Bob and I talk about Anna and her plot problems.

My questions after this 5/6ths of the first act first draft is done:

Why is all of this happening now?

How does the Anna/Nate relationship affect/echo/contrast with the crime subplot and vice versa?

What happens at the turning points and what do those things mean?

What the hell is this book about? (I usually can’t answer this until I have an entire first draft done, but I always try anyway.)

And then Toni read then first five chapters and pointed out the Elephant in the Plot: Anna has no positive goal which is why I don’t know what the book is about. I said a very bad word and then went back to cogitating.

Also, Happy Halloween! Candy is on sale now.

So I have a question.
I was reading a book and got to a page where two people were going out to dinner . . . and the book ended. Turns out if I want to find out what happens next, I have to buy the author’s second book. And third. I think I read that there were five books in all. Please note: This isn’t “buy the next one if you want to find out the best friend’s story.” This is one book cut into five parts and sold as separate books. The other odd thing was that the heroine of the story was reading a book by the author who wrote the story. You know, like if Min was reading Jennifer Crusie’s Welcome to Temptation.. I know a lot of current authors are writing multiple books a year and doing other things I wouldn’t (which doesn’t mean they’re wrong, just not my cuppa), but both of these things seem . . . odd.
Is this common now, or is this author just strange?

I didn’t read anything else but the odd book and Anna this week. I’m WORKING. What did you read?

I’m buried under work at the moment which is what I deserve for putting several things off for weeks (months?) that have now all come home to roost. I did manage to get the remote camera up to take pictures of the stray cat that lives in my garage that I’m trying to lure into the house before the temps drop below freezing on Friday. Because what I really needed was another job with a deadline. Argh.

What did you do this week?

Picture of stray cat in garage:

I am practically back to normal, which means except for the pain in my arm, the Flu Shot Misery is going. (I expect pain in my arm from a flu shot; it was the rest of it that was such a violation.). I’m also working on Anna and realizing that while talking with Bob has been invaluable–always brainstorm with somebody who speaks your language and knows stuff that you don’t–I have opened myself up to a new “book done yet;” now it’s “how is your book going?” which could just be Bob being polite or could be his way of keeping me on task, since he has to read the new version before Tuesday when we’re going to slice and dice Anna. Which is good. I’d write more but I have to get back to plotting Anna. I have many new ideas, all of which make me happy. Now if they just made sense together . . .

What made you happy this week?

We talked about starting Bob’s new book.

In e-mail, we have just discovered that we never had a floorplan for the first Agnes book, which I realized when I tried to reconstruct it from the book and realized it was impossible. Moral: Always have a floorplan.

I have a book on Russian icons that arrived today, and I started Alan Cummings bio, which is terrific so far, but I haven’t finished reading anything this week except a lot of works in progress (Bob’s and mine).

So what did you read this week?

Today I am working to lure a stray cat into my garage. Well, I think the cat hangs out there anyway. I saw it running out the other day, and my neighbor Kathleen tells me it’s been around for about two years, which shows you how clued in I am. So today I go out for a cat bed and food to see if I can establish a relationship. It’s not feral because it will come to be petted, so I’ve got that going for me. I miss having a cat. Of course I will have to impress upon Mona and Veronica that their new sister is off limits for chasing. For one thing, she’s missing a paw. I figure she and Mona can bond since Mona has no kneecaps. She looks like an Emily to me but we’ll see. She may reject me utterly. She wouldn’t be the first.

Also I will be getting a flu shot, picking up some groceries (bread! tomatoes! chocolate! Diet Coke!) and working on Anna. Also I read the opening to Bob’s new Shane book, and it’s terrific.

So what have you been doing this week?