Vacation Diary

July 10th part 2. Sat on the beach from 11 till 3. Finished The Name of the Wind, and can't believe I have to wait till April of '09 for the second book in the trilogy. Started The Spa by Fay Weldon, which is like a modern Decameron -- clever lady. Made notes for noir story/novel based on old non-noir movie I saw on TCM a couple of nights ago. (One of these days . . .) Remembered the story I dreamed up about how Shakespeare got the 1,000 pounds he needed to become one of the sharers in the Chamberlain's Men, and wrote down the bare outline of it. (One of these days . . .) Tinkered with the idea of making a novel out of both the play I just finished and all the scenes I didn't put into the play. Put idea aside as something to do for about an hour a day over the next month while I work on a romantic comedy. (My God--two plays with happy endings.) Finally read last week's New York Times Magazine article about suicide, and wondered if the availability of a firearm would have prevented this stupid tragedy. Memo to self: when I get back to New York, go into storage and dig out that copy of Neighboring Lives. Walked my niece down to the only store within a mile of the cottage and bought her a Vitamin Water and some candy. Went looking in the store for books to read; they had exactly six on sale, all romances. Took pictures of the moon after sunset and got eaten alive by mosquitoes in less than five minutes. And before going to bed, watched four episodes of Cowboy Bebop, all of which I'd seen before, none of which I'd remembered.