What's happening behind the scenes to bring new GHAWG content? The GHAWG Diaries is my recap of what I've been doing.
Cover image designed by @magnacarta using emojis and Excel 2007 for text. Minor edits made using MS Paint.
Introduction
There's more to #GHAWG than just daily zapfic entries and the spreadsheet I use to track them. There's research. There's review. There's also thought and inspiration. Then there are the tools involved in doing any of those tasks.
Just to keep things from getting scrambled in my head, and also to document for myself what I've been considering, I began keeping a diary of my activities as they concern #GHAWG. With posts in the GHAWG, Uninterrupted series on hold at Interlude 3 while Act 7 remains in progress, I decided to share these diary entries with everyone on Hive blockchain.
On Mondays which don't feature a GHAWG, Uninterrupted post-- GHAWG-U-- I'll post diary entries from the previous 7 days or between GHAWG-U posts if the time between them is short. For TGD55, there are 7 days' worth of diary entries. The first entry starts on 2024-December-09.
Before anyone scratches their heads at a few terms, here are 3 I began using many posts ago:
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
Rate Bike | Code name for #GHAWG (the first and current zapfic serial) |
Blue Lion | Code name for the middle zapfic serial in the GHAWG Universe |
The Bronze | Code name for the final zapfic serial in the GHAWG Universe |
Monday, 2024-December-09
📓 Almost one year ago, on 2024-January-02, I created 2 text files containing what I call dossiers for characters from The GHAWG Universe. For obvious reasons, one features David Guardia and the other Rhonda Bella Guardia (formerly Rhonda Bella). As a point of reference, David and Rhonda spent a week in San Diego, California, US on their honeymoon while the downsided group of Our Heroes (soon to be reconfigured as Felix Legion) mapped the ride back east along the path used by the iconic Route 66 of yesteryear. Tonight I updated the dossier for David to reflect events since then. I also updaed the dossier for Rhonda to show that the old friends she ran into at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in St. Louis, Missouri, US are named Richard and Gina rather than the names I originally had in mind.
Tuesday, 2024-December-10
📓 I extended the zapfic queue to 2025-January-13 by slipping an entry at the point where David Guardia is about to begin his prophecy to the people of Chicago, its government leaders, and even interlopers in town to sow strife. Before speaking, he gives to people watching him a demonstration of The Lord's power by doing something nearly superhuman. The zapfic entry I added is at the start of this feat of strength before he speaks prophecy.
📓 Now that Felix Legion is done with Route 66, there remain 2 segments of David Guardia's Epic Ride: Chicago, Illinois, US to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; then UNC to Davenport, Iowa, US. When Sanjay Rampersad and Lionel Odunsi depart at Chapel Hill, Felix Legion drops from 7 people to 5 people (all of whom make their home in various places in Iowa). To get a better idea of the routes defined by the endpoints of these 2 segments, I opened digital maps for each segment. It will get tricky in Iowa since there is a good chance of backtracking previously traveled routes, so I need to figure out how to keep the riders moving forward.
Wednesday, 2024-December-11
📓 It took more time than I had expected, but I did it: I resequenced the zapfic spreadsheet so that it's organized in story order rather than by date published to LeoThreads. The gap-filling entries I had added over the course of roughly 2 months were slotted into their proper places. For this reason, I can no longer use the thread's datetime published as a primary key for sorting purposes. Since I also use an item number, that becomes the primary key. I'll also need to redo a few formulas I created to handle various tasks (including formatting). After I clean up this "remastered" spreadsheet, I will begin to publish the "GHAWG, Remastered" series. I will begin with the remastered version of Act 1. Remaining Acts and Interludes will be published in remastered format as quickly as possible.
Thursday, 2024-December-12
📓 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is nearly 800 miles from Chicago, Illinois, US. This means that Felix Legion is less than 1 week away from reaching UNC, where The Kids will resume the in-class portion of their senior year studies. Since Chicago is a short distance from the state of Indiana, the ride out of Chicago-- once the events at the Obama Presidential Library are done-- will be very short. Including Chicago, Felix Legion will be riding through the states of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina. Felix Legion will average 1 state each day, although there may be reasons for a layover (such as the 1-day stay the crew will take in Gary, Indiana, US after the long ride from Springfield, Illinois, US to Chicago and then to Gary). What will happen while riding through these 6 states? Your guess is as good as mine, even if I have plans for at least one scene.
Friday, 2024-December-13
📓 The plan was to go through the spreadsheet to finish getting the remastered worksheet up to date. This meant adding data regarding locations and storyline dates. What should have been a simple copy-and-paste operation ended up being an circular loop of error, or, as the kids like to say these days, a doom loop of error messages. I wasn't in the mood to deal with this aggravation, so I killed Excel 2007. Earlier I had saved my changes, so I didn't feel bad in terminating the process. Still, it's a day of work I couldn't get done. At least I was able to review the digital maps showing the route between Chicago and Chapel Hill.
Saturday, 2024-December-14
📓 For the time being my focus is on behind the scenes activity regarding GHAWG. This means updating my spreadsheet to accommodate new neds I have. This also means preparing posts for the "GHAWG, Remastered" series which will replace "GHAWG, Uninterrupted". I also need to find a way to resume publishing posts more often, and most likely that means resuming the "Fun with Maps" subseries published under the umbrella post series "GHAWG, Behind the Scenes". Scheduling posts in advance would be ideal for me, but I still have trouble using the InLeo front-end to schedule posts. Yes, I can schedule posts for InLeo using other front-ends and tools such as HiveVote; however, doing it this way means I earn 0.000 LEO. I'll still add to the zapfic queue, especially since The Kids are less than a one week ride away from returning to their in-class studies for their senior year at UNC.
Sunday, 2024-December-15
📓 Today I was thinking about what situations Felix Legion would encounter en route from Chicago, Illinois, US to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I have one situation in mind, but it will need to take place at a totally fictional location. This situation is based on news events which have littered the "airwaves" and cable/Internet bandwidth for decades, and I don't want to associate any existing location with the situation I have in mind. I have the action mapped out in my mind, so all I need to decide is where to place this totally fictional location.
There's another situation I was considering, but I'll be OK if I don't use it during this segment of David Guardia's Epic Ride or (for that matter) at any other point in Rat Bike. All I know is that just as I used a few New Testament parables as the basis for some scenes earlier in Rat Bike (especially during the ride from Davenport, Iowa, US to STURGIS), I may do so for this segment of the Epic Ride.
Aside from these set pieces, I will wing it the rest of the way until the Epic Ride ends with David settling down with his wife, the former Rhonda Bella in her home town of Davenport. This will mark the conclusion of Rat Bike.
When (and Where) To Catch #GHAWG
When
This is the normal schedule for the posting of content for #GHAWG:
● Daily -- Each zapfic entry is posted shortly after midnight, from New York
● Weekends -- Weekly Summaries (with modified screen capture from LeoThreads as cover image) are usually on Saturday, sometimes Sunday
● Monday -- Either GHAWG, Uninterrupted if present, or The GHAWG Diaries
● Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday -- GHAWG Behind the Scenes -- The goal is to publish these posts on all days not dedicated to the Weekly Sumamry, GHAWH-U, or The GHAWG Diaries (TGD). There may be days with no post, so I'll minimize those occasions as best as I can.
Where
● Daily zapfic entries drop at LeoThreads, usually posted shortly after midnight from New York (sometimes around noon)
● All long form posts-- Weekly Summaries, GHAWG-U, and TGD-- can be accessed using the #GHAWGnav sticky post or from my InLeo profile page
That's it for this edition of The GHAWG Diaries. I'm 
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