The Homestretch

I just broke 40,000 words in my novel. 10,000 more words and I can actually introduce myself as A Novelist. My challenge in the next, the last 20% of MY BOOK (oooh that feels cool) will be to actually reach The End. Knowing my personal tendencies to completely ignore a project without a deadline or another form of external motivation, I will drop this project like a garbage bag full of moldy potatoes on December 1st. Okay, maybe not that bad... but do you remember my Econ paper?
*
*
*
*
(whispering...) I haven't mailed it in yet. (ducks, trying to hide from the barrage of an internet full of family and friends throwing bananas). I know, I know. Tom's on my case and has done everything BUT coming over to my place and stealing it out of my laptop. I'm just lazy. And I don't have a printer. That's my excuse and I know it doesn't cut it.

Back to the current project though. My fabulous heroine is still on her jaunt and has less than a week's worth of writing to wrap up the trip of a lifetime and head home. What to do? Obviously.... all of it!

Here's the latest excerpt (can you tell I've shifted gears? I'm now writing about 1,000 words every half hour which is double my original pace... and probably cut the quality in half!).

Ren was not a morning person though. He completely missed breakfast and Jenna had to go back to the sleeping area to shake him awake before they missed the last of the beautiful sunrise. He’d been easy to find, the only sleeping bag left in the entire room. His shaggy hair was sticking up in several different directions and when he finally looked over at her it was obvious he was struggling to focus.

“Jenna....?” he groaned. She smiled.
“Ohio Gozaimasu!” she used her most cheerful teacher voice. Without a word, Ren retreated deeper into the sleeping bag and drew the drawstring closed at the top. Jenna began poking at the outside of the orange sleeping bag until Ren hollered and popped back out. “Come on, Ren-sama! We’ve got go to climb a mountain!” she still used the sunshine-y voice and spoke right into his hair. “And then we get to go DOWN!”. At this, he finally rolled over and opened his eyes again.

“Oh... yeah”. He yawned, stretched, and finally sat up.
“Come On!!” she jumped up and down like an eager four year old. He glared at her. “Ok, I am going to be out front getting my stuff together. You’d better meet me there in fifteen minutes... or I’m going to leave without you!”. She put emphasis on the fifteen minutes and pointed her finger at him. He might be a goofball, but he knew she was serious. They’d gotten along well enough to keep hiking as a team, but on a number of different occasions they’d offered to let the other go on their own. She knew he’d be probably be just as happy on his own and that was part of what kept them on an even keel. She was beginning to suspect Ren had developed something of a crush on her though, and if she had to tweak that attachment in order to get him out the door, that was all right with her. Jenna hoped she was wrong, but he’d already asked an inordinate amount of questions regarding her love life and her plans for leaving the country. He had teased her several times about staying on as a hostess in a Roppongi bar and other similarly sketchy ideas. None were plausible, not to mention likely.

They hiked all morning, reaching the top of the vertigo inducing peak well before lunch. Ren struck a monkey pose in a photo at the top and laughed at Jenna for her standard peace sign. On the way down, they passed a valley filled with steam vents. The air was heavy with the smell of sulfur and Jenna debated with Ren about stopping for another bath. Jenna wanted to stop and enjoy another natural bath, certain it would feel like heaven on her exhausted muscles. Ren just wanted to hike straight down to town.

“Jenna, we just had a bath!” Ren argued. Jenna couldn’t believe she was arguing with a Japanese person over having baths too frequently. She finally gave up, also eager to get to the bottom and fill up on some real food. They’d still need to find a couple of rooms for the night once they reached town, as neither one of them had made reservations this far into their trip. They hiked the last couple hours in relative silence. She’d been glad for Ren’s company over the last week, but they were both over tired and hungry. When they reached the bottom, Jenna wanted to collapse on the ground, but she was frankly too sore to move that quickly.

Back to the lap top....!