So many things raising their heads to thwart any progress on just getting through the read-through of the old Draft Zero. Hurricanes, RSI, busted computers. Feh.
Yesterday, I got the hubs out of the house and we went to Walnut Creek Park for the sole purpose of sitting still. Usually, when we go there, we make use of some of the 11 miles of trails that tangle around the wooded section of the park. This time, we brought water and apples and he brought a sketchbook while I lugged my only printed copy of the ms to read.
Parenthetically, it is extremely hard to get one’s mind into a book – any book – when there is Tejano music blaring from the speakers of one truck, let alone 3 or more. This is a piece of Tejano culture that I truly Do Not Get(tm). My husband theorizes that it is like a bird’s mating call, and that these men who sit in their truck, listening to the same “bum bum bum BA bum-bum bum bum” sound paired with what can only be described as a calliope doing unholy things, are actually waiting to attract a mate based on who can hold on the longest listening to the same wretched track. But I digress…
So, I think I left off at what is currently known as Chapter 18 before we started to lose the light and I had had enough of the music. But I will say this: Chapters 1 through 15 could probably be condensed into just one, or added as backstory to Chapters 16 on. Which is both sad (kill your darlings, kill your darlings…) and heartening. Because it means it doesn’t suck, but rather takes far too long to get to The Story. Even I was getting bored and frustrated with the first several chapters. And you only send the first 3 as your sample! Gah!
