Windchaser

Edit: OK, so I didn't get it finished "this weekend". BUT!

At last, I can make the post I have been itching to make since, ooh, about 1st November last year.

Drum roll please:
Ten months and nineteen days after I started it, the first draft of Memento Mori is finished!

( Fake cut to chapter 32 (Livejournal Mirror) ) In which Tevak finally gets his hands back on his prize, but Blink gets a little assistance from on high.

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and lastly…
( Fake cut to the epilogue (Livejournal Mirror) ) In which loose ends are tied up, and Blink gets one more opportunity to do good.

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WOO HOO

I now just have to edit it, and tidy it up, and get rid of the disappearing characters, and...

Edit: Typical - so excited to be posting it, I flubbed my html. (I forgot the password for the MM LJ at lunch, too - posting these last chapters is just dogged with failure.)

I am SO CLOSE to finishing this story. In fact, I want to finish it THIS WEEKEND. I have JUST ONE - one! - last "real" chapter left to go. Then I can get to re-plotting some of my other "dangling modifiers"; I need to work on the plot of "Good as Gold" (which I feel the need to try and finish for this year's Nano), as well as "Future Tense".

Anyway, onwards with MM:

( Fake cut to the little prologue I managed to get finished. (Livejournal Mirror) ) It's still fairly "rough-and-ready", as it were - just to get the point across until I get down to editing and polishing. (In the finished item, I hope the prologue will be a little longer, and a little more exciting, but for now, it's good enough.) It's mostly there to draw people into the action and make them curious.

And for the proper update:
( Fake cut to chapter 31 (Livejournal Mirror) ) In which Blink returns to Kust to see what's happened in her absence, and gets a little shocking news on the side. Oh, and bumps into someone she really didn't want to meet. It's all gearing up for the final showdown.

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Slightly later than the post on my LJ; I didn't feel like crossposting this to places at 2:30am, haha. XD

( Fake cut to chapter 30 (Livejournal Mirror) ) In which Blink manages the incredible, and actually gets into the Institute. OMG. And finds a little surprise inside.

Just fyi, "Hoo-dees" is the colloquial name for hooting deer. I've only just started to think about their names and things; I need to do a bit of worldbuilding before I edit the thing up. I don't really want to have to use the word "deer", for instance, it was a stop-gap so I didn't get too stuck. XD

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SEE, SEE? I told you I'd get it done in less than a month! *PROUD*

Blink is getting quite excited about the event coming up just around the corner. I'm getting quite excited too as I'm getting close to the finish, WOO.

( Fake cut to chapter 29 (Livejournal Mirror) ) In which Blink makes a shocking discovery about her little hosts, and Rae wonders if they should take drastic steps to resolve "the Tevak problem".

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So much for “determined to get the next chapter finished faster than the last” – I seem to have been even slower, this time. (It’s been about 40 days since I last posted! What.)

Again, “I am determined etc”, so I’m going to set myself a deadline, this time; next chapter by the 27th. That gives me a week to finally tame the creeping junkheap once and for all, and then a week to do the writing. If I can keep to the “50,000 in 30 days”, I’m sure I can write 6000 in a week.

Back to business. I actually posted the meat of the chapter before work, but ran out of time to link to it from my other journals, so here we go. Better late than never!

( Fake cut to chapter 28 (Livejournal Mirror) ) In which Tevak gives the Library an ultimatum – find Blink, or he’ll burn the place down – and certain little shocking revelations are made. Up in the danata colony, Blink struggles to work out where she’s meant to go from here – and scared that she’ll end up bringing the monster to their door.

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Like the last chapter, this one should have been finished a long time ago, but the creeping junkheap has kept me busy. ¬_¬

( Fake cut to chapter 27 (Livejournal Mirror) ) In which the Library discuss Sarmis’ betrayal, and Blink struggles to see whether there’ll ever be a way out of this whole mess...

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Another chapter in less than 6 weeks! It's a miracle.

I had wanted to get this chapter finished and uploaded on the 1st, because it would have been the story’s “6-month birthday”. Happy Belated Birthday, MM?

