Character File: Alicia Bowmyn

Yesterday evening I puttered around on a Manga-Avatar site, building sketches of all my characters from I Had To Fall. As a graphic designer, I like visual things. I thought it would be most excellent if I could draw out my characters and always have them as references, helping to make them more real when I'm writing about them. (By the way, if you're thinking, "you're a graphic designer, just illustrate them yourself!" then you should know that I'm not a graphic artist, but designer. I'm a strictly stick-figure kinda illustrator.)

So I avatar'd all my characters. Then I thought, wouldn't it be cool to do a blog post tomorrow as a character study, and show off one of the new avatars, along with a description?

Things just snowballed from there.

I didn't post this morning because I thought, hey, instead of just slapping the avatar image in with a description, what if I made like a faux case-study sort of thing? That would be cool. But for that I needed some of my design software, which I don't have at home. So I packed up my lunch an hour early and headed into the office, where I promptly started designing a folder to build the character content into.

By the time I was supposed to start work I'd decided it would be best to make the character study like a sort of police report / case file, complete with the Hunter's emblem at the top and a hand-written-in report on what the Hunter's might know about the character. Plus maybe they'd found a scrap of paper (like an excerpt from a book about said character...?) to put in the case file too.

So I spent my lunch hour finishing everything up. It's not my best work (this isn't really my kind of design anyway) but with a little more tweaking I think I'll be happy. So without further ado, here's the character study for Alicia:

So, thoughts anyone? Improvements I could make? Because I'm going to do these studies for all the characters, plus some studies on each race specifically. I have to kill time on my lunch break anyway, right?

Hahaha...

S.

Tuesday Tunes: Let it Die

After a week and a half long bender, yesterday went pretty well. I managed to dialogue and then prose a new chapter (called "9B" for now) though it ended up being shorter than most of my chapters, at about 2K where I'm usually around 5K. I'm not really sure what to do about it at this point. I think the content justifies its own chapter, so for now I'll leave it alone. Once I get this revision done I'll skim back through chapters 9 - 11 and see how 9B best fits in.

So I finished 9B, which was my goal for yesterday. Then I also managed to jump ahead and pretty much finish off the edits to chapter 10, which put me ahead a day. Which is great, because I'm sure some kinda nonsense will come up during the week, or next weekend, that puts me behind a day. Then I'll be right back on track ;)

Tonight's goal is to dialogue chapter 11. This scene used to be fairly simple and low-key: Deyl had abandoned her friends (for reasons discussed in 9 & 9B) and now she finds them and rejoins them. They're pissed with her at first, but they quickly reconcile and get back on the road. I've decided to rewrite it with more action and more emotion. Instead of Deyl just explaining to her friends why she left, and why they should take her back, she shows them why they need her. They're in trouble now, providing the reader with another view of the Hunters, and Deyl's going to have to rescue them. Whatever their feelings were about her abandoning them, this rescue should prove where her loyalties really lie. Well, we'll see how it goes tonight.

And part of dialoguing an action scene means I'll be listening to my aptly-named "Action" playlist. So for today's Tuesday Tune here is the Foo Fighter's Let it Die, one of the songs from that list:

S.

Excerpt from Chapter 2

Today is Sunday (in case you didn't know). I'm tired after a long day of editing. It was good, lots of sunshine and I made it through the content edits of chapters two through five, but I am tired. So today I just have a little excerpt for you, from chapter two.

To set the scene, Alicia is trying to convince Deyl not to head back into the city where she was attacked by Hunters the day before.

"Listen," Alicia said, her voice snapping me back to reality, "if they don't already know where you were staying you're only more likely to lead them to it. How do you know it was even you they were after? Maybe they were trying to get someone else, and thought snagging you would lead them there? Hell, maybe it's your friend they're after."

"Maybe," I answered noncommittally. Not bloody likely though. Luke was human. Maybe it had been a random Hunt, maybe I had done something in the grocery store without realizing it. Or maybe someone else from The Depot had been captured, and spilled the beans on the rest of us? I rubbed the sore spot above my ear again. Red had ripped a decent chunk of my hair out by the roots, and it friggen hurt. 

My hair. Fuck.

My DNA!

Panic, sharp and scorching hot, ripped through me. I felt Ed pushing at the barriers in my mind, felt her rage as a mirror to my sudden fear, and forced her back. They weren’t just Hunting me. They were after my fucking genetics. That was why Red had run, instead of fighting. Hunters never backed down from a fight.

