Rantings of an Arranged Mind

I've been posting "The Surprising Life and Death of Diggory Franklin" since the summer of 2008, so that makes 4 years of this story. That's a lot -- I've had a lot of fun and learned a lot about myself and my writing.

Now, don't worry, I'm not going to stop -- I just want to take a break from this point of the story to let readers know about where I'm at, and some new changes. First of all, I've had a pretty irregular writing schedule this year -- in March we had twins, and since then we've been coping with that big change in our schedule as a family, as well as bouts with pneumonia,whooping cough and other illnesses. We've seen friends and extended family through some big and small crisises as well. In the meantime, I got a promotion at work with a lot more responibility,so that ate into writing time as well.

Now I'm building a routine -- there will be stories every week. The companion novel to "No Man an Island," the new "Trepidation of the Spheres" will still proceed every other Friday. In the meantime, ther will be TSLADODF chapters and occasionally "The Samaritan Project" as well, as I'm figuring out what I want to do there.

My plan for TSLADODF is as follows: I have moved Calla's Journal 2009 to BEFORE her journals from 2008, so that they are flashbacks where she compares her memories with Diggory's version of events. I think this will be a better way to read those chapters for new readers, and anyone who thinks about overall structure for novels.

I've been doing a day by day comparison so far, showing Calla's version of Diggory's encounters with her. This makes sense for the character, in that Calla's life without Diggory usually consisted of lab work, school and sleeping. He definitely changed her focus. There are occasional divergences, and hopefully they've been worth reading. But, I think I might change things going forward.

Here's my plan, and I want to know what people think:

I have one more story about Calla in 2009, following Diggory's death. It takes place AFTER she reads his entire journal. I think I can post this soon, I'm revising it. After that, I will be posting her 2008 journal entries (which can be compared to Diggory's) only when I feel like it, and I will be working hard to make sure that they are interesting, as opposed to just re-hashing things we've seen through Diggory's eyes. It will no longer be a priority focus for the ongoing narrative, except when and where I think I can write something interesting.

The main narrative for right now is going to return to Dahlia after the last part of the 2009 story, which is important because she's eventually going to reconnect with her twin, which we've seen hints of in Calla's journal. She's in the future with the Continuity Integrity Agency, and we all know Johnson works for Zebediah so that can't be good.

In summary -- Calla has one more (epic) story from 2009 to tell. Then Dahlia takes over the narrative except for the times I feel like showing more of Calla 2008 going over the same events as Diggory from a different angle. And those angles will show up only when I think they're interesting and relevant, not as a day-by-day rehash.

Any questions, comments, concerns?