2000 calories for a while, and was hungry a lot. Didn't make any difference. It's irritating as hell.

Of course, sitting all day doesn't help. I'm standing at my art table as I write this, so I've trimmed back on that, a lot. And I use the stairs a lot more...up and down to the fourth floor. Still got a gut. And I'm getting into a long period where I'll be traveling and eating like crap, so the best I can hope for is to maintain.

Something else -- National Novel-Writing Month starts at the beginning of November. Doesn't look like I'll be able to participate, this year; I've got a 2000-book packing job the first week and I'm off to Hong Kong on the 17th, for a week. Maybe I can work on the plane, but I don't know what I want to even think about trying to write, just now. I'm too focused on getting OT done, and I used it in one a couple years ago.

I could always cheat and change the title...