Kyle Michel Sullivan's Blog: https://www.myirishnovel.com/, page 60

Long day of no writing...

Not exactly. I finished prepping A65 to send off. They wanted a PDF of the story double-spaced so that's what I did. And a short synopsis. And I'm really happy with it. No feedback. We'll see how it goes.

I'll work on APoS on the plane and at the hotel, at night. Plotted out plans for the packing. Completed some other paperwork and end of month business since I won't be able to do it while I'm traveling. I don't do anything financial on wifi outside of my place or the office. I don't trust it.

My flight, tomorrow, isn't till 8:15pm and I don't arrive till 10:45pm, and that's if everything is on time. This flight is not guaranteed to do that. But I've got an aisle seat and my new Air is smaller than that PC and my Pro, and works one hell of a lot better, so I'll do all right.

Countdown to Halloween, still...a night of unimaginable horrors for the faint of heart. Like me. Besides, there are too many real horrors in the world to deal with. I don't know if I'm getting smarter (ha) or people are getting dumber, but whatever it is I'm at the point in my life where I'm close to saying, Fuck 'em all. 

Let Mother Nature take control, show us who's boss and restart the march of evolution with cephalopods. They seem kinder and gentler, and a hell of a lot smarter. 

A bit of chaos...

Today I got booked for a packing job in Anaheim Hills, starting Tuesday. So I have to fly down day after tomorrow. Talk about scrambling, and I'm not home till Saturday. Fortunately, it's a continuation of a job I've already done, twice before, so I know the layout of the place and will have space enough to work in. And an assistant who can do the lifting and moving parts.

I still managed to get through three more chapters of APoS, to 1970. That leaves 10 chapters to do, and I can this little Macbook with me, to do a lot of this on the plane. So I will focus on the job, tomorrow and Monday, before my flight.

I've also decided to enter The Alice '65 into the Cinematic Book Writing Competition. Not sure what it's really about, but you never know who might read it. I found the Word doc for the updated paperback I did in March 2021, and read through some of it. And I'm fuckin' proud of that book. It flows so smoothly. I like Adam and Casey and the people around them. So I'm formatting it into the required style and sending it in.

They offer feedback, but I don't want any. I don't need it. I did a damn good job with that story and all I want is the promotional aspect of this contest. I'm not having anyone tell me how I should have written it to be funnier or simpler or crazier or anything. I've already been through that and found it's bullshit.

I wrote a screenplay for a former friend, using her idea -- her mother had been in Senior Lady Beauty Pageants and she thought it would be fun to make a comedy out of it. So I worked up a full story, characters, hit all the expected high points...and made it about a mistaken magical charm switching the mind of an older woman who's about to be in one of those pageants with the mind of her cop son-in-law who's trying to catch a criminal. Set it in Las Vegas, and all hell breaks loose.

It would have been hysterical with the right actors. But that's how it is with comedy -- the actors make the piece live. What comments did I get back? "Needs to be funnier." I've got the cop caught in his MIL's body suddenly having to deal with her estranged husband when the man shows up and wants to get back together with her in an intimate way. And the MIL in the cop's body has to save the life of his partner when they're attacked, and not knowing how to fire a gun or use handcuffs.

Not funny enough.

I no longer own that script. It was taken away from me fifteen years ago. Given to someone who knows how to write comedy. And what's happened, since? Nothing.

When William Goldman said that in Hollywood Nobody knows anything, he was right. The problem is, nobody knows that they don't know, and are sure that it doesn't apply to them.

Halfway

I'm at the point where the Battle of Bogside is about to begin, and it's also where that PC started fucking up my formatting. It's all better now, and I don't think anything was cut, so I'm toodling along and will return to my original formatting once I'm done with this last proofing. Which should be in a couple days.

I noticed I used the same last name for a couple different people and don't want that. I'm having enough fun with the Eamonnn/Eammon situation. Eamonn is Brendan's older brother, who's injured in the attack on the People's Democracy march at Burntollet Bridge.

Eammon is a friend of Brendan's I consistently refer to as wee Eammon. He's the exact opposite of Brendan's brother -- small, red-haired, looking like a leprechaun, and sickly. I like the contrast.

I do like how I've woven in events as they happen throughout the story, so far. Brendan refers to them or hears about them, so he's not everywhere. Sometimes he even admits to a bit of hooliganism, like in being part of the crowd that burned down a few buildings in July 1969.

But for the most part he's not much involved in the actions. His focus is still making what money he can off his repairs and helping his family in his own way. Like making a garden hutch over into a home for Mairead when she marries Tur Devlin and they have a child. And he's not unfair; because a neighbor let his family stay with them after their old home was trashed, he does some work for her, for free.

My hope is I'm building a human being for people to relate to, not a character or saint or flawed hero but a boy living his life as best he can in impossible circumstances.

1/3 done and feelin' like fun...

