Circles Excerpt, Chapter 1

Certain sections of the novel I'm currently working on (Circles) are coming together nicely. I've decided to give Six-Sentence Sunday a try and put some excerpts out there for anyone who's interested.

Here's the first. Nothing happens in this bit, but I really like how this description of Leon came out.

To look at him, Leon seemed the epitome of the "scary black man." The white teeth of his wide smile gleamed Cheshire-like from his ebony face, his nose so broad that his nostrils seemed permanently flared in anger. His huge eyes, like coals dropped in fresh snow, could not be intimidated into looking away. His short, curly black hair had receded to the crown of his head so that light reflected from his scalp like the halo of Saint Peter, standing ready to cast judgment.

All this sat atop a body that might once have held up the sky — broad, bulging, and solid as granite. He was built like a linebacker — a linebacker you wouldn’t want to piss off.

Comments and critiques are hoped for and welcomed!

Good Intentions 2, Me 0

I was so relieved when February was finally over that it didn't occur to me that, holy crap!, February is over already! And guess what I didn't do in the last twenty-nine days.

If you said "get laid," well . . . you're right, but that's not what I'm going for.

What I didn't do was write a clarinet solo, which was the second of my twelve resolutions for 2012.If you remember, I didn't make it through my January plans, either — and I'm still plugging away at Infinite Jest.

They say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. There's an expressway to the devil's door with my name on it.

I did manage to get about eight measures sketched out — maybe 15 seconds of music — but not something I could call a song. Somehow I always expect composing to be easier than it is (especially considering this was an unaccompanied solo).

But, like reading Infinite Jest, I'm not going to give up on this one.

Time doesn't stop, so I must press onward to my March resolution, and that's to finally finish the first draft of my novel, currently called Circles. I'm currently about 40,000 words into it (though some of that is in longhand), and probably need at least another 40,000. Back in December, I thought I would work with NaNoWriMo-like focus and urgency to get this thing finished by the 31st. That is still my intention, though now I'm already a day behind.

It can be done, assuming I can figure out exactly how I want the thing to end. And assuming I can figure out how to kill one of the main characters.

Speaking of Circles, keep your eyes open here for some excerpts soon. I plan to start participating in Six Sentence Sunday to get some feedback and hopefully drum up some support and (dare I say it?) an audience.

The other important thing about March is what happens on the Ides. On the 15th, after given Caesar a few good puncture wounds over breakfast, I'll be giving an audioconference about copyediting for the Internet as part of an ongoing series of editing-related audioconferences from Copyediting.com. If you've got the desire (and the coin) to learn more about how copyediting content intended for the web is different from copyediting for print, go sign up.

Please.

As weird as it seems to me that someone would pay money to hear me talk, I promise you'll learn something.

Take that, audioconference!
Image via Wikipedia

Today's word: Grillstravaganziculuraristiclyishous

But first, a personal note: February is finally over! This has been one of the busiest and most stressful months — and especially this last week — that I've been through in a long time. But I made it through, and I am out the other side and can breathe and write and relax again!

But on to today's word.

Presidents' Day (And Its True Meaning)

Four stories beneath the White House — under ten feet of reinforced concrete, two levels of decades-old bomb shelters, and two feet of solid lead — Barack steps out of an elevator into a short, narrow hallway. The gray walls are empty and unbroken. In three strides he reaches the locked steel door at the end of the hall and presses his hand against the biometric scanner embedded into the wall. It beeps, the door clicks, and he pushes the door open and steps through.

Conversations stop abruptly and all eyes turn to the man entering the room.

Foster Care Is Hell

A three-word Wednesday limerick. Today's words are angelic, foster, and ruin.

Such a change in this boy who, now mild,
Was once so sadistic and wild
Until through foster care
Came this angelic pair
Who just ruined poor Lucipher's child.

Today's Word: pantisocracy

pantisocracy: Government by the pantsless.

But seriously, you probably recognize the -ocracy from words like plutocracy (government by the wealthy), theocracy (rule by a religious authority), and my favorite kakistocracy (government by the worst possible people). So -ocracy indicates a form of government.

Amazon Reviews

A three-word Wednesday limerick. Today's words are control, razor, and flesh.

How to Get Noticed on Amazon without Writing Your Own Book

The trick to writing powerful reviews of
Other people's work can be allusive.
The ones that really mesh
Are like razors through one's flesh:
Hostile, uncontrolled, raw, and abusive.

Today's Word: splanchnic

Image via Wikipedia

I admit that this word caught my eye while I was flipping through the dictionary. I had intended to write about sempiternal, but I'm getting some contradicting definitions from some of my sources.

To me, splanchnic sounds like some Cold War–era Russian ballet style, but it really means "of or relating to the viscera," and comes ultimately from Greek splanchnikos.

What I like about the word is that wonderful cluster of  consonants in the middle. That cluster appears to be shared only by the word staunchness (and Frenchness, if you want to include that as a word).

I looked for some other words that come from the same root, and I couldn't find any, which could make splanchnic, or at least its root, a hapax legomenon.

This word, like many of the oddest-sounding words, is used more often than not in medical fields. The image here, for example, shows the greater splanchnic nerve.

I don't know about you, but I would like to see this word get more popular usage. I would love, for instance, to see Roger Ebert use the word splanchnic while describing the gore in the next Saw movie (how many are we up to now?) when he reviews it.

Then again, that sounds more like something David Foster Wallace would do.

[Almost immediate update: I should have guess that James Harbeck had already taken a taste of splanchnic over at Sesquiotica. His connection of splanchnic to messy-sounding words like splatter and splat is splotch-on spot-on.]

Jerry and Gary, Conjoined Twins

"I have good news and bad news."

Diane inhaled deeply, emptied her lungs slowly, a tenuous calm settling over her. She had known that the surgery to separate her fiancé Gary from his conjoined twin brother Jerry would be risky, but the doctor's assurances had propelled them this far. Now she was just seconds away from learning what kind of future she and Gary might have.

"Give me the good news first," she said.

2012 Resolutions, Month One: Infinite Jest, Definite Failure

I failed at my first New Year's resolution.

I even failed at the revised version of my first resolution.

I had originally planned to read both Infinite Jest and REAMDE in January. After realizing that finishing just one of those would itself be a chore, I revised the resolution to reading just Infinite Jest.

February started today, and I've read 437 pages (including end notes) of Infinite Jest. A great number of novels don't have page numbers in the 400s, and for many others, p. 437 would put me just a couple hours' reading away from finishing.