A week's vacation but 'The Fracking War' raged even in my absence

NUEVO VALLARTA, Nayarit, Mexico - Sometimes when I am reading a really good book, I actually slow myself down because I know it's near the end and I just don't want the experience to be over.

In writing The Fracking War, it's been kind of the opposite, in that I want to write more and more, faster and faster, so I can get the thing going ahead to find out what's going to happen.

This past week, I slowed things down with a week's vacation - a terrifying notion because in books'  past, I have lost the thread of the narrative and left them (three in all) 90-percent finished. Maybe I'll pick them up after The Fracking War draft is done and get that last 10 percent in their drafts.

Maybe.

A little pepper spray spices up a protest scene in The Fracking War

The thread of the narrative wasn't lost this time because I have been meticulously outlining chapter by chapter. (Ok, if you know me, you know that's an exaggeration.) But I have been good about outlining in broad strokes about how I want to keep the plot moving.

Good thing.

When I came back to the computer and writing today I would have been lost for sure without the notes. But instead I picked up the story right where I left off and banged out 3,000 words by lunchtime.

That's a personal-best record by the way. And, upon rereading a few minutes ago, the 3,000 will stand with only some minor editing. A character named Luther Burnside I mistakenly turned into Luther Burbank by accident. My character is not a related to the famous botanist. Hmmm... now there's another subplot idea...

I am perhaps eight chapters short of where I thought I would be today (even with the burst of words this morning) but now that I know how this segment ends and what lies in Part IV, perhaps it's as simple as putting one word after another.

Perhaps.