Back To Work And Back Again

[madwriter]

PROGRESS REPORT

New Words: The rewriting got me a net gain of 1300, on Chapter 1 ("Those Who Came Before") Section 2 ("The Dancing Spirits") of Arizona. Mainly I rewrote the opening, added a few passages here and there, and altered some historical details to match the new time period.

Total Words: 26250. If my 250K estimate holds then this puts the first draft at a smidgen over 10% done.

Reason For Stopping: Had to get ready for work.

Book Year: Newly 508 B.C.

Mammalian Assistance: None. My primary Writing Room guardians, Vegas and Nate, chose instead to scour the basement for threats and fun.

Exercise: Walked Tucker around the neighborhood; walked down to campus.

Stimulants: A dollop of Dr. Pepper.

Today's Opening Passage(s): The new section opener...

Ooljee, preparing her prayer songs in her mind before singing them to the invisible spirits who guided the maize stalks and the Cloud People who offered rain, looked over her people’s riverside fields of young maize with hope that this year would be better.

So far this year there had been reason for the holy woman to hope, both for the People and her own family. The weather had been mild, not too dry, and neither too wet as their calendar sticks recorded often happened after severe droughts, as if the Cloud People were making up for the dry years in a single season. The maize was planted in good soil that had lain fallow long enough. The corn’s sisters, squash and beans, followed soon after. The women gathered the wild plants; the men hunted; now the People were preparing to celebrate the Summer Solstice with festivals of songs and dances to welcome the new maize and encourage it to mature into womanhood so its seeds would produce next year’s harvest as well.

But the earthquakes were getting worse.

Darling Du Jour: I suppose I could find something if I did some scouring myself, through the new passages, but I'm feeling a little bit lazy at the moment.

Non-Research / Review Books In Progress: Michener; The Ballad of Tom Dooley by Sharyn McCrumb.