Thanksgiving is coming

I enjoy books where people actually eat.

One of the things I’m giving thanks for right now is Chimes of Midnight, Seanan McGuire’s latest October Daye book. I bought it at Windycon, a few weeks ago, but I had a few library books to finish, so I only started reading it last night.

It’s a great book, of course. Seanan McGuire is one of my favorite authors, But one thing I really appreciate about her is the fact that, as busy as the heroes get, they manage to get something to eat. Burritos and sandwiches so far, but at least Toby Daye and her friends actually pause to have a meal from time to time.

           

It happens in books and movies and on TV all the time: The hero sits down to breakfast, or lunch, or dinner, takes one bite, and then the phone rings and he/she is off to deal with some emergency. Anytime someone (usually Mom, right?) makes a big breakfast with eggs and bacon and sausage and pancakes and even scones, the hero—whether it’s a cop or a high school kid—grabs a piece of toast, muttering “Sorry, no time for breakfast, gotta run,” and leaves.

Really, he or she should should get hit by a metal frying pan on the way out of the kitchen.           

I’m not saying I’ve never wasted any food at any time I my life. But I always make sure my fictional characters eat.

*****

In other news, I’m working on a new novel, which some of you have read a chapter of. It features a demon-fighting ex-cop named Leo Burden, who’s sort of based on the mafia vigilantes I used to read about in high school.

(Some days I think I’m doing nothing but recycling my ideas from my reading in the 1970s.)

I need to be writing something all the time. I’m waiting to hear about A Bar Called Revelations (my other urban fantasy novel) that I’ve got out at a publisher—which reminds me, I need to send them another e-mail reminding them about my query from June. But I don’t want to start a sequel to that book until I know something definite about this one. I’ve done that before, and I’ve decided it’s better to go on to something completely different while I’m waiting. Having a story to work on is just generally conducive to my mental health, so I’m happy to have something going.

I did a thing where I broke the full document of Revelations into two documents, because at 600+ pages, Microsoft Word apparently can’t handle a complete spellcheck, and I keep finding typos. Some of them are mistakes that Word wouldn’t find anyway (“hair red” for “red hair”), so I need to go through it again.

So my challenge for the rest of the year is balancing those two out, at least until I’ve done a semi-thorough edit on Revelations again.

My other challenge is keeping up with this blog more consistently. And posting a new Prodigal Prince chapter at least once a week, or more often. So look! Over there! It’s a new chapter! Enjoy!