Blogetary (Weblog + Commentary = Blogetary)

Another “No Thank You”
Well, after getting “Yes Thank You” earlier this week, I got a “No Thank You” today from another ezine, called HerCircleEzine. While it didn’t make me plummet like other “No Thank Yous” have, it did bring me down a little.

But, on consideration, I’ve noticed that the “No Thank Yous” from poetry and literary periodicals tend to be just a tad more sensitive in their wording than other periodicals, specifically the scifi/fantasy ones. Does this mean the editors of one are more or less hard-hearted than the other? I don’t think so, but I do think there’s a graciousness practiced in the realm of literary work that gets lost in the casual camaraderie of paranormal/Scifi/fantasy literature. I’m not saying that that’s the norm, but that has been my own experience thus far.

For example, the “No Thank Yous” from Kenyon Review and The Sun and HerCircle and American Poetry Review and Poetry were all form letters, of course, but they were very courteous. They said things like “after careful consideration” or “please don’t take this as a reflection in your writing” and other such terms that say similar things letting you down easy. You might get used to “No Thank Yous” but everyone you receive still hurts a little, even when you expect it. The little kindnesses are really appreciated. Sometimes there’s even a little note expressing the desire to see more from you at another time.

Sometimes a periodical actually takes the time to write a personal note, as Black Gate did, and point out why they held it and why they passed on it. This feels like you made this huge momentous step forward in evolution. However, even if it’s just a simple personal note, like “thank you so much and best of luck, but we decided not to use your submission,” which is the one I got when I submitted a story to an anthology called Voluptuous Vixens (it was a story I later reworked and submitted to and was accepted by SheVibe), it softens the sting. It helps for later.

Because you will get those notes that are just baldly unsatisfying. Sufficient in notifying you of the magazine’s refusal, yes, but nothing more than a statement such as the one I got from Strange Horizons: “Thank you for submitting “Scary Things” to Strange Horizons, but we’ve decided not to accept it. Thank you for your interest in our magazine.” Not rude. Just very factual. But compared to the care with which the poetry and literary magazine crafted their “No Thank Yous,” that statement is not very satisfying. Yet, it is much better than the form letter I got from Realms of Fantasy Magazine, which had me curled up in a little ball and crying for days afterwards. Yes, they thank you for the submission, and then state that “your work does not suit our needs at this time” (which almost sounds as if you were applying for a job with a badly typed resume), and then they could just stop there. But no, they go on (because they are trying to be helpful, but it’s not really and errs into hurtful in my opinion): “. . .we cannot reply individually to each writer, but the most common reasons for rejection are: an old idea, unfamiliarity with the rules of grammar and/or composition, and most commonly, a story which simply did not ‘stand out.’ Your story may or may not have fallen into one of these categories. ….we hope you continue to enjoy the magazine.”

Again, on the face of it, nothing outright rude, but just bald. No graciousness. Emtionally, it doesn’t matter that my story “may not” have fallen into those categories, because all those faults were mentioned. So, emotionally, I’m just as sure that my story “may” have fallen into those categories. If so, they were probably fairly good reasons for rejection. However, suddenly, instead of feeling like, “Okay, I’ll just go over it again and make it better and send it out again” (as I did with the more gracious notes), I felt like “why bother, after years and years and years of writing I obviously don’t know sh*t according to these people.”

I know, there are people who will point out that there’s nothing wrong, factually, with the above statement and would say it’s even helpful. If you’re going to submit things, you will get rejected. But graciousness is a lost art and goes a long way towards helping things along, smoothing things out. It makes a huge difference between striving to be better and just plain old giving up. Of course, the other side of it could be that this particular editor has tried to be gracious in the past and, for various reasons (emotional writers, for example), has given up on that in favor of just being assertive about what she will not take. If that’s the case, that’s too bad.

Continuing On With My Week

The critique group I am in (we’re all also in the California Writers Club) is having a Movie Marathon on Saturday (the 17th and also Chinese New Years). It’s cheesy scifi/fantasy day and on the list is Army of Darkness, Sword and Sorcerer, and Blade Runner. We’re having popcorn and watching movies!

