Blog Post 98

Sooley Base word count as of 27 January 2013 – 96,000. Sooley Base page count 209 as of 27 January 2013.

It has snowed twice in the past week, and the weather included five days below freezing. Now we have weather in the seventies ... Go figure!!!

Work continues on Sooley Base. Gathering notes, shuffling segments and bits and pieces – these are all part of my eclectic process. The characters are set, and the timeline is written out of a long scroll, down to ten minute segments in some sections. A technique recently showing promise is printing up  chapters, then redlining them and shuffling segments to better fit the needed chronology.

Configuration  Management or CM has a central place in engineering and in software development … and in writing. An author needs to ensure notes, updates, and revisions don’t become confused or misplaced.  I’ve taken to putting together summary copies of all the chapters from start to finish. It helps by helping to remove duplicated segments, allowing word and page counts. Still a long way to go.

Another segment from Golden Gate follows:

“Perhaps Stefano, that’s his name, right … can dig out where that helo crashed. I really doubt it, as the Saudis are surprisingly silent on that point … with reason. I wouldn’t want other terrorists going there and setting an anniversary bonfire. I wonder if our comrades by the Wailing Wall know about this.”

The Force Ten team rappelled fifty feet down from the helo to what appeared as the largest crash remnant, part of the Huey’s main fuselage. Captain Hourani and Sergeant Achmed went first, their AK-47s slung across their backs, charged but safed while they descended. They conducted a fast initial survey, ensuring no one was alive from the crash to offer resistance; there were no survivors and they safed their weapons.