First off, I got work! Hold for applause… no? All right. There is one thing about the job that’s a bit troublesome, though. The commute. I’m on transit three hours a day, sometimes three and a half when the trains and buses are particularly slow or traffic hits. Most of my friends have expressed their condolences on the trip already, but I don’t see too much of a problem with it.

After all, I have a laptop.

In the mornings, I write. Every morning. Just like they say you’re supposed to. I get on the skytrain at the ungodly early hours of the morning, open up the laptop and have my very own little solo transit write in. It’s a good forty-five minutes of writing in the morning. I can work on new stuff, rewrite old stuff or just babble.

Honestly, though, I do find myself babbling in the mornings more than anything else. While I do try to write something I can use, sometimes my brain doesn’t have that kick start yet. And then there are mornings like this one, where I am coherent enough to write something that might actually be seen by another living human.

Other mornings I’ve worked on developing story concepts so that they make sense. Some of them I can’t make sense of while fully awake, so it works out wonderfully. I’ve spent a lot of mornings getting the details of a project figured out. My comic project (one of them) is just about ironed out to plot. Which, I have to admit, is really exciting.

Last week I wrote Xombie at last. It’s not actually on my to do list of writing, but I’ve been wanting to write it for a while anyway. It’s a lovely little story in the Syndicate series about – well, I guess you can find out when it actually comes out.

And then there’s the benefit all this transit has on Transit, that story I’m writing in a decade when I think I’ll be ready to write it. That story takes place mostly on transit told from the half perspective of someone who is on the trains and buses all the time. This is all excellent research for that one.

I am still trying to figure out my evenings, but my mornings are working out pretty well so far. And the new job is something I won’t be talking too much about, so don’t expect work rants in the future. In the mean time, however, I still have several stops and I think I know a story that needs details ironed out.

I’ve been working on a series called Syndicate of late. It’s what I’ve been calling a novel-in-story and is made up of several short stories that all come together to make a whole novel which itself is only one part of the series. Each story is based around a different character, group of characters, situation or aspect of the universe. As a result, there’s an abundance of people in the universe that get the spotlight for a story or two, but never become part of the universe’s main cast, per se.

Then there is Danielle Mares.

Danielle is a minor character in the universe. She is a main character in one story and has a few cameo appearances. She acts as the front desk receptionist and does a lot of the basic filing in the office. She doesn’t really go out into the field and she doesn’t want to deal with much more than was already on her plate.

And then I started writing her and finding out more. Because of her job, she knows more about the Syndicate than most people involved. She deals with all the sensitive data and she’s curious enough to have flipped through some of them to learn even more about what’s been going on.

Her background is another thing. I knew what she was already. I was never going to bring it up properly, to be honest. It just wasn’t that important until I started realizing that she was far too interesting a character through her insight and outlook to just leave in the background.

So why am I bringing her up? Simple. She’s graduated. Danielle is no longer a minor character in the universe. It just wouldn’t be fare to leave her in the background while everyone else had all the fun.

I like to think this happens to everyone. Sometimes there are just characters that surprise you. Characters that turn out to be too interesting to leave in the background and ones you have to bring much closer to the forefront. Something about these characters that were never meant to do anything just strike you right as you write them and you realize you just can’t just leave them behind in all of this. maybe they won’t become full fledged major characters, but they have to get swept up into everything. Even if only a little.

So congratulations Danielle. You have graduated.

Good luck surviving.