June Sweeps - Day 148

This morning, some workmen came over at seven to work on the roof, and were so loudly pounding and sawing that even my nephew woke up, and he's slept through me picking him up and trying to carry him down the stairs.  At one point, one of the guys dropped something, it shook the whole house, and it rolled off the roof and onto the front lawn, whatever it was.

I couldn't sleep through that, so I checked Facebook and posted yesterday's blog bit, and finished editing (most of) the next Delusions of Grandeur show.  But it was still early, and for something to do, I tried to find the notes for my Halloween decoration story, which were nowhere to be found.*  But what I did find, when I did a search through all my emails, was an excerpt from a Christmas story I wrote so long ago I couldn't remember writing it.  In the excerpt, Benedict Cumberbatch comes to a couple's house and has dinner with them, then kisses the wife before leaving.

It was delightful to read, since the main character, Tom (named after Tom Tancredi, who had just flown me to Chicago for free when I wrote it) is more than aware his wife is totally smitten with the odd-looking British celebrity.  I read the whole email, including all my notes for the story (which were so extensive, I figured I could sit down in a single afternoon--today, perhaps--and flesh the notes out to a full novella), and it took close to an hour (now it's 9:26am).  By this point, I began to remember the story, and its twists and turns, though I didn't remember how it would end.

What a shame I hadn't finished it, since it could be another Rish Outcast . . . or worse, a Dunesteef episod--

To my surprise, at the end of the email chain (to myself), was the full edited story, beginning, middle, and end (only seven thousand words, but still complete).  And I thought, since the workers are still stomping, banging, sawing, and dancing, that I'd read it through all the way.  It's good stuff, and I realized I could run it as this year's show . . . maybe in installments, since it takes place over five days.**

In looking closer, I actually wrote it in December of 2018, and sent myself the finished file in early January of 2019, so it's no wonder I'd forgotten about it, huh?

As I was reading through, I noticed that the ending bit sort of comes out of nowhere, with a character we've never met delivering the "God bless us every one" analogue, so I sat down and wrote a scene to stick in earlier, setting up that character.  I've gotten some words in before my alarm even went off, all thanks to the bastards that are clog-dancing right above my head right now.

It was a very lazy Saturday.  I took my mom to the store (she had a unsane amount--unsane is like insane only more so--of items to donate to the thrift store, filling up her trunk and back seat), grabbed a burger with her at Burger King (we sat on the grass outside the restaurant to eat, not minding the 93 degree heat, since she's from Mexico and I must have inherited that high tolerance for the sun), and then I spent an hour or so sitting in the yard with a huge container of ice water, blogging and editing and trying to motivate myself to write (oh, and cyber-stalking people on Instagram.  Can't forget that, kids).

So, I did type a couple of paragraphs on my Halloween story, and out curiosity, I did track down the original notes.  I discovered that the protagonist of my original idea was a teenaged boy, whose little sister took the Halloween decoration ban particularly hard, so he made some of his own, using a Marilyn Manson t-shirt, a box of Count Chocula, and a picture of Chewbacca.  Since the story never went anywhere, I can't rightly say whether it would've been better or worse than the version I'm doing now, but I sure like the protective older brother aspect.  Maybe I'll still do that, but with the genders switched, I dunno.

I feel like my priorities should be in publishing and finishing stories-in-progress, not starting new stories (though this one is technically an old one), but it is hard to work on the same darn project day after day, like Big does.  It's hard, because it's what you're supposed to do.  Guess I'll have to set a goal in July to finish one of them.  Again.

I did my nightly run, and as I was coming around the first corner, I saw a girl running up ahead in some kind of neon workout gear.  That was a surprise, because it was around eleven, and you don't see people running at night, much less attractive females.  Since I had just started my run (at that point, it's the quarter-mile stretch where my body says, "I've got a bad feeling about this, StarWarsCharacter," but I really have no excuse to be lagging), I put on the speed, thinking I could catch up with her . . . and she had vanished.  She'd gone around the corner, I'd gone around the corner, and the girl--who I'd only seen for a couple of seconds--had faded back into the aether.

Now, I'm not saying the fellow jogger was a ghost . . .

Except that she was.  My uncle would be proud.

Sit-ups Today: 166
Sit-ups In June: 3477

Words Today: 1140
Words In June: 27,531
*I'm now thinking it was something I wrote in my notebook, and right at the beginning of one, so I see the idea every time I open it.  Hmmm.

**I've already recorded the holiday story I wrote last year, and edited it, either to run on my show or waste on the other one, so I'm a bit more ambitious than I give me credit for.  Plus, I published it on Amazon.  Maybe I'll do the same with this one (It's called "The Twel--Five Wishes of Christmas," if you're interested).