It’s interesting how the same idea can show up in different television programs. Two shows that aired at the exact same time on Tuesday evening, Without a Trace and Law & Order: SVU, had characters who dressed up like children who had been missing for some time. In the former case, the girl who did this wasn’t herself kidnapped but felt alienated by her family and wanted to belong and, perhaps, offer some misguided comfort to the missing girl’s mother. In the latter show, the girl actually conned a family into believing she was their missing family member–an idea that might have worked better if one of the family members hadn’t been responsible for the real girl’s disappearance.
Yesterday I archived my entire LiveJournal onto my PC using a slick program called ljArchive (it grabs everything and then saves them in a nice, browsable display, including comments), exported the contents to a series of XML files (one per year) and imported them all into my web site WordPress archive. Worked like a charm. From this point on, my blogs will originate at my web site and be mirrored to LJ. I think it only makes sense to have full possession of my blog content in case something unexpected happens to LJ.
Since I’m working on the new project both day and night, I’m exceeding expectations. As of this morning, Day 4, I have 6000 words done, which amounts to about 20% of the target word count. Three chapters (2, 10 and 11) are mostly done, pending revision. The book will have 12 chapters, an intro and a conclusion, and a bunch of sidebars. I’m planning on 2K per chapter, 500 each for the intro/conclusion and the remaining 5k divided up among the sidebars. So far, I’m right on track. I have to deliver a midpoint update on January 23, two weeks from tomorrow. I’m hoping that I’ll be about 2/3 of the way through the book by then.
