Writing, out and about

I'm at Panera and on my new macbook! This is so much fun. Both kids are in daycare, which was just too easy. I mean, dropping E off at preschool isn't difficult, but I'd never dropped H off before. He seemed happy enough and the ladies were assuring. They didn't complain about the breast milk bottles (which I'd heard people say daycare providers do sometimes) and they were just happy they got a kid whose name they could pronounce. (What other names do they get?? I'm sure there aren't a lot of Aleksandrs around. Aren't all the boys named Jack?) I'm going back in exactly three hours to pick him up, but then I'm leaving E there and having hubby pick her up when he gets off work. (It's so she doesn't miss nap time there.)

So. Now I am here, ready to work. I best get off. Oh, here's a pic of me, right now:

Revisions and a Bit o' Joyce

I spent the first half of the day at Panera, sipping tea and outlining the novel I'm revising. Curiously, I had never written down what happens in each chapter. I mean, I'd done that before all of the writing, but things changed, and seeing it all out in the open after writing the novel was, well, interesting. I was able to sketch out what needs to be done and then write some of the new stuff into the story.

Yet there is much more to be done. And it will be hard. (But oh so worth it.)

When my brain couldn't dump any more into my Dana, I headed over to the bookstore and checked out their 70% Off stack. As usual, it was filled with tour guides to places I don't need to read up on just yet (like Stockholm, although I'd love to go), various religious books, and random novels I'd never heard of. But there was a gem: yes I said yes I will Yes: A Celebration of James Joyce, Ulysses, and 100 Years of Bloomsday. I snatched that up pretty quick. Maybe, just maybe, it'll help me finish (and understand) Ulysses. I've read A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Dubliners, and Chamber Music, but the "best book of the 20th Century" has continued to elude me.


I picked this photo because it was taken in 1904, the same year Bloomsday occurred. Photo source: National Archives of Ireland.

Why tackle the book? He tells me to, that's why.

"The only demand I can make of my reader is that he should devote his whole life to reading my works." --James Joyce

Also, I think I'm in love with him.