I love this cute little graph Jason made... more of the image displayed as I make progress. Jason is a fellow Burrower, and the one who seems to have the most computer smarts. He can be a little shy, but he's sure handy! Anyway, you can see my progress creeping across there, but that doesn't really put into perspective where I SHOULD be at this point, so here is my OWN handy creation (in the ugly Open Office Data somethingsomething--I forget what they call it).
This is the first time I've ever written something BOTH on the laptop AND by hand, and I think it is actually working pretty well. I do better on emotional stuff by hand—last night when I had to apply electroshock... yeah... that was a hand job *cough*. I have a primary PoV from a ghost, and then two other PoVs that I am allowing periodically. I will stick with these three—I don't like books as well that jump all over, but the two minor ones are a LIVING student and a teacher. I feel like they help fill in what Helen doesn't understand.
One of the tricky things I've been working with is wording. Helen, having died in 1962, doesn't have a CLUE about some things... computers, cell phones... and she makes some assumptions about other things... a student is given a shot to sedate her and Helen thinks it will work like ether... that the girl will wake up totally out of it with a pounding headache... doesn't work that way. But the trickiest part is race names. Helen is from a time where the words Indian and Negro were used instead of American Indian and Black (and in between we had Native American and African American)--it is a confusing history... this is a YA book... do I ADDRESS THAT? I've kept Helen authentic to her time period so far, but I do feel obliged to explain at some point so young readers know it is an ERA thing, not an ignorant author.
Maybe because of my day job I am touchy on that front. I read recently a description that said, “Hispanic or Native American, not Caucasian” OHMYFREAKINGGAWD are you kidding me? For one, Hispanic SHOULD be Latino—a man I know, when called Hispanic, says (typically with scolding good humor), “I'm not from Espaňa.” (yes, I know that is the wrong n, but I can't find how to make an enye). But the IMPORTANT point, is Latino is an ethnicity that does NOT rule OUT Caucasian—ethnicity and race are SEPARATE issues, and American Indians ARE Caucasian. Okay. Rant over.
Anyway—my STORY is going really well. So there.
The EATING on the Other Hand...
Man! For some reason I am feeling entitled to eat what I want when I want. Add to that a pesky tummy ache part of the week that seemed exacerbated by hunger... The scale is in the same place, or thereabouts... I am at that 40 pounds down spot that I have only been below by half a pound one time... so HOLDING, but I'm frankly shocked it didn't inch up with my bad behavior this week...
So maybe it is time to dance naked under the moon and hope THAT brings me under control.
The countdown begins! One week until my Tartiversary of blogging! Oh, yeah... and it falls on a SATURDAY so I want to have a PAH-TAY! Wahoo! Being me, I will probably include a sappy sentimental journey and a couple lovely man-butts. You are definitely ALL invited—Mark it on your calendar—June 12... I may even have to see if I can think of some prizes... I'm poor, so they will probably be more in the form of services than stuff, but I think I can come up with something...
So I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!