If I haven’t plugged it shamelessly yet, we’re looking for more writers for our Mid-Wilshire branch writer’s club. We meet once a month at the Fairfax Branch Library on Gardner near 3rd. Our next meeting is on March 3, 2007, 3-5 pm. The main group is not for critique purposes (our little group meets afterwards for critique sessions), but for the logistics of being a writer. Recently we’ve had talks on copyrights, internet presence and character development. I think one of the topics we’re tackling next month is ebook publishing.

There’s also a group that meets in Venice every second Saturday of the month (we’re on the first Saturday of every month) at the Venice Library on 501 S. Venice, 3-5pm.

If you aren’t sure about either of those, I do believe there will be a California Writers Club booth at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books April 28 and 29 at UCLA that you can check out.

As Far as Chapter Five Goes…

I did get some writing done on the bus this morning, but I’m reaching the point where it will soon be time to enter it all in the computer. I’ve already crossed out and rewritten and added much material and such things are just best done on the computer. Plus, there’s a major section I want to pull out of Chapter Two. I’m not sure yet if I want to place it somewhere else, toss the scene but put the information in elsewhere, or dispense with it entirely. But I do know I just need to pull it out of where it is now. In the immediate future, however, I just need to go to bed. I want to be rested up for the weekend ahead.

Thanks for reading. I’ll leave you with this thing on Anger Management that my friend Christina passed on to me that helped cheer me up.

Good night.

Today, started out well, went down hill fast and stayed sucky until just about the very end and then it got very good. Not a very good story, that one sentence, but it does tell you everything you need to know. Unless you want to hear how I’m finally getting to work on time only to run into the Nameless One next door on the way out and get pissed off and then have a cranky day all day and go to a friends house for dinner and understanding to be roped into watching a movie I know will be sad, but in the end I learn a lot from it.

You do?!?!

Well, first off, the only writing that happened today was in my journal on the bus, trying to work out my anger at running into the person next door who shuns me one day and tries to be formally courteous the next and in the end is The Great Betrayer, the Great Liar, the Great Deceiver. (No, he’s not Satan, he’s my next door neighbor). I used to call him my friendly neighborly hobbit and thought about changing it to gnome tonight since I like hobbits, but my best friend pointed out that if I’m going to go there, I may as go all the way and say troll, which is appropriate since I have to get past his door to get out the apartment (triptrapping over the bridge to the other side). So, I think Troll it is, cuz trolls have no power other than what they take.

As you can see – that is a lot of angst to try to get through and I thought I was dealing with it. By the time I was able to process my angst in my journal, I had transferred onto buses where I was being squished into corners with no room to write, so I sat with my bag and notebook and pen all crammed into a corner while waiting for the bus to empty out, which it never did. Then, at work, everyone had a problem and what’s more is most of them had legitimate problems which means I actually had to help them and cajole and threaten and plead with writers to redo things that they were really cranky about redoing. On top of that, without meaning to, I ended up offending an online friend of mine. And I probably should have worked late but I needed to deposit my paycheck before the bank closed or else. It was the kind of day that my boss says, I wanted to give into my narrative, my inner monologue, my need to follow it to its ultimate conclusion in destruction.

An inner narrative or monologue is good at telling you to get the hell out of a building because the building is on fire, but it’s not so good at advising you how to behave in sensitive situations. It wants you to follow it – fight and win or flee and natter – when what you really need to do is sit back and watch it go by and wait for the right moment to act and not just react. I was having a really hard time trying to get myself to sit back and wait for the right moment. Mostly failing and having to apologize later.

So, by the time I was waiting for the bus home, I was not in a good state (but at least I wasn’t somewhere like Idaho say or Alabama….). I did what any girl does when she’s in this state, I contacted my best friend who invited me over for a good hearty meal of meat and potatoes (well, beef bourgignon and herbed potatoes with a nice wine and followed by icecream and sauce) and a movie (DreamGirls).

Did I mention my best friend happens to be gay?

During dinner, I had delightful conversation with a fellow writer while there about a chapter I had sent her and she pointed out a couple of very key things that really help I think. I am very grateful she pointed them out. And after a brisk walk around the block with the dogs we went to watch the movie and about 15 minutes in, I knew I was in trouble, but it took me the rest of the movie to figure out why it was I just didn’t want to be watching that movie (DreamGirls). Yes. It was wonderful music, great acting and probably a pretty good story as far as it goes (since it is *not* based on Diana Ross and the Supremes at all – oh no….wink wink).

