Excentrivial Musings

2:15am: Steampunk novel progress report
Forgive me folks, but it's been 23 days since the last time I was able to add text to my novel, and I think that's a sin.

OK, life keeps getting in the freaking way. So that's a valid excuse? Not to me it ain't.

Today, because of the rain, I was able to add 2600+ words to the story, for a grand total of 55,828 words so far. The section I added to was about the Martian Invasion of 1812-1815. A little less than halfway through that section, with two other empty sections to add to before I can call this puppy done.

Still to go: Half of the War of 1812, the 1861-1865 Martian Invasion, and my hero's 1865-1885 stint as a steampunk spy/Secret Service Agent/super hero.

Sample text:

"No one would have believed it," he began. "But it happened just the same. The first invasion, when the aliens fell from the sky and dug in for a long stay. It was 1812 when the first invader ship landed. The Confederation didn't even exist, yet. North America was mostly European colonies, still. The Great Experiment was still young- Called themselves the United States. But don't be fooled by the name. They were a house divided. Each state was more like a Republic, jealous, reluctantly working together, and already chafing under the Federal government that they'd made back in 1776. The United States had already weathered one crisis- when representatives met to revise the Articles of Confederation in 1789. They came up with what they called a Constitution, then had to tack on a Bill of Rights to forestall another revolution. This one would have been against the federal government of the United States, itself. But the new nation held together. The people thought there'd be eternal peace, prosperity, and freedom for all. That daydream lasted until the first ship from Mars landed. Then, it was a war for survival. The United States was split asunder. Other colonies in North America declared themselves Republics. Eventually these Republics united as equals. But they were still individual nations- But you wanted the story of the beginnings of the Confederation. Well, this is the way my grandfather told it to me when I was a boy."

"No one would have believed," he repeated. "In those last years of the eighteenth century that this world of ours was being watched by intelligences greater than human, and yet as mortal as ourselves. No one gave a thought to the older worlds of space as sources of danger. Indeed, it was the rare human being who even thought of other worlds at all. After all, we had yet to explore the entirety of our own world. Vast areas of our globe were uncharted, wild, and populated with fierce animals and even fiercer "uncivilized" native tribes. For in that day and time humanity had, as yet, not been forced to unite against a common enemy. Civilized Man arrogantly believed themselves restricted to the European continent and to tiny portions of their far-flung colonies across the globe. The written history of the known world only included Europe, the Middle Eastern region, and some small fraction of far Eastern Asia. Even the European conquests of the American continents, India, and Southeast Asia had failed to bring the lesson home that wherever Mankind could be found, civilizations arose."

"As I said, the European colonies upon the East coast of North American had only recently concluded an armed revolt against their far-off mother countries." Vila paused for a moment to collect his thoughts. "New nations had been formed there, secure in the belief that they would no longer need bow to any external authority. Freedom, and liberty, and just laws for all seemed to fill the American air like the perfume of exotic flowers. Grand treaties had been signed and solemnly sworn to between the former colonists and the native tribes of American Indian nations. Even those multitudes of African natives that had been transported against their will, to serve as slaves in the colonies, were gradually being given their freedom and the liberty to make of their lives what they willed- Rather than serve the will of others. It was a time of peace, new prosperity, new ideas, and fresh hopes for mankind."

"Yet across the gulfs of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to the beasts of the field, gazed at our world with instruments and technologies unknown. These intellects-" he shook his head sadly. "Vast, cool, and unsympathetic to any thinking mind upon our Earth- They regarded this Earth with envious eyes, and slowly but surely they drew their plans against us. So it was that early in the nineteenth century came a hammer-blow from the skys above. For the first time in recorded history, mankind was forced to defend ourselves from explorers and invaders from some other world."

Next up:

The rest of the War of 1812 done up as if the enemy were HG Wells's Martians. I want to finish this puppy! Wish me luck.

Dan

8:02pm: Steampunk novel progress report...
Did what was supposed to be a normal editing pass this morning starting at 8 AM.

I little understood just how big a can of worms I was opening. I thought it was a normal pint-sized can, but it turned out to be a 55 gallon drum!

Progress? Deleted 4k words of no-longer-current backstory. Added over 14k words of new text since then. Total wordcount is roughly 53k right now, and will be a little higher by the time I go to bed tonight. Averaging a hair over 1500 words per hour. That's roughly 600 words per beer.

I'm either going to have a huge wordcount for this day's work, or be knee-walking drunk by 4 AM.

Start night shift Tuesday evening at 7 PM, so I need to stay awake until at least 4 AM tonight.

