A novel-thinking autopilot swim

The pool was quiet today. There were only a couple other people in it when I joined. My thinking was to have a relaxing swim, to stretch out and cruise along till it started getting sloppy.

It ended up being 2K in just over 39 minutes. This is a bit slow but speed wasn't the point. I wanted to take it easy on my knees, so no race speed flip turns. I'm normally down around 37 minutes for 2K if I work at it, but 79 turns, each a second or so longer than it should take, is most of the difference. The last 300 m I had to think about the swim a bit, and stay focussed on it.

I was thinking about my book universe in the light of what I learned over the weekend. I've got a new scene in my head that I thought would make a good intro for a new book. But something someone said to me makes me wonder if it would be a good lead in to finding a villain. I played with that a bit.

The first one also got some thought, wondering about tuning it up as well. I almost like how it ends, a bit more work is needed. But the beginning is still not as strong as I'd like. Since that book is the opening to the whole book universe, I want to get it right. Oh well, it keeps me out of mischief and off the streets at night.

It's really nice to be able to hold different scenes in my head and play with setting and dialogue. Maybe there's too much dialogue. I try to fit different things together and see how that works. One of the things that might make these more difficult to sell is that I'm not intending them to be taut thrillers with sparse prose and action from end to end. No, these are more gentle, cerebral novels. I'm pretty sure there is an audience, I'll just have to find it once I'm done writing.

In the meantime my arms were going round and around, my body sliding through the water, nice and relaxed. That left me nice and relaxed for a dental appointment where they are taking an impression for a crown. We chatted about wine during, though it was hard for me to hold up my end of the conversation.

In cat news, they are beginning to relent, and start to nibble the new wet food.

We are having a buddy come visit this weekend and I'm so excited! This will be fun.