However, as soon as it got to the part where Effie was told to be backup, I knew I was in trouble and when she was kicked off, I wanted to get up and leave. I like a bigger voice, it’s why I like opera. I want Sarah Vaughn. I want Aretha Franklin and Bessie Smith and Janis Joplin and someone who knows who Zora Neale Hurston is. I want kd lang at her country big voice best. As far as I was concerned, when Effie was told to go away, that was the end of the movie. I didn’t want to see a story about a sad, skinny girl who gets rich and feels poor. As well done as it was, that was not the story I wanted to see and (here’s the important realization I had) *it was not the story I would have written.* FOr me, the more important and STRONGER story would have been to follow Effie White’s story. WHat did she go through being alone and pregnant? What dark places did she go to? Did she feel like she was Hester Prynne and Magic was Pearl? How despairing did she get? Did she turn to drinking and drugs for a while? Where did she learn her strength? What day to day misery did she go through? That is the great story and that is what adds to the richness and timbre of her voice. When Deena is singing in the studio towards the end about “listen to me” she borders on getting the same richness as Effie because she finally has the same type life experiences coming through. SHe finally lets it through. Boy, what the Curtis character didn’t know about women was a lot. We get stronger as we age, not weaker. Jamie Foxx played that part well. They all did, really.

I just would have written a different story and it was a revelation to look at a movie and think that and understand why someone else’s story made me uncomfortable and want to count the tiles in the ceiling or the tops of people’s heads or something.

Yesterday, I got to work out some character and personality traits for one of my characters with a friend of mine. Tonight, on the way home from my night with my friend, we had a good talk that also helped me hammer out story line and helped me figure out my writing self. It was a good learning day despite the fact that I didn’t get much writing done.

So, while I am able to do writing in my notebook, everytime I sit down at this computer to transfer the words into the computer I get all fidgety and can’t sit still or concentrate. I sit at a computer all day at work so I think when I try to do it at home, I have a hard time. Yesterday doing my taxes – well I think I still have an eye twitch. But at least it’s getting written in the note book (and we’re talking Mead Composition note book here not Mac NOTEBOOK).

So, I really am going to start saving for that laptop. Oh to sit somewhere besides at this painted picnic table and in this closet on my plastic outdoor chair to write! Yes, it works fine for what it is. And, since I did my taxes last night, the IRS does see it as my work space and I should keep it that way. But, OH it would be nice to just be able to curl up somewhere comfortable and write on my computer at the same time.

I’ve been listening to John Denver all night and it’s the only thing keeping me sane.

On the bright side, earlier today on the bus on the way to work and this evening while I was eating, I did get some writing done in the Mead Composition note book. Had a cool idea with the bad guy this weekend and then realized that as good as it felt to write it (I killed off someone I don’t like), I might need to rewrite it cuz it might not really work the way I have it. At least I got it out of my system, though. Like I said, at least that much got done.

Oh! And my apartment manager stopped to say hi to me tonight while he was on the way out and I was on the way in. Not that he isn’t friendly normally, cuz he is. But I’m not used to people stopping ME and asking ME how I’m doing. It’s usually the other way around, or at least it feels that way. Or maybe I’m just sensitive because  the Nameless One next door shuns me (need to use that somewhere!).  Anyway, once I got over the paranoia that maybe my rent check had bounced and I might get evicted or something, it was kinda nice to think he would make a point to stop and say hi.

Well, to bed. “To sleep, perchance to dream.” “Tomorrow will be another day.” And all that other stuff. Can’t get up and be productive tomorrow if I don’t get rest tonight.

I was feeling kind of blue, like why bother with the writing thing. Maybe I’m not so good after all. Maybe there are enough stories out there as it is. Maybe I should just keep it all in my journal like Emily Dickinson and not even bother with trying to get it published. Maybe I should get that civil service job my dad keeps telling me I should go after, even though it would probably totally take away from the time I am able to give to my writing goals whilst here at work.

You know – I was having one of those days.

Then – oh THEN – I got an email from a submission I had sent in in January that I had almost (but not quite since we don’t ever really forget our submissions) forgot about. And SheVibe will be putting two of my poems in their Erotic Ink section. I think it will be for March, but it may be for April. When I know, I’ll let you know.

