Dancing on the arc of a dream (continued)

Yesterday, Sunday, October 28th, a day that will never make it to the infamy top ten list, I sat in an outdoor cafe with my Mexican rice, coffee, and salad and wrote several... many pages of Dancing On the Arc of a Dream. So many, in fact, that I fear I may run out of room before the blank pages evaporate in a shower of ink and doodles. I'd write the story, doodle a drawing that may or may not be related to the story, and write some more. I discovered, half way through one scene that I had the wrong character interacting with another character so I had to go back and cross out the original character and enter in the proper guy's name.

Speaking of characters: here's a rundown of the main characters so far and which I hope will be the only characters, except for a few minor thugs and hangerson:

• Janice Jean J - the narrator; 20, the 'mother' of our little group, the glue that keeps the other two in orbit.

• Mel - 24, the disgruntled, angry young man who has made a very bad deal for drugs and a coffee shop.

• Syd - 24, a former drug dealer who was shot and lost quite a few IQ points; Janice Jean J takes care of him and Mel has a few soft spots for him, too.

• Red - Mel's dad, a scam artist.

• The Suit - a mysterious woman with too much money and a drinking problem.

• Mike - a rock star guitarist super-god, The Suit's boy-toy and perhaps a benefactor in Janice's coffee shop. The last I saw him he was getting beaten up by Red.

The plot, as we speak, is Janice and Mel are trying to get enough money to keep their coffee shop afloat. Mel borrowed some drugs from the bad guys (as of yet unseen) and was going to sell them to The Suit except someone did the old swithcroo on him (on Janice, she was meeting The Suit) and now they need money to pay for the drugs And the coffee shop. Red things he has a scam ready.

Exciting Semi-News

After a short break I have returned with a vengence upon Dancing on the Arc of a Dream. Tomorrow I will have escaped the rigors of any day job that might be lurking behind me on a dark street like a stalker about to pounce and will be devoting several hours to religiously creating more words, stories, characterization, and plot to "Dancing". For several minutes today, whilst listening to a web design podcast called boagworld, I re-read the some fifty pages of the novel so far, looked at the pictures, scribbles, and asides and this has bolstered my enthusiasm to carry on! To boldly split an infinitive where no human has split one before! To write, draw, and plot! Ah, the wonders of hand-written, hand-drawn, hand-bound novels. It sends a chill up my spine just thinking about it.

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Check out my online novel, Calvado: Love Kills.

Dancing on the Arc of a Rainbow (con't.)

I enticed an artist acquaintaince of mine to assist me with Dancing on the Arc of a Rainbow. She is going to dabble in the margins and, perhaps, create a drawing or two of the action in the story. Being an artist, she is quick, she is creative, and she can do a doodle in 5 minutes that looks more like a complete drawing than a doodle. Amazing to watch work and encourages me to write faster.

The plot thus far:
Our heroine is about to get some major money to create an upscale coffee shop for the rich so that she can make enough money to pay back the loan her dead-beat friend got from gangsters Except, the dead-beat friend's father, a con-man from back in the day, is on the scene. What does he have in mind?

Shouldn't I be riding the dig-me! blogging wave and blog Dancing on the Arc of a Rainbow? I should and could except I wanted the finished copy to be the only one and computer screens, online sites, and Flickr are not too receptive to hand-drawn art, hand-written novels, and waxed Irish linen thread threaded through needles. At least and not keep their warranty.

A New Day • A New Post • A New Blog • A New Challenge

First!

I have begun blogging a novel called Calvado. 

Calvado is a love story between a street-smart, hard-living man and a woman of exceptional intelligence. Mack, the man, discovers early in his life that everyone he loves dies. He never gets close to anyone. Until he meets Calvado. Calvado was hired as a model when she was 14 but had planned to become a doctor since she was 9. They meet in New York City where Mack has gone to get lost. 

The novel takes place all over the time: We meet Mack in the final moments of his life, we meet Calvado as a young med student. We flash back to the many, many times they 'meet' but do not become friends. Then, we flash up to why Mack is escaping New York. 

It's being blogged slowly but surely over time. The first installment: The Delaware Water Gap is up now.

Second!

I plan to blog my NaNoWriMo novel this year, just to see if I can do it. The title:  The Priests of Hiroshima. It's an historical magically realistic story of Calvado (making her second appearance), Hiroshi (a Japanese college student hitch-hiking through Turkey), an as-yet-to-be-named used bookstore owner and his 657-year-old bilingual cat.

This fab four make their way through time and place when Hiroshi discovers that Istanbul is laced with tunnels that meander over the earth and around time.

They go from the Fall of Constantinople to the bombing of Hiroshima; they wonder at the birth of Genghis Khan, and visit the studios of Wang Zhen in Yuan China as he invents movable type 130 years before Gutenberg. They visit Mainz, Germany three times: to watch Gutenberg print his Bible in 1450;  to watch as Martin Luther sends his 95  Theses to the Archbishop in 1517; and to watch Hubert Schiffer, a Jesuit priest, receive his priestly robes. Schiffer is one of eight Jesuit priests who survived the bombing of Hiroshima.

Mostly, though, The Priests of Hiroshima is a love story between Calvado and Hiroshi.

Third!

And, no, I haven't forgotten about Dancing on the Arc of a Dream. It is still being worked on. It is still being drawn and hand-written. It is up to 50 pages and growing. I'm working on it when I have the time and because it is the first and only draft, I'm being careful about plot and characterization. It's not like I can hit the delete key 28 times really fast to eliminate a misspoken sentence.

Thank you and enjoy your life.