First Names Last Times

I did a fair amount of rewriting yesterday, enough so I'm not in a 2 hour/2 page panic mode anymore. I zipped through about 30 pages, polishing each one until it sparkled.

Naturally, in celebration, I won't work today. Instead I'll do that shopping and movie thing I keep talking about. Today is a spectacularly gorgeous day, so it makes sense to spend it inside a mall.

One thing that had to get changed yesterday was a minor character's name. Jon has four friends he eats lunch with every day- Luke, Tyler, Ryan and Sean. On a scale of 1-10, with Jon being a 10 as most important character, Luke is a 6 and Tyler a 5 1/2 and Ryan a 4 and Sean a 2.

But the real concern was Jon, Luke, Tyler, Ryan and Sean basically all have the same name. No more than 5 letters, no more than 2 syllables, nothing distinctive or unusual about them.

I knew the character whose name I would dump would be Sean. In fact, his name was so nondescript, I had trouble remembering what it was.

So I zipped over to my favorite place in Internetland, Popular Baby Names and looked for a name to give poor Sean. Zachary worked perfectly. It's 7 letters and 3 syllables and that Z is so distinctive. He's still a minor character, but now he's a memorable minor character.

Monday, I'm giving a talk to The Children's Librarians of Orange, Ulster and Sullivan Counties. I live in Orange County and I used to have a summer home in Sullivan County and I have been known to drop in on Ulster County, so this is very much a local event for me.

But what it also is is my last scheduled speaking engagement. I'm not saying there won't be more (I'm always open to invitations to Hawaii and Paris), but if there aren't, this is it.

It occurred to me, while exercycling this morning, that I should figure out what to talk about when I give my talk. My mind has been pretty much focused on The Shade Of The Moon and where the heck is my German royalty check, but I owed it to myself and the librarians to have something coherent to say.

So I came up with an idea for a new book, complete with title (never before used, at least as best I can tell from Amazon). The level of lunacy involved in writing a new book,when I feel like all I've been doing is writing and complaining and fantasizing about retirement is, on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being sane and 10 being what the heck am I thinking about, a 12, maybe higher.

But it's such a nifty idea. And it would be short and relatively easy to write. And I can make the librarians help me with the plot.

I love making other people work. Of course I'm not that crazy about working myself, but I'll deal with that when the time comes.

And now the time has come for me to zip over to the mall and shop for something to wear on Monday!