Busy little boy.

I've sent Led to the Slaughter off to my local editor.

I'm going to print a hardcopy to work on while she has it.

I'm thinking I'm going to write a sequel to Death of an Immortal and immediately (sometime in the next six months)  put it online.  This will be my online series for the time-being, while I continue to work on the rest of the books.  I've also got Freedy Filkins, my cyberpunk-Hobbit book, online.

I've got the first book in my Fantasy trilogy (The Reluctant Wizard)  done, but not edited.  I don't want to do anything with this until I've written the second and third books.

I've got a stand-alone Fantasy (Sometimes a Dragon) which was something I wrote 30 years ago but which has been completely rewritten from top to bottom, almost like it's a new book.  It's been two/thirds edited.  I want to take another look at after I get it back from the editor and decide what to do with it.

I've got Nearly Human finished and edited and with a cover, but I'm sitting on it for now.

I've got a sequel to N.H. called Wolflander, which hasn't been edited or rewritten.  I also have ideas for a long series of books starring Cobb and Company.

I've got Deviltree, which I wrote 30 years ago and which 'nearly' got published then but which could probably use a boost.  Linda did an edit and I'm still hoping for an edit from Martha (Martha?) and to do another rewrite.  I have the cover to this ready to go, thanks to Martha (Martha?)

Counting the three books I wrote in the early 80's, Star Axe, Snowcastles, and Icetowers, I've now completed:

STAR AXE
SNOWCASTLES
ICETOWERS
DEVILTREE
SOMETIMES A DRAGON
NEARLY HUMAN
WOLFLANDER
DEATH OF AN IMMORTAL
FREEDY FILKINS
THE RELUCTANT WIZARD
LED TO THE SLAUGHTER

Not all of these are ready to be exposed to the world -- in fact, less than half of them are ready.  But they are finished to some extent or the other and just need to be improved as best I can.

I wrote two other books which I completely abandoned, Bloodstone and Changlings.  Why?  Because they weren't very good and they couldn't be fixed.

Not all of these were written fast -- it just looks that way.

Star Axe took five years, at least.  Snowcastles was fast, but Icetowers took over a year.  Deviltree was rewritten extensively over a two year period.  Sometimes a Dragon is going to be at least a year of work before it's done.  Nearly Human has taken over two years.  And so on.

The others have come fast, but they aren't really done.

Obviously there has been some overlap.

Overall, though, I'm pleased with my progress and I do think I'm getting better at this -- and much more mature in my approach.  So, I'll just keep writing and not worry about anything else for now.

Word-Jumble

I know there is the possibility that by continually saying I hate rewriting, that I'm just making it so.

Then again, I believe it's just so, with or without me saying.

Anyway, it the dues I have to pay to be a writer.  The original stories come easy, too easy.  The rewriting comes hard, too hard.

One way I'm trying to look at it is this:  Rewriting isn't just about effort, it's about time.  I can't snap my fingers and 'fix' things and magically make things better.  No, I can change a word there, a line there, add something here, cut something there, change things around. 

Little by little.

Then come back and do it again.

Until it becomes a word-jumble, in which case I'm done.  Word-jumble is my new description of what happens when I've read something so many times and worked on it for so long, I can no longer see anything but a word-jumble.

Half of the reason I've arrived at the "process" I've been using over the last year of so -- after fumbling around for a year or so -- is to delay that moment of word-jumble for as long as possible.

The other half of the process is the make the first draft better.  Two sides of the same coin.  By writing a first draft relatively quickly, and not going back and changing things, I get the story down with all the emotions I'm feeling and ward off the word-jumble a little longer.

Another way of making the first draft better is thinking much harder about what I want the story to say, to try to look for problems before they develop by planning ahead.

I used to not like doing this -- I felt it was detracting from my inspiration and spontaneity.

But I was wrong.  Planning ahead is the way to go.  For instance, I fully thought out the fact that I need "more werewolves, sooner werewolves."  Then I thought about where I wanted to place the new chapters, and what I wanted each chapter to say.

Sitting down and writing them is a bit like writing made to order, instead of the joyous discovery of new ideas.  But the process is so much smoother, the results so much better, that I'm now convinced that planning -- maybe not complete outlining, but close -- makes the process go faster and more efficiently -- and the results are better, more creative.

There's plenty of creative satisfaction in actually writing what I planned -- the joy is in doing it and knowing that it was done well.