This was bad. This was really fucking bad.

So that's Deyl's "aha" moment, the complication that drives the whole story. Deyl's got a genetic secret, and she can't let it get out. Thoughts?

Hope everyone out there had a great weekend, and that we all survive another Monday!

S.

Tuesday Tunes: Them Crooked Vultures

I really should look back through my posts and see if I've already done this song... but I'm lazy, and I'm 90% sure I haven't.

Them Crooked Vultures only has one, self-titled album out there. But it's an awesome chunk of music. That being said, it's a little too laid back for my usual writing tunes. Great for editing to, though! Very relaxing when focusing on those troubling logic problems. And for whatever reason, I really love this album on repeat while I'm designing at the office.

Not now, chief. I'm in the fucking zone.

And I realize I haven't posted since last week's Tuesday Tunes, which isn't very good of me, considering that I recently resolved to post more often... oh well. I made it back to Calgary in time for the weather to turn shitty again, making me wonder if everyone lied about the nice weather they had during Stampede. Hm?

On my return I found my garden in total disarray, but still growing strong. Mostly. I definitely have a slug problem. Let me know if you have toads to sell or give away. The strawberry patch is thriving, and I've found more time for editing than I'd anticipated.

I've finished the simple and easy revisions: the little problems like repetition, grammar, word choice, etc. that my critique partner pointed out. These were mostly changes that I didn't have to spend much time thinking about, it was a simple matter of keeping what I had, smacking my forehead at obvious mistakes and changing it, or a short deliberation and then writing something new or cutting something entirely.

But along the way I've made notes on the bigger issues. These are going to take some serious think-time and list-making. Like introducing Deyl's split personality, which I had halfway decided to cut but my critique partner has convinced me to include. Which means the dual personality parts need to be beefed up, and that affects the entire story in a lot of different ways. I'm also taking another look at how quickly Deyl's knowledge and use of power develops, and thinking about slowing it down. Seems to make more sense if it takes her longer. I also need to clarify a few things throughout the entire work, like what Deyl's weaknesses are and how the fae use their powers. All of these things will affect larger parts of the story, so I want to be sure I have a road map for the changes before I make them.

Since my critique partner is in China until the end of the month, I'll move on to the list-making process while she's gone, and see what I can come up with. Onward!

S.

Big Changes

Man, I'm tired.

No desk job for me today. It was Emergency Graphic Design Only - the rest of my day was spent in the production department, on my feet, trimming graphics and installing displays.

But I still managed to get through chapter nine of my editing process tonight, despite the exhaustion... and yes, I am clearly a wuss.

I was never really happy with the ending for chapter nine. I've re-written it at least twice already, but I still wasn't happy. My beta reader also ran into some confusion there, which just reinforced my opinion that it needed work. I had a wonderful 'Aha!' moment this evening, when I came up with a solution.

My MC, Deyl, suffers from a bit of a Dr. Jeckyll / Mr. Hyde thing, though she is fully aware of the existence of Mr. Hyde. I've struggled with incorporating this alternate personality since my very first rewrite, and I had pretty much decided to cut it altogether. However, there were still some vague references to it scattered throughout the novel, probably because I liked the idea and couldn't really let it go.

My beta reader liked it. Wanted to see more of this Mr. Hyde personality. Bolstering my resolve, I've made comments during this edit on how / when / where I can work Mr. Hyde back in, and make it better for doing so.

And one of these spots is the end of chapter nine. I've just made comments for now, but I am definitely excited to rewrite and see if and how this all comes together. With any luck I'll have chapter ten edited tomorrow, at which point I think I'll go back and put together a more cohesive rewrite plan-of-action, with some questions for my beta...

Hey, how's it going?

Well, I'm back.

So far, 2012 hasn't gone much like I expected it to. A lot of things have come up—some good, some very bad—and I haven't gotten nearly as much writing done as I'd like. In the early part of the year I wrapped up my first draft of my YA novel, SPEECHLESS and moved back into editing mode for my contemporary fantasy, I HAD TO FALL.

That was the end of February. That was also when tragedy struck my family and everything else ceased to matter for a while—I needed time to grieve. Just when I thought I was starting to recover from the loss, a new problem cropped up and I set aside everything else to help some friends through a tough, emotional situation.

