I Want to Outline Like Kim Harrison

Kim Harrison and I had a chat yesterday. Well, technically, Harrison talked with all two hundred of us gathered for her book signing (my first-ever book signing). But I did get my two minutes of one-on-one time with her, in which I gushed shyly about how inspiring I find her writing, and she encouraged me to keep writing. "You speak about it with such passion, I can tell you'll be published," she told me. I was struck speechless, frozen in place while I had a momentary commune with the Universe and whatever power Harrison might have to evoke the truth from those words. Then I mumbled my thanks and danced away from the signing table, feeling elated and like an enormous dork all at once.

Under the Influence: Bingo by Proxy

Every once in a while, I come across a fact that stops me in my tracks while my mind whirls around to catch up. Often, they're not even significant facts. This week is a case in point:

• If you are into bingo and enjoy going to bingo halls as your form of gamboling, as my grandfather does, you no longer have to actually participate in order to play. You can, instead, have a computer play for you, and your sole job is to yell out "bingo" when the computer tells you that your ticket has reached a bingo.

Tension Tells the Tale

Several weeks ago, I read Jennieke Cohen's piece "Dynamic Duos" on the New Kids on the Writer's Block blog, and it's been rattling around in the back of my head ever since. To summarize, Cohen pointed out that there is always tension between the protagonist pair. In ever novel or movie, the two main people (usually the two people destined to fall in love) experience a perpetual frisson. This frisson can morph, grow or shrink, but it remains until the end of the story. Without tension, of course, there is no story.

I read her article, and my knee-jerk response was that she was wrong.