Third new werewolf chapter. One more to go.

Wrote the third werewolf chapter yesterday.  One more to write today.

The ending of the book isn't neat and tidy because the original story was anything but neat and tidy.  This last werewolf chapter will be the culmination of all that confusion.  Both humans and werewolves are in trouble, for differing reasons.

Much of the second half of the book is relentless misery -- which hopefully makes the rescue more powerful.

I don't know.  I can't see it anymore.

I guess I wasn't done.

Wrote the second new werewolf chapter last night.

So I have two more in mind to write.

My original concept had been a short 40,000 word novel, brutal and to the point.  I still think such a novel could be written, but it would have to be extremely well written to make it work.  While I like Cormac McCarthy, I don't write like Cormac McCarthy, no matter how cool I think that book would have been. No explanations -- just horror.

Instead, what I wrote was closer to young adult in tone, which was a far cry from what I intended.  Though the second half of the book is so dire, it'll move it to a more adult level.  It's going to be about 60,000 words, and more conventional in form.  (Foreshadowing and explanations.)

I still really like it.

It works the way it came out.  I went ahead and wrote it the way I usually write a book.
I still think the narrative itself is strong, with or without good writing, and now I'm just trying to get the writing as good as I can make it.

I'm going to write the last two werewolves chapters by Wednesday and send it off to my local editor.  Print out a hard copy and work on that with a red pen while it's out being worked on.

She's already done the first three chapters and she does a very thorough job.

At this point, I'm writing faster than my readers can read.  

I never quite know what to say on this day.

I'll make the joke I make every year:  Stepfather's day is tomorrow.

Appropriately on a 'working day.'  Not that my kids were lots of work.  But you know, on a day when we're taking care of business.  Not that my kids are a business.  Well, you know what I mean.

Anyway, I always feel slightly awkward on this day.  I never know quite what to say.

All I know is that I've been glad to have Todd and Toby (and Lisa) in my life.  I think they're great.  I get more and more thankful for them every year. 

Werewolves to spice things up.

I knew going into the rewrite that, as I said, "More werewolves, sooner werewolves."

In reading the manuscript, I realized that's exactly what it needed to work. 

I wrote one werewolf viewpoint chapter today and read it to Linda.

"That really spices it up," she says.

"I didn't know you thought it needed to be spiced up."

"I didn't until you read this to me."

See -- that's what I'm afraid of.  Still, I seem to have gotten pretty good at figuring out how to "spice up" the basic storyline.  I mean, the basic storyline comes first and then I figure out how to make it better.

So I need two or three more chapters to werewolf up the story, and I have three days left to write them.  Just enough time.

Basically, in order to explain everything that happens, I have to have a werewolf civil war.  So I'm kind of setting up that scenario to play behind what is happening to the humans, so that it explains both sides.

I'm going to read the rest of the current manuscript tonight, and then write the second werewolf chapter tomorrow.

Promising the dear reader werewolves.

Drank some wine and read the first two/thirds of the book last night.  Will read the last third tonight.

I tend to read too fast, more like skimming if I don't watch out.   I need to purposely slow down and remember that most people will be reading it for the first time.

It's very fast paced, but I'm not sure there is anything wrong with that.

I think the main narrators need to have more differentiation.  The transitions can be somewhat abrupt in that you can read a paragraph or two before you realize it's a different POV character.  I'm clearly marking each section with who's talking, so the reader will hopefully learn to check.  But a couple of stylistic tricks might help.  I'm thinking one of the diary writer's might precede each chapter with a "Dear Reader..." or something.  Another might fuss around with the date.  Something that is a signifier in the first paragraph.  One always gives a weather update.

My overall impressions of the book are valid, I think.  It's more a survival narrative than a werewolf story.  (Or as Linda says, "they're surviving werewolves, too.")  I was worried about whether I could get across what was happening to them, the dread of it, but just telling what actually happened in my own fictional way does that, I think.

This focus is both good and bad.  There is an inherent fascination in survival stories --- but I'm more or less promising the dear reader werewolves.  So the one major piece of rewriting I still want to do is insert a couple more chapters strictly from the viewpoint of the werewolves.  So finish reading the book tonight, making changes as I go along, and then figure out what I want to say in the werewolf chapters and where I want to insert them.

Again, maybe the story deserves a better writer, but the story has got the writer it's got.  It's my story.

