my tradition is to wear black, so everyone knows to leave me alone...

Ah, St Patrick's Day, which I celebrate by staying the hell away from anywhere people might be...anywhere people might be, basically.

Yeah, I don't know what it's like in your city, but NYC suddenly becomes the home of drunk people determined to make Jets fans look like Miss Manners' favorite cousin. Thanks but no thanks and I'll deal with everyone tomorrow when they've sobered up.

[also: corned beef? A traditional JEWISH dish that Irish immigrants to America adapted. Yes, really.)

However, if you are, y'know, Actually Irish, I wish you a Happy St Patrick's Day.


For the rest of us? one day closer to Spring. I'll raise a wee dram to that.

EtA: had a 'strami-onn-rye-widda-sour for lunch, plus a potato knish, eaten outside in the sunlight without a jacket, and now am feeling the intense desire to curl up on the sofa and sooooooze.. no, work, I meant work! PSA: when eating a proper 'strami sandwich, make sure you have hot tea handy with which to wash down the lingering grease. Trust me on this... [I had a diet coke, and had to come home and make a cup of tea for maximum digestion)

on writing, physical and mental process

Yep, went to turn the desktop on this morning and it crapped out on me. Can't find its own hard drive with two hands and a flashlight.

And so I shook my head and turned on the laptop and settled in for a morning of writing, rather than being fretful and stressed over lost time and potentially lost files.

Redundancy in the hardware, FTW. You can never have only one tool in your toolbox, either metaphorically or in actuality.


Meanwhile and relevant to last week's Practical Meerkat on knowing when you're ready to stop researching and start writing, last weekend I put together a new character for a new project, and in the sample material I had him perform a physical action relevant to his job/career. And this morning, while not-really-thinking on the project some more, I decided that an aspect of that action would be part of his ongoing personality, that he would always have X with him, out of habit.

And then, about 8 seconds later, I realized that, at some later point in the project (not then, but books-from-then, if they occur) that aspect would become important in a case, in a small but vital fashion.

And out of that, an element of my character -- practical, level-headed, a frickin' Boy Scout in some ways -- didn't so much develop as it did ferment out of the ingredients I'd brought together. And I'm ready to write him now.

(now, if his partner would get a move on and show up, the writer would be ready for her close-up...)


and meanwhile, from the WiP:

( behind the cut, since it's sort of spoiler-y )