Those of you who enjoy flashes from the past have to check out Miss Retro Modern's Photos. Simply divine.

Last night, around 1:45 AM, the engine in our apartment's air conditioning unit apparently fried itself. We awoke to find smoke pouring into the apartment through the vents and spent a few of the following hours getting to know the residents of our local firehouse.

We are, of course, left with an apartment covered in little strings of ash, clothes that smell like something unspeakable burned in them, and a hole in our ceiling. The apartment manager has said that she'll try to get the unit replaced by the end of the day. Meanwhile, the electricity to our apartment has been turned off; we spent the few hours before the morning at a friend's house, but we're unsure about what we're supposed to do next.

I'll probably take tomorrow off to start doing laundry or clean-up. Meanwhile, I'm trying to look at the silver linings--we woke up before the smoke could do untold damage to our lungs or kill us, and we still have most of our smoke-stained possessions.

Am I really supposed to be able to write through things like this?

Today will be a writing day. Things to do:
1. Finish the first draft of Chapter 5.
2. In the first four chapters, flesh V and Tam out into fuller characters, like they are in my head. Show more of the conflict/interaction going on in their own lives; intertwine it with the plot line
3. Do my normal first rewrite of Chapter 5 at this point so that it reflects the changes in the first chapters.
4. Start chapter 6.

The likelihood of me getting this list covered today, or even this weekend, is fairly low. But if I set my mind toward Chapter 5, it's a start, and a start is better than a stall.

Might start putting snippets of my work up here as well, if I can get over the worry about it being plagarized and published by someone else before I can do it.

My critique group tore apart my latest chapter. It hurt like the dickens, but I have to admit that they're right about the weak spots they pointed out. These spots web flaws out from the first chapters like cracks spreading through windshield glass. To keep them from spreading any further into the following chapters, I'm going to finish the rough draft of the chapter I'm working on now, then go back and rewrite the first four chapters (making the main characters stronger), then redo chapter 5 to match the changes in the first four.

I need speed. I need to be able to get over my unreasonable fear of attaching myself to something I loved so much before. Hey--maybe that's it, huh? I was so attached to it, and when the hurricane hit New Orleans, I was ripped away from being able to so much as think about it for a long time. Maybe I don't want that to happen again. Maybe I'm just still stressed out.

I wish I could take time off from work--say, a two-week stretch--to get some straight writing done in a modicum of privacy (which I don't have in our teeny space in the evenings). But work is wonderful when it's allowing you to pay for your medical needs and buy things. Buying things...heck, that has become a whole 'nother problem these days.

Find happiness where you can, people. Hopefully it won't involve your credit cards.

I have to admit that although I'm frustrated with how long it's taking me to write, I've come up with some good ideas during those long stretches of silent fingers. The odd part--my novel seems to want very much to be a two-parter. Funny, considering how much difficulty I'm having getting this written down. Perhaps I'll just end up writing a hefty tome in the style of Lorna Freeman (READ LORNA'S BOOKS NOW!).

Well, our house was robbed a sixth time. They broke through our attempts to secure the place. Doesn't seem like it'll be safe to move back even if we're able to afford the post-hurricane repairs.

I'm trying to get in a writing frame of mind. Really, I am.

We woke up this morning to find out that our area was hit by multiple tornadoes. A harsh thing to happen to a city that a.)doesn't have tornadoes and b.)is still struggling to recover from Hurricane Katrina.

On top of that, the recent spate of violence and robbery have apparently made some ugly-souled people out there say (loudly) that the country shouldn't be working to rebuild New Orleans. To you all, I point out that your moment will come, and you'd better hope that people feel more humanity toward you than you seem to be willing to extend to us.

New Orleans is an entertainment stop to most of the country. But the truth is, a lot of the drinking and partying is done by tourists who come here. We're very family oriented, as anyone who's ever attended an uptown parade during Mardi Gras season can tell you. We're far from the Sodom and Gomorrah that we're portrayed as. We're a very religious city--many religions, though predominantly Catholic, and we had nothing but goodwill for the rest of the country.

Now, I think, we're also very, very tired. It's very hard to shut out those loud, ugly voices who marginalize you. It's also painful to realize just how little concern your own state has for you as well. I've always heard that New Orleans was like an island all on its own... I didn't realize until now just how true that was.

No writing right now. The continued stress seems to be pushing me more toward light hysteria instead of panic, anxiety, and collapse. Is it a bad thing to be able to laugh about the fact that your hurricane-damaged house is still standing after a tornado?