Home Alone 2: Day One

Wendi and Jo are on the road this week, which means I'm home alone. I spent most of the day Sunday using violent pratfall traps to ward off two inept bandits who were trying to rob our home, but I did manage to squeeze in some writing time and some Wii time. Here are the totals:

Days home alone: 1

Chapters written: 2

Pages written: 14

Wii golf high score: -3 on nine holes!

Home run challenge: 10 in a row

Mellow Mushroom pizzas eaten: 0

As you can see, I hit two personal bests yesterday - 14 pages written, which may be some kind of a record for me, and 3 under on golf, which is certainly a record, as my previous best on my own Wii was 2 over. I also discovered that our Wii is wireless! It picked up our in-house wireless internet connection, which is totally cool. I have yet to discover how to play others online, but I will. In the meantime I went to the Wii shop just for kicks, and learned you can buy and download old NES and Super Nintendo games. Oh mother of Mario, if they ever offer Super Dodge Ball I will never leave the house again. Why oh why did I ever get rid of my old Nintendo Entertainment System? Perhaps I knew that someday the Wii would let me re-live my former NES glory. Or maybe I just couldn't keep a fifth game system hooked to my television . . .

So today may prove a busy one. I'm expecting a call from our builder, telling me the contract for building our home is ready to sign. Then I need to collect a copy of our blueprints and go down to the building inspector's office to get a building permit. Why the rush? Construction on our new house is due to begin this week. Then later this afternoon I need to run down to Asheville to deliver Wendi's pinafore project to Lark Books. I think I'll also eat a Mellow Mushroom pizza while in town. You know, to be different.

But I've gotten up at what is for me a decent hour, and now I'm going to get busy so when the distractions come I'll already have some writing out of the way. I don't know if this is going to be a two chapter day or not, but that would be nice. I always look ahead at the chapter I have to write the next day, so I sort of wake up thinking about what's to come, and today should be a fun one. Horatio will confront a suspect, learn he's got the wrong guy, and then have a revealing chat with his mysterious ally, General Sternwood. (Fans of Chandler will recognize that name, borrowed from The Big Sleep.)

Those who know me as a writer know I outline everything before I write it, which allows me to look ahead like this. I wonder if other authors who outline do the same thing. I get excited when I know I've got a good chapter coming. As I go off to my office I'll tell Wendi - "I have to go kill someone today," or "today's the day Horatio gets the snot beat out of him." I kind of like thinking about it that way - enjoying the events as they unfold. Maybe authors who don't outline get that same sort of feeling after the chapter has been finished, like "Oh, today was fun - I ran over my main character with a golf cart!" But I've always been a pizza-is-half-eaten kind of guy. I'll take a whole pizza staring me in the face over a half-consumed one any day.