I want to be a pirate!! Yes, yes I do!

Any clue here that I went to see the second "Pirates" movie? Twice? First with my mom and sister -- and then with my husband, who was so desperate to find something to do to avoid work that he allowed me to drag him to it. He and I sat close enough for the spray to hit us on the faces! What a lot of fun. But -- and this is a big but -- now I want to be on the water so badly I can taste the salt on my lips. Aargh!

The day after I saw the movie, I went out and bought the soundtrack. (You should have seen the look I got from my daughter when she saw what I'd purchased. It was exactly the same look I used to give my mother as I was growing up. Sorry again, Mom.) Now, every day, I put the music on, turn it way up, open the front door and stand on our steps to watch as the school and playground across the street transform into the sea before my very eyes. Then the Black Pearl lunges up out of the water, the spray hits my face, and Jack Sparrow whispers, "Just take two steps, and you can join me and my crew."

Now, it doesn't hurt that Jack Sparrow is played by Johnny Depp -- good looking (achingly so) and talented (again, achingly so), but he isn't Johnny Depp when he whispers in my ear. He is Jack Sparrow, bad teeth and all, and I don't care about him as much as the Pearl. Getting on the Pearl and sailing away. Then the music ends, the sea subsides, and I go back in and do whatever grown up thing I have on my to do list. But inside, trust me, the music is playing and the Pearl is running before the howling wind, leaping through the huge waves with me at the helm.... God, I want to be a pirate.

The very fact that I have the time to want to be a pirate lets everyone know that Manhood Road is off my desk and wending its way (well, query letter and first chapter, anyhow) to the first publisher on my list. Yahoo for that!

Pulled the research etc. for the next novel off the shelf, and started to get back into the main character's head a bit. Now, I have to watch myself very carefully, or SHE could turn into a pirate before my very eyes. Nah, she doesn't have the right stuff for that. Her path is already set (sorry Lois, but it is) and now I get to watch her try to get out of the horrible situation I've dumped her into. I'm still a little worried that I might not be able to pull this one off -- lots of research, and I have to have a clear understanding of American foreign policy (past and present) to make it sound legitimate. Or, I can just say "screw it, I have enough to make it sound plausible," write the thing, and fill in the blanks later. Hmm. Feeling just piratey enough I may try that. I'm excited. I love creating. And this one's going to be a doozie, I think. Lois, the main character, has the biggest secret any of my main characters have ever had -- and she has to decide between keeping her secret and saving the world. Oh yeah! It doesn't get much bigger than that!

I would like to have the first draft (about 100,000 wds) completed by mid September, because I'm in a writing workshop with a prominent science fiction author (yahoo for that, too), and would love to know the story intimately before I go. I think I can do it. I write quite quickly, generally, and when I can get to that white hot space where creativity just takes over and the hours go somewhere and I'm so far into the story I couldn't come up if I wanted to, I can get a lot done. The problem is shutting the internal editors off and just letting the story come out the way it wants to. I have this specter of the "prominent science fiction writer as teacher" hanging over my head right now, and if I let it, that could destroy the story before it even gets down on paper. I must remember, I write the first draft for me. Then and only then do I clean it up for public consumption. And man, do I ever want to know how Lois is going to get to the end. Or if she can.

However, before I start writing, I need to do a character sketch of the bad guy, because he's a lot more than simply a bad guy, and I have to know him as well as I know Lois. And I don't yet. But once I do, I start. Could be tomorrow or the next day. When I start, word count goes up here, to keep me on track.

Now, everyone do the happy dance with me. And if it turns into a bit of a pirate jig, that's perfectly wonderful. Manhood Road is out in the world. AAARGH me maties! We are happy about that!