How Long is a Week?

In a mood of faith and hope my work goes on. A ream of fresh paper lies on my desk waiting for the next book. I am a writer and I take up my pen to write.
-- Pearl S. Buck, U.S. writer (1802-1973)

Remember Steve Martin's blockbuster movie The Jerk? There was a scene after he'd ... spent some quality time ... with Bernadette Peters [ahem], where he was musing about how long the days had seemed since they met. The first day felt like four days, and the second day felt like two days, and the third day felt like less than a day, or something to that effect. I was thinking about that because it doesn't seem like it's been over a week since I posted "Funny Farm Friday", and yet here we are.

Veterans' Day. As most of you know, my Dad was a USAF combat pilot in Viet Nam. Yesterday our middle school's band director put together a special commemorative concert - something he has done for years (since he lost his best friend in Saudi during the first war in the Middle East in '91). Little Bit was very proud to have her Grandpoppy sitting on the floor in the specially designated seats with the other veterans. There was a gentleman there who had fought in both World War II and Korea. Think about the men and women who are putting their lives on the line for your freedom today, and thank a veteran.

Back to work. Mother and Dad being here have not put too many kinks in my writing plans. I haven't really done anything I wouldn't have had they not been here - the concert, last night's football game ...

Regarding which I have to take a quick detour off the track of my original train of thought to say - WAH-hoooooooo!!!! Yeah, that means we won. What an exciting game! We had a great turnout on our side of the stands, the band did their show and it went well, and it was a good "payback" victory for our young men, who had lost to this same team during the regular season after having a lead until the last two minutes of the game. Most teams break through a big sign that says "Go Team" or something to that effect at the beginning of the game - last night our sign said "NOT THIS TIME", and then the boys played to back it up. My son doesn't have much of a voice left after cheering and screaming (oh, sorry, those terms are too "girlie" for The Boy ... make that yelling and shouting) with the band for the whole game. But what fun it was! This is the farthest our team has gone in football playoffs since the school's inception 10 years ago. It's a very exciting time, and I'm just glad my kids can be a part of it. Next week should be interesting - I don't think we've ever had football season and basketball season overlap before, and we have two basketball games Tuesday and Thursday before football on Friday. My head is spinning just thinking about it. Sorry, can you tell I'm both a proud parent and a sports fanatic?

Okay, back on track now - I am still working on Book Two, and have made a touch of progress. I'm hoping to get some serious word count boosting done over the next week or so, especially since I had another flash of brilliance about this story yesterday. The word count is at 50,739 and climbing - a total addition of 431 words. Not a great accomplishment, but then I haven't had much time to work on it just yet, have I?

Today is the day. We have a few things going on around the house, but overall it should be relatively calm and I'm planning to get some serious writing done.

Good creative writing vibes sent in my direction would be appreciated.

It's feeling like fall again around here -- enjoy your day.

=) JB