Number Four, In Which the Author Discusses an Incomplete Hastag

I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.  ~Douglas Adams

If you have been reading this blog or following me on Twitter, you know that I attempted an idea I called #writehome for my return ride from Seattle. The plan was to take the time of the flight to write an entire short story (about 5,000 words or so). Being relatively new to applying deadlines, and for myriad reasons (including a long ascent, a late flight, and the effect of Lorazepam that I take for flight-related anxiety), I was not successful in completing this story. I also incorrectly assumed that I would be able to update to Twitter via mms on my phone during the flight, but there is no signal for flights and thus, no updates were possible. Duh.

Anywho, I've been sitting on the story now for a couple of days. Part of the reason is that I started a new job on Monday (yay the life of a working stiff and writer), the other is pure laziness. I plan to work on this over the next couple days, assuming I get the opportunity (like now, I suppose) and then I was thinking I would attempt to get it into some form of literary magazine. This is a story concerning a minor character from one of my novel ideas, and it fits mostly into the fantasy category (you could call it Americana fantasy, Indiana Jones-style fantasy, etc.). It is set in the Columbia River gorge of Oregon, which is a place we visited during the trip and I thought would be fitting for a story. I'm enjoying it so far, and think it should be a fun read when it's done. I'll keep you all updated.

In other news, the trip was great and we had a lot of fun. We saw a great deal of Seattle and some of greater Washington and Oregon, including Astoria and the Goonies house like I mentioned before. I'm thinking of setting a short story in the Pike Place Market, but I have to work out exactly how I will do this and what the elements will be. In other words, it's in the works. Also, I'm going to start planning a weekly word count completion of 10,000 words. Not a whole lot, but with other jobs, it will at least move me along.