Giving Up Early

The Read (or Watch?):  Tried to watch more episodes of Witchblade last night.  My son warned me it sort of fizzled in the middle, but I found I couldn't make myself listen to the bombastic opening again -- and the DVD won't let me fast-forward.  Besides, they jumped into an alternative reality where they seem to be repeating the previous episodes with different endings.  Didn't stay around to be sure.  --  Jane Haddam's Living Witness was calling.  Read a chapter of that and went to bed early (ie: before 11:30 PM).

The structure of Living Witness follows the same pattern as Cheating at Solitaire- prologue, part 1, part 2, part 3, epilogue, .  I can't remember how long she's been doing this, and I'd endanger my life if I tried to find her previous books on my bookshelves to find out.  (Have I mentioned I gotta weed the shelves as well as the boxes under the bed?)  

The conflict this time is between the Darwinists and evangelical religionists.  --  One of my favorite rants concerns the differences between the acceptance of faith and fact.  (In case you're wondering:  I think they're two different levels of experience.)  Of course, at least a couple people will get murdered, but I haven't gotten there yet.  For some reason, Gregor Demarkian has been called into the case before the murders begin.

Are you thinking that Haddam writes mysteries not fantasy.  I'd disagree.  Her Cavanaugh Street is as good as fantasy gets with a permanent cast of interesting characters.  With the preparations for Gregor's marriage to Bennis looming on the horizon, I'm prepared to enjoy all sorts of series regular in-jokes along the way.

Progress?:  Emma is scarfing up my time ... except for this morning when I've been fiddling my life away online.  Seems I decided to change my italics for underlining.  Of course, nothing is ever that simple.  Am finding all sorts of "was" constructions, "as"es, and adverbs.  Not many, but enough to slow me down.

Worse.  I'm finding superfluous phrases like "on the table" or "for them" when its obvious from the previous text.  Result?  Feeling hopeless ... if I was that kind of person.

Trivia:  We're getting dustings of snow, but not enough cold to kill the bugs.  At least it's melting on the street.

Promotion:  The Northern Colorado Writers blog The Writing Bug is doing some sort of blog fest.  The members write on a number of different subjects you might enjoy.  Check:  http://tinyurl.com/yc74gmn