Ready for NaNoWriMo 2009?

So I haven't really updated this site in a quite a while. Mostly because I haven't worked on any of my books in quite a while. Henpecked here and there and that's it. I'm not proud of that fact, but there it is. Yesterday and today I did a gentle editorial pass over Deep Dark and cleaned it up enough to send it to some friends and family. After hearing about it for a year thay can read it while I write a new one.

Right, a new one... I have no idea what I am going to write about this year. I have seven or more decent ideas but nothing that screams "write 50,000 words about me!" Too bad. Well, I still have a day and a half to decide.

Happy wording!

Back in the Saddle – So to Say

I have actually started work again. My intended holiday break in December just kept going and going and going… Yesterday I looked at my Jaws of Empire stuff. I did some tidying up in various places and added a medium sized section to one chapter where Jundah and Wil are talking. I’ve been thinking a lot about JoE recently and I think I need to change a big chunk of the structure. I had planned to have this whole building up a revolutionary movement sub-plot. I recently watched Sergio Leone’s Giú le Testa, known in English as Duck You Sucker. It’s largely about the costs of being a revolutionary. I’ve also been reading a lot about World War II and watching documentary films from the time. I guess the message that so much art about war is saying, bluntly “war is hell,” is sinking in a little. Or it’s sinking in a new way. In any case, I don’t want to write a story about a revolution. Revolutionaries are okay, but I don’t want that to be the point of the tale. So once I get some of that worked out and some other character arcs I will be in a good position to actually write some more chapters. It was easy to do all the character introductions, but I started to have trouble when I had to start bringing the storylines together.

That was yesterday. Today I worked on Deep Dark. I added more to Articka’s last chapter. He end is not nearly so mysterious now. It’s quite explicit. I also went through half a dozen other chapters and made minor tweeks here and there to the wording of things. I was pleasantly surprised to find that most of what I looked at today was not crap. A whole lot, especially at the beginning of the book, still reads as “great!” I most likely am not being quite objective enough (I did write it after all!) and I know the ending chapters are likely to be much less great, but I am pleased to find something I can really work with after coming back to this work which has lain fallow for a while.

Now I am Done

Ahh… Done. That feels really nice. I have finished the novel, written the last chapter, crossed every last T and dotted all my Is. I could have been done a lot sooner if I had just done it. Without the intense need to write that NaNoWriMo creates however, I just can’t seem to focus the same way. I let myself do other things…

In any case, it’s done. Well… Having now come to the end I see that there a couple passages that need major expansion. One got skipped over just in the rush to finish. I thought I would get around to at least following up in a later chapter. That did happen, but it’s still not certain enough for me. Now I have to go back and insert the actual event so that we know what happens to Articka. Her final chapter kind of ends in the middle of mayhem of the last battle. I think I need to be explicit about what happens to her in the aftermath. She’s one of my main characters and hers is the only story that just stops. As is fitting an alien in an alien novel she has to survive in some form so that there are still aliens around for the sequel.

Sequel? Yes. Now that I have written all this stuff, I have so many ideas that didn’t quite make it in or ideas that clearly follow from the things I describe in this novel. I think I could do two or three more stories with some of the threads I’ve laid down here. That’s great! But first things first. I’m going to insert that one passage about Articka and include some more of Meghin’s reflections on the events of the book in her final chapter. After that I will let the thing mellow before I consider looking at it to do a revision. I already see problems with this draft, but I can’t tackle them all so soon. Let it mellow in my mind and then come back to it in a month is what everyone advises.

So next? I’ve got plenty of other novels I can start writing. I think if I can manage to do 800 words a day or a couple typed pages, I’ll be able to finish another novel in a couple months here. There’s the one about the trader who gets caught up in a clash of empires, there’s the one about how the Atlantis is connected to South American and Greek mythology, there’s the one about Beowulf and the one about the further adventures of Julias Rodman. So many ideas. Where to begin?

