My Deck of Cards

Phyllis told me she spends 20 minutes front and back in her pool,

roasting like a rotisserie chicken. 

Building up my Vitamin E sounded very inviting this morning and spending some time reading

a good break from thinking.

I worked all day, pausing to chat with Chris about whether or not you can skateboard in the snow so I could determine if it was realistic way for my teenage character (Jake) to get to his friend's house. 

(But not really his friend's house because he lied!) 

It's not, but I think we fudged it pretty well.

Revising the middle of a novel is like holding a huge fan of cards in your hands,

say, 12, and getting them sorted just right (pretend those are the first 100 pages) and then being handed 12 more to hold, (those are the second 100 pages), still in a fan where you can see them, and then being given an additional 12 to sort into the others (which is like making sure the themes of the first 100 carry through to the second 100),

I've written the timeline and themes in four different ways to help me remember and also hang onto the threads to carry them through. By the fourth time, I think I got all the connections.

Dan and Nick came home from race practice this evening, we ate by the pool,

and then I told Dan all about everything I was working on and how I was getting the loose ends pulled together. "Do you want to go back to work?" he asked. 

"I think I need to."

So I worked until 10:30 when I got to a good stopping place.