A Fizzle of Sorts

I had high hopes of getting some feedback on the progress of my YA triology, by reading the first chapter-and-a-half at Back to the Confusion this weekend. Alas, I knew it was going to be an exceedingly tough sell when I was scheduled to share a 10am Sunday reading slot. The readings were in the small meeting rooms, like Warren, a bit off the track from most of other sessions. I've been here before, where my WindyCon 39 reading in 2012 was to an empty room (DW). This time, there was me, eventually the other author who left to try to find some audience for his part of the reading, one person who actually had missed the reading he thought this session was. So I had to go first. By this time it was already 10:10 and since this was a shared reading, I had to cut some parts on the fly. Steve Buchheit stopped by after I started, so it was no doubt somewhat confusing. Al Bogdan came in after I finished, so his string of attending nearly all of my readings continues to get tarnished. (grin)

So, alas, I didn't get much in the way of feedback. Again. (grin)

But... Saturday night I did briefly talk to a YA editor from Tor. We got as far as agreeing that the genre for The Lost Kingdom is best described as a "secret history fantasy". And I got her card.

Slowly we make progress in a brave new world of novel writing -- and then trying to get it published.

New Researches include: The seaport of King's Lynn in England. Aftenposten is Norway's largest newspaper. Ålborg, Denmark. Häagen-Dazs is not Danish -- there is no umlaut in the language -- but was made up to sound Danish in Brooklyn. The rescue of the Danish Jews in WW II. The myth of the Danes and the yellow stars. Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard. Muhammedkrisen and the Jyllands-Posten cartoons controversy. In humans, dwarfism is sometimes defined as an adult height of less than 4 feet 10 inches (58 in; 147 cm). The plural "dwarves" was conceived of by author J.R.R. Tolkien. Sønderborg, Denmark. The Eurovision Song Contest. Polarsirkelen (Norwegian) vs polarcirklen (Danish). Bodø to Tromsø is about 550 km or 8½ hours driving on the E8.

The Shiny counters now stand at:

The Lost Kingdom Project YA Trilogy Version 1.07 (01-18-15 Su)


The Lost Kingdom Fourth-Fifth Novels Version 1.07


*** Note3: Decided to go ahead and insert/split a book between Books 3 and 4, so the extra file is technically now Books 4-5. We’ll see if I keep this configuration. The extra file version number was jumped from 1.03 to 1.07 to stay current with the main trilogy efforts. The percentage completion has been halved, due to adding in another 80,000 words goal to the total.

And no, I am not planning to wait to try to sell the novel(s) until after writing some 400,000 words. My goal is to have the first two books completed in the next couple of months and then move onward.

At any rate, I am still having fun.

Dr. Phil

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Getting There

Most years, driving to ConFusion is a complicated process, having to load up the Blazer with a suitcase and other things before driving to work. Then leaving in the afternoon, heading south to I-94 and head east.

Usually there's some time pressure involved, including this past Friday. But not because I had ended up with two Friday evening panels. Since I'm not teaching this semester and Mrs. Dr. Phil took the day off, getting to the Detroit suburbs early was the easy part. But I had a doctor's appointment at the Wound Clinic for 9:45am. So we really had to be packed and loaded and out the door between 8:45 and 9 -- we pulled out at 8:51. Perfect.

Afterward we drove over to East Beltline and up to Sheskco near Celebration North. Originally we thought to just get some Middle Eastern takeout, but it always takes an hour or so at the Wound Clinic, so by the time we got there, it was just in time for an early lunch. Oh. Yum. We both had the lamb shwarma plate, grilled vegetables on one and slivered almond rice on the other, lamb chili and lamb vegetable soup. And Mrs. Dr. Phil got two rice puddings to go. Made an amazing Saturday morning breakfast. (grin)

Usually I get gas at Portland Exit 77 both ways on trips east on I-96. But because Mrs. Dr. Phil had gotten a special coupon on Thursday, I delayed getting gas as far as possible so she'd be able to use it when we got home. So I drove on another 52 miles to Exit 129 and a Mobil station which was ridiculously easy on/off the highway. The Low Fuel light had come on just before the Okemos-east-of-Lansing Exit 110 -- the light comes on way early, with up to a six gallon reserve.

Funny thing about getting gas on the far side of Lansing, we soon passed an electronic sign for the exit to I-696 and it was hardly any distance at all -- about thirty miles.

Ten days ago the weekend forecast was all sunshine and a few clouds. The reality was overcast, but we were chasing blue sky to the east. By Detroit it was bright blue sky and still 31°F at around 2:30pm. Early enough to check in, unload, run by Registration and still have a nap before starting my ConFusion with a 6pm panel. Not feeling rushed and in rush hour traffic like usual.

Two years ago, ConFusion 2013 was in the Doubletree Dearborn the first time. Since I had to leave from WMU, I was on that miserable I-94 the whole way, including that tragic area that just had the 193 vehicle crash and is dangerous even in nice weather. (Last night, even conservative Congressman Fred Upton was on TV saying it was imperative to cough up the money to rebuild that 17 mile stretch from somewhere around Climax to I-69.) So I approached the hotel from the south that year.

From the north? Unbelievably easy. I-96 to I-696 to the recently rebuilt M-10 and M-39 to the exit to the Ford Highway -- and then there's an entrance to the hotel right off that access road.

Only new thing were electronic gates for the parking, BUT the Doubletree gave ConFusion complementary parking. And they even had a convenient slot to dispose of your old dead room keycard after using it one last time to raise the gate. Well played.

Getting Home

On Sunday I had my reading at 10 and a panel at 11am, so by noon, I was clear. I had checked Saturday night to see if we could extend checkout time from noon to 1pm -- they said call the front desk in the morning. In the morning the front desk had said NoPossibleWay WeAreFullyBookedForSundayCheckins Couldn'tPossiblyMakeAnExceptionSoTough. That was okay, we didn't have much to pack. And we had a small cooler and a good sized refrigerator in the room. Had made cheese sandwiches earlier. Sat outside the Consuite. No cold cuts, but we split a hot dog as well. (I realize they don't want them to leak, but plastic relish packets are damned hard to open. Kept on expanding the little tear only to milk out more pickle juice but no substance.)(grin)

Then it was hit the road time. Drove past the Westin where Penguicon will be end of April -- note to self -- contact Programming at Penguicon. Managed to not pay attention and take the wrong I-96 leg off of I-696, but only a few minutes of diversion. It was wet in the city, just enough so you needed the delay wipers to push away the winter grime that was being kicked up. Clear sailing -- most traffic going the other way, just like Chicago.

And as so often happens, the MOMENT we turned into the driveway, the VERY moment, and stopped so Mrs. Dr. Phil could get and grab the Sunday paper, the Low Fuel light comes on. It's that last slosh in the tank as one comes to a halt, plus a very slight downgrade, which always seems to trip the sensor. The good news? Mrs. Dr. Phil this morning had a 99.9¢/gallon gasoline coupon. ONE BUCK GAS. FTW!

Dr. Phil

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