First, Gilmore Girls rocked last night and I was thrilled to finally see tons of family chaos erupting. It's not that I want everyone on the show to suffer, but all the quiet was starting to wear on my nerves. Of course now it will be weeks before a new episode but we have the return of Jess to look forward to and that means tons and tons of chaos. So life is looking good on Tuesday nights in the future.

Today I worked legs and I really hate working legs. It always seems more like grunt work then anything else I do at the gym. I add weight so I know there is muscular development going on, but nothing ever looks any different. Plus, all the exercises are just uncomfortable. But, I worked legs. So points for me.

In my book on Alaska flying which I haven't talked about here, but exists and is out in the world looking for an agent as we speak, I never really worked on plot. It's a very unconventional narrative for a lot of reasons and plot just wasn't a huge factor. But in Book #2 plot is huge - it is everything. (Well, not everything, but you get the idea.) I know how it begins and how it ends and most of the surprises. (I won't say all of the surprises because I'm sure some more are bound to show up and even surprise me.) But as it is not set strictly in our world as it exists right now, since it is an urban fantasy, plot is something that must be reckoned with. I find myself dreaming up the dreaded Roman numeral outlines from high school English and I feel sick at the thought - hell, I didn't even outline my thesis. But I want to make sure there are no major gaps or confusions and I need to know where people are coming from and going to. I'm still going to wing it more than anything else because that's how I always seem to write, but I have to do some plot work. My goal is to be done with notes and plotting by my birthday (Nov 7th - shout out to Scorpions everywhere!). And I want the draft done by June of next year. I will be glad when I have moved past this huge planning stage though. It bores and terrifies me at the same time. It's uncomfortable, if that makes any sense. Weird.

Somehow I have managed to find myself reading all nonfiction. There is The White and the Gold, a book on the new aggression in girls for Booklist, Paul Collins's fabulous The Trouble with Tom about Revolutionary War icon, Thomas Paine (a hero for all writers everywhere), and the long overdue and out of print autobiography of Charles R. Knight from GT Labs. I'm also going to read Bone Sharps, Cowboys & Thunder Lizards from GT Labs for a combined Bookslut article in December but I'm doing the autobio first. How do you resist the story of the man who first drew dinosaurs? Did you ever think about that - how do we know what dinosaurs look like? Ray Bradbury wrote a brief intro to Knight's book and has been a fan of Knight's forever. And the graphic novel looks outstanding, I can't wait to start it.

So I'm deep in nonfiction and it's weird. I have several YA books for review sitting downstairs waiting for me but I want to finish the Booklist book first and get my review done there before confusing myself with another plot to follow. There are several that are quite tempting, and I wouldn't mind a fun diversion in the midst of all the dead Canadian Catholics, but I can't stretch myself too thin. I'm going to avoid this nonfiction piling in the future though. It's not boring - certainly not! But it is all a bit too heavy when combined together. The problem is that I backed myself into a corner with the To Be Read Pile and only the serious stuff is left. I think The White and the Gold will be my last book from the pile until the birthday/Christmas reading starts to show up. Then I can mix again.

I am so looking forward to The Dream Merchant. It sounds great and will be my treat when I've left Canada and the mean girls behind.

Tomorrow is a new recipe for sweet and sour chicken and a long overdue clean up of my desk. Pray for me......