Ah, yes, the thrill of victory. Thanks to young master Drew's record sleep last night (he made it all night, from about 10 p.m. to 4:30 a.m.!), I'd gotten enough rest to roll out of bed and get some revisin' done on the baseball novel. I almost have chapter one nailed down.

I'm getting pretty excited about this book again. I'm getting the voice of my narrator down more and more, and the opening scene has really come together nicely. I've updated the All Nations Team page with the new opening text, and it flows much, much better. I left the old version up there, just for the sake of comparison.

You know, that's what I like about working on novels -- the slow chipping-away at a big project, making huge leaps of progress that outweigh the times of frustration, getting a handle on where the story's going. And wanting to come back to it, soon. It's a different feeling than the rush of short stories, and novels are ultimately more satisfying, I think.

What also enhances this project for me is that I'm starting to get into the research phase. I picked up two books at the library on Sunday, and I flipped through a pretty good Time-Life book about the era from 1910-1920. Lots of great photos, though the research itself felt a bit superficial. I also got a good book about World War I that I think is going to add a whole 'nother layer to the book. And I'm looking forward to doing more research -- this era was sort of forgotten, I think, and a lot of sweeping changes occurred during this time, including womens' rights, labor strife, the Progressive movement, and a pitiful downward spiral in race relations.

As luck would have it, PBS is running a wonderful Ken Burns documentary on the boxer Jack Johnson, who has a cameo in my baseball novel. It's called Unforgivable Blackness, and it's fantastic. Elizabeth and I watched the first hour of it last night, and I'm taping the whole works (the last 2 hours run tonight). I like the synchronicity of this show coming out while I'm working on this book. A good sign, I think.

Oh, and finally, I'm going to be a guest at the local Trinoc-con again this year. I skipped the past 2 years due to some disorganization in the con scheduling as well as in my own life, but now that Dan's back in charge of things, I think it'll be a fun time again. I had to pass on the Balticon invite, due to finances and time. At least at Trinoc-con I can sleep in my own bed and see my wife and son at the end of the day! Later.