Hopefully, though these the experiences were difficult to endure, I'll have gained something from them that will help me become both a better person, and a more well-rounded writer.

So I've jumped back into the editing process of I HAD TO FALL, working with my critique partner to start revisions. I spent a good part of my evening just importing her comments into Scrivener. Once those ducks were all in a neat little row I dove into chapter one, reviewing her notes and starting a list of issues she'd brought up and how I might address them, along with some of my own ideas and issues that have cropped up in the back of my mind while this project has been on the backburner. All in all, it was another good day. One at a time.

Tomorrow (as long as this cold I seem to be catching doesn't lay me out...) I'll try to make it through the next few chapters of her notes.

Shiny & Sparkly & New

I made a nice new little cover for my fantasy novel, I HAD TO FALL, yesterday during lunch break. I didn't spend much time on it, mostly because I don't really like spending my spare time designing. I mean, that's what I do forty hours a week. I like other hobbies—like writing—in my free time.

Anyway, the broken cityscape is appropriate for the war-torn landscape of Deyl's world.

Pretty, right? Or not? Thoughts?

And check out the synopsis on my writing page...

Critique Partner...?

As I mentioned, summer in Calgary is winding down. My life is returning to normal and I'm writing once again. I've got three projects on my mind, and I'm having some trouble deciding which one I want to follow first. Rewrite book two of my Deyl Parker series? Write the high fantasy novel that's been hammering away at my brains? Or breakaway from my comfort zone and try writing my YA dystopian/sci-fi idea?

Whichever way I go, I realize I'm now at the point where I need a critique partner. Someone to kick the shit out of my first novel - an urban fantasy - and someone I can bounce new ideas off of. I'm open to critiquing a wide variety of genres in return: anything YA, dystopian, sci-fi, all fantasy genres, romance, chick lit, etc. etc.

So if you're out there searching for the same, send me a line: shayla.e.s (at) gmail (dot) com.

Unexpected Side Effect

My throat is sore. My voice is all raspy and low. Why?

Copy editing.

The story is written. I've edited the plot and structure four or five times, until I'm perfectly happy with the result. I've given the draft a few months of shelf time so the writing and ideas could percolate in peace. I've triple-checked continuity, built a solid world around Deyl, and I've scrapped every useless datadump and every sequence that slowed down the plot.

All that's left is what I'm doing now: the copy edit.

I find (and I've heard other writers say the same thing) that reading the story out loud really helps ensure the words flow smoothly across the page. It's definitely working (IMHO) but unfortunately reading aloud all day means MY THROAT HURTS!

And that's my complaint for the day. I'm more than halfway through the novel so I'm still on track for getting this edit done by Tuesday. Yay!

Oh, and I just saw today the casting post for the Hollywood version of The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. Then I saw the release date for the movie: 2012. Damn. I wish I was a more patient person. This wait is going to be brutal.

Off to read for a few hours... night all!

Just a snippet.

I'm running a bit short on time tonight, so here's a quick excerpt from my first Deyl Parker novel, I HAD TO FALL:

(Deyl, Josh and Alicia have stopped at a diner just outside of Chicago, midway through their journey to Minneapolis)

"So, what do you think? Should we drive through the night or stop at dark? My parent's house is only a few more hours from here," Alicia noted, speaking low and choosing her words carefully.

"Stop at dark, definitely," I said. I wasn't sure what to think about stopping at the Bowmyn's, but I was sure about stopping for the night. Humans didn't travel after dark unless they were Hunters.

We would be much too obvious on the road at night.

"We could be there by lunch tomorrow if we drive through…" Alicia pointed out hopefully.

"No, we couldn't, because we'd be dead before the sun came up again," I said in a flat whisper. "It's too dangerous.”

"I agree with Deyl," Josh murmured. "Too conspicuous to be out at night. We should stop."

Alicia snorted delicately, rolling her round, hazel eyes. She obviously thought Josh was just agreeing with me because it was me.

And unfortunately, there was a good chance she was right.

"Okay, okay. So then we’re crashing at my parents place?"

"I'm not sure," I hedged, thinking it made perfect sense to stay with her parents but worried about getting more people—more people I didn't know—involved in this catastrophe. Unfortunately, that was probably our best bet when it came to avoiding the Hunters, whether I liked it or not.

