Stupid Dog

Ate a bunch of onion rings Saturday night. Now she's got almost black urine so I'm taking her to the vet now.

Update: Vet took blood for a blood test and they'll get back to me. Been told to keep an eye on her and see if gums go dark or she's out of breath and don't let her be too active.

Little dog doesn't like vets now. As soon as I put her on the table, she started to carry on, growling and such, so we muzzled her. She did settle down a little later on (I do prefer this vet clinic & their staff than the others we've had to go to) but she was not a happy puppy about being there. And she starts dropping coat all over the room.

(no subject)

Post novel reading blues. Hate them :(
I went on to to read the, well not the sequel, the other half of the story that Stupid Novel is the first part of. Bad move. It's second draft stuff. (I should fix this and this and-- go away and leave me alone, stupid, stupid book.)

I really like the character in those books but the basic structure is flawed. So I took my own advice, declared it done, sent it out and sat down to concentrate on some of the other novel first drafts. But, you know, I like those characters and want others to read about them too :( so I keep coming back to it, wanting to patch it more.

Still, I realised something interesting today. A short extract:

"Maybe I'll tell you a story. A story about a little boy who was taken away from his home and looked in a cold dark room. He was scared, aye, but he was brave. His da was a big strong man and he'd come rescue him. So he waited. Sometimes he wondered why his da was taking so long. Sometimes he'd cry out for him but then he got hit so he tried not to. He waited more, even when his head hurt and his stomach hurt and he couldn't eat. And his da didn't come and he started to die inside, a little bit at a time until there was nothing left but an empty shell. Until a stranger came and took him away." Tibe lowered his head, his voice fading. The room went quiet as everyone present tried to hear the words. "The little boy who waited for his da was gone, except for sometimes late at night when it's dark. You let him die." He lifted his head and stared at Nicholas. "Take me and put a rope around my neck. Kill me if you want. You've already killed me once."

It's from the third last chapter in the second book. But reading it, I remember that was where it started. The story behind that outburst was what I was writing and the whole 250K thing, less two chapters, is leading up to it. It's the seed.

But it got me to thinking, do my other novels have such obvious 'seed' scenes. The one I'm supposed to be working on doesn't but it developed in a different way -- a couple of events referred to in its sequel were strung together. I'm not about to drag anything else out and read them to see.

Interesting to think about though