NaNoWriMo 2013 ~ Day 16 Update

Hey good people.  I just wanted to let you guys know that I am still in the NaNoWriMo game.  My total word count is 27235.  Like I mentioned earlier on Twitter, I am falling in love with my main character all over again.  Every time I read my outline and try to flesh out that part of the story, Sassy jumps in and tells me that's not it.  I mean, sometimes I'm headed in the right direction and sometimes I'm way off.  So, I'm letting her tell the story the way she wants to.

For those that don't understand where I'm coming from, I'm sure that sounds like a crazy person talking about an imaginary person whom she thinks is real.  There's more to it than that.  When you know your characters.  When you know what they will and won't do, you start to really see things through their eyes.

At this point I would normally leave an excerpt but I won't this time.  If you want an excerpt, leave me a comment, otherwise I'll keep them to myself.

I really believe in this story.  I haven't felt like this about anything I've written in a long time and it feels good. This story is meant to be the second book in a series I started back in 2009 but I think I like this one better than the first one.  Guess that means that when November is over, I'll let this story rest and finish editing the first one.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.  Until next time--I'll holler!

NaNoWriMo 2013 ~ Day 11

Happy Veteran's Day!! Yeah, I'm kind of late but better late than never. Anyway...

Today I wrote 1721 words.  If the kids did not get the same off day I could have easily written over 3000, maybe.  As of now, my total word count is 18577.  I can't believe I am so close to the mid point but I guess that's about right.  Almost time for the climax of the story.  Got a couple ideas for it but I'm sure I will be able to choose by the time I make it to 25000.

 Enough gibberish, give the people what they want--Excerpt please.

It was raining Jews and Gentiles Saturday morning.  I didn’t even go to Jerry’s funeral last year, I just couldn’t deal with all of the sad faces.  So Mrs. Long’s funeral was just like I imagined Jerry’s had been, if not worse.  Jason asked if I wanted him to go and I told him no.  Mrs. Alma demanded to go so I had no choice unless I wanted to start filing my own paperwork again. 

We sat in the back of the church.  I felt like running out the door but I held my composure because I didn’t want to leave without checking on Danny. 

When the service was over, it looked as if Cruela attempted to put her arms around Danny, but he backed away.  Black beard, Craig according to the obituary, grabbed Danny’s arm and said something that didn’t sit very well with my young friend.  I wasn’t surprised to see Danny immediately walk my way.

                “Thank you for coming.  I’ve got to get out of here before someone else ends up in a box.”

                “I understand how you feel.  Do you need anything?”

                “Just do what I asked you to do.  That’s all I need.”

Danny hugged me and walked out.  I caught Craig’s eye, he tapped his mom’s shoulder and gestured towards me.  Mrs. Alma waved and I blew them a kiss.  I think I saw fire and smoke coming out of their heads.  Mrs. Alma grabbed my hand, “Come on let’s get out of here.  White folks crazy.”

Unlike my secretary, I did not think all Caucasian people were crazy. Mrs. Long was very sweet and Mr. Hammer senior seemed to have had a good heart to look after his illegitimate child.  And Johnny Depp was beautiful, but I digress.

When I dropped Mrs. Alma off she asked if I wanted to come in for a while.  I was tempted until saw her daughter Paris walking down the porch steps.  I had already said we would get together in a couple of days to work on the bridesmaid dress; I still was psyching myself up for that meeting.

                “No thanks. I think I need to be alone for a while.” She looked at me and I already knew what that look meant before she said anything.

                “It wasn’t your fault.  I know it’s hard but you’re gonna have to move on.”

                “Yes ma’am, I’m trying to.”

                “That young man needs to step his game up.”  I burst out laughing.

My apartment was nice and cool when I walked in.  I was happy that I had forgotten to turn the air off before I left.  I kicked off the heels, and the other lady like garments followed.  I sat on the side of my bed, naked as the day I was born, and began to cry.  That was my second time crying in two weeks and it was really getting on my nerves but I couldn’t make it stop.  I took a quick shower and put on a muu muu.  The green light on my phone blinked continuously.  Jason wanted to know if I was okay. Aunt Essie wanted to know when I was coming to see her. Mother wanted to know why I didn’t buy her anything at the mall.  Melodye wanted to know why I never wanted to go on shopping sprees when she was around.  Marcus had called to see what I needed help with.  I laughed to myself.  All those people were vying for my attention but the one person I wanted was dead and gone and he got more attention than any of them.  I wondered if I needed to see a therapist.

