First and
foremost, please pray that, as the Conclave begins, the Holy Spirit is heard in
the deliberations of the Cardinals. I'm
not overly worried or concerned about this election; for some reason I'm
confident the selection will be the right one for the Church.
+ + +
Making the
first halting, stumbling, fumbling progress on the mystery novel. I have to learn to work in a new way, one very
different from the way accounting work proceeds. There is no easily defined, quantifiable end
result just waiting for me to get there, no specific spreadsheet to construct
with specific information desired, no specific financial report to be
produced. And the timeframe is quite
different, we're not talking projects completed in a day or a few days, we're
talking maybe months, maybe even a year.
There is a desired end result, the production of a finished novel, but
what that novel will look like, or when it's done, I don't know yet. I expect one or two false starts and also to
end up heading down a few blind alleys.
My first
steps are on the overall concept of the book and, something I enjoy greatly,
starting to develop some idea of the characters, main and otherwise. I hope they turn out memorably.
I also
learned this morning that I'm going to work in some funny bits; it won't be
deadly serious (pardon the pun). The
characters told me that. No, really!
+ + +
One surprise
this morning is the weather; it was supposed to be nice this week, a little
cool today, but no precip forecast until maybe the weekend or early next
week. It's more than just cool today,
it's kind of cold and it has snowed and rained some, enough that the roof of my
car parked out front was close to white, as was the back deck. I like surprises.
+ + +
As you might
expect, I'm spending some regular time each day reading mysteries, to get an
idea of what's expected in the genre.
It's fine with me because I enjoy reading them anyway. But now, I'm reading more analytically than I
used to, not just for enjoyment, but to try to see how they’re put together. I find that interesting and informative. The book I'm reading now is A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton, her first
in a series. I'm trying not to let all
this activity take away from the book I finally settled on for Lenten reading, Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI,
a wonderful book.
+ + +
Just learned
that black smoke was seen outside the Sistine, so I guess we'll have to wait
until tomorrow or the next day to see what happens.
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