I couldn't sleep last night because my body is too well-adjusted to staying up late. I did, however, manage to sleep until almost 0800 hours and woke feeling... well, I'd like to say refreshed but I was very groggy.
I still have several starts on short stories, but nothing that I truly care about yet. The Henry IX story, I've decided, may work best told from the viewpoint of a common person. I've printed at least 50 pages from various web sites and I'm still obtaining information. Although I have a fair knowledge of Tudor history, I'm a little weak on dates and prospective marriage candidates if England had remained Catholic.
About 1000 hrs., I gave up and knocked on Mark's door to ask if he wanted to go with me to IHOP for breakfast/lunch. Karen wasn't in when I stopped by her room so Mark and I went off together for brunch and then I returned to experience more major frustration on getting one of these stories off the ground. Too many voices in my head.
I took what was supposed to bea brief nap to try to clear my head and Mark stopped by to see about eating again. We went out to Ruby Tuesday and then back again to tackle the unwilling stories. One of these will surely work. I've got a dozen premises started and all of them are stalled.
I ecked out a mere 1,000 word story this evening while adding another 300 words to a previous story that stalled at 1,000 words. I also decided -- mostly for fun and because I wasn't accomplishing anything anyway -- to revise the toilet flushing story. I would prefer to write longer works but I think the act of experimenting is restricting me to shorter works. It's hell to sink over 6,000 words into a story and then realize you goofed. Shorter is safer but I'd rather not be working on shoter works. I very much want a longer idea. They're just not coming at the moment. Maybe the next one.
I'm turning in all my recent stories as NOT FOR CRITIQUE. I haven't yet given up hope of writing a longer piece. In the meantime, I'm doing a lot of reading.
Jennifer caught her plane with no difficulties but the plane decided it didn't want to go to Reno. She was stranded elsewhere overnight and didn't arrive home until 1000 hours their time. Hopefully, she won't have similar problems with the return flight. I'll be driving out to meet her at the local airport.