Nice People Talking

I got such a late start this morning by oversleeping and then lingering in bed for a long time after that. It's what my dad calls "good sleeping weather" -- cool and drizzly, and I was so comfortable and cozy in bed that I just didn't want to leave it.  stayed up late last night watching the last Letterman, but I slept even beyond what would have been reasonable for that.

I did do some thinking about the book, but I couldn't seem to move forward. I just kept replaying the last couple of scenes. I know this one's going to need a lot of work in revisions because I have a feeling that nothing much is happening. Normally, my first drafts are all plot, and then I have to go back and add the emotions and relationship stuff. On this book, I only want to write the emotions and relationship stuff, and I keep forgetting that I need some plot in there.

I think this has something to do with the fact that I'm very much in low-conflict mode right now. I don't want a lot of action and tension. My ideal fantasy novel at the moment would involve two nice people traveling toward some destination, having minor adventures along the way, like helping people or encountering various fantasy characters, but mostly just having long conversations and realizing that their feelings for each other were growing stronger. It would be a tough sell, but I think there might be times when most of us could use a low-conflict book in which we just spent time with people we liked without having to worry about their fates. Pure escapism that doesn't add stress to your life. Though I could imagine the Amazon reviews from people who were looking for something more exciting. It would get called boring. Maybe it should be something available by prescription and only given to people who were specifically looking for that sort of thing.

Meanwhile, one of the top-selling self-published books is called something like "Knocked Up by the Bad Boy." Another big category is romance novels about motorcycle clubs, and after seeing what happened in Waco last weekend, and seeing what those people actually looked like, I can't imagine that being any kind of romantic fantasy. I may be out of touch with readers.

In other news, the upcoming steampunk book got a nice School Library Journal review that called it a lot of fun. So that's nice.