The Nickname Denier.

I've been talking about werewolves so much, I'm starting to say "werewolf" in an Elmer Fudd voice.  "Quiet...there's a wwwerewwwolf."

*****

I'm reaching that point in rewriting where I question effort versus quality.  That is, am I not a better writer because I don't put enough effort into it?

I have to remind myself that after the first draft, most improvements happen in incremental ways.  That I fix this, and then I fix that, then I polish this and make this more clear and  sharpen this up and so on...

It ain't done until it's done.

*****

I asked Linda how many "nicknames" she thinks I've given her in our marriage.  I thought she'd number them in the hundreds, if not the thousands.

She said, "Oh....ten?"

"Whatttt!!!!????"

I was completely insulted.  Her nicknames are constantly evolving and changing.  They just come out of my mouth.  Obviously, they go in one of Linda's ears and out the other.

So she felt a nickname was a more enduring endearment, not just a small evolution.

Still....I've decided that nicknames are wasted on her.

"Nicknamer denier" was her nickname this morning.

Not that she'll remember it...

Writing is candy, rewriting is dirt.

Having a hard time starting my rewriting.  It's no fun, not like creating the story in the first place.  I envy those writers who like rewriting.

Basically, I just want to throw my microphone (computer) on the floor and walk away.  

Anyway, if I haven't started by 2:00, I'm going to impose the 5 minute rule.  That is, force myself to sit down and work for 5 minutes -- and then see if I want to keep going.

*****

Sat down at 3:00 finally and did the first two chapters.  So hard to do.  When I was finished, I went upstairs to where Linda was happily marking up her manuscript with a red marker.

"How come you like rewriting?" I asked.

"I don't know.  That's where I see it getting better."

The irony here is that from past conversations I know that I'm probably more convinced of the efficacy of rewriting than she is.  I just like doing it less.

I retreated to my room to ruminate.

*****

Trying to gear up the gumption to tackle the next two chapters.  Actually, the first seven chapters will be the easiest because I have people who have already critiqued these chapters, so I can bounce off their suggestions.

But I still don't enjoy this. 

Which I'm convinced is some kind of cosmic joke.  Why make it so easy for me to write, and so hard to rewrite?

Why give me the ability to get 80% there but not the fortitude to do the last 20%?

I try to convince myself that it's my attitude.  That I just need to learn to enjoy it.  I mean, I've always thought I was obsessive compulsive...

When that doesn't work, I try to play tricks on myself.  Tricking myself into doing it, or thinking I like doing it.  But really, I don't.

*****

It's 7:00 and I still haven't started the next 2 chapters...

*****

About the only surefire way I've ever figured out is to pump some alcohol into myself.  That seems to give me the concentration and the attention to detail that I need.  (Though you'd think it would do the opposite...)

Ironically, I find that I'm better off writing the original story without any alcohol.  But after I'm done, it takes me just enough outside my normal thinking to make look at the story slightly skewed which starts to make it interesting again.

But alcohol is so hard on me these days.  It messes up my routine.

But I want this book to be good and to do that I need to rewrite and to rewrite I've got to find a way to sit and work for hours at a time.

I may yet resort to that tonight.

Missing the point on survelliance.

It kind of drives me crazy when people excuse survelliance by saying, "What have you got to hide?"

Which is missing the point.  It isn't whether you've done anything wrong.  It's whether you can trust the listeners not to do anything wrong.

It's dangerous to assuming the listeners will always be good guys.   Or that they'll always be right. That they'll understand what's going on.  Hell, even that they'll even be competent.

My biggest fear would be that they overreact.  Cause, basically, I think our country has been overreacting for a decade now.

It seems to me that the same people who squawk about the Constitution are the same ones who are OK with this kind of intrusiveness.

So I'm going to to give our Founding Fathers some credit for understanding something about "Unreasonable search and seizures" and how they lead to tyranny.

But most of all -- even if you excuse all the above -- it's none of their damn business.

In a comfortable place between fun and work.

My goal over the next five days is to revise Led to the Slaughter to a reading copy.  That is, a version that I would be willing to stand behind, put online, let people read.  However, I still want to give it to my editor and to readers to see where it can be improved.

There are 26 chapters -- about half as many as usual because each chapter was twice as long as usual.  (One day of writing per chapter.)

So if I do roughly 5 chapters per day in revisions, I should be done by the end of the week.

