Derry, Northern Ireland

Derry, Northern Ireland
A book I'm working on is set in this town.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Penne Arrabiatta

Just had a dish of this that at a place in New Haven called Brazzi's, and it was damn near perfection. Add a Peroni...and now I'm feeling full and sleepy. Normally when I hit an Italian restaurant, I wind up leaving a lot on the plate, it's so filling...and I usually get satiated with the taste after a certain point. This time, I cleaned it up. I may pay for it later, but right now? Best meal I've had in months.

It is a LONG drive from Washington DC to New Haven...and yet, it only took me 6 hours. I was lucky with the traffic, not getting caught in any slow-downs till I hit the Connecticut state line. But what was nice about that slow-down was I could scribble readable notes about Jake & Tone...and also, this guy in a Toyota SUV to my right was seriously air-drumming along with some tune I couldn't hear. He had thick curls and tatts on his lean arms and scruff around his chin and looked so much like what you think a rock star would look like, I figured he was really an investment banker.

Anyway...making my notes set another bitch-fest into motion between Jake and Brendan. This new story is flowing along and deepening without much trouble, thanks to Jake's coolness, and Brendan wants to know why I'm paying attention to the guy when he didn't even exist 5 years ago, whereas I've been dealing with Brendan in one form or another for well over a decade. And Jake's casual response was, "I know what I want."

That set Brendan off an a tirade about how he knows what he wants, too, but that I wouldn't pay attention except when it suited me and I kept shifting to other projects to avoid dealing with it, to which Jake responded, "He couldn't do what you wanted when you wanted it. He didn't have the ability."

Well...that hurt my feelings and got me into the foray, and I huffed and puffed...and Jake didn't budge. "You're getting there, but you ain't there yet, and mine's an easier story. No sociology to learn. No culture to be afraid of. And you read hundreds of mysteries when you were in high school and college and now they've filtered through you enough to where they've become part of your thought process. You'll get Brendan's story told once you're  capable of telling it."

Y'know, I used to think this was just me arguing with myself...but lately I've begun to wonder. Some of my characters become so real to me...no, all of them do...it's like they're standing right behind me whispering the story into my ear. And that's why I can write with some form of clarity. Not much, but some...because they see the path I need to take whereas I don't always.

Maybe I should have myself tested for insanity.

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