Weekend Ramble

Progress on the WIP has been excruciatingly slow. I am not a fast writer and the past week has been very, very annoyingly sloth-like in terms of speed. Last night I finally figured out the "why's" of a plot point and am hoping to get a boost from that. I'm not sure why, exactly, but if I have a good general idea of where I need to go I tend to pick up the pace. I'm within spitting distance of breaking 50k and think I might cross that mini-goal before the weekend is out. I'm getting in touch with my inner-cheerleader (not the slutty quarterback obsessed bimbo, silly!) and will be shaking my pom-poms and practicing my best ass-kicking cheers for myself this weekend. Okay, that sounds a little weird but...whatever it takes, ya know?

On the strictly fun side of things, my husband and I are going to Flagstaff for the day. We'll visit our friends who just moved up there and then we'll go to Bookman's. Bookman's is sort of the ultimate used bookstore. I've got about 20+ paperbacks I'm taking in for credit & then stand back brothers and sisters. I've got a list of authors I'm looking to check out and have my fingers crossed that I'll find some that are on my list. I've been on a reading binge lately - it's really helped keep me sane with the writing slow-down.

Speaking of books, just finished Neil Gaiman's American Gods. Good grief, that man tells an awesome story. Somehow he manages to keep the scope balanced between the epic and the personal. This novel had everything- prison, love & betrayal, family troubles, prestidigitation (love that word!), one of the best crime cons I've read in a long time, & a killer twist - one of those twists that you can sense in the offing but that still manages to catch you by surprise. Plus tons of characters from a variety of cultural mythologies. Sorry to go on and on, but I freakin' loved this book.

And then there's Ken Bruen's The Guards. Bruen's name kept coming up as a must read, so I finally bit the bullet and forked over the cash for it. It was totally worth it. The man has a magical way with language. I can't remember the last time I got so excited by a writer's use of language. He used "coffee'd" as a verb! Okay, maybe that doesn't seem like a big deal, but I LOVE IT when a writer takes language to a new level. That's exactly what he did in this novel. Yeah, yeah, the story's good & so are the characters (Jack Taylor is one of the best modern noir anit-heroes I've come across in a long time), but it's the way he uses the language that hooked me. I found myself slowing down as I read, just to savor the words.

One last, completely unrelated bit of yippy skippy is that I'm going to learn how to run a sound board! I've been interested in that for quite a while, and finally worked up the courage to talk to a friend of ours who runs sound for several clubs in town & who records musicians (he has his own studio). Anyway, he's down with it & I'm heading over to Coyote Joe's for my first "lesson" tonight. I'm totally stoked! I can't remember the last time I was so excited about hauling equipment around & pushing buttons!