I found MrJames online last night, around, oh, midnight or so. Around six or so (Three, Oregon time), we gave up the story plotting. We put about two thirds of the book together in one marathon brain-storming session. We had run into a slight issue — “Well, if all this is going on, why wouldn’t the main character just pack her shit and go? Why’s she staying?” Me: “Um.” MrJames: “Um.” Commence to brain storming.
     There comes a point in the brain storming session, for those of you who’ve never done one, where the participants suddenly stop, sit back, and go, “Holy crap. I think we’ve got it.” We hit that point last night — “Hey, I think that works.” — “Yeah. I think it does.” Where you just sit back in mild amazement and go, wow, I didn’t know that was in my head. It’s particularly satisfying when you’ve been worrying a real stumper of a problem, and you’ve hit that point where you’re ready to wad things up, pitch them over your shoulder, and go back to the drawing board, because what you’ve got just won’t work, and you’re frustrated and annoyed, because you’ve put all that effort and time in, and . . . *pop!* Suddenly you’ve got it.
     You get about one whole minute of feeling like the most brilliant person on the planet. And then you think of another problem. Heh. Or, alternatively, and this is actually a favorite of mine too, you gnaw and worry a story problem until you’re near frothing mad with annoyance, and you take it into the brain storming session, and your partner goes, “Oh, that’s easy. We’ll just do blah.” And then you get a moment of feeling like the dumbest person on the planet for not thinking of that, while simultaneously feeling extremely grateful to have the people you’re working with, because they’re so damn smart.
     Meanwhile, out in the real world, things might be looking up. Check this news out: From the Primordial Blog, I hear that anti-choice fundies are finally starting to evolve a rudimentary form of common sense. It seems the fundies may have figured out that they’re just not going to be able to get abortion outlawed, and so they’re trying a different tactic — one I can actually get behind. They want to get laws passed that provide health care, child care, and money for education to pregnant women, to get them to keep their babies. In short, it’s occurred to the fundies that if you eliminate the problems that cause abortion to become a viable option, you might get women to make a different choice! Holy crap! D’ya think?!
     Of course, with every silver lining comes a dark cloud, so, also from the Primordial Blog, we learn that Nepal is allowing same sex marriages. From here: “Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual … are natural persons irrespective of their masculine and feminine gender, and they have the right to exercise their rights and live an independent life in society.”
     I will not give up hope. We’ll get there eventually. Like Winston Churchill once said, “You can always depend upon America to do the right thing. Usually after they’ve tried everything else.”
     In other news, I’m reading The Watchmen, and it rocks. I wanted to see the movie before. Now I really want to see it!