I'm through the October 5th march, in APoS, and at just over 139,100 words, and feel pretty good about this pass. Not sure why it keeps expanding because I've cut some more repetition. But maybe my words are fucking like rabbits. Or...maybe it's because of...

Halloween!

I'm counting down to the day on my FB page, having fun with it. 

I now believe that if those brats had just given Freddy a good lay, they'd still be alive. I wonder if I should write a screenplay where the hunky jock lets Michael Myers fuck him and winds up his BBF. 

Or go trick-or-treating, then whoever gets the most candy is able to eat Jason Voorhees...

Back to work...

Went through 6 chapters of APoS-Derry, slow and steady. I increased the font size to 18points and found two more missing periods and an absent quotation mark. I also added words a couple of times when I felt they would help the clarity of what was being said.

I cut out a bit more repetition, too. Both times it was a paragraph that was repeating something I'd already written, just in a different way. But overall it's working for me, now.

I had a nice chat with a Mac Technician who showed me a few things I can do with the Air that I couldn't do with the Pro, and sent me links for further info. But what it boils down to is I'll need to get Adobe Photoshop Ps to do the book cover. So be it. I can't buy it, I have to lease by the month or by the year. The one I'm looking at is $30-35 a month, but I can cancel anytime.

Love going online with Twitter to find another mass-shooting, this time in Lewiston, ME. 22 dead and 60 injured. Just another day in the life of chaos America.

God, it makes me tired.

Thank god for Taco Tuesday

It was 10:45pm when I decided to get in my car, drive to a Taco Bell and have an order of crispy tacos. I wasn't feeling very happy and howling at people on Twitter and Instagram and wasn't really hungry, but damn those things changed my mood for the better.

Reason for the mood? I saw the ophthalmologist, this morning, and it turns out I have a vitreous detachment in my right eye. Can't be fixed; I'll have this spot in my vision till I die. Or could lead to loss of vision. I'm due back to his office in 30 days to see if it's stabile or advancing. So fucking perfect.

I've got the beginning of a cataract in my left eye. Skin cancer on my right jawline. Diabetes. High blood pressure. And a host of other old man ailments. It's time to junk me and buy a newer model. And while I can joke about it, now, I was not doing so well earlier.

I'm cutting back on social media. I'll still check it, now and then, but I want to focus on finishing the full 3 volumes of APoS, and then Dair's Window, and the rest of Blood Angel before I have a chance to go blind. It's too damned easy for me to get lost in dealing with idiots on Twitter and Instagram, and they do seem to be multiplying in number.

I've already unfollowed a couple people who've been screaming nonstop about Israel's bombings in Gaza, but who were all but silent when Russia did the exact same thing to people in Ukraine. Both sides are at fault for the catastrophe in Gaza. Ukraine did not warrant having Russia invade and slaughter her citizens. But the world is going nuts for the poor Palestinians while Ukraine is all but being ignored, now.

I know too much history to be kind about that sort of shit. I'm no scholar, but I'm not fool enough to think that forcing Ukraine to give away part of her territory would solve a damned thing, as some really, really, really rich idiots are suggesting. Chamberlin proved appeasement doesn't work in 1938, for crying out loud.

I'm not vanishing, just minimizing and keeping focus on what I need to do. It's probably the end of the world, anyway, since the ice in Antarctica is melting away and soon Miami will be underwater. The Planet will take care of itself, since we're too fucking selfish to do it, and Earth won't give a shit if humanity becomes extinct.

Funny time to be writing a book about a little war in a tiny country on a small island with thousands of years of history.

When will I learn?

I should never take a long nap in the afternoon. I wake up cranky and lost, and it takes me forever to get myself back on track. Then I'm down instead of up and don't want to do anything. I could have just crashed on the couch for 20 minutes and been fine, but no...it was on top the bed under a cover and gone for 2 hours.

Fortunately, this was after I got an appointment for my eye, in the morning, and set up an online chat with a techie about my Mac's capacities for the afternoon. I also had a chat with Caladex and seems the China in Print Fair will happen, next year, and they wonder if I'd be open to going.  To which I said, Yes. I'd love an excuse to get out of the US after the election, especially since there will be madness following if the Blue Wave wipes out the GOP (as I hope it will).

I've got an itch to start on Blood Angel-Franz, soon as I'm done with APoS-Derry. I know the first line in this piece. They want to kill the man I love, and I don't know if I can. The line's a paragraph unto itself. Then the story jumps back to explain what happened to bring this about. That would be the first half. The second half would be dealing with Léonidès' mistake in not killing Franz.

I show in volume two of the story that Leon has no trouble killing, so long as the person deserves it. But Franz doesn't, yet. He's a soldier who's killed other men in battle, but that's considered acceptable. How do you go about killing someone who's done nothing wrong merely on the suspicion they would develop into a murderous monster? A preemptive execution.

Would it have been morally acceptable to go back in time to smother Hitler or Stalin in their cribs, as babies, knowing what they would do when they grew into men? I don't necessarily believe that things would have turned out better. For fun, I once worked out a whole scenario of what might have happened if Hitler had died in jail or as a child, from some disease.

