In this case, the working title is “There”. The reason it is called ‘There’ is because its sequel was called ‘And Back Again’ and I thought that was quite clever, he he ho ho. However, the first story kinda gets screwed name-wise in the absence of its sequel, and that’s not cool.

I don’t have a polished blurb (or even an unpolished one for that matter) for the story, so let me just tell you a little bit about it. This is an Aphanasian story (like Shades of Green or Sister Margaret) about a sixteen year old girl named Colby and a tentacled man named Xavier. Colby goes to the Aphanasian swamp to find the reptar’s magic stone, Z’thandra’s Heart, which she thinks might cure her brother’s illness. In the swamp she runs into Xavier who has just escaped from the man who held him captive and performed expiriements on him for years. Together they struggle to find their way to the Reptar and the stone Colby so desperately needs, while simultaneously running away from the mercenarys sent to recapture Xavier.

Yeah. That description needs work LOL I hope, however, there’s enough there for you to help me out here. Some title ideas I’ve had included the following:

Heart
A Bit of Heart
In the Swamp
Morass

… Yeah, see how I’m drawing blanks? So far my favorite is ‘Heart’ because it refers to several things including the name of the magic stone and the relationship that grows between Colby and Xavier, but… I can’t decide.

Do you have any ideas? Suggestions from not in my list will be greedily accepted. I know ultimately I have to make my own decision, but I’ve been struggling with this for a good, long while now and I thought it would be good to look for some outside help. And did I mention I have to title it by the end of the day?

*sigh* Yeah.

Help?

ETA: “Heart of the Swamp” and “Lost and Found” are two titles that were suggested which I think have potential.

My first pick would be the re-write of Shadows, but I won a critique of the first 100 pages of Shadows by Deena Fisher from Drollerie Press and she hasn’t finished the critique yet. I don’t want to start the rewrite based on the critique of the first chaper I got from Jim C. Hines and then have to re-rewrite it once I get the one from Ms. Fisher. If that makes any sense. So Shadows is still on hold. *sigh*

There is a paranormal drama/mystery novel bouncing about in my head, but I’m going to be taking a novel writing course this fall (mostly to have deadlines. I NEED deadlines in order to have focus. More about this later) and I was going to use that plot as the novel I’d work on for the course. I got the impression the course was going to have a specific novel writing system it wanted to teach, so if I’m going to give it a fair try, starting the novel ahead of time seems like a bad idea.

The collaborative project I’m working on will take up some of my time on the retreat, but because of the nature of the project, it won’t fill the weekend. Not even close.

That leaves ‘See The Sky Again’ which is a fantasy novel set in Aphanasia that I am looking forward to writing. I was going to do it for my NaNo novel last year but decided against it because I hadn’t sorted out enough of the details yet. I think I know enough to write it now…my only hesitation is that I’ll be starting this novel on my retreat, then starting the other one for my course in October. Think I can get the first draft of See The Sky Again done before then?

I guess we’ll find out…

In other, picture-related news, I think I’m going to put the bulk of the rest of my vacation photos up on My Facebook Page rather than taking this blog over with them.

Except for this picture I took at Alcatraz that I love.

And maybe a few more inserted one at a time into blog posts.

The words are coming much easier now and I’m really very fond of this novel. I can’t wait to get it done so I can share it with people (my brain won’t let me send out WIPs for critique).

And here is a short excerpt — warning, this is a pretty violent and profane passage, it is, after all, a zombie novel

~*~

Geraldine watched Alice’s face. As Scrub-boy and Shanise came within touching distance, Alice’s nostrils flared and a wild-look of awareness crept into her eyes.

It reminded Geraldine of the time an ex-boyfriend talked her into going hunting with him. After getting up obscenely early and freezing her ass off in a blind for hours, finally a deer had come into sight. She’d watched it through binoculars while Ross lined it up in his scope. Then, without warning the breeze shifted and blew from behind them, straight at the deer. She’d watched its notstrils flare and its eyes go wide and scared-looking. Then it had stomped its foot and bolted back into the underbrush, all before Ross managed a single shot.

That was how Alice looked now, only instead of stomping and running, she lurched forward. Scrub-boy reached out, planning to catch her, Geraldine suspected, unfortunately it was he who got caught.

Alice grabbed him by both shoulders and pulled him toward her. At the same time she tilted her head and lunged forward, fastening her teeth on his nose. Scrub-boy screamed and pulled back, leaving a good portion of his nose behind in Alice’s mouth. The motion reminded Geraldine of a ghastly parody of how children get a freezie out of the wrapper with their teeth.

In amongst the blood which now covered Scrub-boy and Alice both, Geraldine could see something translucent and white where his nose used to be. Cartilage, she thought, it must be cartilage.

Scrub-boy clutched his nose and staggered backward, while Shanise stumbled to the side. Her eyes were wide and glazed with what Geradine assumed to be shock and terror. She could relate to those feelings very well.

~*~

This contains a fair bit of foul language, so read at your own risk.

Monday, January 14, 2008 11:06 am

The hospital was on fire. Again. Devon cursed and muttered under his breath. Goddamn homeless people. When were they going to learn not to set the fricking place on fire? When?

He leaned up against the fire truck he’d arrived at the scene in, and watched everyone scurry around. To the untrained eye it would look like chaos, but Devon had been a firefighter for long enough to know what was going on, and he knew, very soon, he’d be going in. He could see it in the way the captain kept glancing over at he and Fred.

Devon took off his helmet, ran his fingers through his raven hair and nudged Fred with his elbow. Fred turned to look at him, eyebrow raised. “Yeah?”

“We’re goin’ in, I expect.”

“Ye ever been in there?” Fred asked with a tilt of his head. Devon noticed that the skinnier man was licking his lips nervously.

“The Camsell? Yeah sure, lotsa times. The bums set it on fire every couple months. Never this bad before though,” he said, looking over at the smoke pouring out of almost a quarter of the windows.

“I hear it’s haunted.”

“Eh, people always say shit like that about old abandoned buildings – especially ones like hospitals where loads of people have died.”

“I guess so,” Fred muttered, and Devon watched his pink tongue dart out and lick at the corner of his mouth again. “I guess so.”

“You don’t believe in all that shit, do you?”

“Who me? Nah.” Fred said.

Devon could see that he was lying. Fuck, he thought. Bad enough I’m here this afternoon, but to be stuck here partnered with the rookie, an apparently superstitious rookie, it was as if the fates were conspiring against him.