I can't believe it's been so long since I wrote an entry here. Time certainly does fly when you're beating your head against a desk.

Mary and I recently got the go-ahead and publication schedule for our eighth Byzantine mystery. We're in the outlining stage. For me, that means exhilarating flashes of what I like to believe is inspiration (but might just be more neurons popping off like worn out light bulbs) and hours of head banging.

Don't laugh. I've owned television sets whose pictures would roll until I pounded the top of the cabinet. You might be too old to remember television cabinets. They're kind of like wooden skulls for a TV brain, only square. And, of course whereas we have two small eyes to see things, your typical TV has one big eye which shows things. But, anyway, the point is...um...

[Pounds head]

Ah, right...hitting complicated gadgets sometimes works.

Now I need a couple ibuprofen. Where did they get to?

[Pounds head]

Now I remember. Maybe I could use three.