Something, Something

So now that I don’t have a deadline of any sort looming over me I am much less motivated to write. I’ve taken a few days off completely. Maybe too many days off… Anyway, today I got back to it. Because of course while I passed the 50k mark, my story isn’t done yet. I’m working on chapter twenty-one right now. It’s something of a conclusion and a wrap-up chapter. It will be the last from Pyotr’s point of view. It’s been one of my themes (at least in theory) to have Pyotr be the thinker and for all of his chapters to reflect that. He’s physically static but not mentally. When trying to decide how his story will end I decided that he needs to finally step up and take some action. He fires a gun! Also he defuses a stand off between some of the survivors left around from the massive battle in chapter nineteen (The fact that the heavy hits in chapter nineteen has nothing to do with the fact that I’m reading The Dark Tower right now. This isn’t sarcasim, either. It just worked out that it’s chapter nineteen. If you don’t know what I’m talking about: go read it!). There is still some stuff to finish up. He’s leaving in this chapter, so he’s got to say goodbye to Meghin. I’m not sure how that conversation is going to go. I’ve heard writers say that sometimes sections “write themselves.” After this November, I know what they mean. I hope that this conversation “writes itself.” I certainly don’t know how to write the two of them saying goodbye to each other…

No word count: I don’t have to worry about that anymore (well, not until next November).

I'm a Winner!

I just posted a 50,467 word document to NaNoWriMo’s website! That means I’m a winner! clapclapclapclapclapclapclapclapclapclapclapclap…

I decided that since my goal for today was to finish the 50k, not finish the novel that I would focus on just the first two chapters of the four I had left to write today. I wrote about 1,500 words on each and that pushed me over into victory territory. I still have the last two chapters of the book to write, but first I think I’ll rest my little aching fingers. I don’t plan to post anything her for a few days while I recover from this writing binge. But I only want to recover a little. Turns out I like writing almost every day and seeing a story take shape.


By now I should have 45,009 words.
My winning count is 50,467 words.

Very Near the End

Today was another good day for writing. It’s another record for my productivity. I first finished up chapter sixteen and thought of an interesting way to link one of Meghin’s fellow security officers to Riley. I have all this stuff that is still lingering in the distant background that I want to bring to the forefront. That’ll be draft two… or a sequel. That’s right, I am thinking of a sequel. I had all these ideas that Deep Dark would be a little fledgling democracy in against all the rule-by-corporation stuff. That set up Riley and his right hand man Rook (an android) to be at odds with the devoted company types like Meghin and Pyotr and the higher ups who eventually track them there. Well, a lot of that didn’t make it into this draft. I don’t actually spend a lot of time with Riley. Rook, as a secondary to Riley, hardly gets any time at all. That’s why I need another novel to focus on Rook and his efforts for the democracy on Deep Dark and for his own greater rights as an android (artificial person). Anyway…

I finished seventeen and eighteen too. Seventeen contains some of the most important stuff about the aliens that I’ve yet written. In a way that stuff that happens there with the alien queen is why I wrote the story. The whole theft of the artifact and such is all a device to get a few humans into a position where they can find out a little more about the history and nature of the xenomorph species. That being said, I am quite happy with the resulting chapter. It has just the right tone to it. Flowing that the reactions of both Pyotr and Meghin to what they have learned are compared and contrasted. It’s not great yet, but I think there is real potential in it.

So. I have only3,000 more words before I reach the required total. That’s much better than I hoped I could be by this point. I have a lot to do tomorrow to be ready for our after-Thanksgiving trip, but surely I can find the time to write 3,000 words. Surely. The only problem is that I have four more chapters left to write. None of the stories are done yet. I couldn’t bring them to a close in just 750 words each! My dilemma is deciding if I should write short versions of each remaining chapter to be done with the story or just continue as I have and turn in a 50,0000 word novel that’s missing the last two chapters. Decisions, decisions…

For fun, here’s another excerpt. It describes Meghin first seeing the queen alien. (I claim all rights to my original characters and words. Other names, concepts and characters are the property of 20th Century Fox. Do not re-post this excerpt without consent.)

*******
It was a tower of a creature. Meghin panned the light up from the thick spear point tail to the powerful legs in above that its torso looked like a broken mountain range of knotted insect shell. Two long arms ending in claws as long as Meghin’s own hand, rested almost leisurely on the knotted knees. The head was immense, like a demon spaceship pointing into the Earth. It flared out from a maw of needles into a dozen upward curving points. Combining the absolute worst of a spider, a snake and a rhinoceros, it was a queen. A Queen of Xibalba made real, if ever there had been such a thing.
*******

By now I should have 43,342 words.
My current count is 47,206 words.