Then send it to my editor and readers and wait about a month, give or take.  Make a hard copy where I can make notations on at night.

Meanwhile, start writing the sequel to Death of an Immortal.

When "Led to... " comes back after a month, decide how much rewriting needs to be done, or just accept the editorial changes, or...well, in a month I'll have a better perspective.

I think the story has a chance of being pretty good, if I don't screw it up.

I'm pretty happy with the level of writing I'm producing right now.  I've worked my way around the plot traps that snagged me in my first effort of coming back to writing.  The break-through was writing The Reluctant Wizard so fast and doing it from a personal perspective.  Then Freedy Filkins, doing it from a purely fun perspective.

Those books freed me up to just start writing.  When Death of an Immortal came along, I just went ahead and wrote it despite my doubts about the timeliness of a vampire book.

I've been struggling since the beginning of my career between effort and fun -- and I think I've found a nice comfortable spot between the two.  That is, I'm having fun writing, but also making myself be patient and reworking the books despite my intellectual laziness.  Creating a process that accomplishes improvements without ruining it for me.

It seems to be getting easier, because I'm trusting the process I've arrived at, and because the more I do it, the less I second-guess what I'm doing.

While I'd love to be published the traditional route, I'm afraid it will stop this free and easy flow of words.

I'm not so much worried about not getting an agent, but of getting an agent who just stops all progress in my tracks.  I'm not so much worried about getting published, as getting hung up on the eternal delays and waiting that going the traditional route entails.

Then again, just putting it online doesn't mean anyone will read it.

Oh, well.  A long as I'm still focused on the writing and taking one step at a time nothing has been wasted.    I have a couple of completed books I'm just sort of sitting on, hoping for an opportunity somewhere.

The crunch will come when I'm done with Led to the Slaughter. 

I don't think I'll want to sit on it.  But I'll need to format it and get a cover and all that, and that will take some time.  So we'll just wait and see.

Which sequel to do?

So I have in mind a sequel to Death of an Immortal.  There was always a sequel implied, and I kind of thought I'd probably do it, and I have some ideas.

So I think I'll do the rewrite of The Donner Party Werewolves next week, then set it aside for a full month and do the next vampire book.

I can do a variation of the original cover -- the  mirror with blood -- and put it right out there.

Thing is:  Death of an Immortal was a very enjoyable book to write.  It came easy and it came together and I liked it.

So if I can have the same experience with the sequel, why not?  Plus I'll have two books of the same series out online at the same time.

I'm thinking I'll probably go ahead.

Superman go splat?

Superman is slowly descending on Rotten Tomatoes.  Last I checked it only had to drop one more point to be a splat.

Hey, I've been enjoying these big blockbusters all right.

But not a lot.

Because they're too much.  I keep walking out and thinking, "Why don't they divert about half the money to make another movie?  Why don't they cut down about half the fights and explosions and have a nice character building scene?

There was a time when I got tired of car chases.  I quit going to a movie if I thought it was about car chases.

I'm tired of explosions and stupid fights.  Blah. Blech.

So while I'm complaining about the aesthetics, it turns out Lucas and Spielberg are worried that the movie industry is going to implode from bigger and bigger movies that take bigger and bigger financial risks.

What's missing are nicely budgeted mid-list movies.

Of course, this seems to be happening elsewhere -- books, games, comics.

So it seems like something is huge and explosive -- or small and personal.  Nothing in-between.

Feels weird not to be writing.

I just realized.  I have to write something else.

Yeah, I have tons of rewriting to do.  I set Wolflander aside when I started the Donner Party Werewolves (in fact, I got the idea for it from three flashback chapters.)  I was glancing at the manuscript last night, and you know what?  It ain't bad.

So that's two books written about Cobb and Company.  I'd like this to be a series.

There is natural sequel to Death of an Immortal.  Not sure about it being a series.

I have my fantasy sitting there that needs to be picked up some day.

So even though I may be spending most of the summer rewriting, I'd still like to get started on something new.  Just to get the ball rolling.

I've had my old fantasy Sometimes a Dragon with my editor for a couple of months.  I've always liked this book, but I completely rewrote it.  I have no objective estimation of it.  Just that I've always liked it.

Deviltree is interesting, in my opinion, but I think it needs a little something more.  I'm not sure what.  The fact that it almost got bought several times by publishers thirty years ago really makes me think what I'm currently writing would have a good chance.  Linda did a critique and Martha was looking at it, so I want to use those suggestions.

