The 47th day of Isobel

My darlings! OK, I fell down on the job. I was going to post everyday, to keep me motivated, but then the book, this delicious book, took over.

First, a shot of my hero:

101 pages in the last week (and I took a day off).

Sunday: 17 pages

Monday: 15 pages

Tuesday: 15 pages

Wednesday: 15 pages

Thursday: 16 pages

Friday: nada

Saturday: 13 pages

Sunday: 14 pages

I have no idea if that ads up to 101 but I was at 150 on my last post and I'm at 251 today. I'm going to make my deadline! Today I wrote angry, violent, powerful sex, and was so exhausted I had to take a two hour nap. Hey, it's a tough job but someone's gotta do it.

I'm listening to Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol, Fidelity by Regina Spektor, Lovers in a Dangerous Time by Bruce Cockburn. If I can do another 100 pages next week I'll be ready for the final push (I always finish books in a mad rush).

When I told Jenny Crusie I was doing 15 pages a day she said "that's four thousand words. Don't hurt yourself."

But I'm thriving. I love love love this book!

12 Days of Isobel day 6 and 7

My darlings! I've been squeezing out new pages, slowly but surely, now hovering around page 150 (with 300 more to go in two weeks -- I don't think so). The cool thing is, even though the pages aren't piling up the way they should, the big picture is falling into place. Reno is going to take the damaged child soldier under his wing and teach him video games and cursing. Isobel's tightly controlled emotions are going to break through her icy demeanor and melt all over the place.
She's going to try to kill the hero because he won't give her a cigarette. Good times.
And sooner or later we're going to find out exactly who our hero, the Most Dangerous Man on Earth according to Time Magazine, really is.
In two weeks? Yikes!

12 Days of Isobel day 5 and 6

My darlings! Blogger was being a pain in the butt and wouldn't let me post yesterday, but I truly did work. 5 pages, plus another two today, which is pretty pathetic, but I know where I'm going, and it's going to be grand. And Saturday my darling son returns to college so no one will bother me. I'm afraid it's looking like motel time, but I'm fighting it. I don't want to go away, but I don't think I'm going to have any choice.
Just think of me as one of the Doozers on Fraggle Rock, working my tale off (though usually I'm the All Knowing Trash Heap, or Madame Heap to you).

Twelve Days of Isobel (day 4)

My darlings! Day four started out badly with a weepy phone call from my daughter, a sick dog, an overdue bill and a bad temper. But I did manage to get a pathetic two and a half pages written. I ought to write more tonight -- I'm now in the present, Isobel has been drugged and boy, is she pissed off. She has yet to see Killian without his disguise, and I figure there's betrayal a-brewing. I guess some days are more productive than others.
Isobel is interesting because she's as in-control as my previous heroes, whereas my heroines tend to be more vulnerable. And yet we know the price it's costing her. She's cool, unflappable, but sooner or later she's gonna flip out, and it's going to be extremely interesting.
She's already killed the hero once (or so she thought). I'm guessing she's going to try again.
Which will, of course, lead to delicious sex.
Hey, the price of true love is extremely steep.

12 Days of Isobel day 3

My darlings! Well, I skipped Saturday because I figure I only have to work 6 days a week, and I wasn't quite sure where I was going. I sat and stared at the computer and got frustrated, so instead I went up to bed and thought about it, and Sunday I wrote just enough to get myself started. I decided I was going to finish up the story of Isobel and Killian in the past, so I can just move forward (except for some extraneous detail that'll need to be covered). So I wrote a page yesterday, setting them up, but the internet was being too wonky to post. (I only have dial-up -- there's nothing short of internet for faster service and I can't afford the initial outlay).
Today is my official Day 3 (I'm not counting Saturday) and it's a little after 1 pm and I've written seventeen pages. She's shot Killian, thinking she's killed him, he's ready to shoot her (the book opens with this scene, so I'm not giving anything away).
A major plot point has been handled, and now I can keep moving on.
Because Isobel is about to realize that Killian (now Serafin) is in disguise, and that he knows exactly who she is. And all sorts of fabulous stuff is about to happen.
The sex ended up quite interesting. Well, the actual sex in the car, brief and hot and sweaty, was just fine. But the next three days we don't really hear about. All we know is they were spent in an erotic daze, that he kept her drugged (I have such nice heroes) and he didn't let her touch him. I don't know why -- that just popped up. He spent the time having sex with her, but by not letting her be more than passively drugged he was able to keep his emotional distance.
How very interesting.
That's what I love about writing -- the stuff that can come up.
Tomorrow we're back in Algeria, Kililan/Serafin emerges from the shower, and life gets more complicated.

The Twelve Days of Isobel

My darlings! Jenny Crusie does this fabulous thing on her blog every now and then. She'll call it The Twelve Days of (Current Heroine) and post each day on her progress. Since I've got to write like the wind I thought I'd do the same thing for fabulous Isobel. It might be fun for you guys, and it'll keep my nose to the grindstone, my fingers to the keyboard (and/or my pen to the Clairefontaine and my mouth to the Dragon Naturally Speaking).

So we're finally at page 100, and I'm carrying three stories at a time, interweaving them. Isobel and Killian in the past, ca 1989, Isobel and Killian in the present (eighteen years later) and Peter, Genevieve, and Reno in the present. The story in the past will be finished, so we know how they got where they are today, and Isobel and Killian will meet up with Peter et al, bringing everyone together, including, possibly, Bastien Toussaint. It's up to him whether he wants to turn up or not.

I'm doing this instinctively -- later I'll pull it apart and figure out what goes where, but at this point the Girls in the Basement are telling me which story to go with, and right now we're on the verge of the first love scene in Killian and Isobel's past.

Which takes place in a Citroen 2 CV (also known as a deux chevaux, or a two horse, or The Duck, or a 2 hair (because cheveux is hair and chevaux is horse and I'm a smart-ass).

Here's what they look like:

Which is going to make it pretty tricky, since Killian's about 6'2 and it's their first time. But Killian's a very inventive man, as well as a liar, a manipulator, an assassin, a man with more secrets than even Isobel can imagine. He'll manage very well indeed.

The seats don't recline, it's in the middle of the night by the side of a deserted roadway in Southern France, and it's pouring rain. I haven't decided whether they'll turn on the radio and hear Charles Aznavour (whose voice could romance a 90 year old woman with shingles) or whether it'll happen in rough, sweaty silence.

Oh, yum. I really love my work.