Back on the Fiction Horse

After nearly a month of no writing -- okay, drafts of two poems -- I finally got back to work on the sequel to Conquering Venus yesterday. I had written myself into a corner and didn't know exactly what to do next. Luckily, BFF Joy B. from Austin walked me through some ideas and I created a mini-outline for the book's first half to get me back on track. I got five solid hours of writing in and feel pretty good about it. Everyone who's read the sample chapters either loves or loathes the character of Diane, and she's an even bigger player in the sequel with some really juicy scenes and un-p.c. dialogue. The final round of proofing Conquering Venus is coming soon, so I'm trying to get in as much writing on the new novel, before I turn back to the first.

Was very sad to hear about the suicide of Sylvia Plath's son, Nicholas Hughes. So much tragedy in one family is heartbreaking. Another oddly compelling death was that of UK reality star Jade Goody, who gained infamy for racist comments about her housemate, Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, on the TV show Celebrity Big Brother. Goody apologized for her comments and turned her life around, then discovered she had advanced cervical cancer. In her final weeks, she openly sold her story to any tabloid willing to buy to raise money for her two young sons and campaigned for women to get checked for the cancer. Actor/comedian Stephen Fry called her "a kind of Princess Di from the wrong side of the tracks."