Friday Snippet 47

Apparition of the Face of Aphrodite
by Salvador Dali
print for sale at art.com

Update: I'm finally pasting in a snippet though it isn't much. Not a full scene really. This will be tacked onto the end of the previous snippet or the beginning of the next one once I allow myself to start rewrites. I am still holding myself to my promise to myself not to go back and rewrite scenes and to do only minimal editing of them before I have a complete draft.

That promise is getting harder to keep. I seem to be in a bit of a plot quagmire. I'm holding too many threads in my head. But I know myself too well. If I start fiddling around with non-scene work--outlines, notes, character sketches, research, time lines etc.--I could end up with ten or fifty thousand words of notes and sketches while work on the scenes themselves dribble out or dry up completely as with the twelve plus novels already plugging the FOS pipeline.

So for now, I'm working hard at staying playful and open with Crystal's story and pressing on even when I'm not quite sure where it is going next.


Well, I'm backsliding again this week. I blew my head start last weekend. I used the extra time to do laundry, fret over my sick kitty and watch the winding up of the Democratic Primaries, including hours and hours of the rules committee deliberations on Saturday.

I spent more hours getting sappy nostalgic over 70s music which I wrote about on my Monday post. That's the day I should have been working on the snippet but I couldn't turn off the darn TV (satellite XM 70s on 7 ) and I can't write while listening to music with lyrics in English. Instrumental, Orchestral or vacals in a language that I don't comprehend--so that the voice becomes another instrument but doesn't engage the language center--actually enhances a writing environment for me.

I had high hopes and exuberance to spare Tuesday night after the speeches etc. I had ambitions for getting both the snippet and TT ready by Wednesday evening. Then I woke up with a headache and the muggy brain that usually accompanies it. I've been jousting with that ever since.

So once again I'm putting up the shell sans snippet. There is a good chance I can get the snippet ready by this time tomorrow latest (late evening Saturday) as it looks like I'll be home alone. It hasn't rained for two days and there is no rain in the forecast so the dirt track races should be on (unlike the last two weekends) and since I got all the laundry caught up as of Monday that isn't on the agenda. Merlin is eating and grooming normally again, so if I can keep my thoughts off the other fret channels... And my hands off the remote...

You can catch up or review via the links to the first eight parts available below.

The entire thing is closing in on 12K. So much for it being a short story. Based on the scenes yet to be written which I know about, I estimate I'm 1/3 to 1/2 way there. That won't be long enough for a novel either. sigh.

But then I hadn't planned on it being a novel. I have enough novels in progress in this story world!

One of them is even set in this same motel. And someone you've already encountered in this story is a POV character in it. You'll learn her name when Crystal does in this snippet. She was the protagonist of my first NaNo novel, Majoring in Marine Biology.

Home Is Where the Horror Is
by Joy Renee

(part one; part two; part three; part four; part five; part six; part seven; part eight; part nine; part ten; part eleven; part twelve;)

Crystal opened the door next to the desk as Brook slipped out the door they had entered across the room. So narrow was the room Crystal wondered if both doors could be fully opened at the same time without jamming each other. The room she entered was dim. Much dimmer than the room she had wakened in only an hour or so ago. There were only faint glimmers of light around the edges of heavy drapes at each end of the room. The sound of Garrison's babble was coming from her left and seemed very near but she couldn't see his crib or playpen.

She opened the door wider hoping the bright light from the office would help her find a light switch or lamp. Brook's instructions had seemed thorough, surely she would have included some for turning on the light if there were something tricky about it. Garrison had gone silent as the door opened and Crystal sensed him listening for the approach of his Mama. She didn't know whether to speak to him before he could see her. Would the sound of a stranger's voice frighten him more coming out of the dark? She knew she didn't have much time before he lost patience.

She felt the wall to the side of the door and sure enough there were two switches but, oddly, they were already in the up position and when she flipped them down nothing happened. No, not nothing after all. The room got even quieter and there was no more slight current of air on her cheeks and forehead which she had not even noticed before they vannished.

Ah. So there was likely two ceiling fans which probably had light fixtures that could be turned on and off with a chain. She flipped the switches back up and looked toward the soft whir to her right and spotted the twirling blades above a small table only a few steps away. The light from the office revealed a clear path. There were two chains hanging down. One for the fan of course. She pulled on the closest one and was rewarded with light.

Now she could see to the other end of the room where a portable crib sat under the other fan. Garrison was sitting up, his gaze fixed on her. "Hello, Garrison." she started talking as she walked slowly toward him. "I'm Crystal. Your Mama sent me."