Okay, so - this book I've been writing? The murder mystery set in an alternate version of Victorian London? The one that has gone through countless reincarnations over the past, oh, six years? (I'm not kidding. It's coming up on seven.) The one that I keep stoppingstartingstoppingstarting?

The main bugbear that's been holding me back for the last few months - ever since I decided to change the setting to Victorian London - was needing to figure out the past-and-present politics.

The $%*@#&! bugbear that's been holding me back for the last few years has been the details of the night of the murder(s). Who did what and why? I've mostly known the who but rarely been able to settle on the motivations. Cold feet? Nah. The fact that there is murder involved and I need to have the motivations solid before I can comfortably go ahead with this story? Um, yeah!

Over the past 48 hours-before-12:08-last-night, thanks to a groundbreaking suggestion from the MumPilot and my stubborn refusal to leave my desk (except to go to Starbucks and work there) until things had been sorted through (okay, and thanks to a few Digimon cards), I FIGURED IT OUT! I figured it ALL out!!!

*flops on desk, mentally exhausted*

More details later, if anyone's interested: right now, I need to write!! And make coffee! And, yanno, eat.

It doesn’t take a million dollars to change the world, or even a million minutes. Some of these suggestions (one for each week of the year) are basic, but charity—and change—starts at home. You can change the world, starting with you and your relationships with those around you!

Home

1. Wash the dishes—without being asked—after a meal.
2. Let your sibling have the remote.
3. Call a relative.

School

14. Trade that homemade cookie from your lunch for a friend’s cracker.
15. Return an abandoned headband to the lost and found.
16. Pick up that wad of paper in the hall and recycle it.

Neighborhood

27. Play Frisbee rather than surf the Internet.
28. Bake a batch of blonde brownies for the family suffering from colds down the street. If it’s January 22 (National Blonde Brownie Day), all the better!
29. Shovel your neighbor’s walk, and don’t forget to leave a snowman on their lawn.

Anytime, Anywhere

40. Organize a Free Hugs event.
41. Donate books and comics you don’t enjoy any more to the local children’s hospital.
42. Attend a talk by a visiting activist or human rights spokesman, like Craig and Marc Kielburger. Be an active listener: Make notes and ask questions!

If you'd like to fill in the gaps on this list, head over to SparkLife and read Fifty-Two Ways to Change the World!

Remember that article I mentioned a few days ago, the one about The Beauty of Blogging where I collaborated with 2skippingstones and newport2newport?

It's up!

The three of us gathered around our virtual bistro table and whispered, giggled, and brainstormed about blogging. And, guess what? We've opened the floor to you! Once you've read the article, skip on over to Melodye's blog and join the conversation. We can't wait to hear what you have to say.

Speaking of words, have you seen this site? (Thanks, catinthesun!) You never know what you'll find. I had no idea, for example, that, circa 1969, Joe Bloggs was the British equivalent of North America's Joe Blow (meaning a hypothetical person).

And that's not the only cool site on the block. If you're a fan of random facts, it might be worth signing up (free) for the Oxford Reference Online Fact of the Day. Each day, another tantalizing tidbit delivered to your inbox. Some of my favourites:

Why did Lady Godiva ride round Coventry with no clothes on?

( Why indeed. )

International Children's Book Day is celebrated on the birthday of which writer?

( ??? )

That's the end of today's episode of Journey of an Inquiring Mind. See you next time!

(Oh, and did I mention that the snow vanished in about 45 seconds?)

Today, I received something très cool in the mail: payment from Absolute Write for my article about character development. It's my first pay cheque for writing. Yay!

Now, here's the prob: I don't want to split the modest (yet totally incredible) amount between spending and saving. I want to spend it on something concrete, hopefully something that I can point at and say, "I bought that with my first pay cheque." So that rules out a movie or a delicious meal, which are both wonderful but temporary.

Any suggestions? Fantastic books you've read lately? And, if you feel like sharing, what did you buy with your first cheque (for writing or otherwise)?

Random bonus question: What's your guilty pleasure music?

I love bands/singers like Nickelback and Josh Groban, among many others, but every once in a while, I boost my spirits with Cascada.

To all my American friends, Happy Thanksgiving!

If you take a look at the Absolute Write newsletter or the website tomorrow, you should see an article about character development called Dreaming of You by little ol' me. I'll update when I have a specific link. :)

ETA: http://www.absolutewrite.com/novels/dreaming.htm

One of my goals for this week over at clean_slates is to write 10 pages of Jessie. What I didn't do was decide how I was going to go about this. On the spur of the moment last night, I decided that when I got up the next morning, I would get a bowl of granola, sit down at my computer, set my watch to beep in 30 minutes, and write. Just an experiment, you know?

It worked really well. Not only did I write 2 and 1/2 pages during that 1/2 hour, but I felt like a professional writer, setting time aside for my craft and being productive. I like it.

Holy shit. I just finished my rewrites.

I celebrated earlier tonight with nachos and Mayan ice cream. Yummy! We also watched a brilliant episode from the second season of E.R. where Doug Ross, George Clooney's character, saves a young boy and accidentally becomes a media sensation. I was already 99.9% done my rewrites when we did this, but I didn't really feel like the rewrites were done until I made one final find-and-replace.

There was a momentary panic when I thought I actually had one more scene left to write, but it was easily rectified when I realized that it needed a few lines, not a whole darn scene.

Earlier today in Starbucks, while drinking my third cup of coffee, I finished the second last scene. I knew that if I were to reverse the order in which I rewrote them, I totally wouldn't have finished tonight, so I left myself a gem to end on. I even managed to work a little surprise into it that I never thought of before.

Oh, and I found another agent that is going on my gold-star list (i.e. round one). I'm on a roll.

I don't think it has really hit me yet that the majority of Good Night, Odile is done. I really don't think I've realized yet that I can now move on to the rough draft of an entirely new project while I let this one rise (and then punch the stuffing out of it -- i.e. edit it). I REALLY don't think I know that the story that began to fester six years ago is almost done.

I do think, though, that Gina and Sam are celebrating somewhere, too. They deserve it.