"So…" Alicia prodded, watching me expectantly.

"So we stay at the Bowmyn's. It's our safest option," I summarized, dropping my voice as a young couple sat down at the table two seats away. Josh looked like he was about to say something more, but Alicia cut him off.

"I'm sooooo happy you were both able to get the time off to come with me!" she chippered in a falsely bright voice. "My brother hasn't seen you in years, Josh, and his fiancée is dying to meet your sweetheart!" She tapped my hand with her tiny, pale fingers, clearly indicating me as the 'sweetheart'.

Fabulous.

Without missing a beat, I joined her game. "I haven't been to a wedding in years, I'm really excited," I said with a wide smile. "Have they decided on the blue or the gold yet?"

This was the danger in mingling with humans. To sit together, unspeaking, would look suspicious. At the same time, we were so much more likely to let something slip, to reveal what we were, if we tried to carry on a normal conversation. It was a fine line to walk.

Josh's bewildered look threatened to ruin the whole thing, so I reached across the table and took his hands in mine while stepping on his toes in warning. I was distracted for a moment by how surprisingly soft and cool his hands were and the slight tingle in my fingertips as I gently wrapped them around his, trying to look like the sweetheart.

"When we get married I think I'd like everything in gold," I mused, blinking at him like a moron, trying to convey our cover to the clueless man. Idiot.

Finally, the bewilderment in his eyes cleared and his shoulders relaxed the tiniest bit.

"Oh, I think they've settled it," Alicia continued. "But I can't remember what they decided… darn it, I've completely forgotten!" She arranged her features in a slight frown, looking stumped.

Josh's gaze grew crafty and he smiled mischievously as he said, "You say married like I've already asked you," looking pointedly at my bare ring finger and giving my hands a tiny squeeze.

My quick grimace was very real. The look in his eyes suggested that he might be enjoying our game a bit too much.

I sighed dramatically, shifting my expression shifted to a false pout. "You know I'm still waiting patiently."

Alicia’s laugh was like silver chimes in the wind, and I got the distinct impression she wasn't faking it. I sighed again, also not faking it.

"I know," Josh griped, and then shocked me when he pulled our intertwined hands towards his lips and lightly kissed my fingertips.

Damn, I thought, as my heartbeat kicked into overdrive.

I tried to remember if magicians had better hearing than normal humans, hoping they didn’t.

Alicia laughed again, louder this time, at my very stunned expression. They were both enjoying the game far too much. I blinked as Josh gave me my hands back, making room for the food that had just arrived with our drab waitress.

the End is upon us!

Very excited tonight. I've got two or three small sections of chapter twenty-five to revise/rewrite tomorrow evening and I'll be finished the all the major changes I wanted to make to I HAD TO FALL. I'm working all day Saturday (setting up all those nice trade show displays I've been designing) but after that I've got a week scheduled for making a few last minor revisions to the story, and then another week for a line-by-line polish of the copy.

And then it's done. Like, really done.

To share in my excitement, I've got a nice little excerpt for you here. One of my biggest changes to the story was the relationship between Cal and Deyl. Their interactions and face time remained the same, but their opinions, treatment and feelings about each other changed significantly. This is from chapter twenty, a bit of Cal and Deyl working together towards a common goal. Not that they wanted to, but they didn't have much choice.

(Yeah, I know you have no context for this. Sorry. Hope you love it anyway.)

I turned slowly towards Cal, who was dropping the choked body to the ground. We just stared at each other, his breathing heavy against the steadiness of my own. In that moment I knew something between us had changed, our uneasy truce complicated by the bond that came only from fighting side by side together.

"We have to clear this," was all he said.

I nodded.

Blood would leave the most visible signs of our ambush so I grabbed the two bleeding men first, taking one by the arm in each hand and dragging them across the narrow road into the dark shade of the birch trees. Beside me, Cal carried two more. In a minute we had the road cleared of the bodies and all trace of the fight.

The last man dropped from my arms. It was the tall one with my knife still embedded in his chest. I pulled it out as he fell to the grass at my feet, wiping it clean on a nearby patch of moss before tucking it back into my shoulder strap.

"Nice toss," Cal remarked, his tone casual.

Gazing up at him, I tried to gauge his thoughts. His expression was carefully closed. It struck me that he meant it.

