A Little Short

Well, I didn't make it to the magical 13,000 word count mark that I had imposed upon myself "by the weekend". I mean, I'll probably reach that mark tonight. I could have written some this afternoon, but instead I cleaned up my closet (which desperately needed to be cleaned--hey, look! I found that shirt I've been missing for three months!), cleaned up the kitchen, and took some stuff to Good Will (about a hundred baby-sized socks that my kids have outgrown and a stack of pillows as tall as the bureau in my room).

I have some bad news to report. The Kids Who Never Get Sick, aka my nieces, have spread their vile plague to me now. I've got the same sniffles and sore throat that afflicted my children at the beginning of the week--just in time for the Christmas party tomorrow! My kids bounced back quickly from the illness, so I'm hoping to do the same.

I came to an interesting part of the story last night. When he went to the Oracle, the king learned that the child born of his daughter would kill him (the king). This makes the king come back and lock his daughter away in a tower. First, I decided that I should have the tower built as part of the action of the story. I was worried that I gave my hundreds of Greek workmen too much credit in erecting the tower in a short six weeks. Then I learned last night that Julius Caesar was able to have his 6000 legionnaires erect a fortified wall some 24 miles in length in about the same amount of time. I figure that if the Romans could do it, so could a bunch of Greek engineers and slaves--especially with rewards of gold, silver and freedom promised them for timely completion.

Second, I wasn't sure how in the hell the king could get away with locking his daughter in the tower. I mean, surely, someone would have to be upset (I mean, aside from the daughter). And then the answer came to me: spin. So, I had the king gather together his household, the servants, soldiers and various townspeople, and he gave them a speech outlining what the Oracle had told him...from a certain point of view. From there, he whipped everyone into such a frenzy that they were wanting the princess dead for threatening the life of the king and the livelihood of the kingdom. Therefore, the king could turn it around--again!--and look benevolent by simply locking his daughter away in the tower rather than spilling her blood. Either way, the problem is solved, but this way, the king looks like a hero and a saint.

Anyway, I'm about to finish up chapter three and I finally transferred chapter four from my wife's computer to my own, so I can continue to work on it. For now, though, I'll just be trying to focus on getting past the 13,000 words and move on toward 15,000 words and such. Hopefully, I can make up some ground over the next few weeks and be back on track to have this finished by the end of the year or shortly after 2010 arrives.

12410 / 100000 words. 12% done!