Chapter 11 is online at http://www.WebFeats.com/Transition/11.html.
In this short chapter, we join Jill and her "Uncle Stan" as they engage in a brief and uneasy conversation with the pushy reporter and her large cameraman. Jimmy is as slimy as we expect him to be – and it's starting to look like Leida might have some kind of nefarious scheme up her sleeve...
Chapter 10 is online at http://www.WebFeats.com/Transition/10.html.
The race is over, Jillian is walking around Copely Square, stretching her legs and catching her breath – when, to her surprise, she runs into her "Uncle Stan." And she learns that, before you shoot your mouth off, it might be a good idea to see who's in listening range...
No, I'm not talking about the strange characters who hang out around triathlons. I'm talking about the strange characters that were making my chapters hard to read on some Web browsers.
I've been writing Transition in Word, and the process of converting Word documents to Web pages is awkward, at best. I thought that I had ironed out all of the idiosyncrasies of that conversion process, but...
You see those three little dots at the end of the last paragraph? As most of you probably know, that's called an "ellipsis." There's no way to type an ellipsis on your keyboard (as far as I know), but when you type three periods in a row into Word, it converts those periods into an ellipsis. (I believe you can configure Word so it doesn't do that, but I also think that that's Word's default behavior.) The problem is that the ellipsis is not a "standard" computer character, it's one that Microsoft invented just for Word. As long as you're looking at it via Word, it looks like three dots. But if you look at it through a Web browser, it might look like three dots, or it might look like some kind of strange squiggle. And trying to read a story with a lot of interspersed squiggles can be somewhat distracting.
So, you ask: How did I manage to post a dozen chapters to the Web without noticing that they were squiggle-laden? Didn't I even look at them through a Web browser to see if they were readable?
Well, yes I did. But the browser I chose to view my work was Internet Explorer (IE) – which, like Word, happens to be a Microsoft product. It also happens to be the browser that most people use, since it comes standard on most computers (despite the best efforts of the US Department of Justice, but that's another story). Microsoft has programmed IE so that it recognizes a Word ellipsis, and displays it as three dots, rather than as a squiggle.
But even though most people use IE as their Web browser, some people do not. And even though some non-Microsoft companies have programmed their browsers to recognize Word ellipses as such, some have not. And so a few people have been kind enough to write to me to point out that, as much as they would have liked to read my novel, they have been unable to fight their way through a forest of squiggles. Since I want as many people as possible to be able to read Transition (which is, of course, why I'm posting it on the Web), I appreciate the feedback, and I've gone back and un-squiggified the text. (At least, I think I have – please let me know if your continue to have problems reading it. Thanks!)
By the way, the problem isn't confined to ellipses, I was just using that as an example. Word also uses "curly quotes," which are quotation marks that curl into the text before and after a quotation. Personally, I think these curly quotes look better than "straight" quotation marks – but the straight quotes are standard characters, the curly quotes are Microsoft creations. And, like ellipses, curly quotes display as squiggles on some browsers. And since quotations permeate nearly every page of Transition, squiggles surrounding every quotation have made the text nearly impossible for some people to read.
The same problem exists for apostrophes and "single quotes" (which are "curly" in Word, but not as standard computer characters) and for dashes (which pose a slightly different problem, which I won't get into here). And I suppose that it's possible that the same problem exists for other characters as well, which I won't know about until one of you writes to tell me that you can't read my book because of all the damn squiggles...
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Chapter 9 is online at http://www.WebFeats.com/Transition/9.html.
This is a fun (I hope) chapter in which I introduce a character who was not originally scheduled to make an appearance until later in the book, 
but on further reflection I decided to give him an earlier scene to give some context to his subsequent appearance. (Actually, there are two characters in this chapter, but only one of them will reappear later in the book. I'll bet that you can guess which one.)
As I said, I'm basically shooting for a humorous interlude (if you didn't know that, I guess it didn't work), but I also want to leave you with a sense of foreboding, something that will make you want to keep reading so that you can find out exactly what horrible things are going to happen...
Chapter 8 is online at http://www.WebFeats.com/Transition/8.html.
This chapter is a dialogue between two new characters, one of whom will be a supporting character throughout the novel. (I sound like I'm describing a recurring character on a sitcom.)
In this chapter, we learn that the governing body of triathlons in the United States is the American Triathletic Council. Actually, there is no such organization. Twenty-five years ago there were two competing organizations that claimed to govern triathlons in the United States: the U.S. Triathlon Association (USTA) and the American Triathlon Association. The latter was quickly merged into the former, which subsequently changed its name to Triathlon Federation USA (Tri Fed) and then again to USA Triathlon (USAT). I was thinking of using one of those names in the book, but in end I decided to make up my own.