OK, enough jabber. No one wants to read my biography. :) But for my First Readers, I'll upload the total current work-in-progress at the URL you already know. Yes, I realize that you might not have had time to read last week's version of the novel. But that's all right. I've changed stuff in all four sections of the story.

Actually, I wish Jeff Williams had time to point out all the places that I've slipped into passive voice so I can go ahead and rewrite them. Passive voice is a really difficult problem for me, as you know. I have trouble telling Passive Voice from Past Tense. No joke, I really can't tell the difference! Critiques from Nate and Wishbone would also serve to let me know where I screwed up the plot and continuity / Jumped the shark / made an ass of myself / Etc.

Yours, in haste and ready to dive back into the manuscript,

Dan

12:07pm: Rainy day writing update

Today is a really "blah" sort of day. Can't go outside and do any work, can't concentrate on my manuscript, can't summon up any interest in watching a movie... I wish the rain would just go away for two weeks. I'm not depressed or sad, just unable to get myself motivated to do anything. Writing this post is an attempt to get motivated. :)

Things accomplished with the story: Sat down with the steampunk novel again Thursday evening with the intention of adding in set dressing and character descriptions. Added a Prologue instead- and then ran through the rest of the text on an editing pass. 5k words added, 2k words deleted.

Upcoming: Get myself motivated to add the set dressing and character descriptions that the manuscript sorely lacks in most spots.

Sample teaser text:

"Harris," said the Captain. "Signal Lexington and Detroit to position themselves to our North and South at a distance of three quarters of a mile, and ask them to keep a sharp lookout for other unidentified airships. Cyril, spin us around again to face East."

"Spinning now, Captain," Cyril said.

"Done, sir. Signals sent and confirmations received," Harris said. "Signal from Lady Cita, sir."

"Oh? What does she say, Harris?"

"Her lookouts report that the approaching airships bear no markings at all. She says-" Harris paused, his face frowning in concentration.

"Harris?"

"Sorry, Captain," Harris replied. "She stopped speaking English for a moment and I had to translate. Her Spanish is very rapid. But she says that they're either pirates, or idiots, or both. She's- Well, sir..."

"Never heard such language from a lady before now, eh Harris?" Captain Resthal grinned.

"She's switching languages faster than I can keep up, sir," Harris replied. "Spanish, French, German, Greek, what sounds like Apache - but I don't speak that one. Now she's cursing in Russian, sir. From what I can make out, she thinks that something stinks. These two airships are outnumbered and out-gunned, but they keep on coming closer. Signal coming through in English now, sir. She says that she thinks that it's a trap."

"The Specials and our sister airships are in position, sir," Mister Wilson reported. "Should I assign one Special to guard our rear?"

"Mister Wilson," replied the Captain. "You just read my mind. Do exactly that. There's something wrong. I can feel it. Cita is right, this feels like a trap.Where are we not looking? That's where the enemy will be..."

"The only place we're not watching," said Cyril. "Is the ground. And the sea, I suppose."

"Ah!" said the Captain. He looked at Wilson, but before he could say a word, Wilson turned to the communications station and began shouting.

"Ventral lookouts, all ships! Watch the ground and the sea," Wilson ordered."Dorsal lookouts, all ships! Watch out for anything in the skys!"

"Incoming! Lookouts report rockets fired," Harris said. "They're- they're targeting the city! Sky Queen is firing all guns at the rockets, sir. She's dropping down below us to try and stop those rockets."

"Cyril, pick a target," Captain Resthal said. The anger in his voice was frightening. "Ready all weapons. Heat Ray, make ready to fire."

"Target chosen, sir," said Cyril. "All engines online and running. Ready to apply the emergency engines."

"Engine Room," the Captain said. "Emergency thrust! Full steam ahead!"



Things accomplished IRL: Slept almost all day after I got home from working night shift over the weekend. Worked outside yesterday. I managed to get three post holes dug for the fence, posts put in them but not tamped in tightly, and I tacked horizontal connectors between the fence posts to anchor the top of the fence & the cover. Can't do anything outside yet today because the rain returned. There were three or four days *while* I was working that were nice and clear. Sadly, As I said earlier, I slept away my first day off and only got to do any work yesterday.

Things I need to do: Finish the fencing, run a couple of errands, get motivated! I'm betting that at best I'll only get those last two accomplished today.

Dan

1:12pm: Feeling far better than yesterday
OK, I am feeling much less frightened & depressed today. Thanks to comments on Facebook and Live Journal, I decided to back off from the novel and give it a good re-think.

The result? The book has now been split into *four* parts. Each one is now a separate file in my word processor. For now each part will be treated as a separate entry in a series. Edits and rewrites of the Draft Zero of what is *now* Part Four will begin next week on my days off. Any urge I get to add new material today will be directed towards the first three parts. Sunday through Wed. I'll be working night shift.

