Kyle Michel Sullivan's Blog: https://www.myirishnovel.com/, page 245
December 24, 2014
December 23, 2014
Almost back to NY time...
And finally realized I haven't sent out Christmas cards, and I'm in the hole for $300 thanks to this trip. I mean, it was worth the time and effort...but me and money don't like to stay on talking terms for very long. It'd be nice if I could change that around, but prospects are slim, at the moment. Oh well, story of my life. I'll take it off my taxes.
I dug more into the information I compiled in my trip to Palm Springs, and can see other changes that need to be made. I may shift and have this take place a bit in the future instead of the recent past. Meaning shifting Jake's initial confrontation with Philby from a sub-office in Palm Desert to the new building going up near the jail and Larson Center of Justice. But I'll really miss him needing to pee and making it an issue in the whole proceeding...
I'm also putting back in a red herring I'd begun to take out. It works a lot better to keep this one in because it's so obvious, anyone who reads the story will know I'm up to something. My hope is, they won't figure it out till I reveal the whole set-up.
Working half a day, tomorrow, so I may come home and sleep. I'm still draggy in the morning; I was in LA just long enough to get acclimated to west coast time, so rising at 8 is really like getting up at 5am. And I am not a morning person. Never have been. Never will be.
So be it...
I dug more into the information I compiled in my trip to Palm Springs, and can see other changes that need to be made. I may shift and have this take place a bit in the future instead of the recent past. Meaning shifting Jake's initial confrontation with Philby from a sub-office in Palm Desert to the new building going up near the jail and Larson Center of Justice. But I'll really miss him needing to pee and making it an issue in the whole proceeding...
I'm also putting back in a red herring I'd begun to take out. It works a lot better to keep this one in because it's so obvious, anyone who reads the story will know I'm up to something. My hope is, they won't figure it out till I reveal the whole set-up.
Working half a day, tomorrow, so I may come home and sleep. I'm still draggy in the morning; I was in LA just long enough to get acclimated to west coast time, so rising at 8 is really like getting up at 5am. And I am not a morning person. Never have been. Never will be.
So be it...
December 22, 2014
I need one of these...
If not a cute guy, at least a cool cat to knead me...hee, hee...Subtle changes
This photo is of Dockweiler Beach, just to the west of LAX. Jets taking off to the left and to the right, and people down below sitting around a campfire ignoring it all...or watching, maybe. I took it with my iPhone so it's kind of messy...but I like the feel of it.Amazing how a shift in location or change of action can reinvigorate a story and character. OT was beginning to sound pretty ABC...not extremely so, but edging towards a pedestrian feeling...when my day in Palm Springs injected fresh ideas into it. I drove everywhere I had Jake going, got the timing down, saw a Panda Express I referenced is in the same location as Home Depot, had dinner at a really uncomfortable CPK in Palm Desert (since when did their menu have EVERYTHING with chicken?), and saw how much of OT still works and what needs tweaking.
So I spent the plane ride reworking sections of the first two parts to fit the new reality. It wasn't easy to do, because there was a pair of twin boys of just over 1 year who were tag-teaming their screaming fits. But having something to concentrate on...and having my earbuds plugged in and Depeche Mode cranked up to nearly 8 on my laptop...made the flight livable.
I really think airlines should start training flight attendants on how to shut kids up. The parents were overwhelmed (they had two other kids with them) and lots of evil looks were being cast. I'm beginning to see the wisdom of having a pair of noise-cancelling headphones, like the guy next to me had. He slept through the flight. Didn't hurt he was cute, so I was able to cut some low-key glances at him.
Anyway, the rewrite cut anther 500 words from the count on this section, and I'm finally seeing the story hone down to what it's meant to be about...at least, what I think it's about, today. Who knows what it will be by the time I get done?
But that's the joy of writing...
December 21, 2014
Homeward bound...maybe...
There's a reason I avoid Burbank's Airport..and today it was working in spades. It's hard to get to from the freeway; if you don't want to hassle with the 5, you have to travel up Hollywood Way, which is a trip to get to off the 134, as it is. Then there are two false entrances before you get to the real one, and just try to get back onto the street going the correct direction if you take either of them. And the signage to keep you from making that mistake is confusing, at best.