I raise this issue not because I think that you actually care about the name of the organization that happens to be governing triathlons in the United States right now, but to bring attention to the question of how much reality you should inject into your fiction. Should I have had Valerie receive a call from the USAT instead of the organization I made up? Would it have added a touch of realism to the story, or would it have unfairly maligned a very real organization? Or am I making too much out of what is essentially a non-issue? Leave a comment, let me know what you think.
Chapter 7 is online at http://www.WebFeats.com/Transition/7.html.
This was originally part of a longer chapter – but as I explained previously, I interposed another chapter for pacing. What do you think? Should I have left the material as one, longer chapter? Does my "pacing" chapter add to the suspense or destroy the continuity?
You'll notice that this chapter contains very little dialogue (two words). This is in marked contrast to most of my chapters, which probably contain too much dialogue, which I enjoy writing much more than I do narrative. (Maybe I should be writing a screenplay instead of a novel.)
Chapter 6 is online at http://www.WebFeats.com/Transition/6.html.
This is a short chapter that I stuck into the middle of a scene just for pacing. Having done it, I'm not sure that it really makes any sense – I created a character, gave him a name and a short back-story, and he's in and out of the novel in a few paragraphs. On the one hand, it breaks up a long scene just as I wanted it to, and it's conveniently placed just before the climax of the scene to draw out the suspense for a few seconds. On the other hand, why introduce readers to a new character who serves no real purpose in the development of the story? Isn't it hard enough work to read a novel without having to cope with extraneous material?
On balance, I still like this chapter (obviously, or else it wouldn't still be here), but I recognize that it may be here simply because I enjoyed writing it, not necessarily because I thought that anyone would enjoy reading it. (I'd like to think that those are the same things, but I know that they may not be.)
Chapter 5 is online at http://www.WebFeats.com/Transition/5.html.
This is the scene where Jill and Sunshine, the two protagonists of the novel, meet for the first time. 
We learn a few things about Sunshine, although what we learn seems to raise as many questions as it answers. And we also see a side of Jill that you could chalk off to fierce competitiveness, but that would probably be letting her off too easy.
As you've noticed, I tend to think of my characters as real people, in that I tend to analyze their personalities, as if I weren't the one who created those characteristics in the first place. I'd be curious to hear from other writers to find out if you do that as well, or if perhaps I'm in the throes of some kind of latent disassociative personality disorder...
Chapter 4 is online at http://www.WebFeats.com/Transition/4.html.
In this chapter, Jillian catches up to the Kiergaard twins during the run portion of the event and engages in a brief but meaningful conversation with them.
Back in the early days of the triathlon, the women's events were dominated by Canadian twin sisters Patricia and Sylviane Puntous. I wouldn't go so far as to say that the Kiergaard twins are based on the Puntous twins, but they certainly were inspired by them.
As I was writing this section, I wondered if elite triathletes and marathoners actually talk to each other during races. I've been involved in a few short races myself, and I occasionally speak with fellow racers, but I'm not really competing in the true sense of the word, and my status is hardly elite. So I wondered: If you were a top athlete, and you found yourself running alongside someone you knew early in a race, might you strike up a conversation with them? Or would that expend too much precious energy? And/or would being friendly to a competitor take you out of your game and make it more difficult for you to put them away?
This is one of those cases where I'd probably leave the scene as it is even if I were to learn that it's improbable, because I like the way it works, and it is, after all, fiction. But I'm curious about how realistic it is, so if you have any ideas, I'd be grateful if you'd leave a comment here. Thanks!
Chapter 3 is online at http://www.WebFeats.com/Transition/3.html.
This small chapter introduces a minor character who takes great delight in being perverse, which means that it was fun to write, perhaps because I secretly want to be that perverse but lack the guts. Or perhaps I am that perverse and just don't realize it, you'd have to ask my friends to be sure. Well, OK, if I weren't so perverse I might actually have friends whom you could ask...
And this is the chapter in which we learn a little about Jill's background and exactly what it is that makes her so special ("pretty much in a class by herself," according to Michelle).
Chapter 2 is online at http://www.WebFeats.com/Transition/2.html.
The introduction of new characters continues at a furious pace. In this short chapter we meet Jill's coach and an as-yet-unnamed reporter, both of whom will play important roles in the story. (Not only do we meet them, they meet each other, with interesting results.) 
We also learn of Jill's incredible confidence... and by the time you finish the chapter, I'll bet you can guess the name of the company that sponsors her...