What are the different parts about? I'm glad you asked.

Part 1 - Invasion: 1812
A retelling of the War of 1812-1814 as if it were an alien invasion. HG Wells was gently pick-pocketed for the prologue I wrote this morning. Don't have a protagonist in mind for this bit yet.

Part 2 - Live Free Or Die!
A retelling of the 1860-1865 Civil War as if it were an alien invasion rather than the North against the South. Following my hero through all the battles he takes part in.

Part 3 - Special Forces
1865-1870something - My hero's adventures as a Secret Service agent.

Part 4 - Against the Airship Pirates
Set sometime around 1875, I haven't nailed it down any closer. This is the bit that is the finished Draft Zero rough draft. Have to think of a new title, too. 'Cause there didn't turn out to be as many airship pirates in the plot as I originally thought there would be.

We follow my hero in a globe-trotting adventure as he defies his orders to arrest or execute the woman he loves, a South American airship pirate Queen. Watch as they team up to uncover a plot to trick the two lovers into killing each other- As in the background, the real villain schemes to bring about a world war so that he can rule the survivors from his hidden lair. Thrills! Chills! Airship battles! Death, danger, and really good food! Romance between star-crossed lovers long divided by their duties to their different countries! Plus! A special guest appearance by someone who pretty much *has* to be Zorro for that damn chapter to work!

OK, you get the idea. :) Part 4 is a fun romp. Adventure and romance in an airship that can, in an emergency, scream through the sky at the heady speed of 4 to 6 miles per minute!

If anyone wonders why they can't type exclamation points today, it's because I used up the entire world's supply for the day. Told you I felt better. :)

Dan

4:14pm: More musings on my steampunk novel
As I posted last night, I finished the rough draft of the steampunk novel's post-Civil War section- The bit I've been calling Part Two. It came out to just shy of 43k words once I trimmed all the text from Part One and just had Pt. 2 in a single file. I'm feeling grand about that, but I realize that there's still huge amounts of work left to do. After all, this is only the roughest of rough drafts. The final word count will no doubt be much higher.

I want to dive into the rough draft of Part One, but instead I found myself rethinking the whole concept of the novel rather than jumping straight into more composing. As a sop to my urge to continue, I created a new file for Part One and tossed in chapter headings from my research notes. There's only a short chapter of existing text for Part One- Something that I wrote months ago so that I wouldn't lose the mental images that had come to me for that bit. Since Part One is going to cover the entire US Civil War era, I'll have to reference my research far more closely. I had lots more freedom with Part Two, because *it* wasn't bound by historical research.

My problem is this; I'm no longer sure that my original concept for Part One is going to be able to be sold to a publisher. I think someone *will* want to buy Part Two, once it has gone through several more drafts of course. But that was the whole reason for writing this bugger, to make a sale. Adding my projected Part One to the existing Part Two could turn a sale into a rejection. I don't want to scrap Pt.1, but I don't want Pt. 2 sitting in a pile of rejected manuscripts at a publisher's desk, either.

I'm not trying to get anyone to tell me what I should do. Rather, I'm thinking "out loud" as it were, trying to choose among my options at this point. The options I can devise today run down like this:

1) I could continue with the original plan and hope for the best.
2) I could come up with a new Pt. 1 expanding on events hinted at in Pt. 2 as having happened in the main characters' pasts. That would allow me to write up my original Pt. 1 later on as a prequel, if I'm successful at selling Pt. 2
3) I could keep rewriting my Pt. 2 until is is novel-length all by itself, then hope that I'm given the chance to write up my planned Pt. 1 as a prequel.
4) I could write Pt. 1 as planned, write whatever suggests itself from that and the hints from my existing Pt.2 and see what I can sell out of the whole thing.
5) Come up with a totally new plan and devise more options.

I'm already getting positive reactions from people who have read small snippets of what I've already got written. I know it can entertain a reader, even in its unfinished form. What I don't know is if I can make a sale if I proceed as I originally intended. I'm afraid that I'll screw this up if I remain inflexible.

I suppose that this sort of fear is normal for a writer. Lots of pro writers that I've talked with in person or followed on their blogs have expressed similar concerns about their own work. Just nerves, I know. But it is daunting to contemplate losing a sale just because the 2nd half a a manuscript has a better idea as the foundation than the 1st half of the same story. If I can't grab a publisher by the end of the first page of the manuscript, they won't buy the manuscript.

Or maybe I'm just agonizing over nothing. How can I tell?