Then you have to circle through the departing/arriving area with dozens of people and cars running around before you can circle back to the rental car area...which is half a mile from the airport and there is no shuttle; you walk it. If you've got two bags and a box (as I did) you have to go find a cart to use or muscle the things along the moveable walkways along an open pathway. And if your feet hurt? Tough.
At the terminal, if you do curbside checkin, you have to triple check the SW guys because they are SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOW, and they might just lose your iPhone and send one of your bags to the wrong place -- like one tried to do by sending my bag home and my box to Phoenix (my plane was going through Las Vegas, not there, and he could not explain why one tag was right and the other was wrong). My i-phone took a couple minutes to find; it was under a pile of someone else's crap. Another note: use printouts here.
I got through security well enough, but the airport is long and soulless, and has few options for food. Since I'm on the same plane all the way to Buffalo, a nearly 7 hour journey, I wanted a sandwich to eat en route because SW doesn't feed you. However, the ones they offer looked skanky, so I wound up with a salad that I'll have to hold carefully till I eat it. And now the plane is 20 minutes late. But the absolute worst is -- there's nothing but Pepsi, here, and that's really what it all boils down to.
No Dr. Pepper...and I hate Pepsi.
Then you have to circle through the departing/arriving area with dozens of people and cars running around before you can circle back to the rental car area...which is half a mile from the airport and there is no shuttle; you walk it. If you've got two bags and a box (as I did) you have to go find a cart to use or muscle the things along the moveable walkways along an open pathway. And if your feet hurt? Tough.
At the terminal, if you do curbside checkin, you have to triple check the SW guys because they are SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOW, and they might just lose your iPhone and send one of your bags to the wrong place -- like one tried to do by sending my bag home and my box to Phoenix (my plane was going through Las Vegas, not there, and he could not explain why one tag was right and the other was wrong). My i-phone took a couple minutes to find; it was under a pile of someone else's crap. Another note: use printouts here.
I got through security well enough, but the airport is long and soulless, and has few options for food. Since I'm on the same plane all the way to Buffalo, a nearly 7 hour journey, I wanted a sandwich to eat en route because SW doesn't feed you. However, the ones they offer looked skanky, so I wound up with a salad that I'll have to hold carefully till I eat it. And now the plane is 20 minutes late. But the absolute worst is -- there's nothing but Pepsi, here, and that's really what it all boils down to.
No Dr. Pepper...and I hate Pepsi.
December 20, 2014
Productive day, basically...
I slept in, got some laundry done, dealt with e-mails and another possible packing job, and had a nice long Skype session with a career counsellor, for my screenplays. I know I keep saying I have to drop writing scripts, but it's like an addiction and this was an opportunity I could not pass up. I figured it will be helpful for my books, as well.
She read some of Return to Darian's Point, and noted I have the format down, pat. I'm easy to read and have an interesting story. The only suggestion she had was pumping up the dialogue a bit, to better reflect the characters' personal interactions and not just be informative bits. I can see what she means. My dialogue is too real, and real dialogue can be totally banal. I've already been trying to do something like that with OT, so I had no argument with her observation.
Then we got into specifics, and there's where things got really good. I'm not a salesman; even when I worked in a book shop, I didn't sell people books...I suggested and informed and let them know what I liked and how I reacted to a book. So low-key as to be anti-sales. But books ain't cars, and doing the used car salesman crap will not work for them. What's nice is, she acknowledged this.
Then she suggested this is how I should sell my scripts. Not with the, "This is perfect for you" or "It's sure to be a blockbuster", push or anything like that, but to find out what a producer or actor or director likes or seems to always be interested in, and guide them to my work. A very soft-sell that will not always work but is probably workable for me. It would be more like I was interested in becoming a collaborator in a project...even though I can be a stubborn little cuss when it comes to my characters.
