Time for a break

I'm now at the point where I don't know if "Desert Land" is working as a story, so I printed up a copy and put it in a binder and set it aside and will not look at it again till I'm back from Paris. I needs the space to regain my perspective. I also need to finish my taxes and this has been a major distraction.

I'm taking an Irish book to read on the plane to and from New York. It's called "Mother Ireland" and is a curiously uninvolving meditation on a woman's life in that country and how she feels about it. There's a lot of narcissism floating around in it, like her viewpoint is the only viewpoint one should have...but it does offer me clues as to the basic nature of the society and they ain't pretty. Which is good.

I'm also taking this break from DL to work on BC3. It's back to offering me suggestions on how to string the bits I do have written together.

I won't be using much of what little French I know in Paris. My contact there for the book fair gently let me know my choices of words can be confusing. Meaning it's better if I just keep to the polite and hold off on trying any true conversations. Oh, well. I have a long way to go before I'm good at any language, even English.