Yesterday, I did 1,552 words on Chapter Five of The Red Tree. At this point, the manuscript is 51,435 words long, or 206 pages. And, as usual, I have no idea how this novel will be received. I do not know how my agent will react, or my editor, and especially not readers. This is probably not the novel with which I will win over Middle America. I expect the Wal-Mart crowd will not gobble this one up. And Oprah will not shower accolades upon it. Ah, but there is sex, and how often has that ever happened in my novels? Actual sex. It's all between two woman, and one of them is in her forties, but still. It is sex. The trick is allowing sex scenes to play out in such a way that the whole novel does not come to a grinding halt because of THE SEX SCENE. Well, that's one of the tricks.

Somehow, I slept seven hours last night, and feel a bit better today.

Spooky has begun a new round of eBay auctions. Please have a look.

Let's see. How about a news item? Well, I'm learning just exactly what a total religious whack-job this Palin woman is, and that's even scarier than Hurricane Ike. Really, people, McCain is 71 years old. Life expectancy for men in America is only 75.4 years, so, you know, there is a better than good chance that the war-mongering old fart could kick the bucket and leave crazy little Miss Alaska the True Believer in charge. Well, leave her camp of extra-loony evangelical Xtians in charge. But whatever.

There's a reason I try to avoid the news.

Anyway...yesterday, after the writing, Spooky and I went down to Point Judith, because we knew that, after Hanna's passage, the surf would be spectular. And spectacular it was. So much so, it was too much for any actual surfers. We climbed the remains of Fort Greene (aka, the Rabbit's Restroom), then picked our way along the cobblestone beach below the hill (to 41°21'42.89"N, 71°29'6.05"W). The tide was out, and there were dead horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus) everywhere, dozens of them. The waves were enormous, and the air was filled with salty mist from the breakers. As the first quarter moon rose over the sea in the south, we turned west again and walked back to the jetty at Harbor of Refuge. Far out, the waves were completely overtopping the jetty, sending up great walls of white water. We ventured a couple of hundred yards out (approximately 41°21'38.78"N, 71°29'18.93"W) and I stood on the ancient granite blocks, getting wet, the wind roaring around me, entirely amazed. Spooky took a lot of photos, and I'll post a few this evening. We stayed until sunset, then had dinner at Iggy's before heading back to Providence.

Later, there was some work on the Howards End sim, and we read more of "Cabal." And that was yesterday. Oh, I do have this screencap from the Howard Ends skybox, grumpy Nareth getting a "time out" with only Sulk Bunny and Captain Spaulding for company.