i dreamed a dream

I am back in California, after an utterly uneventful trip. I bid my parents goodbye at home this time, since my brother took me to the airport by himself; he dropped me off on time, and I was able to get a soda and hang out for a few minutes before boarding the flight to Denver. I then sat in Denver for a couple of hours and ate a burrito bowl (sans tortilla in a nod to my gluten problems) and drank a margarita, which made me intensely sleepy for most of the flight from Denver to San Francisco. Needless to say, I didn't get much writing done; I'm mulling over an issue with the middle of the book, and I think I've untangled it, but I didn't want to jinx it by forcing the writing too soon.

On my way home from the airport, I stopped at the grocery store to stock up on writerly snacks, then came home and cleaned the kitchen so that I could put my groceries away and rest easy knowing that I can wake up tomorrow and cook in said kitchen. I also unpacked fully (not hard, since I came back with a carry on and left a bunch of stuff in Iowa), switched the comforter on my bed to my heavier winter version (it's v. windy tonight), messed around on the internet, and then made the mistake of picking up a book.

Of course I read the whole thing straight through; it was ALPHABET OF THORN by Patricia A. McKillip, which was far enough away from the Regency romance genre to be bearable in this, my darkest hour, but also beautiful enough to seduce and interesting enough to enchant. I've read a couple of her other books (THE BELL AT SEALEY HEAD; THE BARDS OF BONE PLAIN), and her style is v. clearly her own; lots of gorgeous language, weird half-explained (or not explained at all) magic, people with strange names, whispers of ancient magic and/or evil weaving through multiple storylines in the 'modern' world. And it always makes me want to write ye olde high fantasy, although it's going to have to wait for the other eighteen books I've already got planned (the remaining 2.5 in the Muses series; seven in a different Regency or possibly Georgian series; four in a Victorian or late-Regency series; four or five in my gargoyles series, not to mention the Olympics idea I was toying with briefly the other night). My imagination encompasses entire worlds -- the trick is sitting down in this one long enough to write them down.

But now I really, really must sleep. I have errands to run tomorrow, and then I must fling myself headlong into SCOTSMEN and finish the damned thing so that I can move on to other stories. Goodnight!