The Outsider: Blog

It is said that men plan and the gods laugh.

While I continue to make progress on the rewrite of "A Charmed Life," the opportunities to work on the story are shorter and less frequent than I had originally hoped they would be. I am more like the tortoise than the hare in the race to the finish.

I am still working on the story, never fear. I have scenes mapped out in my head for Jeff, I just have to get him there. A familiar refrain at many of the jobs I've worked over the years has been "it'll just be another two weeks..." I'm hoping to have the story restarted by then.

My editor and I have been emailing back and forth at a furious pace over the past weeks as he tries to teach me about creative writing. Well, he must have flipped the correct switch because it appears I'm on the right track. After a few furtive starts and stops I've discovered the writing style within that he's been trying to coach me on; he's been a very patient man.

That's not to say that it's been all unicorns and rainbows. He's had to hit me over the head a few times with his red pen before I twigged to the fact that he points out the mistakes I make and I correct them. To be fair, I'd been sending him files full of things that would make him tear his hair out. He would never have gotten any of his own work done if he actually made the corrections for me, nor would I have learned how not to make them in the first place.

So where are we? I'm rewriting Chapter 6 right now, progressing through each chapter in order, filling in holes. I want to circle back and polish up two of the earlier chapters, too. I'll get through Chapter 11 where I want them to be before I repost them, with Chapter 12 following along as a new chapter soon after. The story follows the original timeline I'd originally written years ago up to roughly Chapter 22 before I have to dive into any new material; Chapters 12-22 will need some polishing before I put them in the queue, but I already have the bare bones.

Fear not, gentle readers, we're almost there.

Now that I have a clear direction for the story, as well as an outline, I am rewriting the posted chapters as fast as Real Life (tm) allows. This, however, is not as often as I'd like.

The posted chapters will remain close to how they are currently written once I'm done, only expanded and with more character development. Once the current eleven chapters are redone, they will be reposted and the story will progress from there. I will still work to have the cushion in the posting queue I spoke of before.

I do not have a timeframe for this work to be completed but be assured that it is happening. Please stay tuned.

As I have been since I started posting ACL, I would like to say "thank you" to all of the readers who have been following along with Jeff's adventures. Unfortunately, I must pause the story for a bit while my new editor and I decide on which road Jeff will take from where he is in Gadsden.

I hope that I will not have to put the story on hold for very long.

Jeff makes it through Basic Training and the schools the Army sends him to after that and manages to pick up a couple of good friends there. One of them invites him to meet his own family.

In keeping with what seems to be becoming a tradition for me, I have spotted a few errors in today's update and have submitted a corrected version of the chapter for reposting.