                “Ha, that’s for crazy folks,” I said heading to the fridge to see what the drink of the night would be.  I chose the oldie but goodie—Crown and Coke.

I didn’t feel like cooking so I made a bologna sandwich with two slices of meat, mustard, lettuce, tomato and a few slices of pickle.  I poured myself a big cup of water as well.  Since I planned to go to bed soon, I took my goodies to my room and put them on the night stand. After a couple of hours of eating, drinking and watching the Oxygen channel I was too through.

No headache Sunday morning but I definitely had a crick in my neck from sleeping sitting up instead of lying down like I had some sense.  I had forgotten to call everyone back but Mrs. Alma called before I could decide who to contact first.

                “I was getting ready for church so I decided that I would check on the sick and shut-in.”

                “I’m good, thanks for caring.”

                “I was gonna ask have you been drinking but I don’t believe in asking stupid questions.  Have a blessed day.”

She hung up before I could respond, so I texted Jason to let him know I was fine and that he could come over whenever he got time.  Then I texted Melodye and told her the shopping was spur of the moment but that we could hang out whenever she wanted.  She could even bring her boo.  I also told her to remind Mother that I had bought her all kind of stuff for Mother’s Day.  Jason texted saying that he would be over in an hour, so I knew I didn’t have long to get rid of my funkiness.  I decided that I would wait until Monday to call Marcus back.  I would see if Jason wanted to meet my aunt before I called Aunt Essie. 

I was squeaky clean when Jason knocked on the door.  He looked at me up and down and smiled.  I guess he liked the outfit that I had on.  With everything that had been going on I had just gotten around to wearing some of the things Harmonye helped me pick out.

                “You look good.”

                “Thanks.  What did you want to do today?”

                “No plans, do you have something in mind?”

                “Would you like to meet my aunt?  If it weren’t for her we would have never met.”

                “I would love to meet her but does this mean…”

                “One day at a time sweetie.”

                “Yes, ma’am,” he saluted me.  I laughed and punched him in the shoulder and he howled like a sick dog.  One of my neighbors looked out to see what was going on.  I waved at her before Jason and I headed down the stairs. 

I called Auntie Essie before we headed her way just in case she was gone. 

                “Hello darling.  It’s about time I heard from you.  How is everything?”

                “I’m good Professor.  If you’re up for some company, I’m headed your way.”

                “You’re always welcomed darling, you know that.”

                “There’s someone I want you to meet.  You kind of fixed us up.”

                “Fixed you up? Darling you know I detest blind dates and I would never set you up on one.”

                “He was my computer repair guy.  He’s awesome.”

                “I would imagine he would have to be to have gotten your attention.  Well, he’s quite welcomed as well darling.”

                “See you in a few.”

I put up a thumbs up to Jason and he smiled, then he grabbed my hand and put one of my fingers in his mouth. “Tasty.”

                “Boy don’t you start nothing.”

NaNoWriMo 2013 ~ Day 10

Today I did 1682 which brings my total to 16856.  I could have written more but hey it's my off day so I played around a little.  I even long into the Twitter account I had made for my main character a few years ago. (@SassySandraJ --If you're interested.)  I'm not sure how often I'll be updating her account I guess it depends on how often she tell me to.

Here's an excerpt for today:

I was on the elliptical getting my sweat on when my cell phone rang.  Mrs. Alma had gotten to work by then so she grabbed it and brought it to me and put it on speaker.

                “Run, your mouth,” I said.

                “Sassy, um, I was calling to give you Ma’s funeral arrangements.” It was Danny. I hopped down off the elliptical and took the phone from Mrs. Alma.  I walked over to my desk and listened as he told me the information.  “Thanks, sweetie, I really appreciate you calling me.”

                “I could tell that you cared about Ma so I thought you should be able to say goodbye to her.”

I told him to let me know if he needed anything before we ended the call.  It had been years since I had been to a funeral and I wasn’t really looking forward to going to another one but I wanted to do it for Danny.

I went home and took another shower after my workout and made it back to the office just in time to meet Maurice Bryant in the parking lot.  He said that he recognized me from my Facebook page.  I guess the social media thing was paying off.

