Back on the revising wagon again, and now that I've fixed up the opening chapters (always my most problematic), the rest of the chapters are starting to move quickly. Now I get to add the fun stuff -- all the little details that add to my narrator's character, some sub-plots, more historic details (the Hogan book Shades of Glory is really, really good for this!), and more. I'm at the point where I'm NOT redoing stuff from the opening chapter anymore.

The next chapter is from the big Fourth of July games versus the Chicago American Giants, featuring heavyweight champ Jack Johnson, and I had an idea for taking this chapter and making it into a short story -- we'll see if that works.

Here's a snippet from chapter six that I enjoyed so damn much when I first wrote it, I figured I'd shared it again (I think I shared it 2 years ago, too, after I wrote it). It's when the team is in the Windy City the day before the Fourth of July:

"Boles," I muttered. "That's enough. Can't you just enjoy the scenery?"

"Oh I am," Boles said, grinning at a passing woman who quickly turned her parasol to block his view of her face. "I just get tired of the Jew's far-fetched stories. He ain't kin to Harry Houdini. He just stole the man's name to use as his own."

Art stopped walking, turned, and waved first one hand, then the other in front of Boles so fast I barely saw it happen. When Art stepped away from the young pitcher, I heard the tinkling of four small buttons hitting the sidewalk. Boles was left grabbing for his pants while his suspenders dangled loose as ribbons on his chest.

"Not kin at all," Art said, tipping his hat to me on his way past. "Of course, you must be right, Master Boles."

And today it's back to work, after a lovely four-day weekend. We had friends come over on Saturday for a house-warming get-together which was a blast. Needless to say, I ate and drank way too much. Back on the healthy bandwagon today.

Almost forgot to mention -- yesterday we took Drew swimming at the pool for the first time this summer, and he loved it. He also loved playing with the sprinkler on Sunday (or was it Monday). He kept saying it was raining... Later!