Germany was mess after WW1, and when the Great Depression roared it, it grew worse. There was a growing communist party, growing unionism, growing anger at the rich, still aimed at the Jews. Russia was meddling in the country's politics and, when the capitalists heading the government in Berlin took strong, violent action against the Unions and Communists, Stalin supplied materiel to them so civil war broke out.

Stalin already had designs on Poland and used the country's support of the German Government to roar in and take over, then pushed into Germany to protect his supporters. England and France declared war as Poland's allies, but Soviet troops still marched into Paris. Took over the entire continent. Japan still hit Pearl Harbor, but Russia and Japan were not allies so the US focused on the Pacific.

England could not stop the Soviet war machine because the Russian factories were a thousand miles farther away and they had the materials to keep building bombers and fighters and tanks and guns, so London finally surrendered. And Ireland danced a jig because the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

And boom -- the whole of Europe became a satellite of Moscow, instead of just the eastern half.

Details, details...

Today was spent working on my new laptop, checking the links, verifying passcodes, updating settings, trying to figure out why some things that did work on the Pro won't work on the Air, and getting my printer to talk to it. That was fun...but finally successful. All while doing 3 loads of laundry.

Tomorrow, I'm harassing my ophthalmologist to look at my right eye, ASAP. I've got a weird shadowy spot that suddenly showed up in my vision, with spidery webs radiating from it. Spooking the hell out of me...wondering if it's a result of my diabetes. It's not strong; in fact, if I'm looking at a dark space or one that has lots of patterns in it, I can't even see the thing. It's when I'm dealing with my monitor that it becomes obvious.

Once I know when I'm seeing him, I'll set up an appointment with a Mac specialist to make certain I'm getting the right version of Photoshop. Adobe is offering several, and there's a monthly charge to license any of them. I want to see if one labeled PS is good for my needs -- designing dust jackets and book covers. And maybe they can explain how I managed to set up the keyboard so that I can change an e to an é and a c to a ç...because I honestly have no idea what I did, and it would not do it, yesterday.

Next comes the push for APoS-Derry, and I'm starting from page 1...and this will be the final go-through, no matter what. I could easily work on honing this book for the next 10 years, if I don't stop myself.

I also now have a gmail address. Not sure what I'll do with it, yet. If it'll be for future business or if I'll shove personal stuff onto that and use my .mac for business/writing only. Whatever happens is what happens.

But I do feel like I'm back on track...

Heaven...

I got my new MacBook Air laptop today, a few days early. Migrated all my documents and files and apps over, and am ready to go. Took next to no time and I'm already liking it. The keyboard feels right. I even splurged on a sleek little mouse that looks more like a piece of fancy sushi but is so elegant to work with, it's a joy. I've upgraded Word to 365 and love how APoS looks on it. I also played it safe and got AppleCare, because it came in handy with the Pro.

I don't have all the details set the way I want, yet, but I'm happy and relieved that this is ready to use, so quickly. Next comes getting Photoshop and working on the cover for the book. I want a sketchpad and stylus but Mac doesn't have those for the Air. I'll have to go aftermarket.

I'm told I can send my old Pro in for credit, but I don't want to let go till I know for sure everything is working okay or migrated properly. I doubt there's a problem, but I'm too unsure of my ability in tech to let that govern me, yet.

What's funny is, I worked out the basic plot for Blood Angel-Franz (volume 3). The Oyim refuse to give Leonides permission to make Franz a Blood Angel because they sense there is a darkness in him that should not be unleashed. Once a human is turned, their true nature is revealed and all lies fall away.

Unfortunately, Franz knows about the vampire world and has to be killed. As punishment for allowing this to happen, Leon is ordered to feed on him till true death. But he can't; Franz is too beautiful a man. So he winds up turned...and a danger to the community. But he cannot be controlled except in the cruelest of ways, and that is not in Leon's nature.

That's why he goes looking for his sister, Gabrielle; to offer a swap. Franz for Dmitriy, because she'd have no problem taking control of the crazy little fuck.

She thinks.

Starting over...

 I shifted APoS from the PC to my old Mac and it's not matching up with the version I'd had, before, page count wise. So I'm starting from the very beginning and going through to make certain everything is properly set. The first two chapters are okay, though I did find another typo. Thek is not a word.

A new job popped up in New Jersey, it looks like. One of those maybe things that I think will wind up being too expensive for the people involved, but you still have to do the work. Give 'em a quote and hope they tell you yes or no instead of just walking away in silence.

There's going to be a 2-job trip to NYC area -- 1 up the Hudson to the Cuomo Bridge, the other in Manhattan's Upper East Side -- all in mid-November. Then comes the LA one the beginning of December. I'm feeling tired just thinking about them.

Nothing much to say. Just want to meditate on these gay weddings from around the world...

Love is love around the world.