But for now – just YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was all dishes and laundry and taxes and dusting.  Didn’t even get close to the vacuum cleaner and it’s already time for bed.  My cats are even disgusted with me as all I’ve done is swear at the H & R Block Tax program as I went through and filled out things I had no idea how to fill out.

But it’s done.  So that’s okay then.

As tough as it is to be in my bad guy’s head, it’s really tough to jump over to be in the other characters’ heads (a couple of 13 year old girls).  Quite a jump!

Went to a friend’s birthday dinner tonight and had a good time, so I had a break from working on Chapter 5 for a little while.  But still got to talk it over with another writer friend of mine and she pointed to some reading I could do that may help me justify some of what I’m going to try to do.  And she and another friend also pointed out some logistics problems I might need to stop and look at.

So, tomorrow I will try to work on Chapter 5 some more.  Still need to do practical things like laundry and vacuuming, oh and taxes, lets not forget that.  Next weekend the Critique Group (and maybe some others) will be coming over for a movie marathon and I want to at least get rid of some of the cat hair before they show up.  On the docket will be Army of Darkness, Sword and Sorcerer and Blade Runner.  I have some other movies in reserve should anyone choose to stay a little longer.

This weekend I want to watch Captain Blood (Errol Flynn) and Men in Tights (Cary Elwes), if I get a chance.  Been really looking forward to something like that.  We’ll see.  Maybe later on this week if not tomorrow.

For now, it’s late.  I should get to bed so I can get up in the morning and do something constructive.

Tootles!

So, I’m introducing the bad guy in Chapter 5 and I’m having to be in his head. It’s a dark and bitter place to be, seductive as well, which is part of who he is. I just need a break from him for bit before I go back to it. He’s going to end up being pretty scary, I think. At least for me.

Piece of good news. Sword and Sorceress, the great anthology series started by Marion Zimmer Bradley, is BACK! (http://mzbworks.home.att.net/s22.htm) YAY! I wrote a couple of short stories recently with those anthologies in the back of my head. Of course they’ve been rejected by other places I’ve sent them because the places I’ve sent them weren’t Sword and Sorceress, which is what I really wrote them for even if I thought it was long gone. So, I’m going to see what I can do to make them BETTER THAN EVER and send them both in to S&S 22 and see if they fly, float or sink. If nothing else, I look forward to reading more stories from these great anthologies. I love them.

Reading the Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diane Wynne Jones and she brings up a lot of stuff I always wondered, too and here’s a question for others out there. Am I the only one who wonders how the plumbing works in Fantasy and Scifi stories? Am I the only one who wonders, “wow, if she really goes back in time, how is she going to live without tampons, pads, and painkillers?!?!” That’s what I always wonder. Forget that heroes never seem to get the common cold or a the flu or have dandruff. What about the really important stuff? Like toilet paper? That’s what I want to know.

Okay, back to the bad guy.

Well, it’s more of series or trilogy review than a book review. I was going to do a book review of the first one, The Outstretched Shadow, but realized that I needed to read the other two books: To Light a Candle and When Darkness Falls to get a feel of the entire trilogy. Because I’m reviewing all three, I may give out more information than I would if I were just reviewing one book, so I may be giving away some secrets, but hopefully it will still be worth your while to read and figure if you want to read this set for yourself.

To begin at the beginning, Kellen Tavadon does not do very well at his training at the Mage College. He just couldn’t care less. It doesn’t feel real to him. Yet, his father is the Arch-Mage of Armitheliah (yep – I think I spelled it right – but you should see the rest of the city names), which is known as the City of Mages, or the Golden City or The City of a Thousand Bells. The city runs on magic, from preserving it’s food stuffs, to strengthening its walls, to making sure the city bells keep the correct time. Everything is run on Magic. Of course, this means that the Mages are a privileged part of City society, above the aristocracy or city merchants, no matter how rich. A common born Mage is above the highest born Common.

Although Kellen lives a life of a privileged Mage-born, he is uncomfortable with the hypocrisy he sees and feels everywhere. Daily, he becomes even more discontent with his life as he realizes that he and his father want vastly different things. He would like nothing better than to have been Common born and lead a nice normal life, perhaps as an apprentice blacksmith since he inherited the large build of his long gone mother’s Mountainborn family. His father, Lycaelon Tavadon, knows that his son is full of Magic, but for some reason he refuses to learn it. Lycaelon is ambitious. He has attained the highest position in the City and the surrounding Land that is covered by the city’s Bounds, by being ambitious for himself as well as doing “what is best for the City.” He think it would be best for the City and for him if his son did what he was told.