A broad grin lit up my face, the adrenaline crashing and making me feel a bit giddy.

"Thanks," I said smiling even wider. A distant, low boom echoed on the morning breeze. We both turned to look towards the sound.

The charge had blown.

Cal turned back to me and I met his gaze soberly, the giddiness evaporating. He snatched both shotguns up and tossed one to me.

"We need to move."

"Right." I fell into step behind him again.

Feeling Like a Rollercoaster

A couple days ago I mentioned that I was working on rewriting Deyl and Cal's interaction from the point where there meet, all the way to the end of the book. And yes, I'm really happy with the way it's developed. Only, I looked through my list of 'changes still to make' and I despaired of finishing by the end of May.

One solid 10 hour day of editing later, I'm feeling much more optimistic!

Today I made it all the way through and finished the major edits to the end of chapter twenty. I also faced down a weapons / technology problem I'd been mulling over - with much frustration - for months now. And I came up with the perfect solution, one that answered and fulfilled every issue surrounding the problem. It means going back and making two smaller changes earlier in the book, but I'm not worried about those. Instead, I'm thrilled that I've created a solution and I'm excited to spend the next few days implementing it!

Based on today's success I took another, closer look at my editing schedule and that list of problems / changes. I'm feeling like another two, maybe three weeks and I can have I HAD TO FALL all wrapped up. Awesome.

Personal Demons, Personal Laziness

Posting this from my iPhone. Why? Good question. Well, the truth is I'm just finishing a second e-book read of Lisa Desrochers' PERSONAL DEMONS and I'm quite comfy. Don't want to head downstairs for the laptop.

And even though I'm a firm believer that sleep-is-for-the-weak, I'll be hitting some ZZZs right away. I'll be back tomorrow to fill you in on the changes in Deyl's world and my usual progress update for the re-write of I HAD TO FALL.

Oh, and for you Americans out there, happy long weekend Friday!!

Editing. Slowly.

At some point in my schedule I'd hoped to have this final round of editing done by the end of May. Well, today is the twenty-sixth and I can say with absolute certainty that that is not going to happen.

The editing has been, overall, really great. The issues I've brought up have been important and I think the changes I've implemented so far have improved the story significantly. It's just taken a lot longer then I anticipated.

Today, for example, I finally started working in the relationship changes between Deyl and Cal. I've spent the last few weeks considering the problems with the connection between them in the back of my mind. Yesterday and today I took all those thoughts and considerations, compared it to how the relationship works in the current manuscript, and wrote out a text document that clearly outlined how their new relationship should develop - from when they meet in chapter fifteen to when they part in chapter twenty-five. I managed to implement most of the resulting changes in chapter fifteen today, but that still leaves seven chapters where Cal and Deyl are together that will need to be tweaked, at the very least, if not totally re-written.

And that's just Cal & Deyl. Plenty of other changes still to come.

Maybe the end of June? Sigh. At least I feel confident that the final manuscript will be much better for all this work...

Rachel Hawkins kept me up all night.

I have a problem. An addiction, you might call it. It derails my life, to the point where friends and family worry about my sanity and health.

Reading.

Or more accurately, obsessive-compulsive-reading. Goes like this: Monday was a Canadian holiday, which was nice. Around ten pm I finished a long day of rewriting (working out the kinks in Deyl's relationship with another main character) and was itching for a good read. This is when I discovered something wonderful...

E-books are released at midnight on book release day. Midnight EST. I'm out here in Calgary in MST, so not long after ten I was actually able to purchase the e-book of Kim Harrison's SOMETHING DEADLY THIS WAY COMES, instead of waiting until after work on Tuesday. So, I started reading at ten, stayed up til about two or three am reading it, caught a few zzz's and finished reading it in the morning, before I had to be at work at noon.

Well, that was fine. Still got enough sleep.

Unfortunately, I found myself on a reading binge. I searched around for some new titles and read a couple sample chapters of Rachel Hawkins' HEX HALL, a YA urban fantasy. I absolutely fell in love with Sophie's sarcastic humour and literally could not put it down. This is my addition. I started reading Tuesday evening and didn't put the e-book down until around three am, when I finished it. And then I had to get up and go to work for eight. Yikes.

And then I laughed about how I have a problem... and proceeded to spend all evening today finishing the second Hex Hall novel, DEMONGLASS.

