some witty reference to albinos and valets

i took a break from writing the novel today, having finished the second draft yesterday. but not from writing per se, not entirely. waking up at 3am and unable to get back to sleep, i reworked the end of a story i'd written a month or two before i even began thinking of writing a novel. this had the effect of revealing to me just how uneven a skill with words i've developed. and, more damaging, how unsuited i am to writing a novel. not that i write good short stories all the time, or even most of the time, but that with a novel the caprice of my writing hand has more room, more space to get the better of me, which, more often than not--at least as evidenced by my first arguably successful attempt at it (i've got two 'complete' drafts, after all, whatever their faults)--it does.

currently reading Caitlin Kiernan's Alabaster. Jeff Smith's Bone had given me back a taste for straight-up fantasy i haven't had in a while, and Kiernan's delightfully whimsical creepiness suits me just fine at the moment. i've also been reading Douglas Hofstadter's Godel, Escher, Bach, James Salter's Light Years, and P.G. Wodehouse's Carry On, Jeeves, but Alabaster has the bonus of being a relatively light and handy hardback that had been pre-wrapped in what i assume to be acid-free plastic by Page One, making it rather easier to read than even the smaller paperbacks (i have disgustingly sweaty palms, which makes handling paperbacks a bit unwieldy, owing to the bandana i have to use for 'protection'--i once wiped out an entire eighth of a page of text thanks to the awful combination of crappy printer's ink and sweat--before i could read it*)...i suppose that should give you an idea of where i'm at when it comes to reading right now.

i should like to finish Alabaster before i come home. and, come to think of it, Carry On, Jeeves. i think Mabel might get a kick out of them. (she, for anyone who'd like to know, is currently about a quarter of the way through her second or third reading of The Sandman.)

and on that note--slow reader that i am, i've got my work cut out for me--i'm off to bed with that crazy albino chick.

*this may or may not have happened. but it could happen, couldn't it?