Record Productivity

I have so many things to say, I’m not sure where to start…

The first thing I did today was typed up all the material I wrote pen & ink this past weekend. I want in all in electronic form, one so it can be officially counted by NaNoWriMo’s counting bots and two so I can edit with ease. Not now of course, that comes later. It turns out that my rough estimate was a little under. I wrote over 1,700 while away. That was the end of chapter thirteen and the start of fourteen. Today in the morning I worked on getting chapter fourteen done and succeeded. I had a great idea to change up the ending a bit that makes it all work a little better. My new fourteen involves Meghin going after Pyotr who has been taken into the hive.

In the afternoon I tried something my writing buddy, AbbyDarling, suggested to me. It’s called Write or Die. It’s kind of exactly what it sounds like except that “die” actually means “hear annoying songs and noises.” The feature I like best is that it counts your words as you type and displays the total at the bottom of the screen. At this point in my WriMo I have a certain number of chapters I feel I have to write – that would be eight after chapter fourteen. On the other hand, I only needed to do 12,000 more words. That’s just 1,500 words per chapter. That’s really short for the chapters I’ve been doing so far. With Write or Die’s constantly counting word count I have a better feel for when I need to move on to the next thing in the novel. It really worked for me I only annoying sounds twice and then chapter fifteen was done. Later, I tried it again for chapter sixteen and again I produced (nearly) a hole chapter in the required word limit.

	1697
90
lab.drwicked.com

I love it, but I don’t want to get to the point that I rely on it. So I’ll try not using the widget tomorrow. I’m torn though, because productivity is really important to me at this point. I want to finish on Thanksgiving Day and that means that I need to be doing 4,000 a day for three days in row. With all the work I did today I actually managed 4,200 words today. That is by far my most productive day yet this month (former record was day 8’s 3,800). Go me!

Of course I can’t take quite take all the credit. Several people have been encouraging me all along and especially now that it’s so close to the end and I’m so far behind where I want to be. I was really discouraged yesterday. But today, I’ve caught up! I’ve more than caught up, I’m ahead again (if only just)! Thanks to all those who have urged me on! According to my personal tzolk’in today is the day of Speaking Defeat. An ominous portent to be sure. Sometimes it’s good to go with the flow of the day and sometimes it’s a day to go against the flow. That was today. I so easily could have spoken of nothing but defeat, but now I’m so close to the win, I can really feel it. There’s a bit yet to go, but the end is really is sight.

By now I should have 41,675 words.
My current count is 42,031 words.

Tiring Adventures

This weekend, and today, I have felt like calling this off more than ever. I have written everyday, but not very much. Today’s count was just over 500 words. On the trip this weekend I only did about 1,300 words in three days. I don’t have an official count on all that just yet because it’s all still pen and paper. The best thing about this weekend is that I now have a much better handle on how this story is going to wrap up. Well, that’s the best writing-related thing about the weekend. Seeing Grand Canyon was the best thing about the weekend. We had other adventures which might make for interesting reading but mostly I’ve been so tired and distracted every day that I’ve had next to no chance of working on Deep Dark. I’m far behind again and the end is coming up close. I am traveling again after Thanksgiving so I’ve basically only got three more days to wrap this project up. I’m not sure I can make it…

By now I should have 40,008 words.
My current count is somewhere close to 37,274 words.

Now For a Little Break

My goal for today was to write 4,500 words. That’s really ambitious, I feel, but I needed to get a lot done as I’ll be away from the computer for a few days. Maya and I are going a bit of a vacation. I’ll be able to write the old-school way with a pen and paper, but I’ll have to type it all up later to get it word counted. My fantasy was to get so far ahead today that I wouldn’t have to worry about it. As it is I managed 3,500 some which is my third most productive day this month. I can live with that. Also, it’s probably a good thing not to stop writing altogether at this point. I’m on track to win if I can just keep the flow going.

I’m now in chapter thirteen which is back to the perspective of the young alien queen. She’s raging about the outskirts of the hive when word comes that there are intruders. She’s not happy about it. “With every step she became more angry, more anxious to do some damage.” That’s an alien for you.

Wish us a safe journey. See you went I get back.

By now I should have 33,340 words.
My current count is 35,439 words.

Responsible for All Materials Borrowed

It was very hard to sit down to write today. In addition to going to look at some prehistoric irrigation canals Maya and I became card carrying members of the local library. We checked out a whole pile of books. I got Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire. I’ve wanted to read it for a long time. In fact thinking about it is where I got Pyotr’s last name from. I even snuck that title into Deep Dark as an “Easter egg,” I guess. In any case I won’t start the book yet because I am still in the middle of book seven of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower. That’s just not a place where you can stop and go pick up something else. Yet I can’t read that either, because I’m trying to win NaNoWriMo! So I was stewing in the cognitive dissonance that wanted to read two different things and write something else all at the same time generates.