Sigh. Hopefully that's enough of a reading binge for now and I'll get back to re-writing tomorrow!

Ta-da!

Squeeeeee! This is my first post on my brand-spanking-new MacBook Air!! I feel like I've been waiting for this for years!

Oh, wait. I have been.

It really is awesome though. I don't know what else to say. I was running a six-year-old iBook G4 up to this point, so pretty much anything would be better, faster and smoother. I've got all my old files transferred over and installed all the software I wanted. I didn't take much music, since I keep my music library on the MacMini and just share the library. Brought over my favourites though, for travel purposes: Rammstein, Iced Earth, We Are The Fallen, She Wants Revenge, Foo Fighters, The Fray and Nine Inch Nails. Plus a few writing-specific playlists that I never leave home without :D

The other #squee item is that I've installed the trial version of Scrivener and spent that last three hours playing around with it. I gotta say... love it. I really don't care which program I use for composition, but Scrivener's organization of my timelines, comments, notes, character and scene sketches, etc. is absolutely wonderful.

I'll stop playing tomorrow morning though and buckle down on editing chapters twelve and thirteen. Promise.

Less than 24 hours...

I'm going out after work tomorrow to buy my new MacBook Air! This poor iBook is seeing it's last days. Well, sort of. I'm going to recycle it to my dad, who's running an even older computer. And they've changed the forecast (again) for the long weekend, giving us mostly sunny skies. Things are definitely looking up!

I finished re-writing chapter ten today, and got started on twelve and thirteen. Those will be hefty changes, so it might take a few days to finish them up. Plus, I'll be spending another good chunk of time setting up my new Mac and checking out Scrivener, which I think I'll go ahead and buy as well...

Itchy.

Well, please disregard yesterdays post, I guess. It's true, my hard drive has failed. But my new computer won't arrive until Friday (at the earliest) so I got the morning off work. Spent some of that time reviewing the major changes I want / need to make to I Had to Fall. Right now I'm mulling over the fight and conversation between two characters, right at the point where they first meet, in chapters twelve and thirteen. It doesn't flow the way I want it to, and the dialogue doesn't achieve the information I want to present. It needs work. But before I can get to those changes, I need to go back a bit further and makes some conversational tweaks to chapter ten. Nothing too major - I know what needs to be said, and even have some rough dialogue ready - but if I don't set it up now it might screw with the changes further along.

So, if tomorrow's schedule goes as well as today's did, I should have chapter ten pretty much in the bag and ready to move onto the changes needed in twelve and thirteen. Excellent.

Not so excellent: got about a hundred mosquito bites while mowing the grass yesterday. Mosquitos in Calgary. Who knew.

Oh! And countdown to my new macbook air has been revised... I'm thinking I'll go buy it a couple days before my birthday (impatient, I know) so I can have it for the whole weekend. Which means: only 2 days to go!!!!!

Is it possible to survive without sleep?

Not needing to sleep is one of the strange fae-factors of my main character, Deyl Parker. What I want to know, is it possible for me too?

Because that would be nice.

So many great books to read, so little time in the day. I got back into my usual routine today, as hoped, but that only leaves about an hour or two a day for reading. Simply not enough! Last week, I finished Divergent by Veronica Roth in 12 hours (yay for flying, airports and long drives!) which was f'n awesome. Loved the premise. Sort of The Giver meets The Last Airbender. 

I also finished Wings, Spells and Illusions by Aprilynne Pike, nearly in one sitting. It was at the point where I was falling asleep, eyesight blurry from reading off my iPhone, but simply refused to put it down. So good, I'm re-reading again at a less-manic pace.

So, the question that always haunts me afterwards: how long do I have to wait for the next book in those series?!?

Too Long.

Lost a few hours of work today watching playoff hockey. Can't help it, I'm only human Canadian. Flyers stayed alive in an excellent overtime win and forced game seven!

The re-write went well today. Lots of humming and hawing though. In working to tighten up the writing and storyline I find myself questioning every scene, every action and decision made by Deyl and her companions. They did this-and-this. Why? What else could they have done instead? What if they did this-and-that, or that-and-this? And while it can be a bit overwhelming, it feels good. I'll trust my gut on this one, believing the resulting changes are for the best.

But it's late, and I'm tired. Hoping to finish chapter nine and get started on ten tomorrow...