It's funny, but that reminded me of a time I met with an agent at Becsey-Wisdom; a major Literary Talent Agency in Hollywood. We were doing the chit-chat thing and he mentioned he liked classical pianists. I'd recently heard something played by Emmanuel Axe and suggested it; even sent him a CD. He took me on as a back-pocket client -- not a full client, but someone whose work he'd be willing to send over if I got a producer interested in reading something of mine. It got my scripts into a number of doors. Too bad my writing was crap, back then; things might have turned out differently. Then he left the business and moved to San Francisco to work in real estate, and I never did that, again.
Now I'm seeing how I should have...and wonder why I didn't...
She read some of Return to Darian's Point, and noted I have the format down, pat. I'm easy to read and have an interesting story. The only suggestion she had was pumping up the dialogue a bit, to better reflect the characters' personal interactions and not just be informative bits. I can see what she means. My dialogue is too real, and real dialogue can be totally banal. I've already been trying to do something like that with OT, so I had no argument with her observation.
Then we got into specifics, and there's where things got really good. I'm not a salesman; even when I worked in a book shop, I didn't sell people books...I suggested and informed and let them know what I liked and how I reacted to a book. So low-key as to be anti-sales. But books ain't cars, and doing the used car salesman crap will not work for them. What's nice is, she acknowledged this.
Then she suggested this is how I should sell my scripts. Not with the, "This is perfect for you" or "It's sure to be a blockbuster", push or anything like that, but to find out what a producer or actor or director likes or seems to always be interested in, and guide them to my work. A very soft-sell that will not always work but is probably workable for me. It would be more like I was interested in becoming a collaborator in a project...even though I can be a stubborn little cuss when it comes to my characters.
It's funny, but that reminded me of a time I met with an agent at Becsey-Wisdom; a major Literary Talent Agency in Hollywood. We were doing the chit-chat thing and he mentioned he liked classical pianists. I'd recently heard something played by Emmanuel Axe and suggested it; even sent him a CD. He took me on as a back-pocket client -- not a full client, but someone whose work he'd be willing to send over if I got a producer interested in reading something of mine. It got my scripts into a number of doors. Too bad my writing was crap, back then; things might have turned out differently. Then he left the business and moved to San Francisco to work in real estate, and I never did that, again.
Now I'm seeing how I should have...and wonder why I didn't...
December 19, 2014
Fresh and alive...
I'm in Palm Springs for research into OT and, after a long but not-so-tiring drive (since I was sitting in a car and had Sirius Radio tuned to some electronica) and a good night's sleep, I'm about to do the rounds to make sure I've got everything in order for Jake's investigation of his uncle's disappearance.
I've worked up a list to check before meeting with a member of the Riverside DA's office in Palm Desert, then back to LA for scheduled events.
Order of investigation as intended (but not yet definite, and not in the order of the book):
1. The Airport and park near the airport (where Jake goes to run and think). And the area around there.
2. Trying to find a warehouse area
3. Home Depot
4. DA--Riverside
5. CPK in Palm Desert along with strip malls
6. Apartment buildings (for Owen to own) and grocery stores
7. Motel 6
8. Indio Jail/Larsen Center
9. Salton Sea
10. Dillon Road, headed for 29 Palms
I'll be loading up a tank of gas for this, I'm sure, and have dozens of photos...I hope. Sky's bright and clear, so that's good. Guess I better get going.
After my second cup of tea...
I've worked up a list to check before meeting with a member of the Riverside DA's office in Palm Desert, then back to LA for scheduled events.
Order of investigation as intended (but not yet definite, and not in the order of the book):
1. The Airport and park near the airport (where Jake goes to run and think). And the area around there.
2. Trying to find a warehouse area
3. Home Depot
4. DA--Riverside
5. CPK in Palm Desert along with strip malls
6. Apartment buildings (for Owen to own) and grocery stores
7. Motel 6
8. Indio Jail/Larsen Center
9. Salton Sea
10. Dillon Road, headed for 29 Palms
I'll be loading up a tank of gas for this, I'm sure, and have dozens of photos...I hope. Sky's bright and clear, so that's good. Guess I better get going.