Noveling won out in the end. It’s the one that has a deadline! I managed to add 1,160 words. I now have finished the boring committee meeting that chapter eleven became and I’ve just started on chapter twelve. I’ve tried something to dial up the tension so that it’s a little less sitting around. This one should be an easy chapter because it’s the one where my xeno expert gets to show off how much he knows.

Aaaaand midnight has come and gone again…

By now I should have 31,673 words.
My current count is 31,879 words.

Making Headway

After several days of not really getting much done I’ve managed to write a fair amount today. I wrote 750 words last night after I put up the post. I wrote another 3,000 today. That’s twice the daily quota, but even with all that I’m still only a squeak ahead of the total number I should have by now. If I could only do 4,000 words for two days in a row, that would give me a nice, comfortable margin.

So now, my main characters – all four of them – are in the same place. They are all on board Deep Dark. I’m really enjoying writing Meghin, Pyotr and Riley all interacting with each other. I’ve also had fun designing the ships I’ve been talking about. Now I know what the marine ship and what Meghin’s patrol craft look like. I’ve got labeled diagrams! On the down side I need more action! I thought I would have it when they all got to the station, but it hasn’t happened yet. Maybe in chapter twelve…

Here’s the bit where Meghin and Pyotr first arrive and contact the station. They are told to wait for the mayor and while they wait…
(I claim all rights to my original characters and words. Other names, concepts and characters are the property of 20th Century Fox. Do not re-post this excerpt without consent.)

*******
“What do you make of this place.”

“Fascinating. I think I’ve got some of these optics figured out. This asteroid is covered in domes and towers, you can see if you zoom in. These designs aren’t like anything I’ve ever seen before. How could anyone miss this as alien?”

It was a good question. The asteroid was large and very dark. Type D asteroids were always dark, but this was the largest she had seen. It had a faint red tint, but it was really hard to be sure if that was actually from the asteroid or just the reflected light of distant Lalande. Switching her visuals to high-frequency ultraviolet the constructions on the surface popped out in brilliant contrast. There were at least four main domes that Meghin could see. They weren’t really domes, however. They were more pointed than that, but they were not true pyramids, either. She was reminded most strongly of the Mayan temple platforms near her childhood home. These were round, but had the same tiers and steep sides. From these temple-domes and from the surface of the asteroid itself protruded hundreds of small towers. Most were small, but some were large. They seemed to be built at many different and haphazard angels. The thought occurred to her that they could each be pointed at a different star, as if they were part of a navigation system. “What do you make of it?” she asked Pyotr again.

“Alien. Old. Can’t say any more at this time.” Meghin thought he sounded like someone who suspects something, but wanted to keep it to himself. She was about to press him for more, but her comms panel crackled with an in-coming message.

“This is Mayor Riley Mosley of Dark 163. Please state your name and purpose.” The voice was gruff and coldly formal. This was someone used to being charge, Meghin thought.

“I am Captain Meghin Estrella with CivCom, Security Section.” She hadn’t really expected to find a formal operation here lead by people with titles and using standard comms. It was all so official feeling, like these people lived here. Maybe they did. Maybe they were squatters holed up in this alien space base for whatever reason. Now that she was here, she wasn’t sure how to proceed. Did she come out and say “xenomorphs?” It such a word of terror they might just seize up. They were outside the law, even if they nothing to do with the xenos. These people had no reason to cooperate with Security Section. Well, she decided, let’s just see how the bones scatter. “I am investigating a possible infestation. I’ve tracked a ship here from Zadjel. I’d like to come aboard your…” what should she call it? “…facility and check for evidence of the infestation.”

Standoffish the voice came back, “What sort of infestation are you talking about?”

No reason to hedge anymore. “Xenomorph.” There it was, the “x-word.” The conversation killer and the word most likely to set the residents against her, whether they had anything to do with the monsters or not. She waited in the emptiness. Her tiny patrol ship, part transport and part fighter, facing a huge, alien station turned into human refugee camp across just a few kilometers. “Now we’ll see if they’re on our side or not,” she said to Pyotr. Behind her, he made some kind of non-committal noise.