Dan

11:19am: Writing update: Steampunk novel

Before I went to bed last night draft 0 of Part 2 of the steampunk novel reached 42,721 words. The final confrontation with the villain is partly written. Quite possibly there are only two scenes and an epilogue left to write. Once the ending is done, I can start editing passes on Pt. 2 and begin writing on Pt. 1.

Things accomplished: Airships against Martian Tripod battle written, ground assault on villain's lair written, villain uses poison gas to run the soldiers out of his lair, villain captures hero and heroine during the gas attack and ties them to an operating table, hero knocked out and heroine facing villain's monologue hoping the soldiers return before something nasty happens.

Upcoming: Something nasty happens, villain defeated, heroes freed, homeward bound, & epilogue.

Sample teaser text:

"Outside," said Cita. "Can you see the doorway?"

"Barely," said Vila, then he coughed again, and again- Bending double as the spasms wracked his body. Cita began coughing as well- Even though she had covered her mouth and nose with a kerchief at the first warning of the gas. They stumbled towards the doorway, blundering into the tank of sludge as they went. The sludge seemed to react to their presence, sloshing ever higher inside the tank- As if seeking escape itself. Finally, the darker region of the doorway loomed before them as they staggered towards the only exit from the room. A shadow loomed- Nearly as dark as the doorway itself this last impediment to their escape menaced them. Cita felt, rather than saw, a movement from the looming shadow. She heard a meaty smack as the intruder moved. Reacting quickly, she emptied both of her pistols into the shadow, then reached for Vila. She tripped over a motionless body that was sprawled across the floor at her feet. On hands and knees, she felt the stiff cloth of Vila's body armor under her hands. She could feel his pistols in their holsters, clutched at them, and pulled them free in one smooth motion. The shadow loomed above her. She recoiled, falling onto her back with both of Vila's pistols raised above her. She fired into the shadow, again and again, until the pistols in her hands were both empty. Then she rose to her knees, pulling her sword, and thrust blindly into the ever-darkening shadow. The sword was torn from her grasp as she felt a great weight fall across her, pinning her to the floor across Vila's motionless body. She cursed, as the world went black and a roar filled her ears. She gasped, coughed, then moved no more.

Things accomplished IRL: Dog walked, pets fed & watered, cat toys assembled, litter boxes emptied and fresh litter added, appointment made to get 5th cat spayed, cooked supper for Lyn, attended Aphelion online chat and had a great time, & 7 hours sleep.

Things I need to do: Come up with eleven 30-second audio clips for the voice acting workshop, more writing on the novel, pay some bills, get into night shift mode before Sunday.

I feel really good today. Yesterday was a very nice day.

Dan

Edit added at 8:30 PM on 9-17-09:

I finished Part 2 at roughly 7:20 PM tonight! WaaHOOOOOO!

D

6:47pm: Aphelion Party Was Grand!
The party was awesome. A grand total of thirteen guests. All Lyn's preparations were a big hit, even though while we were clearing up and putting things back into the fridge we found that we'd forgotten to get the avocado dip out in the first place. Oops! Good thing we like it ourselves. The BBQ was wonderful, as it always is from that restaurant. Very little of it is left, but we do have enough of the Brunswick stew for me to eat for a couple of days. All the desserts are left, including a lovely apple pie that guests brought. And I won't be having to buy any beer for several days, either. Still a lot of that left. Still have a whole bottle of Krupnik, too. That turned out to be almost as good as what I make myself!

The conversations were tremendous fun, everyone talking about everything under the sun. Stories were told, toasts were made, food and drink were consumed in mass quantities... In short, it was a lovely party. The only bad thing was that eventually everyone had to go home.

Plans were begun for next year's party, which might turn out to be held at Rob & Larissa's home rather than here. April was suggested as a good time of year for next year's party. But I'll always love hosting parties here. Just give me an excuse, and convince Lyn that she won't have to do as much work as she did this time, and we're good to go!

Perhaps when Fall weather turns cooler, we can throw another party. If not, next Spring isn't that far off.

9:15pm: Party stuff...
Random stuffage in prep for the party on the 22nd...

Updated the map and driving landmarks page with a current photo of the house down at the bottom of the "landmarks" photos.

Replaced the screen on the kitchen storm door. *That* was annoying! Things kept going wrong and it wound up taking me an hour to do a ten minute job.

Created a Facebook page for Aphelion Webzine and posted an Event Entry for the party. Folks on Facebook, please feel free to add me as a friend and join the Aphelion Group if you have any interest in the zine or are a writer-type who enjoys SF&F amateur fiction (*not* fan-fic, no, original work).

