Well, I hit 60,000 words on the novel tonight, and just for kicks I wrote the final scene of the book. It's a pretty good one, if I say so myself.

I tell ya, knowing the ending is the secret to really enjoying the writing of a novel. Now all I have to do is lay down all the groundwork so that the ending I wrote makes sense. Piece of cake.

Speaking of scenes, I'm at the point in the drafting where I can actually count the scenes remaining in the book. Twenty. Not bad. Twenty scenes, and eight chapters to go. The plan is to get there by Sunday. I got everything in order tonight, compiling all my notes scribbled on printouts and outlines and cheat sheet all over the place. All I have to do now is a touch more research here and there, and then just write.

(I see a sick day coming up on Friday, which will help immensely. Cough cough cough)

I'm really excited about these last few chapters -- lots of nifty stuff coming up.

On a barely related note, we went to the Dave Matthews concert last night at the local amphitheater -- you know, one of those places where you pretty much get strip-searched before you go in for fear of people bringing in a can of beer instead of paying eight bucks for one sold inside... The concert was good, but it was god-awful hot, and I'm just getting too old; I had some moments of Grumpy Old Man syndrome (those darn kids! smoking that pot and puking on themselves! well, I never!).

But the music was good. I'd stuffed a pen and my novel notes in one of the pockets of my cargo shorts, just in case inspiration struck, so we had fun jotting down the set list.

And just because I can, here are the songs played:

1. "The Stone"
2. "Satellite"
3. "Granny"
4. "One Sweet World" (Lizzie and I had the hardest time remembering this title!)
5. "#41"
6. "Everyday" (nicely morphed from "#41")
7. "Hello Again" (a new song -- thanks for the tip, Clarke!)
8. "Rhyme and Reason"
9. "When the World Ends"
10. "Sugar Will" (another new one)
11. "Crush"
12. "A Fool to Think"
13. "Joy Ride" (a third new one)
14. "Crazy-Easy" (yet another new 'un)
15. "Too Much"
16. "Help Myself"
17. "Ants Marching"
18. Encore: "Good Good Time" (a cover or a new one, not sure)
19. And finally, a rousing version of "Tripping Billies"

When we got home last night around 12:30 a.m., Elizabeth realized that this was Drew's first concert -- I think he had a good time. (And we saw at least four other pregnant women, including the girl sitting behind us who was about to POP). And now I really need to get some sleep... Later!