Not utterly alone, I'm just lurky. Congrats on the accomplishments of the day, Susan! I'm getting really sucked into Lucy from the stuff you've been posting.

I really want to do this drabble; all of them have been so fascinating, but I'm not inspired. Oh well, there are still a couple days left.

There was one more in me, the one I didn't want to write. Damn it.

The One That Didn't Happen

4 September, 1994. We're in the car, and here it comes, a familiar piano riff.

I go stiff. I can't help it; it's reflex, hardwired. I try not to visibly react , bank down the fire that won't die, show nothing that could hurt. Wasted, of course. Nic knows me.

He glances at me sidelong, and pats my knee. "Someday," he says, no particular intonation, "you're going to bump into him. You know that, right? And you're going to keel over and faint, and that's it, you'll be fine."

I consider it. Finally I say "Damn. I hope you're right."

Two days later, my phone starts ringing.

I'd say this was a fateful encounter.
---------

Ten hours of labor, a gush of liquid that floods the floor, makes the midwife shout, “She’s in a hurry!” Six burning pushes and she’s out of me, my cranky fullback baby.

“Why won’t she nurse?” I’ve got tears in my eyes and the lactation consultant pats me on the shoulder.

Every nurse at every shift thinks she’s got the answer. My nipples burn from the pokes and twists as each attempts to force the baby to suckle.

The pediatrician laughs. “She’s a lazy-sucker; strong-willed. It happens.”

I laugh with her, clueless, stupid. I have no idea what this portends.

Susan, would you mind if I submitted that romance writer's PATRIOT Act story to lisnews.com?

ION, still sick. Have reached the most frustrating point of recuperation, where you have just enough energy to be bored but not enough to do anything but lie about.

Dani--For something like that where it's more official, I'd feel more comfortable if the magazine gave permission to reprint it. I could snail-mail you the whole article and the editorial contact info, if you're interested.

Deena, that piece reminds me of Betsy's story about her son, Will, living up to his name. Her father asked her, "What do you suppose would have happened if you'd named him Compliant?"

Susan, those were really good vignettes. I like Anna's comeback to the scumbag officer.

Deena--that's vivid, and oh-so-familiar.

I like Anna's comeback to the scumbag officer.

Since she spends a chunk of the early going as a Damsel, it's fun to give her the chance to be a Badass.

I fucking hate synopses.

That is all.

Susan rooooooocks.

I have an existing 6-page synopsis for Lucy. Today I sat down and drafted a synopsis for Anna, not thinking about the length, just getting the important plot points and character motivations in. It's 7 pages.

The agent I'm submitting to likes 3-pagers. I can't cut these things in half without turning them into nonsense. I'm going to have to figure out a way to distill the essence and rewrite.

Thing is, I can do a decent single-page or even single-paragraph synopsis, because all you're really going for there is a basic story hook and sense of the type of conflict and what changes the characters have to make to overcome it. But how I'm supposed to get any coherent plot summary, representation of my voice and style, and sense of the characters into three pages, I have no idea.