What 17 year old do YOU know has ever done what they’ve been told when they know that doing the opposite will piss off their elders?

Right. So, Kellen frequently skips out on studying, or gets kicked out of his tutor’s offices, just so he can don Common garb and go roam the city and pretend he is normal. Then comes a time when two very strange things happen: 1) He finds three strange books that are not what they appear to be and 2) He is told by his tutor that the magic that drives the city is taken from everyone who lives in the city, unknowingly and without their consent. The Mages use the magic that is stored in everyone, Common and Mage-born alike, to work their spells. The books that Kellen has found (or that have found him) tell him, however, that all Magic has a price and that none should be worked or no energy given except by full consent. Thus begins Kellens first inklings that things are not as they should be in the Golden City (otherwise known as the unpronouncable name).

As he begins to get into the books, Kellen realizes that they are, in fact, banned books and he could be in trouble just for having them. Of course, he being a teenage boy, this means he wants to read them even more. And, in due time, he is of course, caught with the banned books. His father, being Arch-Mage and also being arrogant, self-important, and afraid of what this discovery will do to his position on the Council, does the only thing he thinks is relevant.

He Banishes his son from the City. What this means is that Kellen will be given penance bread (I think it’s just rough travel bread) and water in a pack, a felon’s cloak in bright yellow to tell everyone who he is, and is given from dusk the night he is banished to dawn the next day to get out of the City’s Bounds before the Outlaw Hunt is set upon him. Unfortunately, the Bounds have grown and it is not humanly possible to outrun the Hunt before reaching the Bounds. The Bounds are too far away and the Hunt is too fast and brutal. He has to do something drastic and he has to do it fast.

Thus begins Kellen’s true life and sets up the reader for the rest of the adventures that are to take place throughout the three books.

I used to read Mercedes Lackey books a LOT. Whenever I needed to escape from the world for a while, I would grab one of her Valdemar series or something else she had written. After a while, however, I had read so much of her stuff that it all sounded the same. Characters, settings, spells, plots, twists, even when she changed them, the sounded the same. And it was all too easy. Once the young protagonist had found their Gift, whatever it is, and knew what to do, they came across everything the needed with relative ease. Teachers were kind and would tease gently in that shamanistic Yoda kinda way and magic, if you knew where to find it, could be had anywhere. Like I said, it was just too easy. There were a couple that didn’t follow that trend however. One was set in our world and included the Osage tribe and that was interesting. The other was part of the Valdemar series and used the idea that the People were the Land and the Ruler represented both and it was his blood and link that connected the whole. That was interesting as well. I’ve forgotten the titles of both, I’m afraid. But, I quit reading her for a long while. A very long while. Most of her stories were just MOTS – More of the same.

I belong to one of those book clubs, in my case, the Science Fiction Book Club (www.sfbc.com) and got her third book by mistake because I think I forgot to decline the offer. But, it had been a while, so instead of sending it back, I ordered the first two books and set out to read them. Since she had paired with another writer (who, by various pieces of information I’ve found out is a ghost writer, wrote the Merlin series and is also an historian), I was hoping it wouldn’t be some of ye same olde, same olde, so to speak.

It was and it wasn’t. On the one hand, some of Lackey’s trademarks are there. She likes sentient creatures and uses them extensively. Let me rephrase that. She likes nonhuman sentient SMART-ASS creatures and included a few in this series. She also likes the whole long-lived, we joke gently peoples who live with the land and not against it who will teach the young’uns and others how to do things better. So, that is there. However, in working with Mallory, more complexity and energy has been infused into these story lines so these peoples and creatures are now used to good purpose and not just because Lackey likes them. For one, things don’t come easy in this series. Everything is fought for and has a price. People die. For another, I do believe that Mallory brings a lot of knowledge to the table of how medieval battles are fought and won or fought and lost. The details of what moving an army entails, commanding an army, logistics on how to use people to their best abilities (no, we can’t just let the Mages burn them to cinders, because the Mages need time to set the spell and will be the first targets, etc….), were all there. The details of actual fighting were much better as well. In addition, Mallory and Lackey create cultures that really are not just reflections of modern cultures, but their very own cultures. The Elven society is particularly interesting, and that is where the reader spends most of his or her time. It is clear that they did a lot of studying to build up an extensive and believable world with separate and distinct cultures that were appropriate to each set of peoples involved, but especially the Elves. I particularly enjoyed that society, though I would never be able to live in one of the Nine Cities myself, I think.

