Update Time...

Well, Devlin's Story is complete and up on SOL. And, in the last month, I've gone back over it, doing the little things, like line-edits, converting em-dashes, ellipses, and so on. It's in much better shape than it was before. I won't update what's on SOL, but I might go to one of the other sites. We'll see.

Engage the Enemy More Closely - the Josie Davenport story. Josie, when I blazed through a reread of Firestar, Setosha and Lexeon, was always the one picked last, but who clearly out-classed her opponents. She was always included as an afterthought, except by two people: Edita Macquarrie, and (more significantly) Corey Andersen (if you're going to have only two friends in high places, Corey and Edita are the ones, almost as good as Admiral Hughes). I'm up to Chapter 3, and I'm workshopping this one.

Firestar - for more than a month I was stuck. The past was keeping a dead hand on me about this story. Finally(!) I decided to start it at graduation from Command & Staff. I just started Chapter 2, and we'll see. I have a pretty good idea about the plot.

Danielle - a new one in the Three Valleys universe, except Danielle does not partake of the culture there (and is mostly unaware of it). This is really a look at the whole Project story scene from an outsider. Danielle is a teenager from Tiburon California (Zero Phase). She is coming off her second abortion for being sexually active in high school without protection of any kind (she has or has had several of the more common STD's, but not AIDS). Her parents (who know more of what's going on that she realizes) send her to her Aunt and Uncle who live in Valley's End in Three Valleys. There she gets a purpose/interest in life. Chapter 3 is nearly in the books.

Different World - is on hold. Other stories are coming first at the moment.

So what happened these last seven weeks? Well, we went on a cruise around the time of Thanksgiving. Princess Cruises to St. Maarten/St. Martin, and St. Thomas. Had a blast. Got a lot of rewriting done (mostly Devlin). St. Thomas convinced us to seriously look into moving there in later years. I may or may not post an account of the cruise. St. Maarten was...interesting. There were the two or so blocks of tourist facade, and then poverty. It wasn't as bad as a Third World country, but by comparison St. Thomas was tremendously more populous. The culture/political climate account for a lot of that.

The USVI are basically mountaintops sticking up out of the ocean. They're very steep in a lot of places. At it's highest (1,547 feet above sea level) the temperatures were pleasant, while at sea level it was very warm. We'll have to try them again without the cruise ship.

About Princess Cruises. Holland America seemed to cater to the older folks. I'm in my late 50s, and I felt young. Norweigan - I think they have undercooked food, and while I didn't notice anything I disliked, Karel had issues. Princess gave the feeling of pampering you (even if the waiter at dinner, Ernesto, tried to overfeed us), without it being overwhelming or cloying. I think NCL, now that I think about it, tried too hard.

What's on tap? - More work on Firestar and Engage. And maybe a short story. We'll see.