Ah, early mornings. How I've missed you!

Yesterday and today I got up at 5 and started dabbling with my fiction writing again, which has been a lot of fun -- I feel my brain expanding again, my imagination waking up once more. I was feeling pretty hunched over and shriveled up for a while there, not doing anything but laboring for the day job.

Things have calmed down there quite a bit, so I'm back in the world of 1917, going over and over that first game of the World's All Nations team. Getting every detail, and looking for anything I can cut out so this first scene grabs people.

I think I've decided to focus on this book now (until I get distracted again!), just because I really love my narrator's voice, and I can keep adding more and more nuances to him. Can't beat a crotchety old baseball coach with a chip on his shoulder.

Although I've still got all my notes for the Sixteen Miles novel right here on my desk as well -- I'm sure I'll dip into that project in a week or so...

Once again, it's reading that's got me back into writing. First it was McCarthy's The Road, a lovely birthday gift from Lizzie, and now it's Tim's novel-in-manuscript, Dead Reign. Both very different books, but wholly engaging reads that make me want to write. Those are the best kinds of books -- I can tell the author was working hard, yet having fun (well, I don't know if Cormac McCarthy ever has fun writing, but I can tell Tim was having a blast!). Very inspirational.

And now the youngster is calling out, so I'd better run! Later...