If you’ve been following these missives, you know my writing has felt anemic lately. It’s been very close to needing a visit to the ICU and life support. It’s on oxygen, but it’s hanging on.

As I’ve been reading Stuart MacBride’s Cold Granite, something’s been happening. An understanding of how I might apply the things I’ve read about revision to Twilight began to materialize in my mind. I jotted notes about how I might be able to make Threads & Ties come back to life. Yes. Yes. I knew I needed to bring emotion into the story, but I didn’t have a clue how. Now I have some ideas. Nothing seems to tie directly to Stuart’s story, but something in reading this book has triggered a sense that my writing may just be able to breathe without life support efforts soon. I feel it regaining some strength.

A quick interim note on Cold Granite…this book masterfully weaves so many subplots that it feels real. I’m so busy trying to match clues to sub-plots and looking for tie-ins, that it keeps me engaged. I didn’t get home from work until 9:30 pm last night, hubby and I talked for about half an hour, and I had to get up at 3:30 this morning to return to work. Between then, I began reading to calm me for sleep, but I struggled to find a place to put the book down (not very hard–I was happy to keep reading, but that nagging voice in my head saying, “You have to get up in five hours”; “You have to get up in three and a half hours” : “You have to…” really gets in the way). Finally, after midnight, I found a spot where I felt I could wait. I knew I couldn’t start into the story about Roadkill’s beating. (That doesn’t mean I’m not anxious to get back to it. I’ll probably be awake much too late again tonight.)

I’m enjoying Cold Granite, but even better, something has triggered something essential in my creative process while reading it, and I’m thrilled at that.