"Love is a ghost train..."

                                                  "I took the cannon ball down to the ocean

                                                  across the desert from the sea to shining sea

                                                  I rode a ladder that climbs across the nation

                                                  50 million feet of earth between the buried and me"

                                                                                                                

-- Adam Duritz, Counting Crows "Ghost Train"

from August and Everything After

                                                        
Always loved that lyric, especially in the version of the song on Across a Wire.

But believe it or not, that was not the inspiration for the new (and getting rather long) story.  It was actually the second side of The Joshua Tree that got me going on this one, everything from "Red Hill Mining Town" to "Mothers of the Disappeared", "In God's Country" and yes, "One Tree Hill".  One of my all time favorite albums.  Hopefully, the story is doing it justice.  I'll leave that up for debate, at a later time and place....

Spent much of Saturday morning and afternoon working on the latest draft, which is now about 18,000 words in length.  Finally framed up the first seven or eight, okay nine scenes for the submission version.  Spent an agonizing couple of hours doing that, and didn't get to spend as much time editing and re-writing as I would have liked.

No those nine scenes don't add up to the 18,000 words, only 14,000, which poses two separate issues:

1.) The story is far longer than the typical 5,000 - 6,000 words most 'zines are looking for...

And 2.) I've already written 4,000 words beyond my own "line in the sand" on this one.

Both of those are potentially good problems to have.  A little more editing should remedy the first, and what writer doesn't need a little more editing?  And the second, well it's always good when things are flowing.  It makes the writing so much more enjoyable.

And with that, I'll end with another quote from Adam Duritz:

"Love is a ghost train rumbling through the darkness"

What a great song!

Busy week writing the "train"!

Last week was a great, but very, VERY busy week...



There were a few "new" items to "explore", such as this 1981 Mexican pressing (on light blue vinyl!) of Led Zeppelin's second album.

And an imported (from Isreal) "Sample only - Not for sale" version of Houses of the Holy.

And a vinyl copy of the BBC Sessions.  In other words, a great week for music!

I also tried my hand at making biscuits from scratch (again), this time with much more appealing results.

And the plum tree wanted to show off too!

But you were probably expecting an update on the "ghost train" story, huh?  Patience my friends, patience.

The typed version is well over 10,000 words at this point, with another 2,000 - 3,000 words in the form of handwritten notes and inserts; AND...  Every day I seem to add about a 1,000 more.  The plan is to start editing some of what's currently written down into the final "short story" version later this week (with the goal in mind of staying around 8,000 words for the final copy). 

After that, the objective is to simply hang on and see where the "train" takes me.

Yes, I do mean that the way it sounds.  This story has a mind of its own.  It really feels like I'm along for the ride on this one (pun intended). 

Anyway...  that being said, I do have an end in mind, but to get there...  well that's the fun part, isn't it?

Listening, reading, watching.

I've been doing a lot of work -- mostly revisions -- to my "ghost train" story!  But I still found time for some...  okay, A LOT of listening...

   Ben Folds Five - The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner and The Sound of the Life of the Mind

      Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape and Wasting Light

   Led Zeppelin - I, IV, Houses of the Holy, The Song Remains the Same and the BBC Sessions

      Pat Metheny - New Chautauqua, As Fall Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls, First Circle and Orchestrion

   Radiohead - Amnesiac, In Rainbows and King of Limbs

      Porcupine Tree - Octane Twisted

   Rush - A Farewell to Kings, Permanent Waves, Moving Pictures and Clockwork Angels

      U2 - The Unforgettable Fire and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb

Some (light) reading...

And...  Am I really the last person in America to get on the Walking Dead bandwagon?  Not sure where I rank it on my list of all time faves, but so far, so good!

Handwritten draft

Yes... that is a handwritten draft of my latest short story...

Finished the first - and very rough draft - of the "ghost train" piece.  I'm thinking this one will come in around 7,500 to 8,000 words when typed and edited.  Yes, that makes it a long one!

And yes...  that is a blank page (with a few muddled notes) there on the right!  The editing and "re-writing" process is very much under way.  I would normally wait and let things "cool off" a bit before slicing and dicing, but...  I have a semi- self-imposed deadline that I'm trying very earnestly to hit!  The target publisher for this one closes to open submissions on a certain date.

I will also have good news about another story to post here soon.  Received an e-mail accepting it for publication, but don't have the details as to when exactly that will be...  It could be very soon, so...  Stay tuned!