This stuff is starting to stockpile a little.  Which is kind of cool.

I am going to need covers, and I don't think I can keep purchasing them if I'm not going to generate enough sales to pay for them.  So photoshopping is the answer.

For instance, I have the idea for the Donner Party Werewolves of getting a stock photo of a Conestoga wagon, placing it in a mountain scene, putting snow all around it, and then having a streak of blood in the snow as if something has been dragged past the scene.  It can all be antiqued with the old-fashioned hue.

Sometimes a Dragon?  I guess I'll probably get a stock emblem of a dragon and gussy it up.  And so on.

I know visually what I want to do, but I still need someone to do the tech manipulation.

Anyway, it feels weird not to be writing a new book...

The joy is in the finishing.

I'm just going to say this.

I think I'm getting better at writing.  And that it is getting easier.

I don't have any way to measure these conclusions.  I don't have any outside confirmations.  They are just feelings.

It makes sense, of course.  Anything that you do lots of you will get better at, usually.

I'm having more fun doing it than I did at first.  I'm feeling more confident.

There was a time when I rejected the idea of just writing for "fun."  When the idea of writing and not selling or not having a guaranteed readership was enough to stop me.  I don't think that will happen again.

One important thing, that I've always known but which has been reinforced.  If I start a book, I should be pretty sure it's a book and not a start and that I will finish it.  There is nothing satisfying about not finishing.

Maybe that's why so many writers are frustrated.  They don't finish.  I guess my advice would be to finish a book, and see how you feel.

It's not just the writing, it's the finishing.  Once it's done, no matter bad it is, you've actually created something that stands alone.  Without the finish, it's not a completed thing.  It's been aborted, if you really want to be harsh.

I think writers believe the joy is in the writing -- and it is -- but the real joy is in the finishing.

Done with the first draft.

To hell with process and finishing it today.  I went ahead and finished it last night.

LED TO THE SLAUGHTER: THE DONNER PARTY WEREWOLVES is done.  At least, the first draft is.  A revision next week, and then I'm sending it to my editor.

I'm going to make a hard copy so I can make changes myself over the next month while she reads it, and anyone else I can bamboozle into reading it.

I'm rethinking whether I want to do heavy rewriting.  I kind of like the briskness of it, the simplicity.  I may just concentrate on polishing what I've written, add a few things here and there, change a few things here and there, but not look to change it too much.

Anyway, I'm done with a readable draft and it feels good.

Breaking the routine.

After all my talk about process, I broke the process yesterday.  I wrote the right number of words, but most of it was Chapter 3, not Chapter 25.  I extended Chapter 24, as well.

So now Chapter 25 is actually 26 because in essence, I've started my rewrite.

I've mentioned I wanted more werewolves sooner, so I was thinking about how to do this when it came to me full-blown in the shower.  Got out and went downstairs and wrote it.  I mean, I'd be crazy to turn down the gift.

This often seems to happen in the last couple of chapters -- because in some ways, I don't want to finish.  In some ways, I feel like the last chapter should be written last.

No harm done, really.  If I'd broke the process a third or halfway or even four/fifths of the way through, that might have been a problem.  But with one chapter left, it almost makes sense to hold off. 

I wrote Chapter 26 later in the day. I decided not to dramatize it.  Just let it kind of trickle down into an anticlimax of horror, which is the way the real events played out.

The last flashforward chapter will have to be the satisfying conclusion.

I realized that I left Stanton all alone in the mountains, so I just have him saying he's going to end it, and that's it.  Again, pretty anticlimactic.

So, who knows, the second draft may revive some of these dropped threads, I don't know.  But really, to tell the truth, I kind of like it the way it is.  Just needs to be polished, is all.  I might not make too many dramatic changes afterall.

I probably just need a break, you know.  And someone else's take on things.

I'm going to print out a hard copy after I revise the first draft next week.  So that I have something to work on while it's out with the others.

It might be a pretty good book.

I'm probably repeating myself, but that's because the concerns remain the same.

Two chapters from the end of Led to the Slaughter: the Donner Party Werewolves.

I'm worried about the climax to the novel.  I don't mind diverting from historical facts, though I prefer to stick to them as often as possible.  But there is only so far I can go in changing things.

