I was on a roll with the journal entries for a while there, then I ran out of steam. Luckily, the other projects I've been working on in the New Year have been continuing at a much more regular, reliable rate.

I've been eating better every day and jogging every weekday (I get to take the weekends off), in spite of the cold. Yesterday's jog was in 31-degree temps, but once I got going it wasn't bad at all. So long as there's not any wind -- when I took the dog for a walk last night, we got maybe 100 feet before I was ready to turn back, the wind turning my face numb. Whit the Greyhound wasn't too thrilled to be out in the blustery weather either.

I've also been working diligently on the final pass of the novel. I'm pushing myself to revise a chapter a day, so I'm completely done, to my liking, with the book by the last day of January. It's going well so far -- finished chapter 7 today, cutting some flabby text and tightening other sentences. There's something therapeutic about cutting unneeded sentences. Even whole paragraphs.

Here's a section I did NOT cut:

The arch at the opening to the tunnel was framed with large, irregular stones and dotted with bits of glass that must have been inserted before the concrete had set.

Concrete? I stopped and looked up. This shit was man-made?

I looked closer and could see tiny, lacy designs cut into the concrete, working their way around the embedded bits of glass. Vines and leaves, curling around the entrance arch like an unending snake with wings. Faded letters had been carved under the vines, but they were too faint to make out. I felt something tighten in my throat, as if the vines had taken root there and started to grow inside me.

Now to get my reading back on track. I was on an early Stephen King kick for a while -- I read Carrie, 'Salem's Lot, and The Shining (the last is a very disturbing book, because he gets into every characters head very, very deeply). I was going to try his uncut version of The Stand, but that book is a brick. Good stuff, I'm sure (I read the original years ago) but now I'm ready for something new. Elizabeth just finished Charles Frazier's Thirteen Moons and loved it, so I'll dive into that next.

And that's about all that's new. Just getting into a good groove for the year (and just like that, January's almost half over!). Later...