Need to finish Beast Dines Out...

I think I finally figured out the ending for The Beast Dines Out and will get it completed over the weekend. I feel like I'm being circled by a couple of stories to focus on, like sharks circling their latest meal, and want to clear my plate to settle them in.

One is Dair's Window, which will take a lot of work to get into decent shape. What I have written is just meaningless nonsense wrapped in a sort of romance between a man and the memory of his dead lover.

The other is Arrested, which is hinting at how to open it and get the whole story started. Something along the lines of...

Simon Halliwell's arrest was very plain and simple. Ludicrously so. On Monday about midnight, he was accused of approaching an off-duty police officer and asking him to have sex with him. When he was refused, he then exposed himself to the officer, fully erect, so was taken into custody. Due to it happening within six-hundred feet of a school, he was booked and arraigned, the next morning, where he entered a plea of Not guilty.

Kind of dry and perfunctory. Not sure how I feel about it. But no matter what I think of Dair's Window, it continues to open with Adam waking Dair with a little song, and dying later that day. That is not going to change. It's the rest of the story that needs a huge rewrite.

Of course, Arrested needs to be written from the outline I did. A far more detailed outline than I've ever done.

Mixed in is Darian's Point, which starts with the end of the war between the Ui Briuin clan and harpies, where the treaty is made permanent, in blood, then jumps back five years earlier, when everything started.

I'm hoping I'll choose the right one to finish.

Vera...

It's season 14 of Vera, on Britbox, and after this one Brenda Blethyn is retiring. She plays Vera and it's not a drawing room style drama or murder mystery. She's all over Northumberland and Newcastle-upon-Tyne in these, driving an ancient Land Rover Defender stick over street and turf.

But she's done, and I don't blame her. 56 episodes, each an hour and a half. Each a small movie. All within 14 years. Jesus, I'd be worn out.

What makes it sad is this is one of the more polished BBC murder mysteries. Some of the writing is simple and the revelations are simplistic, but they feel right, overall. No padding done. Nothing cozy about them. They seem to stick closer to real police procedure than other shows.

Don't get me wrong--I like Midsomer Murders and Agatha Raisin and the Miss Marple mysteries, when I'm looking for something to have my tea with instead of a Guinness. And the David Suchet Poirot mysteries are fun. Plus it helps make the movies better having David Leon back; he and Brenda Blethyn play well off each other.

But I'm sad that these will be the last. Maybe David will take over the franchise. No telling. Still, the next one's out next Thursday...and I'll be en route home from Seattle. Hopefully. Weather is not promising.

After that one, I may rewatch them all, start to finish.

2025...

It's here. Whether we like it or not. And I'm doing all I can to prepare for the coming destruction. Lowered my monthly costs as much as I can. Signed back up with Netflix and Britbox for things to watch. I have enough DVDs to last the rest of my life, so that is a better investment. And I'm taking a break from writing to just read.

I may get back to Madame Bovary. I don't like reading modern fiction. Usually. I question why they choose the words and sentence structure they did. Which is really ridiculous of me. But I can't help it. However, with the classics, I accept their writing with minimal argument.

Everyone says you have to read in order to write. I covered for a lot of that by focusing on non-fiction and materials related to the Troubles in N Ireland. Specifically between 1966 and 1981.

Just don't anyone think I'm an expert on the situation. My knowledge is very limited, and shown mainly from Brendan's perspective, throughout. He's not in on IRA meetings. He goes to demonstrations because his friends are going. He helps with the Battle for Bogside out of anger and everybody else is doing it.

Plus his ways are not solidly Irish Catholic, except when it's in his face. Because he loves a Protestant girl and is clear-eyed enough to see both sides of the conflict are using it to enrich themselves.

But it's done and out there...and I'm going through a bit of withdrawal. So I'm not going to do any writing till I know which way I'm going.

I mean, I have a half-dozen books I could write, already, yet I came up with two new ones to focus on. Why? I could get back to work on my Darian's Point trilogy, which is really more like 3 novellas in a novel. I could figure out Dair's Window. I could commit to finishing Blood Angel, which I have plotted out almost completely. Instead...I wander through the fields of my mind.

I need a break from my brain.