Maurice was a couple inches taller than I with almost the same build.  He was basically a male version of me and if I didn’t know any better I would have thought we were related.

                “You look a lot nicer in person.”

                “I’m not always that serious. That was my business face.”

We shared a laughed. Dang, we kind of sounded the same.  Creepy. Well they did say everyone had a twin. Maybe Maurice was mine, sort of.  I asked him if he had any more information to tell me about his ex-wife that I needed to know about.

                “Last I heard she was stripping at some club on Brooks Road,” he said, sitting down across from me.  He handed me a picture of her.  She kind of looked like Lisa Raye when she played Diamond on Player’s Club.  I am completely heterosexual but I couldn’t help but to notice how her behind swallowed the red g-string she wore.  “Her name is Diane but she goes by Lady D.”

                “Okay, so you’re trying to get custody of your kids. Boy and a girl?”

                “Two girls.  I don’t want Diane teaching them her nasty ways.  Don’t look at me that way.  I know you think I’m crazy.  I know most men would think that this is a man’s dream come true.  But I am a man of God and I think things like this should be kept in the bedroom.”

Okay, that answered my unspoken question.  He didn’t like the fact that his former wife was shaking her money maker for the masses.  I mean I could see him having an issue with the drugs and maybe even the alcohol.  As far as the dancing, I mean I’m sure other strippers have raised well rounded children. Maybe…

                “Will you take the case?”

                “I’ve never turned down a challenge.”

I printed out the contract for him to sign and handed it to him.  While Maurice read the paper work, I went on Facebook and updated my profile picture.  I hoped that maybe I would get more business if I had a happy photo.  Maurice put a cashier’s check on top of the signed form.  I did a double take at the check.

                “This is twice as much as my fee.”

                “Think of it as a tip for having to go into the den of iniquity.”

I shook his hand and walked him to the door.  “I’ll see what I can do but didn’t the judge know that Diane was doing all of these things when you got divorced?”

                “That’s just it.  I never had any proof and she showed up to court looking like the first lady of the church.”

                “What about the flyer?”

                “Someone just sent me that as a sick joke, as if I was interested in such vile things.”

I wanted to burst out laughing but I remained professional.  Brother Maurice wasn’t as saved as he said he was.  I’m sure he could have looked through photo albums or scrapbooks and found any picture of Diane but he chose to print out the booty picture.  Of course he may have just been trying to make a point.  

NaNoWriMo 2013 ~ Day 9

Since today is Saturday, I was hoping to type a whole lot but life got in the way.  Anyway, I did pretty good by getting in 1,692 words.  This brings my total for NaNoWriMo to 15,174.  It's all good baby baby. (In my Biggie voice)

He's an excerpt from what I wrote today:

I logged onto my computer and began doing some research on child custody laws in preparation for my meeting Friday.  Jason sent me a text saying not to worry about dinner because he would bring Papa John’s Pizza.  I told him that sounded great to me.

                “Why you got that big, goofy grin on your face?”

     I laughed, “What do you mean? “

                “I’ve been watching you the last couple of days.  Just now when you were messaging somebody, you all smiles all of a sudden.  You getting some ain’t you?” She said walking over to my desk.

                “Mrs. Alma!”

                “Oh yes, you’re getting some cause if you weren’t you would have just said no.  Maybe you’re about to follow your mom’s advice and have some babies,” this coming from a woman who didn’t have her first child until she was 41.           

                “No ma’am, it’s not even that serious.”

                “Well whatever, serious or laugh out loud funny, at least you’re getting some.”

                “Mrs. Alma, what am I going to do with you?”

                “Pay me,” she held out her hand.  I wrote out her check and handed it to her.  “And I know you’re getting it from a young man cause old men don’t text, they call.”

She had a point but I didn’t want to tell her that was not the only reason that he sent text messages.  Not that I was ashamed of him, I just didn’t feel like it was any of her business.  Plus, I still found it unusual that a guy that young and that handsome was unattached.  He was not the quiet choir boy type and he was definitely not a virgin based on that performance he gave me.

Jason knocked on my door at 6 pm.  I took the boxes of pizza and the drink from him so he could go back to his truck to get the video game.  He asked me if I wanted to eat first or play the game first. I gave him a duh look and he laughed and went over to the sink to wash his hands.  I washed my hands when he was done and pulled plates and glasses out of the cabinet.