After my second cup of tea...
December 16, 2014
Dunno how I did it...
I got all the books packed before I had to leave for the airport. 152 boxes. Don't know how except the librarians checking them off got going faster and finished quickly, so were able to prep the books for being wrapped. That and the help of my boss, who did a fair amount of librarian-goosing. I wound up with not even a dozen boxes left unused along with a little bubble wrap, most of a box of newsprint and three reams of tissue.
Maybe at a later date I'll dissect what went wrong with this job, but right now it's sufficient to say the man who got it going with us misrepresented the whole thing. Which surprises me. But in the end, the client seemed happy with what we did, and while they would have liked all the boxes to have been collected today, their building's service entrance is too small for anything but a glorified cargo van, and the payload on those things is not enough for the full shipment. So more than half went out, today; the rest will be collected in a couple days.
I got no writing done; I was too beat to even think. The only reason I can formulate coherent sentences right now is I took a nap on the plane. I also paid $8 for WiFi that is barely adequate. Won't do that, again.
Now it's back to zoning...
Maybe at a later date I'll dissect what went wrong with this job, but right now it's sufficient to say the man who got it going with us misrepresented the whole thing. Which surprises me. But in the end, the client seemed happy with what we did, and while they would have liked all the boxes to have been collected today, their building's service entrance is too small for anything but a glorified cargo van, and the payload on those things is not enough for the full shipment. So more than half went out, today; the rest will be collected in a couple days.
I got no writing done; I was too beat to even think. The only reason I can formulate coherent sentences right now is I took a nap on the plane. I also paid $8 for WiFi that is barely adequate. Won't do that, again.
Now it's back to zoning...
December 14, 2014
Not gonna make it...
It is not possible to pack 925 books, half of which are over-sized folios, in 6 days when each title has to be double-checked on a list and each box has to note what books are in it -- not with 2 people packing and no space to work. I've damn near broken my back trying to get this done, but it looks like a good 30-35 boxes of books are left to do, and they have to be done tomorrow because the pickup is Tuesday morning.
I can probably get 25 done...more if I could stay later. But I'm going to be dead tired in LA, and I'm plowing straight into another packing job there. God, I hope that one will be better.
What's rough about this gig is that one of my bosses is working with me on it, so we're going out to dinner to "strategize." Meaning I'm not getting in till nearly 8 and I've had a beer or two, and I'm beat to the nubs. So not one bit of writing done the last few days. Haven't even written in my journal.
I'm starting to go into withdrawal...
I can probably get 25 done...more if I could stay later. But I'm going to be dead tired in LA, and I'm plowing straight into another packing job there. God, I hope that one will be better.
What's rough about this gig is that one of my bosses is working with me on it, so we're going out to dinner to "strategize." Meaning I'm not getting in till nearly 8 and I've had a beer or two, and I'm beat to the nubs. So not one bit of writing done the last few days. Haven't even written in my journal.
I'm starting to go into withdrawal...
December 13, 2014
Socializing...
Never was my thing, especially with people you've worked with all day. But we did it, tonight. We walked 1.5 miles through Chicago's busiest section to find a restaurant that had been recommended and had a good meal, no question. But after being on your feet all day and hefting boxes that weigh 40 -50 lbs around all day, all you really want to do is sit in a hot tub and vege.
Maybe tomorrow...we're only working 6 hours, which is not good. We're behind thanks to changes in the job's parameters after I'd already arrived to start packing. And no matter what happens, this is all being picked up on Tuesday. So Monday may be hellish. I've already bumped my flight from Monday to Tuesday and changed my car rental.
Anyway, that's my life and my living...such as it is, right now.
Maybe tomorrow...we're only working 6 hours, which is not good. We're behind thanks to changes in the job's parameters after I'd already arrived to start packing. And no matter what happens, this is all being picked up on Tuesday. So Monday may be hellish. I've already bumped my flight from Monday to Tuesday and changed my car rental.
Anyway, that's my life and my living...such as it is, right now.
