First Pages

I finally got the first five pages of Ravine, the all-important opening lines, etc. These really have to hook the reader hard...if the first pages bomb, 99 percent of people will not read the rest.  I think it is okay, but I am not as enthused as CG, who--never effusive in praise, but even less so these days when we clearly need to stay out of each other's hair--said that it was excellent. I hope so. I am ready to cast my work aside at SJSU, subsistence on crumbs and all, to write this. The one thing I have in terms of riches is acres of time to write and research while Thistle's in school. I still do not know how to finalize this decision. Sometimes working fuels my writing, but I also have a nearly-five-year-old now and not one person who saw me nearly die in November wants me to return.

I am, no matter what, glad to be writing on a strong level again. I am also glad my old writing group and I are having a get-together and that the person in question has not been terribly successful in making people think I am crazy. Even he knows I am not: it is smoke and mirrors. You know, better to be honest about your problems than try to use someone as your magician's prop....people have greater respect for someone who owns their problems and does not try to shift the focus.