This ought to be more momentous

The beginning of anything ought to have something important or hookish to say. But there are days when it's all about showing up: doing what has to be done for kids, for family; showing up at the page whether or not the muse has dragged you there or looks as if he'll show up at all. This is one of my big lessons this year, especially in my writing life.

So, today, I have shown up. And evidently you have, too. So let's go.

A pretty typical day for this particular sector:
Mark is out of town, for the 9th day in the past two weeks. Hey, at least he's on *this* side of the Pacific, which means we get to hold a phone conversation each day...
Rachael is home sick. The second incarnation of "flulike" in the past six weeks. So the last 24 hours have featured cleaning carpets, washing bedding, trying various components of the BRAT diet, massages for aching muscles, and just laying around holding her. At least Daniel is weathering this one, and in school. I plan to take Arsenicum again tonight, in my continuing effort to hold it at bay. Maybe if I can get real sleep tonight...
Work continues on The Affairs of Dragons. I showed up at the page today, and am pretty pleased with five decent first-cut-at-a-scene pages. Especially considering how much time I've spent with Rachael today. As of today, I am on the 50th page of this draft. I would feel better about this if I had a firmer handle on how many pages it will total, in the end.

For the moment, I believe, it's more important to retain my sense of wonder and *cool* about this project than to keep it controlled in the Gantt-chart sense. As many times as I've gone to the mat with this project, this time it is so different from previous attempts that it really feels like a first draft. So, for now, while I'm working from a pretty detailed outline, I'm also trusting the muse.

As every writer knows, a day when you write 5 pretty good pages can't be all that bad.