100,000 and counting

Sunset moon on the night of August 29, 2006. Slightly contrast-enhanced.

Fueled by the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff and Jean-Luc Ponty, with some help from Frederick Delius and Claude Debussy. Sustained by coffee and peanuts, salad and crispbread, yogurt with honey, canned tuna. Bolstered by notes scribbled between meetings, on waking, and in the middle of the night....

Over the past week my manuscript for Book #4 in a series has topped 100,000 words, with 45,000+ added over the past 36 consecutive days of writing. I'm now well entrenched in the final third of the story. Granted, it's a first draft and subject to considerable tweaking, but the 100,000-word mark is a milestone. The first three books in the series have come to approximately 86,000 words for each of the first two (the first a little less, the second a little more) and a shade over 115,000 words for the third. Dancing With the Muse continues with my daily "reporting in" and writing tidbits.

Our hurricane shutters are up -- those that we want to be up at this point. Others are in the garage, ready to be slipped into place in case anything comes this way. The ones over the bedroom windows have had the effect of making me think I've awakened considerably earlier than I actually have.


Sunset, as-is out of the camera except for cropping. The moon is to the left, out of frame.

It's time for me to order more Maja soap, especially since they have a sale on. Maja is a touch of luxury in our fairly no-frills household. And -- I hasten to add -- it isn't for just the humans, as "Better Than Catnip" (1:59) shows. Our cat Red adores the stuff. He'd lick the bar if we let him, so we compromise by letting him lick the wrapper.



His buddy Daisy has been holding her own, ever since her diagnosis with progressive renal failure. She's had some off days, but most of the time she's remained active and happy. We've been told this condition can last for years. We continue to keep an eye on her and try to keep her comfort level as high as we can.

On Friday I spotted a Palamedes Swallowtail nectaring on lantana after the meeting of my critique group. It held fairly still, compared with the one I'd photographed in April. This is the same library where I'd seen a pipevine swallowtail before our previous meeting two weeks earlier.


More detail is in the large view (click the magnifying glass).

Papilio palamedes, Family Papilionidae. Renamed Pterourus palamedes as of 2005 (source cited by Bugguide.Net: Marc C. Minno, Jerry F. Butler, and Donald W. Hall, Florida Butterfly Caterpillars And Their Host Plants, University Press Florida, 2005). Ranges through the southeastern United States, extending into central Mexico. Its season spans from March through December in the northern part of that range (2 flights), with a third flight in the southern part of its US range.

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