Don't know much about ice hockey

But Eric's begun using that as a metaphor for what he's doing in this book. Which means I need to learn more about the sport...so I guess it's good I'm in Buffalo, where they really like their hockey. Seems the Sabres are as big a deal as the Cowboys are in Dallas, especially since they're about to be in the playoffs for the Stanley Cup. So I just find a bar that pulls Guinness in the right way and sit and watch some games and try to not sound like a fool in this book.

It's irritating when my characters do things like this to me. I've never been a big follower of sports, so when Bobby chose to be a relief pitcher in BC 1&2, I had to learn enough about the sport to let his voice sound real. It doesn't take a huge amount of research to get to where you start picking up the chit-chat and lingo, because all you really need to do is keep from hitting a wrong note in a reference the character makes. And I got smacked down once for doing that in a script, when I didn't catch that hockey is played in three periods instead of four.

Of course, that's half the reason I'm nervous about getting into "A Place Of Safety." I have to make it sound like Brendan grew up in Derry in the 50's, 60's and 70's in not just his speech but his manners and attitudes and his own view of the opportunities offered a Catholic boy in a city run by rabid anti-Papists. When I think of how nuts I went working over Bobby's part of the story to keep him from carrying anything but a baseball guy's view of life, I know I'll be ten times worse with Brendan...maybe to the point of madness. We'll see how it goes.

Today was raised the possibility of me going to London to handle the Olympia Book Fair in the first week of June. Just the vague query of, "How much would airfare be for me to fly out of Toronto?" $1000+, so far. Of course I'm up for it. I love London, actually feel at home there and would move in a heartbeat if given the opportunity.