Meghin was beginning to think that the conversation was over. She was already thinking about emergency docking procedures and cutting into their hull. She was weighing this option against going back for a larger ship (and some backup). Then, to her surprise, the gruff voice came again over the speakers. “Okay. Come aboard.” It was hard to be sure through the static, but Meghin thought the voice sounded tired. “Our docking bay is on our axis of rotation. We use military docking procedures. Do you know them, Captain?”

“I’m sure I’ll manage.”

“I’ll meet you at the dock.”
*******

By now I should have 30,006 words.
My current count is 30,718 words.

On The

I had visions of doing 4,000 or more words today. I needed to write that much to make up for recent slackage and to get ahead. I really want to finish early because I’m not going to have much time after Thanksgiving. Well, I didn’t make my personal goal. I did a little more than half of that.

Speaking of half: I am half done with the novel (at least by word count). I passed 25,000 today. So, what are the middle two words of the book? Words 25,000 and 25,001 are (drum roll please: dum dum da da da da da da…), “on the.” Since that isn’t really very interesting, I will reveal the whole sentence (which isn’t much more interesting), “Lalande and the orbits of its five planets were plotted on the screen.”

Ta da!

By now I should have 28,339 words.
My current count is 27,026 words.

Halfway to Go...

Didn’t write yesterday. For shame… Unlike a cartwheeling StrongBad, I just can’t seem to break through this brick wall. Zounds!

By now I should have 26,672 words.
My current count is 24,117 words.

Slogging Along

Here’s some words of wisdom from the writer-in-chief of NaNoWriMo:

…the 20,000s are the last momentum-sucking slog you'll have to endure this month. Getting through them is tough, but once you do, the Road to Awesome will open up before you.
-Chris Baty

It’s so true! Chapter eight was okay, but nine is a mess! I can’t seem to get moving on it. I’ve sat before the screen for hours and produced only a couple hundred words. I was really excited about getting to the half-way point today. It just isn’t happening… *snorts frustration* I know I’m not alone in this, my writing buddies have mentioned not liking their novels or trying to re-arrange their plots. I guess I’ll just have to write something, anything… Chapter eleven will be good, if I can just get there

By now I should have 25,005 words.
My current count is 24,117 words.

So Close!

Alas, I didn’t quuuuite make today’s quota. I started out this morning a little bit ahead but now I am behind again– but only just. Another 39 words and I’ll be on schedule. A mere 39! I’ll have that before I finish the paragraph I’m in the middle of! (or is it “of which I’m in the middle?” That can’t be right.)

I’m not too happy with chapter nine so far. Other than actually getting Pyotr to Lalande, everything so far is just Pyotr’s incoherent thoughts about space flight, the dim sunlight of Zajdel, and Meghin herself. Not too interesting. This is coming up on the half-way point of the novel, I should really be ramping up the action right now. This is the “rising action” section. Me? I’ve got endlessly plateauing non action… Well, I said I wouldn’t bad-talk my own work (at least not in November) so I guess I’ll just say, “Yay I’m keeping up!” There’s someone on the NaNoWriMo site with a posted count of 62,000 some words – already!

By now I should have 23,338 words.
My current count is 23,299 words.

A Record-Setting Day

Alas, tomorrow has snuck up on me again! Well, at least I made my quota for today(yesterday). I’m ahead of schedule again, but only just. It was a decent day for writing. I started chapter nine. I have quite a bit more to go but I like the way it is shaping up so far.

Here’s some news: today Deep Dark (which I may change to The Deep Dark) became the longest work of fiction I have ever written. It surpassed even Jaws of Empire (currently at 21,725 words) which I have for months been thinking of as my “major” work in progress. I guess that shows what doing a bit (almost) every day can accomplish. I don’t have access just at the moment to all of the papers I wrote in college, but I think at 34 single-spaced pages, this must be the longest work of any type that I have ever written. I consider this all something of an achievement!

By now I should have 21,671 words.
My current count is 22,035 words.

Speedy Recovery

Alright, so I’m doing okay. I’ve caught up to where I should have been last night and now I’m well into today’s quota. In just 526 words, I’ll be ahead again. I can totally do that before bedtime! I thank all the green tea I’ve been drinking today.

I just finished chapter eight. In it Meghin begins to put the pieces together and finds out where they need to go next although she doesn’t quite know what they’ll find yet.

