Climax Achieved! Whoo Hoo!

First draft of the story is, as of 10:26 pm tonight, officially written up to and including the Climax!

Moon walk. Slam the football down in the end zone. Yeah, baby. Yeah, baby.

I have been thinking and planning this part of the story -- I almost am willing to call it a book, now -- since before I wrote the first words of the beginning.

It has morphed, changed locations, and changed characters, but always with the same outcome.

At one point, this evening, I was running around outside with the stopwatch on my phone, timing how many seconds it would take to get from point A, to point B, and then to point C. The raccoons, I'm confident, are convinced that the human living here is quite nuts.

That total time, you see, had to mesh with what was happening in the shack, with this person going to this corner, and that person going to that spot, and the like.

After I clicked the keys for the last word on the document, I called my husband, who is on a business trip and who got up early this morning and has been driving to meeting after meeting after meeting all day.

I read the length of the last scene. I put all the drama into every shout and whisper. I performed brilliantly.

And he fell asleep before I finished.

He assured me when I woke him up that it wasn't because of the quality of the prose. The climax was good for him, too. (tee-hee)

Fully Into the Chase; On Alexa's way back to Earth

Alexa Jane just took off from the space station, above Earth, barely in time to avoid the bad guys. And she's finally about to return to her home planet, though 950 years after she left it.

The story is now fully into the Chase Scene, rushing toward the climax, and finally finding out why the heck the tiny little crystal is so important.

As part of the process of writing for the first time a book-length story, getting to this point is truly exciting. (I still avoid defining this as a book, until it's at least through the second draft.) In addition to reading to my husband each new scene that rushes onto the page, I have also taken to getting certain friends on the cell phone and reading to them. Sometimes they are appreciative, sometimes not.

One sticking point that had to be solved; where on Earth should she go? I mean, as the writer I can give her any clue/indication I want. I just have to decide where to put her.

This involves:
Are some candidate cities under water, at this point, because of global warming?
What countries/cities would be important enough, 950 years from now, to harbor the people involved?
Where could a so-called space-port be located?
How far from the landing pad, to the action, do I settle this space-port?
It probably shouldn't be in the middle of a metropolitan area -- of now or the likely future.
But I've got to get her into action PDQ

I have some ideas, on each point. And if the rest of the story is any indication, more details will present themselves as they appear on the page.