Still haven't gotten many confirmations from people who are planning to come to the party. I've got to know so that I can buy enough food and drinks, folks. *Please* let me know that you're coming. I can't risk getting a DUI for going out to buy more food after the party starts.

One Atlanta-area fellow from our steampunk friends would love to attend, but needs to car-pool. Anyone who would be passing near the Doraville/Buford HWY exit of 285, please message me if you're willing to pick up a passenger.

Priced new air conditioners at one local store... Whooooo-boy! The prices have gone up a bit since the last time I bought one. Going to visit two more local stores this weekend and then pick the place with the best prices.

On the schedule of things yet to do to get ready for the party: window screens on three windows, refinishing 4 items of furniture, clean up and mow the yard, clean the leaves out of the pool and add more chlorine tablets, make signage and decide where to place it, update the music & movie hard drives for the TV computer, large-scale housecleaning, shampoo the carpets, act on any sound whims that involve home remodeling that can be completed in the next two weeks, attempt a tad of landscaping in the woods off the back yard in case someone wants to wander back there for a photoshoot...

Provisions!

Etc.

2:12pm: Photojournal of the porch project...
I've uploaded the whole set of photos to my Flikr page. There is a running log of the project, what I did, and how long it took. I think the work itself only took about eight days, but do to my work schedule, LibertyCon, and a family reunion being scattered among those project days, the job took nearly the whole month of July to complete.

You can see for yourself how I progressed from this:



And this:



To this:



at my Flickr Page. Enjoy!

Dan

6:11pm: Front Porch, Update the 2nd...
Well, I just got the last of the trim work tacked into place and the porch is *almost* finished. Behold:



Still left to do; get back on the ladder and put the final screws into the top of the trim work boards, cut away the excess screen material on the top and bottom of the walls, tack on a couple of tiny pieces of trim where the top of the walls weren't squared up enough, and a general clean-up to put the tools away...

Next projects: Window screens, outdoor table restoration & repair, finish the bathroom floor tiles, replace the light fixture above the back door, and paint my kitchen table & bench seats. Not necessarily in that order. But for now, I'm going to take a break for a while.

Dan

5:43pm: Front Porch, Update the 1st...
Well, too many of those scattered rainstorms yesterday kept me from getting almost anything done at all. I had wanted to complete much more than I wound up having time to do. But I can't paint any trim boards when it's raining. That said, I did get the screen material hung yesterday, and the door hung today, so the porch is finally usable- Even if it happens to be a long way from being finished. Witness this:



The outside trim work isn't finished. The masking tape hasn't been peeled away. The excess screen material hasn't been cut away from the top and bottom of the walls. Some small amount of painting still needs to be done inside on a shelf that I decided to install while it was raining. And I noticed some bits that didn't get a coat of polyurethane yet. Missed those spots...

But we can now have the front door of the house open with no fear that the dog will run out, or that flying bugs can come in. The attic fan is once again cooling the entire house with no problem. And the dog has already had his "WTF!?!?!?!!!" moment when he first noticed that I'd left the storm door open. He confidently trotted out, expecting to have his normal "runaway into the woods for a couple of hours" escape from custody, only to find that there was this see-through *wall* in his way! So totally cute to witness the confusion writ large on his doggy face. He walked the perimeter of the porch, found no way out, then whimpered for a moment. Finally, he lay down on the concrete and began to enjoy the cool breeze created by the attic fan pulling air into the house. Once I get all the outside trim in place, I think I'll try to talk Lyn into putting him out on the porch for the night. She has already decided that the elderly indoor cat will be sleeping out there from now until Winter. Also, she's looking forward to being able to get the food for all the cats ready without any of them being underfoot in the mornings.

OK... There are a few more things I want to do before nightfall, so I'm going to end this post and take it easy for a while. The last few days have been very hard work. But I'm glad to be able to say that it has all been worthwhile. Time to slow down and relax a little before I have to go back to work on Sunday morning.

Dan

7:41pm: Casa Vila - Front Porch...
The project to screen in the front porch is proceeding fairly well. I finished the framing earlier today, and have started the initial painting. Tomorrow, I'll finish the painting and correct my mistakes when I attempted to frame in the doorway. All I'll need to do is make a pair of shims to extend from the floor to roughly halfway up the door frame. After that I'll have to paint the shims and the trim pieces, then hang the screen and the door. I should be totally finished by Thursday or Friday. I'm putting on two, possibly three coats of white paint, then I'll add three coats of Exterior Polyurethane, in a clear gloss finish. That way the wood will be free from water damage for several years.

