Today's Progress: this afternoon 1912 words. This evening 1264 for a total of 3176 words on In Flight today!
Part of the afternoon's momentum came from the classic suspense I've been reading, I think. Getting a sense for the voice. Not so much the language as the reader experience. (You couldn't get the same reader experience from the old fashioned style, I think. Especially with the Lockridge affinity for m-dashes and extra commas. I know I am prone to use m-dashes liberally, but if you think I use too many, you have no idea how far an m-dash can be taken. It can--apparently--replace all other punctuation!--except commas--and even, sometimes, them.)
In some ways, I think I am regaining something I lost when I went over to screenwriting. I think I used to write fiction faster before then. This would be good -- if I start writing faster -- because it looks like this will be a full-length novel.
In the meantime, I have left the story in an easy place to pick up some momentum.
Eating, Reading, Watching
Made bread. My bread is not rising like it should. It rose enough, over too long of a time. It could be the yeast (which this jar was working just fine until last week), but I'm beginning to think I might have accidentally filled my bread flour jar with all-purpose flour. This Will Not Do. So that flour is going into the freezer until I've tested the theory with a new sack of certified, make-no-mistakes bread flour.
Otherwise, eating leftovers Chinese-American food from the place around the corner, and also blueberries.
I haven't watched anything in a while (though we plan to see Godzilla tomorrow -- Tuesday). Still working on reaing Murder Must Advertise and Murder and Blueberry Pie. The first one is a Sayers, and I'm reading on my Kindle -- which means I'm mostly reading just before bed, so it goes slowly. (And it's long.)
The other is a Lockridge; the second Nathan Shapiro novel and my favorite of all of their books. In the first three Shapiro books (which were written when Frances Lockridge was still alive), Shapiro was a background character. I've mentioned him before; kind of a cross between Columbo and Eeyore. The books read like stand-alone protagonist-in-jeopardy suspense novels, but Shapiro is schlepping around in the background, until he comes sadly to the rescue, apologizing all the way.
The series changed tone and became more of a police procedural when Richard Lockridge was writing them alone. Still good mysteries, but not as good, imho.
Here's the cover. It's another of those Lippincott "Main Line Mystery" book club books. I realized today that it does not have the "why read mystery?" essay on the back. However, another in my small collection (few of which still have their dust covers) has a different essay promoting the genre.
There were, apparently, several such essays. I may post one of them later.
As for the design -- this one I still think is ugly. But it does evoke a sense of mystery and danger.
Right now, because these books are out of print and I suspect unlikely to ever go back into print, I am scanning some of them and converting them to ebooks for study.
I'll tell you more about that later on. In the meantime....
See you in the funny papers.
No comments:
Post a Comment