we got off work a bit early last night about 8:45pm. Previous to Monday before ETS changed the LRT night schedule there would be a train about 9:50pm and 9:10pm and 9:20pm. Now it’s 8:55pm, and if I miss that one then I have to wait around until 9:20pm. So when we get out at say 8:50pm I’ve got half an hour before the next train. Lately now I don’t get to Clairview until 9:40pm and in the winter I’m not walking home when it’s -25C out there trudging through the ice and snow. Which means I’ve got another 10 minute wait for the bus at Clairview. By the time I walk into the apartment it’s about 9:55pm. I’m trying to convey this to my wife but she doesn’t under stand and it’s going over her head. She’ll figure it out eventually. All it means is for what used to take me 40 minutes to get home now takes an hour. I shouldn’t complain though I’m sure people in larger communities have commute times a lot worse off then I do. I don’t mind because it gives me time to read. The worst part about it is that Diane is on the 9:20pm train. I just want to go home relax and read talk with Anne or Charles.

I decided to get off at the Boston pizza there and check out Absolute Power. A game playing computer store. You go in and buy game time and you can use their computers for games like Halo 3 etc. It’s great for groups of people that want to go in and play for a couple of hours. It’s something like $6/hor to play for an hour. I talked to the clerk there. A nice enough fellow and asked some questions. So, I can go in and play say “World of War craft” for an hour or Halo 3 or any of their other games. What I like about it is that it’s a place to play before you buy. They’re open until midnight. Thing is if I want to buy a game, I’d need a high end video card in the area of around $500 bucks. Plus I’d need a ton of Ram plus the game not to mention a gaming account with the people hosting the game. They have different rate plans. Members: $3.95/hr non members $6/hr. $29/year. There are also freebees tournaments launch parties all kinds of good stuff plus a free t-shirt or hat. For example lets say I want to play WoW at home. Firstly, I’d need to get more Ram on my PC and at $160 for 1 Gig of Ram $320 max. The game itself is $60, no big deal. Then I’ve got to get a decent graphics card and that itself will cost me about $500. So far(tax) “I’ve spent” almost $1000. Then I’ll need a $60 3 month prepaid gaming card. Granted this 3 month gaming card if I play 3 hours/day and 15 hrs weekends. I’d be looking at playing 30 hours/week or 120hrs/month. Stack that up against the cost of playing the game at AP at $3.75/hr, that 120 is going to cost me a lot of money. Actually $450/month. In 3 months I would have “spent” $1,350. Cost effectiveness wise it wouldn’t be worth while for me to participate in WoW that way if I wanted to at all. Plus WoW is a huge time waster, time I’d rather spend writing.

Speaking of, which I’m asking since Charles doesn’t Outline or plan his novels, how much time does he spend on Character development? How much time does he spend on research? RJS told me he spends a lot of money on research. Is there a relationship between research and novel Outlining? I did a modest amount of character development and research in F. I knew what limits I wanted to place on my characters, what they were capable of doing and might do. I can see my characters in my minds eye. I know what Paul his brother Bill, Donna and Candice look like. I even know what they sound like. I’ve written a bit of back story bio’s on each of them.

One thing I’ve been tinkering around with in the story is the actual setting of the scene. Something like a stage set. Since I have 80 scenes in the story to work with. This is the fun part. For example I’ve got several scenes where my characters are in an hotel room. I’ve got the layout of the hotel room so I know where each character is on each set at any given time. I like writing this way as it gives me some creative control. But the other thing I’m thinking about doing is narrowing my story development down to it’s simplest form: Story synopsis, Character sketches, 3 crisis points, beginning/middle/end, (bleak moment/climax/aftermath) and just begin the writing and see where it takes me. Speaking of, which lets get back to the writing.

Anyway that’s all for now

e. Jim