The fog is lying low over us today, but our pumpkins are still alive, safe in the backyard from the marauding neighborhood kids who think it’s fun to smash them everywhere. It’s actually not that irritating, but Todd spent hours with a Drimmel tool working on his pumpkin and I think if they smashed it, he would be hot under the collar enough to plot a payback. Poor neighborhood boys. They would not enjoy it.
Other than that, a fine writing day. I’m steadily working my way through a book on characterization by Brandilyn Collins and really studying this because I think it’s my weakest skill. And my office now resembles a maze of sorts, as I slowly organize and pile papers in order to sort through every piece of paper I have before 2009. Why do I do this to myself?
Plans for a trip to London from January 10 through January 19 are being made. This time I’ll have plenty of time to take a few days trip to Wales/Cornwall, to visit the birthplace of Daphne Du Maurier, author of Rebecca and Jamaica Inn, and Wales, home of Sidney Curnow Vosper’s famous painting, Salem, and endless castles. Todd is trying desperately to get the time off to go with me.
Or, I mentioned to him the other night a trip to France’s Dordogne Valley, to all those lovely towns, including the town of Albi (this is the site of the historical and systematic murder of the Albigenses by the Catholics in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries). Of course, the Albigenses denied the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and believed that Jesus was only man while on earth (oh that they could have met Anne Rice), thus they were preaching heretical teachings around France, but the stories of their mass murder have haunted and fascinated me since my teens.
Anyway, either trip (whether to Wales/Cornwall or to France) would be great research for my current projects. So . . . we must begin to plan and prepare. Hopefully, I can pull some extra income in to cover the trip. We’ll see.
And off I go to write.
