Shine On, Harvest Moon!

Another bleary-eyed Driveway Moment....

Photographed today at 2:37 AM (EDT), or about 3-1/2 hours after Full (11 PM EDT on 10/6, or 3 AM Universal Time on 10/7). At 10 AM EDT on 10/6 the Moon also reached perigee, or its closest monthly approach to the Earth.

This was a 1/640-second exposure at f/5.6. It may actually be one of my freehand shots -- after a while I realized that with that kind of shutter speed I didn't need to use my tripod.

In other years this could be called the Full Hunter's Moon, according to the Old Farmer's Almanac. "The Harvest Moon is always the full Moon closest to the autumnal equinox," says the OFA. "If the Harvest Moon occurs in October, the September full Moon is usually called the Corn Moon."

Back on October 4 I found this photo op during our post office walk:



Unlike the shot above, this one was an overexposure of the Moon so that I could get the foliage. Photographed at 9:01 PM (EDT), a 4-second exposure at f/4, sharpened afterwards.

Earlier that evening I got my lucky shot of the week:



That object to the middle left is a plane. This one is best viewed large (click the magnifying glass). This was a 1/1000-second exposure at f/4.5, taken at 6:49 PM (EDT).

10/7 = 70 days

Today marks my 70th consecutive day of adding to the draft of Book #4. It is now quite bloated in verbiage, not least because I’ve realized that my main theme has had to change. Eventually I’ll trim the excess – today’s tweaking in addition to writing has started that process – but for now I’m inserting backfill.

Old theme: “Time is running out.”
New theme: “Hate destroys but love survives.”

The old theme is still valid, but it isn’t the primary theme. It encompasses my two dramatic threads, but the new theme both encompasses and differentiates them. A major component of the whole series is love in the midst of death.

I’ve begun re-reading for craft, so that I can dissect what other authors have done and see what I can learn from them. Sometimes I can step back during a first read and scribble a quote I love, followed by the reasons why I love it. But a re-read lets me really stop and smell the metaphors (or the syntax, or the plot devices, etc.).

I’ve also realized that the two threads serve as a kind of figure/ground. The “figure” thread is one that I’ve basically finished drafting. It embodied the main conflict and is the simpler of the two, with its villain and victims, its dupes and its antiheroes. It possesses a story arc that moves from Point A to Point B.

The “ground” thread currently claims my attention. It contains its own conflicts, but each resolution builds on the one that came before. Its antagonists are also heroic. It represents a struggle for coexistence -- unlike the "figure" thread, which represents a struggle toward destruction. The "ground" thread sets the stage and is where I've been inserting backfill. Working on the backfill also lets me play around with a number of props, which take on different meanings and functions at different times and in different places.

It’s taken me more than 400 pages of drafted manuscript to recognize this figure/ground dynamic. I never claimed to be particularly quick.

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