I have been better this year about not stopping for internet research. Is Olympus Mons tall enough that it would still be sunlit when the plain around has already gone to night? (See the excerpt a few posts back for that.) It makes sense that it would but I did not try to check this on any kinds of NASA or Skylab type website. A lot of stuff about the marine ship Marcovaldo came out in my writing today, but I had decided on that ship’s name a long time ago. It did take a while to decided on it, but I did all that one night after finishing my quota. The only things in a while that I’ve just had to look while writing are the name of the wife of Agamemnon and the name of a saint from Africa. Turns out there aren’t many saints that are 1)from sub-Saharan Africa, 2)lived before the Renaissance and 3)are recognized by the Roman Catholic church. I eventually decided on St. Moses the Strong. Next: Pyotr heads for Zajdel.
By now I should have 21,671 words.
My current count is 21,146 words.

Slack

For some reason I just couldn’t write yesterday. Not sure what it was about me or the day, but I didn’t want to. I guess I am suffering from Week Two Blahs. Need to get going again. No more watching Metroid Prime 2 speed run videos on You Tube!

Three… Two… One… Write!

By now I should have 20,0004 words.
My current count is 19,374 words.

On Armistice Day

Most of my day was not spent writing. A lot of it was taken up in making a turkey costume for the plush Domo that Maya and I got at Halloween. Now, instead of a pumpkin, Domo is dressed up like a turkey. Really. We also made fajitas for supper and watched the new Futurama movie: Bender’s Game. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, that’s okay. I won’t apologize, but I do give you permission to ignore me.

Starting at about 23:15 tonight (technically yesterday, at this point) I did start writing. I almost let it slide altogether, but I recalled some advice from last year’s attempt: Never go a day without writing. Even if it’s only 10 words, at least you are still working on it. With that in mind I started written and now I’ve got almost 500 words I didn’t have before. That’s something!

Today I noticed a mildly disturbing trend in my writing. Every new character that I come up with is male. Other than Meghin I only have a gender neutral synthetic dressed as a woman and the lady Skorpios refers to. Well, I guess all the aliens are female. Most of them, anyway. But it’s not enough. I’m trying to use all kinds of sources for my names to show the multi-ethnic nature of life off the Earth. I think that in such a future society there would be at least as many women in the workforce as men. So, either I need to go back and change names (maybe a job that needs to wait for draft two) or I need to introduce more females in the pages ahead. Speaking of pages, my .doc is 30 pages long – single spaced!

By now I should have 18,337 words.
My current count is 19,374 words.

Right as Rain

I did not quite make today’s quota, but I’ve been ahead for the last few days so I think it’ll be okay. I finished up Meghin and Pyotr’s conversation. Low and behold I now know what the next two chapters are going to be about. Meghin has to find out some more information that will lead them to Deep Dark and Pyotr has to join Meghin on Zajdel. I keep hacking away and the word count keeps getting higher. I don’t really have anything else to say, I guess, so here’s another bit from today’s writing. I claim all rights to my original characters and words. Do not re-post without consent.

*******
Pyotr stumbled up and to the door. In the hallway he gasped for breath. Strange that he should feel so restricted. This was a life he had chosen. He had things pretty good. All things considered. He walked to the picture window at the end of the hallway. Night had come. The rocky uplands stretched away in the darkness but the sands looked almost pearlescent in the thin moon light. Far away was Olympus Mons, so tall that the top of its western slope was still sunlit. With darkness all around that ruddy peak looked afire. It was the Fire of Olympus, to be sure, and he felt its mythical pull. He felt a deep longing for open landscape and the need to escape from his bonds. He placed a hand on the cold glass and stared at the Martian night. The fate of the original fire-stealer never came to his mind.

A scream startled him out of his dreams. Now he did remember the eagle with a taste for liver. Spinning, half expecting to see flapping wings filling the hallway, he saw Skorpios Temeni grinning from ear to ear. “Day’s done Nabokov! Time for to cheer!” Pyotr’s fellow scientist lifted his face to the ceiling and screamed again. “You going three doors down?” There were several bars near the lab. One in particular was frequented by those just rotating off shift. “Wash says they got a new girl at Squat’s. I hear she’s got knockers out to here!” Temeni held his hands an unlikely distance out in front of him. “So, you coming tonight?” His smile was huge and his eyes wide.

“You know I don’t go in for that, Temeni”

“Man, what’s wrong with you?” Pyotr could only shrug. “Whatever. We’ll get you one of these days!” He turned without any more pleasantries and trotted away down the hall. He let loose yet another yawp as he disappeared around the corner.
*******

By now I should have 16,670 words.
My current count is 18,898 words.