Random thought: My Thanksgiving resolution: Stuff myself and then go cold turkey ’til tomorrow.

To my fellow carnivores, Happy Turkey Day, and for you herbivores out there, I raise a glass and say, “This one’s faux you.” Since most of us won’t have time to do anything except eat, drink and not talk politics, I’ll make this post a short one so you can get to the carbo loading. This week’s story was inspired by a prompt generously supplied by fellow writer Barbara Siebeneick. Just another reason to give thanks. Here’s the 101-word tale.

Overdrawn at the Hospital

“They woke me up two hours ago to draw blood,” Smathers told Nurse Judy.

“Sorry.”

“Can’t they do it when I’m awake?”

“I’ll ask.”

Judy returned to the psychiatric nursing station. “Smathers is hallucinating about phantom blood draws again.”

“He said the last phlebotomist had no reflection in the mirror,” another nurse laughed.

“On his breakfast menu, he requested garlic cloves.”

“If Smathers has vampires posing as techs, the doc says just agree with him.”

The next morning, Smathers ripped a bandage off his bruised inner arm. “That bloodsucker missed my vein.”

Judy’s eyes bulged as she fled. “He’s not delusional!”

Prompt: Hospital Vampires

Novel News & Notes:

Here’s the latest update on Questionable Characters, my first novel. It’s very similar to my short story writing—except each daily writing session is like writing the equivalent of 14.85 101-word stories (approximately).

I continue to use my detailed outline as my north star, while also finding reasons to stray from the original path. As I dive into the actual scene writing, I’m making discoveries, as well as seeing the occasional problem that needs solving. Scenes that were very long in the earlier draft are being significantly trimmed, if not completely deleted. Other scenes have been moved further down the timeline.

In terms of my goal to finish by the end of November (National Novel Writing Month), barring a couple of marathon writing sessions over the next three days, I don’t see that happening. Instead of losing sleep over it, I’m pretty sure I’ll be OK since I’m still loving the process. Yes, I want to get this draft finished so I can see where I am with it, but now that I’m 383 pages into it (more than I expected) I know I’ll have plenty to work with for the next round.

The journey continues.

Thanks for listening.

Scotty out