This chapter also introduces the artwork of David Kessel, whose style provides an interesting contrast to the illustrations that Jennifer Daigle contributed to the earlier chapters. Having no artistic talent myself, I'm constantly amazed by those who do, and I recognize how fortunate I am to have the visual appeal of my story so greatly enhanced by the contributions of talented artists like David and Jennifer.
Chapter 1 is online at http://www.WebFeats.com/Transition/1.html.
The action begins as Jillian Kendal, one of my two major characters, rolls into the transition area at the end of the bike leg of the Boston Ironman. She's momentarily distracted by the sight of a strange man who seems to possess Mesmeric powers... or is the Man In White a figment of Jill's imagination?
As you may have noticed in the prologues, I'm writing Transition in the present tense. I've gone back and forth on this a few times. Writing in the present tense imparts a sens of immediacy that I like, but it's rarely used in novel-length works, which worries me. Surely, this approach has been tried and rejected by other writers, many (all?) of whom have likely been better writers than I, so there must be a good reason for not using it, right? But after a number of back-and-forth rewrites of the first few chapters, I decided to stick with it. I can't explain my decision any better than to say that I like the way that present tense flows. Let me know what you think.
The second part of the prologue is online at http://www.WebFeats.com/Transition/b.html.
Originally, there was just one prologue with two sections. As it happens, I used to write long chapters composed of lots of small sections. But at some point I began to like bite-sized chapters, I think they're much easier for readers to digest. In this approach I was heavily influenced by Kurt Vonnegut, 
whose chapters progressed from "normal" length in his early novels to mere snippets in his later works.
I know that many writers like all (or, at least, most) of their chapters to be of approximately the same length, perhaps to set a regular pace for the reader. But I find myself leaning toward irregular-length chapters that break when the "scene" changes, which means that I end up with a lot of very small chapters. Maybe it's because I suspect that many readers have as short an attention span as I do...
The first prologue (of two) is online at http://www.WebFeats.com/Transition/a.html.
I'm introducing a couple of peripheral characters who will come back into the story later on. Just thought that it might be interesting to inject some foreign intrigue into the mix before I launched the main plot.
One sports-related issue: You'll notice that Dimitri Boronov boasts that one of his students has run a 2:04 marathon, which is about a minute better than the current world record. Since I hope to get Transition published some day, I wanted to pick a time that may still be better than the world record even if someone is reading the book a few years from now. Of course, it may be impossible to predict a record that won't be broken. On the other hand, it may all be moot, as I'm probably being wildly optimistic to think that the book will ever be published, much less that anyone will be reading it a few years into the future...
At the bottom of the prologue, you'll notice a drawing by the talented Jennifer Daigle, who was generous enough to create drawings for several of my chapters. 
I very much like Jennifer's work and appreciate her contributions, her drawings help to relieve the inevitable monotony of paragraph after paragraph of text. And it's interesting to see how her vision of my characters differs from (and coincides with) my own mental images of them.
Feel free to add your comments, I'd love to know your thoughts. Thanks!
What is it? Transition is a novel I'm writing, it's about many things (as all novels are), but it's primarily about two young women whose lives become inextricably woven together by the triathlon.
Why the triathlon? I vividly remember that I was amazed when I first heard that it was actually possible for people to run a marathon after swimming more than two miles and then bicycling for more than a hundred miles. It fired my imagination, and the outline of a plot started to gel in my mind. I wish I could say that I was so inspired that I trained for and competed in an Ironman-distance triathlon, but alas, the most I could manage was a couple of sprint-distance triathlons. (I think I came in close to last in my age group in both of them, but they're among my proudest accomplishments just the same.)
Why online? I do hope to get the book published someday, so posting it online might not seem like a smart idea. But frankly, I don't plan to post the entire book online; my insidious plan is to post perhaps half of it online and hopefully to attract a publisher in the process. Don't worry, if you'll post some helpful comments, I'll send you an autographed copy of the book as soon as it's available (free or at cost, depending on the demand) so you'll be able to learn how it all turns out. (I'm dying to find out myself.)
Feedback? One thing I like about blogs (other than the opportunity to spout off, which I adore) is how they promote feedback. If you're a writer, I'd love to know what you think about the book, and I'd appreciate your suggestions about how it might be improved. If you're a triathlete, don't hesitate to let me know if I've written something that strikes you as inauthentic. If you're a publisher, my agent is waiting to hear from you, send her an email (Vicki@Eisenbergs.com), I won't complain if you offer me an embarrassingly large advance.
Where's the book? This blog is a writer's diary, it's not the book itself. You can read Transition at http://www.WebFeats.com/Transition/.
Thanks! I look forward to your comments and suggestions (and most of your criticisms), and I hope you enjoy the book!
