Winter

We had our first dash of winter weather today.  Some sleet and snow hit the Lead Belt area when we were still in school.  I drove home without incident, but I was afraid of what might have happened if I had stayed around there as I originally intended.  When I arrived at Arcadia it wasn't doing much.  Tonight, it might be cold, but I don't believe any more snow or ice will be visiting us.  I want to get through the next nine days of school without incident.  If we get all nine days in, we have a full two week break.  If, however, we have a snow day, we have to go back to school the Monday and Tuesday before Christmas to make up the days.  I'd just as soon have the solid two weeks off.  We'll need some snow days in February during the long stretch of winter when we receive no breaks -- the dog days.  Sigh,  my fat cat has just come downstairs and I am willing to bet that he jumps up on my lap and interrupts my blogging.  He's here.  Ah, he must have noticed what I wrote because he jumped back down.  Like a bad penny, he'll turn up again.

I'm going to post the new summary of my Dean Knight novel.  If any of you care to comment, please do.  My goal is to have a serious plot with some comedic moments.  The action of the story must be intense with some moments of humor.  However, it can't be too complicated.  Not that young adults can't follow complicated plots -- I know they can.  If I don't focus my plot, I write a novel that is episodic rather than unified.

He's baaaaaack.  (My cat.)
The tentative title of the novel is Knight Has Fallen.

Dean Knight, a 16 year old bipolar disorder sufferer, once had a twin sister who died in an accident.  Both of them had been in one residential care facility after another together throughout their lives because their parents long ago abandoned them – or so they have been told.  When his sister dies, Dean’s mental condition deteriorates so badly that he becomes suicidal and delusional.  To treat him, doctors ordered him to undergo ECT treatments.  As a result of his treatments, he remembers little of his past, including the fact that he had a twin sister.

He winds up alone at Holy Hollis Residential Home for Troubled Teens where his houseparent, Ellen takes him under his wing and encourages his creativity.  Dean writes horror fiction, and with Ellen’s help he even manages to get a story published.  The facility, however, which is church owned and operated, does not look kindly on horror fiction, thinking it is in and of itself evil.  One night, a resident runs away.  Ellen does not believe in restraining kids for every little offense, and in Hollis, which is surrounded by woods and rivers, there is really no place for a runaway to go.  However, this particular resident gets injured while he is on the run. 

Blaming Ellen, the administrator fires her and hires a man by the name of Richard Head who is part bully and part religious fanatic and who has a son just like him Dick Head Jr.  Before she leaves, Ellen gives Dean a diary kept by his sister.  The psychiatrists had told Dean’s support team to keep the diary away from him because it wouldn’t be good for him to have it.  When pressures mount at Hollis, Dean seeks refuge in the diary.  The diary has two major effects on it.  As sisters do, Dee often writes about what a horrible brother Dean is, but she also writes about their good times.  Shortly after getting the diary, Dean begins to have hallucinations of his sister.

Dean’s new house parent, Mr. Head, forbids Dean’s writing of horror stories because they are “evil.”  However, he doesn’t seem to mind the evil his son wreaks on the residents.   Richard Jr. is constantly harassing the residents while Dean is kind to them.  Gradually, Dean begins to make some friends of the residents.  Dean pranks the son and infuriates the father.  He, convinced that Dean is evil incarnate anyway, hears Dean talking to Dee.  Now, he is convinced that Dean is possessed by evil spirits.  With help from his son and some of his sons’ friends, Richard Sr. pounces on Dean one night, binds, and gags him and takes him to one of the outdoor tabernacles to perform an exorcism on him.  Dean is hurt during the ceremony, but the son tells him that if Dean tells on his father that he will kill him.   However, Dean and the other residents band against their common enemies, the Heads, and stop them both.

Richard Head is fired and Ellen is rehired.  Dean falls in love with one of the residents he befriends and takes a turn at writing romance.