On the other hand, there were still things that bothered me. Some bothered me as the reader and some bothered me as a writer. One was the Villain and the entire group of villains. They seemed, almost at times, too stereotypical of what they were. And while the reader was advised of their treachery and malice in scenes from their point of view, it would have been better if it had been more personal. It would have been better if Lackey had sacrificed one her good guys so the reader could better feel just how bad the villains were. But that’s my opinion.

Also, while the first book seemed nearly flawless in its execution of story and plot, the second one was not as good, and in fact had a glaring plot problem that wasn’t taken care of until 2/3 of the way through, though it was eventually seen to. The third book even had sentences that weren’t quite right, as if one of the writers had changed them but forgotten to change all of it like “he sent them told them to go back.” It’s a stumbler, though you do know what it means. There were also a couple of places where it was obvious that proofers and editors had not caught stuff that should have been changed in the last draft. Person A has a secret that must get to Person B in a hurry and without anyone knowing. He writes a message and tells the messenger, Person C, whats in the message in case it gets lost. Person D (friend to A) comes to the aid of C and gets them to B in time, but is very curious about said secret, though no one will tell. Eventually, D sees A and gets secret from A. Okay, that’s fine, as it stands. However, the writers must have had something different in mind when they first wrote that last book because there are two distinct sections where there are big mistakes regarding that secret. 1) Person A talks about the secret to someone and says that D has told him this information (when it was A who had it in first place and told D). And later on D makes an oblique remark to A about how B had told him the secret (see above).

Another problem, again in the third book, was that I could see the gears turning. I could see where the writers had written themselves stuck somewhere and needed an out for their characters. It worked and everything, but it could have been a little more elegant, I think. And, to be fair, they didn’t make that out easy for their characters. There was a price. So in that way, it worked.

On the whole, I did enjoy this series. I think the first book is the best, though it’s good to read all of them to get the entire story. And it was good to re-visit a past favorite author and still enjoy her without getting bored or fed up by her. And I do want to see what other things James Mallory has done to see if I might like him better as well.

Obsidian Trilogy by Mercedes Lacky and James Mallory

Book 1- The Outstretched Shadow: http://www.amazon.com/Outstretched-Shadow-Obsidian-Trilogy-Book/dp/0765341417/sr=8-1/qid=1171079587/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-3914136-1029761?ie=UTF8&s=books

Book 2 – To Light a Candle: http://www.amazon.com/Light-Candle-Obsidian-Trilogy/dp/0765341425/sr=8-3/qid=1171079587/ref=pd_bbs_3/102-3914136-1029761?ie=UTF8&s=books

Book 3 – When Darkness Falls: http://www.amazon.com/When-Darkness-Falls-Obsidian-Trilogy/dp/0765302217/sr=8-2/qid=1171079587/ref=pd_bbs_2/102-3914136-1029761?ie=UTF8&s=books

So, this past week it’s been slow enough, even though I’m the only one answering the phones and others have been out of the office, that I thought I might, just MIGHT be able to write at work. So, I sent my Chapter V to myself to work.

Shoulda known better.

This is the one day that everyone has something special for me to do.

ACH!

More later.

Gotta good start on Chapter V yesterday.  I like to get things started in my notebook, say on the bus when I have room and space to scribble.  Then I move it to the computer and end up changing stuff; it’s almost a second draft – say a draft and a half.  Anyway, found myself writing one of those scenes where the person is looking into the mirror and that’s the description.  I was trying like anything to change it around and do it differently since that’s a big nono or at least a big uhoh, but realized that there is a major plot reason that this character is introduced via mirror.  So, unless I get too many groans, I think I’ll leave it like that.  But there really is a reason.  I just need to make sure it’s not too cliche.  That bit has been written and typed for Chapter V.

The other bit, about different characters (already introduced) has been written down mostly and is in my head, but I need to type it out.  Also realized that there may be some logistical problems at this point and things I think I need to address or account for but others may not feel the need.  Well, I guess I’ll see.