Actually I’m not particularly happy because it means I still haven’t finished it, and I can’t edit what I haven’t finished. And I am determined to have something finished enough to self-publish by the end of 2012. Cue, end of the world?

( Fake cut to chapter 26 ) Dreamwidth Mirror In which Sarmis manages to blow his own cover, and Tevak discovers his prize is missing (and promptly also blows up).

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It’s been twenty two days since my last update. *le sigh* I need to be less nitpicky, less distracted, and more write-y, because I can’t edit / publish this if it’s not finished. Ragh.

My current count includes only my posted words. I have another 1600 words or so lurking on the master file (that’s getting on for 1% of story!); 170 in a prologue I’m going to put in and the remainder in the next chapters that come after what I’ve posted. I’m trying to be good and not write all the “fun” chapters first; joining everything up afterwards ends up with me throwing a lot of words away, that way.

( Fake cut to chapter 25 ) Dreamwidth Mirror In which Blink finally makes good her escape – but where are the danata taking her? Has she maybe just climbed out of the frying pan, and got straight into the fire?

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Look, I got another chapter finished!

APRIL FOOLS

Oh, wait. No, I DID actually get another chapter finished. I'm not sure why this one took so long, I started it when I was on annual leave back on the... 12th of March, or thereabouts? It just didn't seem to want to be written. :( Maybe Blink likes it in the basement or something.

( Fake cut to chapter 24 ) Dreamwidth Mirror In which Halli spots someone sneaking somewhere he shouldn't be (alliteration intentional), Tevak lays down an ultimatum - as does Odati - and three of the smallest sapient creatures in the known universe hold out a very BIG hand in a gesture of kindness.

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I was thinking, on my way home the other night - if/when Blink gets switched back to her normal self, what would happen if Halli got caught in the fallout and "changed" with her? At least I have the perfect alt-mode for her - she could be a Halli-copter. HAHA *fallsover*

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Avatar was on again, last night. They only premiere'd it last sunday, so that makes two showings in one week. It does lose something on the small screen (especially when the sound on your TV periodically cuts out), and the storyline isn't exactly the most taxing on the brain, but I still enjoyed it. :)

My inner biologist does go WHAT about a lot of it - why does every animal on Pandora have six limbs, four eyes, and breathe through spiracles on their chest... except the Na'vi? Did they evolve in absolute isolation, or something? (OK, I know why, we have no six-armed people to motion-capture from.)

I did actually post the actual chapter earlier, but it was quite early in the morning and I decided to do the copy pasta to here and my Dreamwidth later.

( Fake cut to chapter 23 (Dreamwidth Mirror) ) In which Halli and Rae unwisely set out into enemy territory, but maybe make a new ally in the process, and Tevak... tries to show his softer side, but Blink isn't buying it. She's going to have to make a decision soon, though, because she's already hallucinating, and she can't stay in the basement forever...

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I have a week off work, and I wanted to push to get my first draft finished this week, but I also had plans to buy a wardrobe and clear out some of the junk in my study, so finishing this might take a back seat to everything else.

I really want to finish it, though, because I have so many unfinished stories hanging around. *shakefist* I still need to finish editing up "Thunder Daughter", so I can publish it - it took a bit of a back seat when I started Nano last November.

Hurr. So much to do, so little time to do it.

Lastly, I need to go and pick up my laptop sometime this week, as well (hopefully, *fingers crossed*) - yes, it is taking a long time to sort out, that's because the first time I went to pick it up, on the day they texted me (and reminded me!) that it would be ready on... it wasn't. In fact, they hadn't done ANYTHING because the guys that were supposed to be fixing it lost the questionnaire on which were the details of what they were supposed to be doing - but instead of phoning me, to tell me so, they waited until I came all the way in to the store (...but didn't tell the in-store guys either, who had to phone around to see where it was). That was the day I also missed the last bus home from the station (by about 2 minutes, and it was early anyway) and because no-one on Ravenswood ever needs to leave their home any time after 7pm, according to Ipswich Buses, had to walk all the way home (according to GoogleMaps, 3.69969 miles), in the rain, in the dark.