Susan, just write. Really. It's what we do.

Cause we're evil. What? You're surprised? My mother ran into an old friend from, like my preschool years. Told her all about my would-be book. My first thought was "Damn. I guess I have to write the fucker now." But I have to anyway. I promised.(Even though the guy I promised said his next resort would be begging and that could be pretty exciting, keeping a promise is like not crossing a picket line. One of those things I was born to do.)

But you don't really need the castle, do you?

Castle is optional. I'll settle for owning rather than renting, and four bedrooms rather than two. Which in many neighborhoods around here carries a price tag that seems more appropriate to a castle.

And I did manage to make myself write my pages. I'm now working on my more mundane writing, digging up interesteing factoids on gestational hypertension for a query I'm going to try out on some of the parenting magazines.

I understand. But I'm not feeling all that great about owning right this minute, after what we spent on the AC. The guy cut us a deal and I still wanted to say "Is that in pesos?" Cause we have a cash flow problem. We don't have any. That's the problem.

I'm not so much looking forward to owning as feeling like it's an important next step, not least because in another year or so Annabel will need her own room, so ideally we'd want a 3-bed with the third bedroom an office/guest room. And anything bigger than a 2-bed is rare in rental form.

This is true. And it's nice, sometimes.

word from people who attended the national Romance Writers of America convention last week is that the market isn't looking good for historical romance, especially works that are more serious in tone. While I know that the market won't die altogether, it's still depressing news.

Fuck markets. Spend your time worrying about that crap, and you'll never write anything.

Tell the story you want to tell.

Wow, Victor, you're foamy when you're brilliant. I've had a very bloody morning...carnage, near-nudity, and almost, not quite, heroism at fairly impossible odds. Just another day at the office.

OK, can I get an opinion? Specifically from those of you who have read Matty Groves recently?

I want - in fact I think I need - to add a short scene. There's a period in mid-book, pointed out by Ginger, where there's simply too long a run of unbroken research-expository stuff. It needs an action break.

What I want to do is to write a short scene in which I incorporate Lord Callowen's terrifying pet, the peregrine falcon called Gaheris (yes, the horse is called Lothian, and yes, there's a bit of theme, and yes, I suspect he thinks he was once King Arthur or Mordred or something). A nice scary scene, at night, at the point in the book after the big ghostly event in the ballroom, after everyone has left Callowen House and is/are staying at the Rectory at St. Giles to get the hell away from the evil bad crazy ghost. I want to use something involving the falcon because I think that, having the bird in the story, I really ought to use him, you know?

Question: since I've already done a two scenes in which the POV of characters who are not among my main four (that is, not Ringan, Penny, Jane or Albert Wychsale) are explored, can anyone think of a reason why I shouldn't do a scene using Lord Callowen's POV?