mmerriam | A Very Full Saturday (Reply)

I pulled my other WiP novel out yesterday and looked at it again. Though it makes me nervous to say it, I feel like Dark Water Blues is some of my best work. I'm looking forward to working on it again once I've finished Rija's Tale.

I received my contributor's copies and a check from Fictitious Force yesterday. A quick glance showed that I am sharing a ToC with

truepenny, and for the second time

aliettedb.

Yesterday

careswen took me out to the Mill City Museum for my belated birthday gift, where we, among other things, took a walking tour of the Washburn "A" Mill , including going down in the bowels of the ruined mill to places most visitors never get to see. It was damned interesting, and yes, I do plan on using some of this in fiction, eventually.

Gaming was afterward, and while it wasn't a total disaster, I'm starting to wonder if I'm losing my touch as a DM. I have to wonder if it is because my storytelling focus had shift away from gaming to writing. Or maybe I'm just getting old and can't react as quickly to my character's decisions.

One the way home

careswen and I got behind a driver who was obviously impaired, weaving and swerving between lanes, speeding up and slowing down erratically, that sort of thing. We called the State Patrol and followed the guy. Over the next thirty minutes we tailed this driver or sat watching him as he sat park on city streets, all the while talking to police on the phone. Every time he got off the highway, the State Patrol switched me to the local city police, but then the guy would get back on the highway.

We followed him around for Thirty Freakin' Minutes as he swerved into other lanes and did other stupid shite, endangering people's lives, with me on the phone giving the police dispatcher a play-by-play of where we were. We followed him until he short down a dark residential street and then got behind us, at which point we decided it wasn't safe and broke off. Did I mention we did this for Thirty Freakin' Minutes? Guess how many cops we saw. Go on, guess.

Right, not a one, even though we were feeding dispatch exact information.

I was supposed to go to the monthly Twin Cities Speculative Fiction Writers Network meeting today, but I woke up sick to my stomach and dizzy, like I'd gone on a terrible bender last night and was reaping the rewards, except I didn't have anything alcoholic to drink yesterday.

I'm feeling a little better this afternoon, so I'm going to get some lunch now, fold some laundry, and work a bit on Rija's Tale.