goodbye ruby tuesday

I don't know whether to be pleased with my accomplishments today, or ashamed that I was not more productive. I woke up around 9:30 and promptly went to Mike's Cafe for brunch, where I thought about my novel while eating my usual veggie casserole. Then, I came home briefly, before venturing out again to get a glycolic peel. Alex (the woman who tortures me for ~$120 every few weeks) was v. good, as usual, although today she neglected to fan my face after pouring acid on it. Normally, she fans my face while I try not to whimper from the burning, and I've always thought it was rather ineffectual - but when she didn't do it today, I realized that the burning sans fanning is even worse. Anyway, the rest of the facial was relaxing, and I came home quite happy.

I spent the rest of the day making desultory progress on my romance novel. In reality, I spent quite a bit of time on the internet - I decided to rename one of the characters, and since I had never given her a last name either, I spent quite some time researching French names and surnames, as well as the French peerage system so that I would know what title might be appropriate for her father. Of course, using Wikipedia is v. dangerous, since I end up reading about all manner of things - for instance, I read about all six wives of Henry VIII, even though he preceded my story by over three hundred years. But, I'm happy with the name that I came up with for the character, and I think I might upgrade Amelia's family to the marquess level, rather than earls - although marquess is just one step below duke, which probably has implications for what her brother (who has inherited the marquessate from their father) can get away with in a future book.

However, I did manage to write 1475 words, which is almost eight pages. I'm rewriting the beginning of the book - I may end up rewriting much of what I have, because I think my voice has changed in the three years since I started writing the story, and the latest third of the book is much much better than what I initially wrote. I'm a lot happier with what I wrote tonight than what I had as the original first chapter, although the prospect of rewriting hundreds of pages is rather daunting. Ah, well, no one said this would be easy - and I only have five days of work left, at which point I'll be able to spend as much time with Malcolm and Amelia as I want to.

I think it's time to go to bed - I'm exhausted, and I have to get up in the morning and go to the evil city to have brunch with Heather and Salim. Goodnight!