Once I know that I have enough trim pieces to cover the studs, I'll be able to make a start on new frames for window screens for the living room & kitchen windows. That will be a delicate job, actually. I'll have to measure everything very carefully, and make sure that I cut everything exactly as I need it to be done. One slip will cost me several dozen dollars per window.

During the hottest part of the next few days- while I'm letting the paint or polyurethane dry, I'll be finishing up the bathroom floor tiles and as much of the baseboard trim as I can manage. (I keep forgetting to buy the few short pieces of baseboard trim I need whenever I've been at the hardware store.) One difficult bit: the floor trim from the master bedroom walk-in closet doorway into the bathroom. I'll have to use a jewelry saw to cut that piece to exactly fit the door trim-work. Any mistake there will make me look quite foolish indeed. :)

OK... I'm done for the night. I might still have some daylight left, but I ache from bending, twisting, and stretching in unfamiliar ways in order to finish the framing and do the first coat of paint. I really need a replacement ladder, but I can't afford one right now. Cest la vie...

Vila

2:10pm: Photos from LibertyCon 22
This isn't going to be a Con report, but I have been asked to post our photos as quickly as I can. So I'm making this quick "filler" post with a link to my Flickr page with the LibertyCon set. I'll put a small copy of one photo here, and you can click on the link below to get to the full set.



We had a great time, raised a glass in toast to some absent friends as well as those who attended in spirit, and generally carried on like crazy folks- Which is probably more accurate than it is flattering. Here are the photos:

LibertyCon 22 Photo Set on Flickr

I'll try and write up a full report later this evening, but for now I have to get started on another home-repair/remodeling project. I just came back from buying almost everything I need to screen in the front porch. I expect it'll take me several days to finish this job. I might not get it done before Lyn and I come back from the family reunion this weekend. But I do need to make a good start in what time I have left today and tomorrow.

More later!

Dan

9:26am: LibertyCon 22...
Lyn and I will be heading out for LibertyCon in Chattanooga in about an hour or so. We've got a couple of stops to make on the way, but by 3 PM we'll be checking in to our hotel room and getting our convention ID badges. I don't know if any or you fine folks are also going, but if so we'll see you there!

Going to test out the new GPS unit on this trip. Since we already know the route, we won't be taking a risk of getting lost. If the GPS gives me a stupid instruction, I'll ignore it. No worries.

Be reading everything from here when we get back.

Later,

Dan

3:38pm: Update on Aphelion's Summer Party
Our annual Summer party is less than six weeks away, now- Please plan to attend if you are able, because we'd love to see you all again.

We wanted to post an update on the Aphelion Webzine annual Summer party at our house. There is an updated page of directions & a map from Atlanta to our house for those folks who plan on attending Aphelion's 2009 party on August 22nd. The link is Directions from Atlanta We'll be posting maps and driving directions from other areas soon, so expect another update in about two weeks.

Aphelion readers and writers, Steampunk folks in the Southeastern US, UGA SF&F members, SCA folks, our neighbors, and our other friends are all invited. Usually, only a dozen or so people connected to Aphelion show up, but this year we're inviting everyone we know. A good time will be had by all- Food, drink, music on the stereo, perhaps even some Filk if Rob & Larissa Wynne feel like singing. If steampunk folks feel like holding a photoshoot, there are woods behind the house as well as plenty of space in the yard.

Because some folks who plan to attend suffer from allergies, smokers will be requested to go outdoors. This includes me, so don't feel slighted. I'll be headed outdoors, too.

So far, the menu is:
BBQ & hash from Bill's Bar-B-Que
Hamburgers & Hotdogs on the grill
Veggies, chips, and dips as munchies
Sodas, tea, coffee, booze, etc. as drinks
Anything you wish to bring to add to the menu will be welcomed, but not
required.

August 22nd, from 10 AM until you feel like leaving-
Casa Vila
751 Moons Grove Church Road
Colbert, GA 30628

We're located roughly halfway between Athens and Danielsville, GA just off of HWY 29, inside the Diamond Hill community- if you're looking up maps on Google or MapQuest. Anyone coming from further than a comfortable driving distance might want to look into booking a room at the new Comfort Inn on North Ave. in Athens. That's only a 20 minute drive from here and it's a wonderful hotel.

Please e-mail vila (at) america (dot) net to let me know that you plan to attend, so that I can stock up on enough food and drinks. Also, please let me know about any allergies or dietary restrictions you have so that I can plan accordingly. Bringing additional food & drinks will be welcome, but not required.

Dan & Lyn Hollifield (Captain Vila & Lady Cita Resthal, to the steampunk folks.)

