We biked to the Kolaport today because the weather is gorgeous. In the course of browsing, I found a booth that was selling off someone’s entire collection of science fiction. 500 kronur for seven books. I managed to limit myself to seven, which was not easy.

I now have first printings of:
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester, which was originally 35 cents.
The Planet Buyer by Cordwainer Smith, which is billed as “Something New in Science-Fiction!”
Falling Free Lois McMaster Bujold
Some Will Not Die by Algis Budrys

I also picked up three books just for fun. The Big Book of Science Fiction, Stories of Detection and Mystery, and one genuinely pulpy novel, Danger Planet by Brett Sterling.

The cover copy on Danger Planet is priceless.

Introducing Captain Future
ONE STRONG MAN BATTLING THE GALAXIES OF EVIL

On the back it says:

One million years back in the swirling, shrouded past, evil ultra-beings ruled Planet Roo. Suddenly, unbelievably, they are alive again, threatening the universe with total destruction.

Only one man dares challenge the Evil Ones. He is Captain Future, inter-galactic agent of justice, whose identity is top secret, whose strength is ultimate. He sets out alone to stop the deathless menace creeping ever closer. . .

Could you leave that on the table? I sure couldn’t.

Well, I had to delete 1700 words yesterday, because I realized that I had taken two different wrong turns in the plot. The interesting thing with both of them is that in both cases I was clearly stalling while I tried to figure out what happened next. Much earlier in the process, I had made one of those discoveries which was exciting and causes one to revise the plot, except that I didn’t stop and redo my chapter breakdown. I kept writing. That’s all well and good, until I hit a point where I didn’t know what happened next. Then my characters went into holding patterns, vascillating between decisions without actually acting.

This is where writer’s block is your friend. I knew that I had made a mistake and by looking at the types and areas of my procrastination, I was able to spot the errors pretty fast. Too bad I didn’t spot them before I wrote them. But, in the big picture, it’s not so bad to toss 1700 words.

Anyway, I spent yesterday revising my plot outline. While there is still a chapter which says, “Something bad happens to Cassandra” and I’ve got no idea what the “something bad” is, the story as a whole is much more solid. I blazed through the next two chapters and am only 500 words behind where I should be today. Hurrah. So if I write between 2500 and 3000 words today I’ll be back on target.

This is why the weather is gorgeous outside. Temptation.

I saw a variant of this on Deanna Hoak’s blog and thought it looked like fun. I went to my webstats and looked at the search terms people use to find my website. In other words, these are actual phrases people have typed in, and then clicked through to get to my site. Looking at some of them, it was almost like a Bonsai story. So, here is my collage-poem.

Liquid Oil Projectionists

william acton rose to his feet
snake at the door

pictures of a tangled up mess
chipmonk and damage to house

behind the bedroom wall
kowal murder

snake got destroyed in car engine
a sentence for the word pride

So here’s your challenge. Take your search phrases and make a collage-poem that flirts with sense. No fair using search keywords, it has to be phrases.