I decided that The Last Great Minds of 2084 was just a little too heady for the work, even though it is a literary piece.  I have renamed the both the novel and screenplay World-Mart, which I believe will appeal to the larger target audience I feel is appropriate for the works.  The novel is literary, but it is also quick-paced and suited for a broad adult and young adult audience.  The screenplay is very dramatic, but also very sci-fi, and I think the previous title sold the story a little short.

I have also decided, at least for now, that I am going to name my entire dark fantasy trilogy The Darkness and the Night, and simply define the three different story lines as Book One, Book Two, and Book Three.  I may change my mind on this again, or I might decide simply to give each a separate subtitle.  I still have a few months before I'm finished writing all three, so I still have some time before I have to make my final decision.

Even then, as evident in World-Mart, a.k.a. The Last Great Minds of 2084, a name can change at any time....

I'm not sure how common this is, but it seems like every time I hit around page two hundred or two-twenty I also hit this strange, surreal slump that seems to persist until I force myself to take a day or two break from my work.  I think part of it is seeing that speck of light peeking in from the end of the tunnel, and another likely factor is that small sense of burn-out that comes with working and perfecting one storyline for months straight, knowing just how much work the hundred or so remaining pages might be ... hoping that the last third of the story will live up to the first two.

All that a writer must do to lead up to a good climax and conclusion really can be draining ... physically, mentally, and sometimes even psychologically and spiritually.  It can be every bit as difficult as finding just the right text for that first empty page of Chapter One.  Endings are easy to rush, and a rushed ending is never any good.  I've taken more than one approach in working to solve this issue in my own writing.  Sometimes I find it easier simply to go with the impulse to rush through to the end, and then go back through it, a week or two later, with a red marker and a fresh approach.  When I have the energy, and the Muses are also feeling particularly helpful, I literally force myself to take my time.  If I'm tired, I force myself to take a break.  This is not always easy, but I'm getting better at it.

Although this is probably the longest I've ever worked on a rough draft (only averaging 2-5 pages a day) I am very happy with the progression of this story, so far.  I'm at 180 pages, and the pacing is coming along well.   I just cannot express enough how excited I am about this project; I can't wait to share more.  Oh, the joys of writing a well-organized and heavily inspired piece!

I am so glad I decided to take a chance and start this series.  I almost didn't, fearing my ideas for the project were possibly just a little too experimental to pull off.  One lesson I've learned in my many years of writing, however, is that sometimes one must simply take a chance here and there, come what may.  Those ideas turned into more than even I could have hoped for.  This one has been an amazing, enriching, and surprisingly deep adventure, and I thank the Muses for their continued generosity.

The Darkness and the Night series is very loosely based on the novel, The Nightcrawlers, which I co-wrote with my twin sister, back as a teenager.  Of course, when I say "loosely" I mean it in the most liberal sense; I've thrown in a few hidden treats for the handful of people who had a chance to read the long-lost manuscript, but the actual storyline has much evolved.

I hope to have some other material to post here as well, beyond the retyped essays.  Soon ... very soon....

I'm finally getting around to retyping some of the essays I've been meaning to post.  As I wrote many of them on dinosaurs, using formats that my current computer cannot process, I'm having to rewrite them manually.  While this is not too much of a problem, as I can type pretty quickly, it does take away from my current project, my first of two sequels to my novel and screenplay, The Darkness and the Night.

Still untitled, I'm about halfway though the first draft, and I have to say -- knock on wood -- the Muses have been very good to me so far on this one.  I'm very happy with the plot twists and character revisits so far, and I think the pacing is just about perfect.  I'm very excited about the directions some of the characters will be taking, and I simply cannot wait until it is time to start part three and get this wonderful, yet very dark, adventure wrapped up.