So, with all this free time 'round the house tonight, I had the hardest damn time sitting down to get some writing work done. It's weird, with Elizabeth and Drew gone, I'm totally unfocused. I guess I had a good thing with my 4:30 a.m. writing sessions while they were here (and still asleep).

I'm plotting to get out of work on Friday so I can sneak down to the beach to be with them -- I miss them WAY too much.

Anyhoo. After taking Whit the Wonder Dog for a long hike by the nearby dam tonight (he almost croaked from the heat), I finally sat down and finished organizing almost all of my notes for the new novel. I feel like I'm already falling behind (my goal was to bang out a draft by September 30th...). But now I'm on the right track.

Let's see -- so far I've got a lost child, a 25-year-old runaway jaguar, a tail-less salamander with a taste for stories, a surly dog-catcher, a preschool bully, a half-man guardian, and of course, an Underworld dragon (SarahP would be sooo proud).

A pretty good start, I'd say. I'm looking forward to getting up early -- maybe even 4:30 a.m. -- to work on the rest of chapter one. Only 87,000 words to go! Later!