5:44pm: As promised...
... a dull and uninteresting post about my recent adventures in home repair. The job; replace a rotted-out section of our bathroom floor. A complete photojournal of an unpleasant, but necessary task. To save my f-list from page-spread ( photos & text behind the cut. )

Vila

10:12pm: 10 PM and all is finished...
Just got through laying the last of the floor tiles and nailing the last bits of baseboard trim that can be re-used. I even managed to fit the hallway door trim back better than it had been since I first removed it to get my washer & dryer in the laundry cubby of the bathroom. There is still a yard or so of baseboard trim that I'll have to replace along the floor because that was water-damaged too much to survive being pried loose from the walls.

I used almost a whole gallon of polyurethane on the existing & replacement plywood in that 5x10 foot room. It ought to be *very* waterproof, now! 5 coats of polyurethane, total.

I'm very tired now. I did take photos of different steps of the repair job, but the camera's batteries died as I took the last one, so uploading them to the computer will have to wait until tomorrow- After I get home from work with a new pack of batteries.

If I had it all to do over again, I wouldn't have bought a pack of floor tiles. No, I'd have bought 2 or 3 sheets of cheap wall paneling and made a fake hardwood floor over the plywood. I could have made the paneling waterproof as well, using up the last of the polyurethane. I think that's what I'll try to talk Lyn into letting me do in the kitchen when we get to the point that we can replace the linoleum in there. It'd wind up being far faster to do that way.

OK, got to go shower, shave, and go to bed. I go back to work in the morning. Goodnight, everyone!

Dan

6:46pm: Home repairs...
I'm in the middle of replacing a 4-foot square section of our bathroom floor. We've stripped away all the old linoleum, sawn through the plywood floorboards in the section we want to replace, and are currently painting the whole bathroom floor plywood with polyurethane in order to make it waterproof. Tomorrow I'll pull the toilet out of the floor, replace the 4x4 foot plywood sheet underneath it, lay down replacement lino tiles, and then put the toilet back in place. We may be buying new baseboards and trim as well, but that will have to wait for another week or so.

While I was working in the bathroom, Lyn has been out in the flower beds clearing out weeds and undergrowth. She's also trimmed the Azaleia bushes back so that they can re-grow in far better health. Her next project is to weed the cactus garden. I plan to buy her a pair of special gloves for that so that she doesn't get stuck by nearly as many cactus spines as she did last year.

This is not the easiest home repair job that I've done. In fact, it might just be the most difficult one. Replacing a floor is always a pain in the posterior. Thank goodness it's only a 4x4 foot section of the 5x10 foot room. Once we're finished, 80% of the prep for Aphelicon will be finished. After this, I might get a chance to screen in the front porch- But not if we can't make our budget work with that extra expense.

Photos of the work in the next post...

Dan

1:22pm: ApheliCon 4
I've updated the page of directions from Atlanta to our house for those folks who plan on attending Aphelion's 2009 party on August 22nd. The link is Directions from Atlanta

Aphelion readers and writers, Steampunk folks, neighbors, and old friends are all invited. Usually, only a dozen or so people show up. A good time will be had by all- Food, drink, music on the stereo, perhaps even some Filk if Rob & Larissa feel like singing. If steampunk folks feel like holding a photoshoot, there are woods behind the house as well as plenty of space in the yard.

Because some folks who plan to attend suffer from allergies, smokers will be requested to go outdoors.

So far, the menu is:
BBQ & hash from Bill's Bar-B-Que
Hamburgers & Hotdogs on the grill
Veggies, chips, and dips as munchies
Sodas, tea, coffee, booze, etc. as drinks
Anything you wish to bring to add to the menu will be welcomed, but not required.

August 22nd, from 10 AM until you feel like leaving-
Casa Vila
751 Moons Grove Church Road
Colbert, GA 30628

Please e-mail vila (at) america (dot) net to let me know that you plan to attend, so that I can stock up on enough food and drinks. Also, please let me know about any allergies or dietary restricions you have so that I can plan accordingly. Bringing additional food & drinks will be welcome, but not required.

Dan

6:24pm: If a dog lives in a doghouse, then...
...what is the proper term for an outdoor home for one's herd of cats?

*I* know what most people think of when they use the term "cathouse" so that's out. :) A Pet Apartment? Pet Hut? That sounds silly, but probably covers all the bases. Besides, once the kittens are big enough to have either been adopted or to have adapted to living outside 90% of the time, then the Pet Hut will also be used by the dog as a rain shelter. Indeed, he already uses it as such on rainy days when the kittens are inside the house and he has to go outside on his cable run. I'm already planning to build a door for the shed that not only has a cat-flap, but also can be opened for the pony-sized dog to use. An upper half-door and a lower half-door, with the cat-flap in the lower half.

