May Sweeps - Day 471

Last night, after writing quite a bit (over a thousand words) and really getting into my story, I decided to save the file and email it to myself.  As I did so, I discovered it was default saving into a folder called Docs . . . and that there were several files in there.  Among them was the missing scene from the Pizza Triangle story (the same doggam scene I rewrote about a month ago), two scenes from the unfinished Will Choner story, the start of a story I wrote for a Broken Mirror contest last year I didn't enter because you had to be a student or faculty of the college that was running it, a section of "Only Have Eyes For You," and, ironically, the missing section from "Two Month Retreat" that I rewrote myself only last week.

It was vexing, because I had searched for a couple of these quite hard, and, as I said, ended up rewriting them because they didn't turn up.  Well, I've got them now, even if I do nothing with them.

I got an email from Paypal the other day that said, "You still owe $4.61 in unpaid postage."  I looked over the email, and it did appear to be from Paypal (legitimately), but it didn't have a transaction number or a name and address that corresponded to it, only a link where I could pay the $4.61.

But it did have a date the package was shipped, so I went into my history to try to figure out what I sent, and why I could have been that off (I mean, $4.61 is a big discrepancy, don't you think?).  But I couldn't find it.  I had shipped six packages that day, but they were all light and cheap.  I ignored the email, because I don't think this one was my mistake (oh, I've made a lot of them in the past, probably a hundred by now--hell, I sent somebody the wrong Ahsoka Tano figure just last week, and the SAME DAY I got an email from the buyer telling me that I'd shipped the 2020 one instead of the 2019 one . . . the 2020 one sold.  How the fudge does that happen?).

I'll let you know if they try and stick me for the $4.61 again.  It seems like, if it's a legitimate grievance, they won't let it go--EVER--but will simply bug me about it, or freeze my account, until I give the devil his due.  You know how it is.

Sit-ups Today: 111
Sit-ups In May: 1727

 I continue my search for an image of a silhouetted man in a stairwell.  Today's post (from Unsplash) is this one:

Again, it's not quite right--a little too beautiful, romantic rather than ominous, even if you matted out the blue sky--but somewhat close.  

As far as writing goes, I did go to the library, and stuck the missing "Bundling Made Easy" scene into the master file.*  I was pleased to see that it fit perfectly, bridging the two sections I already had, like frog DNA completing an incomplete string for a dinosaur.  I did have a character who appeared there referred to as Tallulah, but I changed the name to Addie, to match what I had, at some point, changed it to instead (Tallulah's a supremely weird character name, even for me).  

Not that Addie is one I hear every day.

Push-ups Today: 171
Push-ups In May: 1961

Then, I went to paste what I wrote last night into the master file for the twin story ("Exact Duplicate?  Does that work?) . . . and it wasn't there.  

I guess I hadn't emailed it to myself after all.

But I continued the narrative right from where I left off to have ice cream last night, and have just about gotten to the bit where the truth with come out.  And I am anxious to find out the answer.**

It's so weird to have "pantsed" a story like this for so long, to the point where I'll find out the truth when the character does.  Of course, that could be a major disaster if inspiration doesn't strike and I can't think of anything, but I'm not going to let that sway me.

Right now, I have to pee, all of a sudden, and I look at the thirty-two ounce water container sitting in front of me . . . the empty thirty-two ounce water container, and I'm not surprised.  I guess I'll take that as a cue to be done for the day, even though I didn't get nearly as many words as I did last night.

Words Today: 676
Words In May: 10,336

*That's the third "Lara and the Witch" installment I wrote, at the end of last year.  But it takes place AFTER the two I wrote this year.  I wonder if I shouldn't put out the earlier stories before I put that one out.  Or if it even matters.  Like I've said before, these are like the Conan the Barbarian stories Robert Howard wrote, jumping around in time, and not necessarily depending on one another for continuity.  

**I'm kicking around the idea of Alex Bettington, the Senior Class President, walking right up to Layla and planting a sloppy kiss on her mouth.  She has to react naturally, as though she's her sister, but whoa, this is supremely weird.  Shay has been seeing Alex Bettington?  And they kiss with tongue?  What else do they do?  And again, why the hell has Shay never told her about this?  I really, really, really, really like stuff like that in stories and movies, and since I'm living vicariously through these characters, why not let plain, bookish Layla Shonauer get pawed by a handsome and popular guy at school, just to see what that feels like?