Today's Word: Silk

The smoke rubbed against her eyes in soft waves, followed by an acrid sting. The room felt soft, everything was gentle corners and overstuffed tops. It was a safety room, her crying room, her rage room.

Hi.

Being busy and lazy can sure keep you away from blogging.

And having in-laws coming in from Arizona today shall put a crimp on one's time.

But it's not like I haven't forgotten about you, baby.

Next Tuesday will close down another term in the writing program. The last portion begins March 29 and I'm spending the dead zone between classes writing new scenes. I banged out a two-page scene (homework for the last class this term, can you imagine? Homework on the last day!) that I think I'll just keep as is. Opened up a new possibility of vignettes instead of plodding chapters. I'm also growing enamored with the idea of having the side characters reveal the details of how the end of civilization came about, with Rayelle and Patrick giving their version at the end. I'm imagining the revelations as an ongoing POV exercise with Rayelle providing the ending.

To help cut distraction from my life, I cut down my Gamefly status from having two games out at once to having one. I've pruned a lot of games from my list (especially the coming Conker's Bad Fur Day. I played the demo a couple weeks ago, and I can't believe people are going to pay another $50 for the same, exact game that Rare, the developer, put out SIX YEARS AGO!) and am starting to work harder on lurching into unknown territories. That said, I'm apprehensive about what the last term in the writing program will hold. I know nothing of the teacher, and everything I know about the class is that it will be more "literary," as if we we've been doodling with crayons since last fall.

And I finally got the iPod Shuffle. It's a wondrous little widget. One of the snarkier women at my office compared it to a tampon. I think she's jealous because my tiny, sleek piece of Cool makes her U2 iPod (the former Cool device in the office) look like an ungainly brick, akin to those putty-gray shoeboxes that were primitive cell phones in the 1980s. But Shuffle has taught me a valuable lesson: I need more music. Wifey and I are going to high-speed modem soon (working off cell phones, and cutting off our land line) and I have at least 20 free downloads to iTunes thanks to a promotional giveaway with Diet Pepsi. I may have ruined my kidneys drinking all that fizzy go-fuel, but I can get the new Massive Attack album for free.

A worthy trade off.