My insurance agent has long wanted me to tear that shed down "to keep rats & mice out of the house." Any rodent that can survive our 20 cats would just chew his own door through our brick walls.

By the way, we can spare some of the 16 kittens. But we'll miss them terribly. We'll keep the three Momma cats and the grandmama cat, and we'll keep the kittens Diddles, Pinky, Tesla, Cali, and possibly Modesty Blaze & Gray Mouser. I'd like to keep Spot, too, but I might not be able to do so. There is also a tuxedo cat that we've named Avon who has been promised to Kim, if she still wants him. Michelle wants to keep an orange one she's named Junior, but she and Marc might not be allowed to have pets wherever they move to when they leave.

It would be hard to let any of them go, but we can't keep them all in the house. And we can't protect them from the coyotes and the cars if we shove them outside.

Dan

6:11pm: Pool and Phone...
The pool is filling. Lyn and I have worked for almost three whole days now to get the pool ready for Summer. Lyn scrubbed the thing for what seemed like half a day, yesterday, and today I started it filling. It should take two days to fill, because we don't want to over-stress our well & pump.

Final treatments and such will have to wait for an evening after work this week. By the weekend, we'll be ready for the typical hundred degree Georgia Summer weather.

In other news, I finally broke down and bought one of those TracFone cell phones. Still figuring it out, but I have hopes that this old dawg can still learn a trick or two. Like, how to set the bloody thing to ring rather than send all incoming calls to a voice-mail that I haven't figured out how to activate yet.

Oh yes, you may laugh. I realize that I'm way behind the curve as far as that goes, but then I can't get any spam calls yet, either. That's one better than the landline, so far.

Dan

6:12pm: 2nd Verse, Same as the First...
Well, today I reconstructed the tent garages yet again. I dunno how long it'll last this time. But if I had cash for enough lumber to rebuild the frame, etc. I would take that route. Chances are I will when the economy improves enough for me to quit counting nickles & dimes.

On the plus side, I budgeted for enough gasoline to mow the lawn at least three times. That's my chore for tomorrow - Mow the lawn. I'll have to drag some tree limbs off into the woods in order to get the whole yard mowed, but that's not a problem.

Dan

3:32pm: Very depressing...
I spent several days putting my tent garages back together from the twisted and torn bits that the snowstorm left behind. I managed to put one and a half tents together from the scraps I had on hand. I was quite proud of my salvage efforts.

But last night's thunderstorm ruined almost all my work. The full-sized tent garage has collapsed - again. The framework is bent and twisted, perhaps beyond repair.

Naturally, I'm somewhat upset.

I do wish that the economy would hurry up and start climbing back out of the hole so that I could quit worrying about things over which I have no control. I don't much like the person I've been being recently. I have to turn this around, somehow. I can not accept that this bitter, angry monster is who I am to be from now on.

Dan

10:50pm: I'm not dead, I'm just resting...
I found a back-up file of the soundtrack of mp3s I'd used while writing my Nightwatch novel "Fly By Wire"! I'd stored the soundtrack on a USB thumb drive. Now, thanks to my lovely wife, with some help from David Bowie and Be Bop Deluxe, I now know how to write the ending for my steampunk novel. Once that ending is done, I'll finally be able to go back and write the beginning-to-middle section of the story. Yes, I did a dumb thing and started the story in the middle, but last year when I started typing the text, that was the most vivid part of the story that had come to me.

I've been struggling with this story for almost a year, now. Thanks to my muse- a 5'2" blue-eyed raven-tressed goddess who consented to become my lady-wife, I now have the genesis of the ending I need to wrap up the novel's Part Two. That gives me the freedom to go back to the research I've been doing for Part One and get the story moving onwards. I know, I shouldn't have started the composition in the middle, but I wanted to give the characters a chance to tell me what they'd been doing in their pasts, so that I could go back and add those tid-bits when I finally got to start the beginning of the story.

Forgive me for being ungrammatical and somewhat cryptic, but I can't edit this when I need to be writing *that!*

Dan

5:11pm: Snow? Power outages and collapsed garages...
As you may know, Georgia got blanketed by some lovely snow yesterday...

Lovely? Sure, it looks nice, but I could have lived without the electricity outages and the ruination of my pair of $200 garage tents. Not to mention the minor damage done to my van by the bent and twisted tent poles when the weight of the snow caused the garage to collapse.

OK... Other folks have it far worse. I did use the power outages today to give me time to put some PCI cards in my computer and re-work the shelves I have my CPUs sitting upon. I needed that time to do the work.

But given all the garbage that I've had to put up with vis a vie the recent snowstorm, a few hours without electricity is a small annoyance.

Dan