I'm not really comfortable with half-measures, so I will actually be outlining the novel. By the time November 1st rolls around, I'll know exactly what happens to the stranger child who is my teenage protagonist.
All that will be left—a huge all—will be to write the 50,000 or more words to fill out that outline!
Roger is an easy reach for me to create: an extremely bright youngster who finds it hard to relate to the ordinary people who surround him. The original concept may have been sparked by the task of co-writing the memoirs of Kenneth Cummings, who was an extremely bright youngster finding it hard to relate, etc.
Despite their blended nature, the unordinary family Roger encounters (the "Lightyear Mass") are definitely inspired by my own childhood family. Growing up as the oldest of eleven children in a small town in Colorado provided me with a wealth of unusual experiences to draw upon in my writing.
Before I get to November 1st, though, some research is called for. In a chat with friend Mitch in the Chick-fil-A last week about the abstruse data I needed to wrap my mind around for the planned novel, he clued us in to the existence of the Berlin Ichthyosaur Park in central Nevada. We decided to make a two-day trip to visit it. Originally, we had thought of staying in the campground at the park, but I'm not so fond any more of camping after an 8-hour drive.
Instead, we'll driving south from Fallon, NV, stay overnight in the Clown Motel in Tonopah, NV, and wave at Christopher Sebela, who is committed to stay the month of Halloween in the motel adjacent to the old graveyard there, and write a book about it.
Then we can have most of a morning to explore the park!
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