Arrgh.

About a week ago I had a weird dream and I noted it in a particular place, this way:

So I was in New York City, attending a Masonic conference and a sci-fi convention in the same hotel. I was wearing a three-piece suit and was armed to the teeth. And then I woke up, puzzled that I was in New York but glad I’d had the foresight to arm myself if I was going to be anywhere near the city.

I think I need to stop taking Benadryl at night.

This may or may not have been a mistake, because a certain well-known SF author of my acquaintance then said:

D*MN it Fuzzy.

If you don’t write a noir-feel short starting that way

I’m going to come through the internet and make you

I was about to type “beat you” BUT I don’t want to piss off Sally

but that paragraph? GREAT VOICE.

Continue please.

Now.

Well, shit.

Thus was the genesis of the (currently) 8,000 word noir-ish epic I’m calling On Account of a Dame.  It’s an attempt to see if I can write a complete novella of between 10K and 20K words.  It’s about halfway done so apparently I can.  It even fits into my Timelines universe, so there.

And all of my other characters are yelling at me furiously because I am ignoring them.

So I always generate images before I start writing, and during the writing, because it helps me visualize the characters better.  Here are a few of the ones I’ve generated this time.  First, Tiffany Frelinghuysen Delafield — the titular Dame.

Next, the Tong Queen (for whom I haven’t yet imagined a name, but will have to, since she’s going to be on stage in a couple more paragraphs)…

Finally, our hero the detective.  Maybe.  I don’t like the way MidJ is generating his suits, this is the best one so far, and really the only one that looks like a real three-piece suit.

Oh, and his valet and, as he says, “Kato to [his] Green Hornet,” Gunther.

I have no real idea what I’ll do with this story, but I have to finish it first anyway.