First, some early morning noontime thoughts:

• It's a really good thing I've gotten over needing people to like me.
  
  
• I was gonna rant about being held accountable for the opinions of my friends and people I associate with instead of for my opinions alone, but then I realized that I'm guilty of doing that to other people, so nevermind. I'm gonna work on not doing that anymore, though.
  
  
• I finished TIMCTB last night but I don't love the ending. I'm gonna have to fiddle with that a little more.
  
  
• I overslept. And I have to make a trip to town to buy my books. I feel like my whole day is already shot. Which is ridiculous, I know, but there it is. This is one of those days I wish I still took Ritalin.
  
  
• Checked out the syllabi for my classes last night. I'm absolutely dreading this semester.
  
  
• New Farscape tonight! Woo hoo! The satellite's been glitchy, though. I hope that gets straightened out in time.

Okay then. Wrote this character bio last night for Modern Brides. It's not going in the manuscript, this was just me getting to know the character. It's not as neat and sensical as the study for Mary, but at least I have a pretty good handle on this guy now.

Abe

Abraham Campbell was named for his great, great, great grandfather on his mother's side. That was all he knew about his mother's family. She hadn't talked about them much, and his grandparents didn't know enough to talk about them. When he was eight, a weekend in their custody turned into a lifetime after his parents, not trained for Oklahoma weather, got swept off the highway and into a lake while driving to get him in a tornado.

Of course, Abe had turned out to be the consummate disappointment to them. Their high hopes that he'd grow up to be a doctor like his father were dashed when he got held back a grade in junior high, and then trodden, stomped on and ripped to shreds when he did a brief stint in juvie at age 16 for smoking weed. Of course, that was the first and only time he'd tried the stuff, and just his luck, he'd gotten caught. Story of his life.

By the time he graduated high school Abe had gotten his grades up enough to go to college, and his grandparents had decided to be proud. He did well enough in college -- he'd always tested well, it was just the homework part he could never get a handle on. He majored in Engineering. Then he met Mallory, who taught him to play bass, and switched to Music. Together they started a band, Edith Keelor Must Die. They both dropped out of college after their first paid gig. His grandparents threatened to disinherit him.

The band all lived together for about a year, then when it came down to a choice between killing them all, quitting the band or moving out he and Mallory got their own place. They were together two years before she got pregnant. When she told him he had visions of back yard football and little league games. Then she told him she'd gotten rid of it. She wanted a career, not a family. He moved out for a week, then came back. He only wanted her. Anyway, it had been the right thing to do. The smart thing to do. That was what he told himself every night, before he went to sleep, after he finished convincing himself that his parents didn't die because of him. It wasn't like he could support a family on the band's meager earnings and his wages from Tulsa's one and only Starbucks. It was hard enough for him and Mal to make ends meet as it was.

After four years together, he'd proposed. She said no. She wanted to be a rock star, not a wife. Still wanted to live together, though. He said yes. He still only wanted her.