it begins ~

Day 18: Goodie Proctor's still searching for a title

so i wrote yesterday (as promised).

3,333 words, though about 3,000 of those are "cheated". i'm stealing wholesale from extant documentation and in this case i'm starting with Reverend Razor to kick the thing off ~ and you know how preachers can go on, even in spite of cutting about 500 words from his sermon. i will have to cut more, though i kinda wish i didn't have to. as it is i cut a whole lengthy tirade against the evils of theatre-going (which is almot hilarious in the midst of an otherwise focused sermon). it's weirdness like that which make the story, i think, but i also don't want to get bogged down in every detail and bit of minutiae to the point of dragging the story endlessly. after all, this isn't "history"; it's supposed to be fiction.

so really, it sounds like i did a lot, but i only threw together a preliminary scene which i'm actually not wildly fond of. and good golly, you'd think i would be able to come up with a better Irish name than Patrick Michael Flannery (blech ~ that's got to go). i really wasn't trying to go so Irish Catholic with the opening event; it just sorta went that way of its own accord.

i also wrote the scene in present tense, which i think might be a mistake. in fact, i'm pretty sure it is. so that will have to be undone.

and i don't like the Gracious Lick for a title. part of me wants to keep Mr. Poppet as the main character in which case his relationship with the dog would make the title make more evident sense, but part of me also knows that we're going to end up spending more time with Mr. Hanty and the Chammy and the unholy trio of Burn, Bing, and Bolt, which is going to diffuse the whole dog thing.

some goodies i came across last night:

Kat hated the whole sham, voted against every bad thing. he also didn't like his police escort and how his neighbors complained of it. i like Kat (let's hear it for the german contingent!).

Bolt was a paranoid freak who wanted to hang the whole of the Southern government. The night of the murder, he was in Charleston, raising the flag over fort sumter. i didn't know this ~ how ironic.

and the best one: Bolt and Burn were on the Milligan case prior to being called to Washinton (no way!) when they went back to decide it, Reverdy went up against them (way!). this time, Reverdy won (man, you just can't make up an epilogue like that).

[of course, anthony hopkins would play Reverdy in the film version and he'd be all wise and gruff (a la john q. adams in Amistad) and he'd pass on pearls to Poppet, who would be totally disappointed in his withdrawl from the contest, but later see the wisdom in it (a so grasshopper). oooo the inherent drammer].

i'm having pizza for breakfast.

much to do today.

: D

where'd the day go? ~

i had a lot of errands to run today (utter_scoundrel, i finally mailed your package!). and then i sat down to try to write, dribbled about 500 words into two scenes (one of which will bite the dust by monday). the good news is i am making some headway in organizing the opening. it's a wee better than it was yesterday, which is all anybody can ask.

the day's darling:

The soldiers laughed and spun him around like a hanged man.

after writing a while, i spent six hours reading and taking copious notes. some of the reading i was doing was for research and some of it was just for pleasure. or both. the lines are getting blurrier these days:

for the 50bookchallenge:

no. 31 ~ Lincoln's Avengers by elizabeth d. leonard. you would think there couldn't be anything new to say about the lincoln assassination after so many years and so many books, but leonard manages a fresh approach (this was published in 2004). this is a highly readable account taken largely from the perspective of judge-advocate joseph holt about his single-minded determination to put jefferson davis on the gallows. there's nothing really new or earth-shattering here, but i like the angle and it was cool to see things from the commissioners' side of the table for a change. some later chapters about wirz and johnson's impeachment weren't as exciting, but necessary to take holt to his logical conclusion (a bitter and controversial end).

some of the info here about the milligan case feels muddy and leonard slips up on one or two facts (and contradicts herself at least once), but the subject matter is so twisted and confusing that i start seeing purple pigs while trying to follow some of the arguments myself ~ so kudos to the writer for a massive undertaking.

well worth the $6 i paid for it at the used bookstore.

not much else to report. my brain is elsewhere at the moment and i want to keep it there for a while as i mull over my battle plans for tomorrow's writing assault.

night all!

: D