Noodling

So this is the week (finally) when I work on outlining the novel. This is not something I've done very often in my writing life, and the last time was more than a decade ago in a different country. ( Read more... )

It feels odd not to be actively writing in the sense of adding words to a draft, but I have to do some thinking-ahead sometime, and I really, really don't want to mess this one up; it absorbed most of the ideas that came to me in the drought years, at least lately.

Non-writing stuff

The hot weather has arrived, finally, or again, or something, though there may be more rain in a day or two. I am not really in the mood for scorching sunshine and high-90's temperatures, but when am I ever? The bird-of-paradise bushes are coming into flower, and the purple sage in Phoenix, so it must be summer.

We had a beer-and-munchies session after work today, celebrating the success of a colleague, and I found a beer that I actually liked the taste of, which surprised me a bit, as I'm not really a beer drinker as a rule. I decided I didn't really need to eat dinner after that; I hope I won't regret it in the small hours of the morning.

I saw another egret on Saturday, in the riverbed near the Phoenix airport, of all places -- a startling flash of white among the almost equally startling greenery.