Almost Done (and other oddities)

I knocked out what should be the next-to-the-last chapter in At The Queen’s Command today. It ran long, but not too long. I believe no one will complain and it is pitching toward stuff that will go on in future stories. If I were to end the book here, it would be okay, save that folks would scream about the cliffhanger, so I’ll add one more chapter. (And the ending of that one will have folks screaming, but for a different reason.)

As some of you know, when I’m writing I tend to take any scrap of paper that comes into the house and pump it through the printer. This is, of course, providing it has a blank side to it. Leaflets for yard work services, new pizza joints, solicitations for bids on all sorts of things, chain letters and the like all go into manuscripts. I would like to figure that some day some university will want my papers and that, further, some grad student decides to go through the manuscripts. I want said student to have fun looking at all the stuff on the backs of the manuscript pages. (The manuscripts for the my last two Star Wars™ novels are in the hands of private collectors, and both said it was more interesting to read what was on the back of the pages than the rough draft.)

But not every piece of junk mail or solicitation has a blank side. I’m on some fairly interesting mailing lists, so I get all sorts of curious stuff. What I’ve decided to do for the next year is to three-hole punch that stuff and put it in a binder. I’m just going to let it stack up and I won’t sort it, it’ll just go into the binder in the order it comes in. This will include junk mail and packing lists, pretty much anything that doesn’t have to be saved for tax purposes.

I’m not sure if I will ever go back through it, but I’m thinking it will form a rather interesting window on what folks think is important. I already have one stream of things that comes from some nuthouse ministry and its compatriots because I bought a DVD about how the Taliban is sponsoring secret terrorist training bases in the USA. The stuff from them is really off the wall. I’m sure, as we head into the election year, that a lot more insane stuff will come through the mails, and I’ll just collect it all.

From a practical standpoint, I know some of it will be grist for the mill. There’s a story idea or two in that sort of material. More importantly, however, it can supply a sense of an era. I’m sure there will be plenty of stuff that advocates (meaning “for marketing reasons”) going green. That’s how cars will be touted. I’m sure I’ll get stuff on buying gold as an investment. I know the ministry will have some really outlandish stuff to offer. Freezing that kind of a sense via material that is immediately disposable is a tool I’m sure will come in handy.

Tomorrow I should hit the last chapter of the novel, and I am looking forward to it. Even while writing this blog entry I’ve decided in a point of view shift which will better bind the book together. After that, it’s the long and hard process of reading things over, making changes, and pushing the draft to the publisher, all the while cranking out new material. I really do want to see if I can grind out a half-a-million words in 2010, which works out to less than a chapter a day.

Interesting goal. Have to see if I can do it.