Blather!

I am about to go for a walk with my new puppy. I'm going to pick my nieces up from school. That's right -- the oaf is going all Beverly Cleary on your ass. Just try and stop me. I will be the wholesomest motherfucker you have ever seen.

That said.

Before I split, I thought I'd mention a shift in the novel. The chapters have been five to ten pages long up until this point. I've doubled the length of the chapters, and it's been a surprising thing.

See, there are three main streams in the novel. The real world, the imaginary world, and the experiential state that lies between the two, a state that seems revelatory or insane depending on the circumstances. In earlier drafts, an individual chapter would have one or two of these elements in it. The result was very choppy.

By doubling the length of the chapters, each chapter has some of every element in it, and as a result the work reads a lot more smoothly. It's pretty busy, but if you read the first chapter you do indeed have some idea of what you're in for. Which wasn't the case before...

Anyway. It's a few hours later, and I'm waiting for Homework Club to commence. I'm a little shocked -- they let me go right into a public school and grab a child. I think it was the adorable dog that let me slip through the safety net.

Oh, man, though. Talk about dog drama. When we left, Roxie the terrier began to cry, and went about acting as though her heart were broken. And when we got back, she actually raced up to Laszlo and frantically greeted him -- "Where the hell were you? I was so worried!" She's been warming up to him by increments and this was a major step forward.

So tomorrow I'll bring both the canines. We'll see how that goes.