I just hit page 301... I celebrate with a table of contents, and title spoiler...

Okay, I just crossed the 300 page mark. I have hit the moment before the final, last scene of the book. So, to celebrate, I have decided to drop a few spoilers. Three, in fact:

1. The book ends with a cliffhanger
The second book does not wrap up and resolve itself. It dives right into the action of the third book. I dare not describe the action in the ending - because I really do believe it will be totally unexpected. I believe it works with the story, and make sense when viewed with the rest of it, but nothing leading up to this ending will give you any clue to how it is going to end.

2. Okay... here comes the title for book #2
Are you ready? I mean, are you actually ready? This is a legitimate spoiler. I have been wrestling with this one for a while, and it has taken a long time for this title to emotionally soak in, but I finally feel committed to it. So... the title of the book is: "Millicent Marbleroller and the Bear Monster Army"

3. And here is the table of contents... at least, so far...
The problem is that this book is too long as it is. It is all the way to page 300 by the time the last chapter starts, and that is just to leave it at a halfway point cliffhanger for the third book. I am anticipating doing tons of edits on this book to cut it back fifty to seventy pages or so. I might move some of the action and dialogue out of this book and to the third... but until I do, the chapter names and page numbers are as follows:

Prologue 3
Alone With the Music 5
More Music and Many More Bells 15
The Package 26
The Delivery 36
Jolly Good Toys 53
Work Begins 70
Bears in the Night 79
Investigations and Messages 87
Trouble Brewing 99
Interview with the Admiral 117
Back at Work 124
Into The Walls 132
Nobbins Story 153
The Orchestra In The Cellar 171
The Room In The Ceiling With No Doors 179
Back in the Kitchen 209
Civic Courtroom 15B 221
The Admiral’s Case 227
The Decision 237
Shadows In The Moonlight 246
The Other Way In 252
The Admiral’s Victory Gloat 262
The Clock Ticks 274
The Whistle That Saved The Day 282
The Roar of Engines 290
Standoff With the Admiral 299

2009 Memorial Day Weekend Activities for Roseberry Family

Saturday
Eggs, vinegar, plaster and rocks. Two science projects.
Plaster and rocks was all about making a craterscape. This was for Hanna's astronomy class. We poured some plaster into a container, and just before it was setup, we dropped rocks and sand into it. I think we let the plaster set up just a little bit too much, but we still got some rocks.
Aimee's science experiment inspired more of a visceral reaction. The experiment was to see if soaking eggs in different kinds of vinegar would have a different effect on the breaking point of those eggs when dropped from various heights. The eggs had been soaking for many days (were supposed to go at three days, but that was last weekend and I was too tired for science). The three types of vinegar were red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar and white vinegar. Aimee held the yardstick, Tanya took notes, and I did the dropping. The shortest dropping height was four inches (white vinegar) and the highest was 12 inchest (red wine vinegar). The site of the experiment smelled of eggs and vinegar - go figure.
Before all of this we went to Bainbridge Island. Really this was nothing more than the ferry trip, a little lunch, and then back. It was more about being on a boat on a sunny day than it was about doing something. In retrospect, though, we really need to learn more about Bainbridge Island so that next time we have a better itinerary.
Really need to do the San Juan Islands...

Sunday

I forcibly wake up the family and get them in the car by 9:00 am. This is an astounding feat in our house, made even more amazing by the fact that there was no screaming, yelling or bloodshed involved.

We then headed north on I-5 until we got to the Bow-Edison, Chuckanut Drive exit. I took them west until we got to Larrabee State Park. Low tide was at 11:15, with a -3.2. We spent about and hour and a half looking at the tide pools.



Monday
On Monday morning, we don't do very much at all. The kids sleep in. I wake up around 7:30, but don't do very much until Tanya wakes up. The two of us eat oatmeal until we decide to rouse the girls around 9:30.

Hanna and Aimee have planned to see Night at the Museum 2 with a friend from Hanna's school. Tanya is going with them. I cause a bit of disruption right before the trip by resetting the passwords on all the user accounts for the kids... that got me in big trouble with the kid who was in trouble in the first place, which is why I reset the password to begin with.

I give the angry child a few minutes to chill out, explain calmly to her the rationale behind the disciplinary action and convince her to cheer up before going to the move.

While the girls are at the movie, I take Ethan out on a bicycle ride. This is only his second time on the bike. I take him to the biking trail that runs along bear creek behind Redmond Town Center (really, starts behind World Imports). I think we probably went a half mile, total. I checked my watch at the end. We were on the trail for at least an hour and a half. I had to follow him with the same speed you follow old people when you are helping them down the hallway with their walker. He kept doing that thing where he pedals so slowly that the pedal won't move once it comes just short of top dead center - that point where you have to transition from a rising foot movement to forward, but sometimes you do a push down movement that immobilizes the bike. Add to this that he hates being nudged or pushed... even when it means getting him out of the middle of the trail so the other light speed bikers have room to ride around him.

Back at home, I am helping Aimee with charts for her report on the egg dropping.

Facebook detox-ing

I am in the middle of a Facebook detox experiment. About two weeks ago I stopped checking my facebook page. I stopped posting status. I stopped taking silly little quizzes.

I was addicted to it. I was neurotically checking the page several times a day to see if there were any updates, messages, comments or whatever. Even worse, two weeks after my cold turkey cleansing, I still want to check. I come to the computer and feel a compulsion to type in the URL... and when I don't, the experience feels so empty. Its like there is nothing to do on the computer. It felt as if I can't have my Facebook fix, then what the blazes is technology for in the first place?

Isn't that the stupid thing ever? I mean, here is a machine capable of so many things, and yet some wacked out obsessive addictive behavior of mine has reduced it to lobbing back and forth blibbets of information 1000 characters at a time.

I don't know if this is a stable experiment. Facebook has become a kind of communication central - supplanting emails and phone calls. People rely on its noteboard-like experience to casually drop off bits of information for their circle of friends, family and acquaintance. It it is a proxy for email - obscuring one's actual email address (kind of a nice feature, really)... but that basically necessitates visiting the site to reply (unless, of course, we all go back to email again).

I have filled more of my time with gardening, painting and writing. I managed to get out two full chapters on my sequel to Millicent Marbleroller tonight. I also started another book two days ago - this one a how-to, as supposedly those are easier to sell. Maybe that's the answer to the outcome of going dry on Facebook? Happy, fulfilling, Luddite pasttimes?

Painting of General Horatio Crackerhead

I finally finished my painting of General Horatio Crackerhead. As stated in previous posts, he looks a lot like Teddy Roosevelt, with Chester A. Arthur's sideburns and mustache. I went with oil paint for this one. Working in oil requires more patience, as it takes forever to dry. However, much like acrylic you can fix anything. Further, it stays wet longer, which makes blending new layers of color together far easier. I also like the way the colors pop out a bit more.

As a side note on the sequel, I feel like I am indulging a horrifically overused cliche', but I just wrote a scene with a ticking clock. The whole scene felt so flat and devoid of any tension without that tick-tock countdown going. At least there is no "red wire? green wire?" dilemma... at least, not yet.