Half

Spent the morning touching up the Highgate scene. Took a while to find the right way to start Part III but finished the day with 1,500 words down and the half-way point achieved.

And it looks like no work yet. I could be done with the novel by the end of May if I could hit...about 1,500 words a day. Hm.

***

Japan is next. Sure, I could write something different, but this is working for me at the moment. These are finally turning into the closest thing I'm ever likely to get to quick-and-dirty. And that's half the reason to send Penny to Japan next. To a place she knows nothing about and can't lecture about, and to do an adventure in such a way that she isn't getting lectured at by everyone. Basically all surface textures.

Another reason is I want to change gears. Penny's spending the London book in overcast skies, digging in dirt, being cold and hungry. Basically depressing and very much about being a working stiff. The Japan idea is colorful adventure. Everything pretty -- and everything paid for.

This is also where it fits in her progression. London was the "have to work for everything" one. Japan is the free ride one -- but the free ride that's too easy (it's a plot. Of course it is a plot.)

What do I have in the mix otherwise? It is like the wishlist I started with for London. I got a surprising amount in there, too. Couldn't do Roman reenactors and as I worked got a lot more Blitz-centric (intentionally). Still haven't gotten to the Panto stuff and not sure how that's going to work.

Anyhow. Kyoto, mostly. Extra-scenic and extra-traditional, without being rural. Matsuri of course. Tokyo probably. The Takarazuka, somehow. The old Geisha quarter. The Toei standing set. I'm resisting the temptations this series throws at me to have things fall happenstance into being historical/genre appropriate but I'm willing to play with Ninja in a reproduction Edo-era town.

There's also in my notes somewhere a cult that has their own museum -- there's some stolen antiquities, I think that's how I heard about it -- and the museum is from the description I read a James Bond set sort of place.

I'm sort of off in a bunch of different directions with this one. I have the idea of her having an American otaku girl on the other end of a bluetooth earbud, giving her all sorts of not entirely correct cultural and language advice. I also have idea of Penny realizing the dangerous waters she is in and how easy it is to misread the cues of an unfamiliar culture.

Oh, yeah. And the title is A Fox's Wedding. Which actually refers to weather; when it is raining with the sun out. Connected to kitsune, of course it is. But it seems to hint that romance or some other life change is in the wings and I'd be happier if the title at least seemed to belong...