It was due out on the 11th. However, I didn’t update. Quite simply, it’s not ready. I was without a computer this weekend, so that delayed it a bit, but the true reason is that I’m having some difficulty writing it.

Well, that’s not exactly accurate. I’m loving writing it, it’s probably the most fun I’ve had with Oktober. The problem is making sure it seals up all the plot holes properly. I wrote it a long time ago. You know the typical theory of writing that you begin with your ending, then you write your beginning, then you use the middle to give your story meat and flesh out how your characters get from the beginning to the end, that way, you know your ending and you can constantly write towards it?

That doesn’t work. A story is a living thing, and it grows organically. It doesn’t want to follow the route you have planned for it, especially a novel like Oktober, which is essentially just a string of bizarre, surreal, and nonsensical events strung together only by the characters. As such, the ending I had, well… it doesn’t fit precisely with the standing of events as they are. Oktober was telling one story at the beginning, and it’s telling another now, towards the end. And I’ll be honest, a bit of that could be called lazy writing, but it also has to do with the fact that, as a writer, I’ve grown since I wrote those first chapters of Oktober. I’m genuinely proud of a lot of the writing in the later chapters.

But I’m straying away from the topic at hand, to sum issues up, I basically need to reread Oktober to make sure the ending fits, make some definitive decisions (that will really change the entire nature of the book) and then write it in a way that makes sure the ending is satisfying for the reader.

I totally meant Tuesday. Anyway, here is Chapter 9: Smith, and here is Chapter 9: Matthias. The only two entries in Chapter 9! So that’s exciting, I guess, on to Chapter 10, which should be the last chapter.

Yeah, the absolutely last one.

Like Oktober will be done after it.

So I passed my driver’s license test. Finally. I really slacked on that one. But hey! I have my license now! And tomorrow, I’m going to pick up my Dad’s old Saab. It’s a 900SE convertible, and we took it to the shop, well… yesterday, to assess the damage on it.

See, the Saab was my learning car, and I did not treat the poor thing well. I shattered a headlamp, wrecked the suspension, blew a tire, and destroyed the shifter linkage. The tire was fixed a while ago, and we took it in to fix the linkage yesterday. The rest is really just “cosmetic damage.” Anyway, I’m still pretty psyched. Odds are I’m going to die in the Saab but, hey, whatevs.

Pictures to come, tomorrow, as well as like, two chapters of Oktober.