I spend a lot of time procrastinating, trying to convince myself that what I'm doing will pay off in the end, that it's all part of the process. But it's always just procrastinating.

Or is it just Newton's 10 percent inspiration, 90 percent perspiration?

Ouellet, religion, vatican.

The Golden Compass.

It's an Order of Men.

Organization. Once the fulcrum of power, but still has a role to play.

The bar.

The future of the novel:

The novel will be interactive. There will be sidebars, extrapolations, definitions, comments, lists of references, pictures, web addresses.

And the like.

You can choose to read a tidbit of a character's past -- or not.

The page will look like a web page.

Pulling excerpts from my novel requires rum.

* * *

My thievery at least wasn't premeditated. I was trying to get somewhere, hopping through backyards, came across a bike.

I got on it, and got home faster. That's all.

I have that bike still. Or most of it: frame, handlebars, wheels, pedals.

The other parts come from other bikes.