In a completely fictional novel I can arrange the plot for a final climax where all the threads come together and are resolved one way or another.

In the real story, I will have to be satisfied with a series of smaller climaxes, ending with a final denouncement, and hope that it is enough.  I can arrange a final confrontation between two of the main characters, but not the groups.

The survival narrative is strong enough to carry this book all by itself, and add in the intriguing werewolves element, and I think the story works.  With or without strong writing from me.

This is pretty unusual.  Usually, the story only comes alive if my writing is at least adequate, whereas I feel this story is already strong.  Which should mean, that if I manage to write it well, it should be even better.

I've had this weird feeling all along that the story is better than my writing -- like when you see a movie and you go, "what a cool concept" and then they don't deliver.

Well, it's my story and I'm going to do it.  I just have to try to do my best.

So my goal, once I finish, is to make it better.  I was going to say something grandiose like -- make it "twice as good" but I think I'll just say "better."

Finally, a word about process.  For me, this may be the most important thing right now.  Linda commented that she liked how I "Don't go off on all those tangents anymore."

This was because in the past I wasn't disciplined in my writing process.  I let my obsessive compulsive tendencies get in the way of efficient storytelling.  My solution this time was to work out a series of steps that I should take, one after the other, and avoiding the temptation to skip a step or repeat a step.

So first step is to write the first draft fast but not too fast.

All the other things I need to do are constantly calling for attention, but it isn't time.  I must patiently do each step before I do the next.  Especially at the end of the book, I'm being pulled aside.

But that's kind of the point.  By writing the entire first draft first, I'm much more aware of what needs to be done in the second draft.  I've had an entire book to work out what the book is lacking or has too much of or whatever.  In the past, I might have had an insight one/third of the way through the book and gone back and changed things and then again and again and again until I've made the thing so muddled and convoluted and "tangental" that it doesn't work the way it should.  By then, I can no longer feel the book -- I've reached that moment of singularity where it's just a jumble of words and I'm trying to remember how I originally felt about the story.  At this point, I can still improve the story intellectually, but I have to hope the original emotion is still there and still strong enough.

By writing in steps, I'm hoping to avoid these difficulties.

The point being -- I think this book so far really is only about half as good as it could be.  And if I can manage over the next two or three steps to follow through systematically what needs to be done --
it might be a pretty good book.

Nearing the end.

JOURNAL:  6/9/13.

Only three chapters from the end of Led to the Slaughter.

One thing is for sure.  I'm on one hell of a hot streak.  I'm not questioning it.  Let loose the hounds of war.  (Or werewolves, as it were.)

Hard to remember that I used to have trouble coming up with ideas.  Or maybe my standards have fallen.

I just let myself write whatever comes to me, not questioning it, because there is always more where that came from.

At least so far.

Knock wood.

A bit of a humble-brag as I psyche myself up for the final chapters... 

I want them to be satisfying and cathartic and better than anything I've done.

Poverty with a View again.

1.)  POVERTY WITH A VIEW:

Term used to describe life in Bend, Oregon or Central Oregon in general. Refers to numerous nearby mountain peaks, rivers, forests, clean air, and microbreweries, with the understanding that everyone will work for close to minimum wage regardless of level of education due to a dysfunctional job market. 

"Honey, did you see the place for sale down the street? It's a run-down double-wide on a flat one acre lot. Includes monster truck. Wow, that's what I call "poverty with a view".

URBAN DICTIONARY. 

So the Bulletin has an article today that the average wages in Bend are 10% below national average.

So I Google the average cost of living and get the figure that Bend is 10% higher than national average.

Add in that years ago, Bend was rated the second most over-retailed town in America, behind Las Vegas.  (I can't find this -- and it was quite awhile back, but at least we can agree that Bend is over-retailed --)

Anyway, that 20% swing is significant.  I suspect it is not taken into account by most new businesses.

What I mean by that, is that most people constantly compare Bend to other places without being aware of these facts.  That they somehow think that because something happens elsewhere it can happen here, but there is a 20% less chance of doing well on average.

I think it's a little worse than that, actually.  The isolation factor -- in that there is no relief from nearby communities, or a real 4-year college, or a major jobs paying industry, or an interstate.  While most communities are not actually limited to their own population -- we really are.

Of course, we do have the benefit of tourism, but tourism creates minimum wage service jobs, in general. 

Just saying.  Bend is a challenge that most people walk into unknowingly.