Basil in the Mist

Heavy mist this morning. I think it's the first time Basil has seen it. He seems a tad confused. Even the sheep from next door are subdued. There's a clinging cold too that pierces my warm clothes. My back is still stiff this morning, though not sore... yet.

Fortunately the story I was working on yesterday has been saved by auto-document recovery. I'm unwisely using OpenOffice.org 3.2 Beta to write it with and I've found a bug. It seems if you've downloaded something while having OpenOffice.org 3.2 Beta open in the background, then later go back to it (OO 3.2B, that is) and attempt to save the document as a different document name from what you opened it as, it hangs. A bit unfortunate if you want to keep revisions filed under date related names. Time to take 3.2B out and got back to 3.1 for my important stuff, I should have known better.

I Just found out about a laptop tracking system that would have been very handy two years ago when my wife's laptop was stolen. Among other things it takes a photo using the built in webcam most laptops have nowadays of the first person to sit in front of it after it's reported stolen and emails it back to a designated account. I think I've found the subject of my next newsletter to my clients.

I feel as though I'm bashing my head against a brick wall with my belt wars story. Every new paragraph I try out seems contrived and or derivative. I've got my character out of her first crisis but can't seem to find a way to get her safely ensconced into the second, major crisis that's the whole focal point of the story. Maybe I'll do better when not distracted by my back. I have a fairly clear idea of what the second crisis is, just not how to land my heroine in it without it clanging around saying “cheat”. It reads like a cheap dime a dozen second rate hacks kind of story, not what I'm trying for here at all.

I'll shelve it for the moment and work a bit more on a more contemporary piece, set just a few years from now. Thing is, that's a book, and I had wanted to work on short stories for the time being. Oh well, writing is writing, as long as I'm achieving something everyday, I wont beat myself up about it not being what I'd planned to do. What's ready to flow will flow. Maybe just having a bit more of the book done will encourage a short story out from a nook or cranny in my mind.