Almost there!

Nearly finished - as I will soon be unemployed for a while, and Quills rehearsals will be over soon, I should be able to get back to this and write the conclusion by the end of January. Seriously. I only have three chapters left to write, but one of them is very ... intricate.

Chapters 51-56

For Marcellina. Because she's been so patient.

BTW, previous links are broken a I have moved to a new web server. Webhostingpad.com. I really like them, and they were incredibly cheap. I'll update the Book-To-Date link soon to reflect that.

Chapters 51-56

Chapter 50

Wednesday night. Tomorrow is Thursday.

Chapter 50 - Semolina

Life Imitates Art

My brother just sent me a link to this story:

Marvin Goldstein was a toddler in 1945 when he experienced a catch rivaling any you'd see at a baseball game.

"The windows at that time did not have window guards," Goldstein remembers. "I leaned out, and I had one hand on the window inside and the other hand I was leaning out. [I] let go and fell five stories."

Sal Mauriello, a barber, was coming home early from work that day. He heard a woman scream and saw her point up to the window. Mauriello took of his coat and used it as a net to catch Goldstein in his arms.

Pretty cool, huh?

Three more chapters

I'm on a roll. With all the time I've spent writing it in my head, I haven't had time to put it in type, which has been driving me crazy. So I'm going to finish the damn thing. There are only 5 or 6 chapters to go, I think, and the end is quite exciting. But I'm not going to give it away.

I particularly like these three. The next one is scary.

Chapter 47 - Tight Quarters
Chapter 48 - Snatched
Chapter 49 - Relocation

All three chapters in this single PDF file (about 11 pages)

Two New Chapters

You might notice the first chapter is labeled 44, the same as the previous last chapter. It's very short. I'm re-arranging again. There were two long chapters back to back on the crowd at Jim's apartment, I thought they needed to be broken up, and that we needed to catch up with Allen. "Tali" is now chapter 45. That's why I couldn't put these two in a single PDF file.

Chapter 46 is a good one, albeit a bit, um, explicit. It will make you want me to finish chapter 48. But 47 is one that folks have been waiting for, and that I keep pushing later. This time, for sure. It's time.

Chapter 45 - The Gap

Chapter 46 - Rocky Road

Chapter 44 - Tali

In this chapter, we get to spend some time alone with Tali. I find this description quite amusing, and after reading the chapter so will you. Or perhaps you will be merely confused. Don't worry, some action is coming up in the next chapters.

Chapter 44 (pdf)

Chaos Returns

Finally. Chapter 43. Whew.

I am obviously far behind my original timeline, it's been a rough winter. Aside from that, Maya and Jim got into a conversation that I could not get them out of. I almost had Tali interrupt them to just cut it off, but there was a point I was trying to reach. Now that is out of the way.

I am still going to have to go back and change some of the earlier work. Allen seems to have deteriorated more rapidly than I like, I'm not sure whether to make it temporary, figure out a way to revive him a bit, or just re-write his last two adventures. So I'm leaving him where he is for now, right around the Delaware Water Gap. It's a pleasant place to be with the right weather, and his timeline is moving much faster than Jim's. So we can catch him later. Meanwhile, I won't be updating the full version to date while I figure it out.

Chapter 44 is entitled "Tali" but you will have to wait for that one. I've got a programming deadline this week.

Chapter 43 - A Flock Of Hummingbirds