We’re in the basement, learning to print
All of it’s hot
10-20-30 million ready to be spent
We’re stackin’ ’em against the wall
Those gangster presidents
Livin’ simple and trying to get by
But honey, prices have shot through the sky
So I fixed up the basement
With what I was a-workin’ with
Stocked it full of jelly jars
And heavy equipment
We’re in the basement
10-20-30 million dollars
Ready to be spent
Walk into the bank, try to pass that trash
Teller sees and says “Uh-huh that’s fresh as grass”
See the street pass under your feet
In time to buy the latest model getaway Jeep
We’re in the basement
Learning to print
All of it’s hot
All counterfeit
I worried that the first half of Gray Rock gets bogged down with too much exposition, and I tried to follow the writing adage about “every scene requires conflict of some kind.” While the story talks about the relationship between Damron and his cohorts, his team and the brokers they served, and how Asperger’s can affect a person in a busy office environment, conflict with the MP simmers in the background. Hopefully the reader senses something is coming, but not when or where (as Damron thinks to himself at the very end of No Clocks).
The title Mixed Drinks About Feelings is an inside joke between Penelope and me, and this scene was originally way up in Precaution (Chapter 3) because the conversation occurred only a few weeks after I started at the company. But the scene works better here because Penelope rarely appears before the second half of Gray Rock, and it’d be strange how my ‘best friend at work’ disappears for almost half the book.
Likewise, Subtext originally appeared early in Destination Unknown, and moving Subtext and Mixed Drinks was among my last decisions before shipping off the manuscript to Sandy the editor.
Best Places To Work! 