Perle Champion

Day 16 of NaNoWriMo Wordcount 24,155/ NaBloPoMo (16 for 16) 

Today is Saturday, and I wrote late into last night and picked back up again from 6 a.m. this morning coffee in hand to meet my word count for the today.  I’m writing this Blog and scheduling it to post tonight at 7 p.m., as I’m picking Mom up for breakfast this morning around 9:30 and it’s almost 9 now.  She and I are off to Cocina Superior at Brookwood Mall for a Mexican breakfast of bacon and egg tacos, thick creamy black beans, fried breakfast potatoes and lots of their smoky hot salsa.

Maybe I should call it Brunch since Mom always has one Bloody Mary and I have 2 or 3 Mimosas and 2 or 3 cups of coffee.  Mimosas and Bloody Mary’s are $2 or they were the last time we were there.  They only open early on Saturday and Sunday for breakfast/brunch.  We always take the third table by the window, so we can watch the activity on the street: walkers, runners, gardeners tending the potted plants and sweeping the sidewalks, and the food wagon lady delivering her home-cooked fare to the wait staff up and down the street.

By the time we’re finished eating, the stores will be open and we plan on getting a little bit of Christmas shopping and/or looking done.

I probably will not get back to my desk for NaNo

Excerpt from Murder is a Primary Color:

Leaving for Mayax University

Just north of town west of that awesome concrete ribbon that circled the city, called the Loop, rose Mayax University.  It was a city unto itself.  From a hard-packed rocky floor where once you could see for miles, rose man-made edifices of stone and glass and walkways and trees grew where none had grown before

It loomed in the distance as I drove in from the mountains.  The new land rover handled well.  Father had surprised with it this morning.  “So you can always get home, no matter the terrain.  Do well daughter.”  He took my shoulders with his large gentle hands and kissed me on the forehead, turned and went back through the house. 

I knew he would go to his chair on the back porch to smoke his pipe and contemplate the mountain.  As I watched his tall lean figure walking away, I sensed an odd mixture of emotions: love, fear, loss all a jumble – so hard to sort. 

Nanna patted my arm.  “No worry Jadee, no worry.  He is a good man, but just a man.  He never understood you had to go away and now you are back a day and again you must go away.  You were his favorite you know – go everywhere with him, hunt and ride and climb trees.  He is so proud and loves you so much.  Send him thoughts of love and visit when you can.  You can do no more.”

“I always felt loved Nanna; I’ll be back as often as I can.  I promise.”

Then it was mother’s turn.  “Don’t do guilt little one.  You are a good daughter, and we are as good a parents as we know how to be.  Letting go is part of parenting, but knowing it does not make it easier.  You belong to yourself and to your destiny.  Always remember this.  We bear children, but we do not own them.  We share a place and space in time with them, nurture, teach and love them and let them be the best that they can be and that can only happen if they are free. Be free.  We all know you love us.  We will come to see you soon in your new house.  Nanna and I have some things to bring you.   Be well.”

I climbed in the rover top down and was off bag and baggage and a sack of lunch down the twisting path to the silver ribbon that would take me to the city and the House.

Mañana y’all.

Day 12 of NaNoWriMo Wordcount 15600/ NaBloPoMo (12 for 12)

Aimed for 3500 today, but fell short.  I logged a hard fought 2000 though before heading out to run essential chores.

First up were items due at library today or I’d be charged a dollar a day each – too much with 12 movies checked out and several books.  Run by my P.O. box to check for incoming and mail the car payment.  Annoys me that I can’t pay it on line because the bank that holds the note won’t set me sign up unless I have an account at their bank.  No thanks, I’ll mail it.  Grocery store for coffee, an essential of life.  Golden Temple for Essiac tea ingredients – don’t ask.

No momentum for writing when I got home, so I spent more than a few hours doing my monthly refrigerator and kitchen thorough cleaning which I’ve skipped the last 2 months (major ewww).  Completing such a chore gives me the satisfaction of finishing something start to finish. Much needed feeling when writing a novel in spits and starts.

This morning’s writing was spent on the some background.

As the century waned in the decade of 90, more and more seeking enlightenment found it.  Those who believed achieved each to his or her own dreams.  Second sight for many became second nature – the gift held peril and obligation.  The Wyse and ordinary people had been seeking and finding the truths and marrying like-minded and like-gifted, and by the year 2020, their children were being born with the inherent gifts and their parents were at once thrilled and afraid. 

Also born in those days was a mounting fear of those with so-called unnatural powers.  So the parents of the psy-child did not brag, did not speak of it and kept the children home to protect them and teach them control.

Hidden and quiet they went about their lives as normally as possible.  Time passed and things were calm, but tense.  Only among their own were they free to be themselves.  And so there were coded emails and actual letters crossing the country; there were coded ads in the digital and print papers, followed by phone contact, then mind as one by one they identified each other.  Their desires were the same.  To live a good and fruitful life and leave behind something better for their children.  But there was a cloud on the horizon and it was not just intolerance and bigotry.