So the silence is not deceptive I will say it: I have not been writing or reading.

I have been tending to real life: Primarily, learning a new way of cooking and eating, secondarily managing my household and planning for school come fall.

I have started a few books, but not continued them because that instinct to stay only with what will delight me (also known as what I wish to be like) has made it easy to let them go uncompleted.  I do have a queue now, waiting for my attention, for various reasons (though any of these could be thrown aside for reasons as fickle the most recent).

In The Ill-Formed Mute I encountered what I’ve only heard of to this point: a fantasy assuming an adult audience, and stretching that audience for all their brains and patience are worth.

The story was all about setting (which, for my just-get-to-the-story self required discipline to stick with as long as I did), and set-up.  I could see the purpose of all of it, but it was far too distracting to actually get lost in the story.  I’d start to lose myself, then the author would use a $25 word that reminded me I was reading.

She did have deliciously original similes though, and some original ideas that the flap-copy somewhat ruined the suspense of (such is life for us long-story tellers).

Anyway, tomorrow Jay’s giving me the day to write again– splitting the kids’ day with a family friend. I’ve done one scene since last time when I got through a quarter of the novel in the *Whole. Day.*

So I hope to get at least that far tomorrow.  The next quarter, I mean. I can always tell the stuff that’s been around longer: I’ve removed the less-skillful stuff, and all that’s left is the richer stuff.  The recent changes feel like the book I forgot I bought and am surprised to see on my shelf– I just haven’t spent enough time around it for it to remind me it belongs.

I just gave a stutter to a secondary character, and now I need to tone down his vocabulary too.  He only plays the fool, and I like having the change in speaking patterns as a cue, but I can see it getting annoying really quick (for me, if not for the reader who may just skim it comfortably), so I don’t know if I’ll be able to stick with it.

That said, I think it’s sound material, I just want to spend more time with it to be sure.

Oh, and my other adventure is culminating in Dell choosing today to send us a postage-paid box to send them my laptop in.

I don’t think I’ve complained about this before, but my CD/DVD player doesn’t work, my speakers get scratchy every now and then (some of you know this is a *really* big deal for me), and the opening hinge is cracked.

And my screen blacks out every now-and-then, which, let me tell you, is *freaky* when you’re in the middle of a project.  My heart might almost have stopped the first time it happened.

But I could still write, and we have regular back-ups on the home server Jay made, so it wasn’t until I  accidentally knocked a cup of water onto my keyboard that we actually called Dell’s tech support.

Thankfully I’m still within my 4-years of full replacement warranty.

So there you are: if anyone’s still “listening,” you’ve got the update.