29,625 / 25,000 (118.5%)

Yup, it’s done. Finally. After months of on-again-off-again work, this novella is now complete. I can’t believe how long it’s taken me to write these meager 124 pages. I mean, come on. I was working on this at the AP workshop in June. I worked on it at Horrorfind in August. And here it is, late November, and I finally finished the first draft. That’s very, very slow for me. Never again will I divulge details about the ending of a book until I have a finished draft. Doing that really sucked the wind out of this one for a long time.

How do I feel about it? Eh. I’m not sure. I think taking so long hurt it. Also, I moved the setting from the real town of Ponca City to my fictional town of Windy Acres. So, it needs some cleaning. Likely some character traits changed because I forgot certain details between sittings. But, it ended where I expected and, I hope, the ending will have the desired effect on the reader.

Today is Bedlam. Those of you in Okieland know what that means. The mighty Sooners of the University of Oklahoma are hosting the Cowboys from OK State. What’s different this year? I have tickets to the game. This may be hard to believe considering I’ve followed Sooner football since the 1970s — I remember Billy Simms — but I have never seen a game live in person. I went to an OSU homecoming game once as a kid, but that’s the only NCAA Div. 1 football game I’ve ever attended. I was given two tickets last night. And I can’t find anyone who wants to go with me who can go with me. My oldest son doesn’t want to go. Kim said she’ll go with me if I can’t find anyone else, but she doesn’t really want to. Can you got to Bedlam if you’re apathetic about football? I guess we’ll find out.

Speaking of Kim, yesterday marked 27 years we’ve been a couple. I’m 41 years old, and we’ve been together for 27 years. Do the math. I love you, baby, even if you don’t like football and your taste in music has gone to crap. haha