Wahoo, it's the weekend, and Del Amitri's spinning on the CD player and I just got done revising the snot out of the first 100 pages of the Wannoshay novel!

I think Del Amitri is one of the great overlooked bands of the 90s (I don't even know if they're even together anymore). You probably know them by their one big hit, the bubble-gum-like "Roll With Me" from '95 or so.

Their album "Waking Hours" from 1989(!) is awesome -- how can you not love a band that writes verses like "All those times our lips were kissin' / Our tongues were tellin' lies"??? (From their song "Kiss This Thing Goodbye.")

Ah, Friday. We love it.

I'm feeling pumped because I'm starting to see the novel I'd WANTED to write as I do my revising to the Wannoshay novel. The final 150 pages or so I wrote late last year and early this year really took a hard left turn from where I'd wanted to go. As I was explaining to Elizabeth in my feeble fashion, the ending turned into a Hollywood-style special-effect extravaganza, when the first 2/3 of the novel is almost totally character-driven.

So... I'm chopping out all the FX except for the aliens themselves, and focusing on what the hell my human characters are going to do with over 30,000 aliens on their planet.

On a writing-related note, the secret project that I mentioned in conjunction with the September Novel-Writing Dare is one step closer to happening. People have been contacted, and the foundation is being put in place. It could happen. If it does, it'd be quite cool, and if you're thinking about writing a novel this fall, September may be the right time to start it. That's all I gotta say 'bout that...

Huge thanks to Andreas and Jim for bravely volunteering to read and comment on with those first 100 pages of my novel. The offer still stands if anyone else is interested -- I promise to reciprocate and read and comment on your work, up to 100 pages' worth. Honest.

Have a groovy weekend!