We talked a bit while we ate.  He was so animated when he talked that I was sure if he wasn’t deaf he could of definitely been an actor.

                “I had to go to this lady’s house today and boy was her breath stinky.  She was breathing all in my face.”

                “She wanted to kiss you,” I laughed

                “With all that lipstick and her huge teeth, it was creepy like she was gonna eat my head.”

    “Oh my goodness.  Yeah, she was gonna eat your head alright.”

    “I just didn’t know why she had to get so close to me.  I was like ewwwww.”

    “Maybe she thought that was the only way you would understand what she's saying.”

    “Would you want someone with hot and musty breath mixed with coffee, cigarette smoke, and munchies breathing on you?

   “Hell to the no. That’s gross.”

                “For most people I would need 5 feet of personal space but for her I needed 15 feet.”

I was laughing so hard at him that I almost fell out of my chair.  I’m glad I hadn’t encountered many funky people in my line of work but of course anything could happen.

After dinner we played all kinds of games. I was kind of a sore loser so every time I got sick of getting killed or beat up I asked him if we could play another game.  He didn’t seem like he was irritated but I began to irritate myself after the fifth one.

                 

NaNoWriMo 2013 ~ Day 8

I wrote 1728 words today so my total word count is a whopping 13482. Get it, girl!

Since I will have a 3 day weekend, I'm hoping to write a lot.  Not sure if I'll be able to do that but wishful thinking is fun.

Here's today's excerpt:

My mother of all people was sitting behind my desk when I walked in.  I looked over at Mrs. Alma.

                “Don’t say a word to her.  If you had called and said hey, kiss my ass or something, I wouldn’t be here.”

                “Mom, I have work to do.”

                “You always have work to do but I need to talk to you.”

I just stood there and sighed. Mrs. Alma said she had some errands to run and left.  My mom and I never had the best of relationships because she sent me to live with my aunt when I was very young and I never knew why.  I wasn't the oldest or the youngest so I didn’t get it.  I always wanted to ask her but never wanted to open that can of worms.  We have at least been on speaking terms a few times out of the year but I had been avoiding her for the last year.

                “Have you talked to Carl?” Here we go.

                “No ma’am I haven’t and I don’t want to.”

                “Why not he’s a good man and he’s still in love with you?”

                “Oh yeah, I guess you would think a guy that likes to play ping pong with your face a good man.”

                “Girl, grow up.  Everyone gets into it sometimes.  That’s part of life.  You’re not getting any younger, Sandra.  You need a husband. What about kids?”

                “I am not in a hurry.  I want what I want and I will not settle for just any old dude.”

                “Well when you’re old and lonely you’re gonna wish you had listened to me.”

                “Are you done?”

                “You are the most spoiled, the most ungrateful…”

                “Mom, please. You said what you had to say, but I don’t have to do what you want and I most certainly don’t have to agree with it.  I’m an adult.  Why would you wait over 30 years to be a mother to me?”

She leaned back in my chair like I had slapped her.  “What are you trying to say?  I’ve always been there for you.”

                “Really mom really? Last time I checked Aunt Essie was the one who read to me at night.  Aunt Essie was the one that fed me.  Aunt Essie was the one that talked to me about my period and boys and birth control and every single thing I learned is because of Aunt Essie.  Where were you Mom?”

                “I saw something in you that I couldn’t nurture.  I didn’t have the book smarts and probably not enough common sense to help you be who you were meant to be.”

I thought that was a bullshit answer but I didn’t say anything.   Mom couldn’t stand the awkward silence so she got up and walked to me. 

                “I love you Sandra.  I know people are not supposed to have favorite children but you are my favorite.  If I had kept you, you would have ended up like your other sisters.  You and the twins are the best kids I’ve ever had.”

Still not a great response but I guessed that was the best she could do.  So I hugged her and thanked her for coming to see me.

After Mom left, I wanted to call Carl and give him a piece of my mind but I didn’t feel like being bothered.  I texted Jason instead.  He responded back asking me what I was up to.  I told him that I needed a stress reliever and he asked if I wanted to go to the gym.  That wasn’t exactly the type of workout I had in mind but I took him up on the offer.