Fortunately Fiction

I once said that “I had Cheerios for breakfast” is my idea of a really boring blog. Who really cares? It is already a bad sign that I am quoting myself, but….if writing a boring novel is bad, then writing about writing a boring novel must be intolerable. I will spare you anything beyond the daily word count and final couple of sentences.

I am deeply surprised by how much I am enjoying this writing. While I am still not convinced that I have any talent for fiction, it makes for a nice change from my usual essay style. It’s kind of a kick to name people or place right there in mid-sentence. My chapters are on the short side, and I catch myself in continuity errors. I still have a second plot that I want to overlay on this one. But all of that can be fixed. For now, it just flows from my fingers. It actually is fun. Ask me again when I hit my first roadblock.

Today I went to vote for the first time in Hyde Park. The ballots are paper, and the candidates themselves were lined up in the rain. Vermont is the most doggedly democratic place I know. Politics offer an amusing respite from the winter’s cold.

What does a justice of the peace do, anyway? The ballot said to vote for ten people, but I voted for everyone I knew and that was only six.

As I sit here typing this, Vermont is the first state to go for Kerry. Is anyone surprised?

5,461 words. Last paragraph:

“Once at camp, Al also realized that she had no idea what she expected Rusty to do. They had a good refresher in basic obedience and spiffed up Rusty’s recall skills, never one of his strengths. Agility was a lot to expect of a dog moving into his arthritic years, and Rusty found the doggie games merely undignified. Their best times, it seemed to Al were chasing tennis balls in the brook, or better yet, chasing other dogs. Al laughed until her ribs were sore one day watching Rusty—the ultimate herding dog—attempt to herd border collies, who thought they were herding Rusty. This, she thought, wiping her eyes dry, this is what I need.”