Sunder: Day 53

Another excellent night of writing.  Re-adjusted a few parts of last night's work and drafted some new material.  I'm pretty tired so I'm not going to spend too much time on this entry, only to say that I'm excited about what I accomplished.  Finally getting some traction on this thing.

Sunder: Day 35

More work refining some of the background materials for Sunder, specifically the last investigation that Det. Sgt. Niemeier participated in before losing his homicide rating.  I keep saying that I'll finish it up soon, but every night that I work on it I find something new to add, revise or correct.  The good news is that I am definitely closing in on finishing this phase of the work.  Tonight I started adding a few details about how Niemeier and Malmburgh set about identifying the body they found.  Iron out a few more wrinkles in the details of their investigation over the next couple nights and I can get back to the synposis, at which point some new plot point that needs explaining will reveal itself. 

Not much happened today.  Listened to some Black Keys and The Fumes.  Bought some groceries, shower soap and shampoo this afternoon, had a nap for a few hours, then headed back to the office (the quiet, quiet office) to do some writing. 

Early to bed tonight so I can get an early start tomorrow.

Sunder: Day 30

This was my first full night of writing in more than two months--maybe even three months. 

After having been out of the game for so long it felt good to be back at the keyboard with my imagination rolling.  I worked on some background material for a court scene that appears early in Sunder's First Movement.  Friday night I struggled to outline that scene and its outcome in the synopsis, going over it again and again with dissatisfying results.  I let it sit for the weekend and came back to it tonight.  It became clear to me that I couldn't describe the court scene for the synopsis without understanding the murder and some of the associated investigation, handled by Niemeier and Malmburgh.  I spent most of this evening writing out a summary of the murder and a brief, step-by-step outline of how Niemeier and Malmburgh brought the case to trial. 

Now I have a stage on which to let Niemeier's personal problems complicate matters and land him in hot water with his partner, his supervisors and the Office of the General Prosecutor.

Sunder: Day 28

Not much to report tonight.  I'm (mostly) happy with the elaborations I made to the first three chapters. 

As I was making notes, I kept forgetting place names in The Wheel, which speaks to a larger need to pin down its interior layout (district names, transit line names, agricultural areas, business districts, public buildings, etc.) so that the story will have a sense of place as Colbrit and Charlotte move around.  I can work on some of that tomorrow night.

Sunder: Day 27

I got started late tonight so I didn't get much done aside from jotting down a few ideas about the trajectories that Charlotte and Colbrit take in Sunder. One goes up; one goes down. One rebuilds; one destroys.  I would have liked to have gotten a chance to revise the synopsis a bit more, but it's getting late and I haven't been sleeping well lately.  I'm happy with getting the ideas down, though.  All too often I've let it go for later and ended up forgetting the idea.  Not this one.

Sunder: Day 26

Synopsis (1st revision): Much work done to improve the prologue; will let it sit for now and work on fleshing out events in the early chapters of Sunder's First Movement.

In Other News
Not a good day today.  First, I hit a dog on the way to work.  A yellow lab.  It was running around in the middle of Walkley Rd, scared to death and trying to get across.  It started to leave my lane, and I accelerated, but a big red truck coming up in the other lane scared it and it darted back in front of me.  I hit the brakes but I slid into it.  What an awful crunch it made.  I thought I killed it, but the poor thing got up and took off across the road.  I felt pretty awful most of the morning and one person made a joke about it in what I'm sure was an attempt to try and lift my spirits.

What upset me the most about that little exchange was this person owns not just one, but two yellow labs like the one I very nearly killed this morning. 

The other bit of news that made today just fabulous was finding out someone I know committed suicide sometime Thursday morning.  I heard the news from K.M. who knows this person quite well.  The victim owns a parcel of land next to K's place, but lives in a nearby city.  Early reports indicate that he hung himself in his apartment.  From what K told me, his mother had died quite recently and he had had a fight with his ex-girlfriend on Wednesday night after the funeral. 

I knew this man.  I've had beers with him on K's back porch.  He was a small Frenchman, always smiling and telling jokes.  I didn't know him as well as K, but it still bothers me that he did this to himself, that he did this to his little boy.  I don't want to judge him, but what else was going on in his life that the last 48 hours drove him to this desperate, senseless, cruel solution? 

Today really sucked.  I mean, it really sucked.