Editing, editing, and little new writing

It's been a while since my last post because I've been busy. During the previous week, my family took a college touring trip up the east coast to Maine. There was a lot of driving involved--3,300 miles worth--but, it was worth it. That might sound like a huge drag, but since I'd never visited any states north of Virginia, it was rather fun. Even driving in Manhattan during lunch time was an exciting experience. Let me just say that driving on the roads with NY cab drivers was like the wild, wild west! We saw several ivy-league colleges, ate in some fine restaurants, and saw some beautiful parts of the country.

Now that I've returned, I worked on a novel that I had put aside while driving up the east coast. All was going well for a while and then I hit a brick wall. I didn't necessarily get writer's block because I can still write. I just ran out of logical ideas for the point I reached in the story line. I have the majority of the story outlined, but there is one part in the middle where the details are fuzzy. Well, that just so happens to be where everything petered out. I've put the story aside for now while I brainstorm to come up with more ideas to drag the story out of the mud it seems to be caught in.

I had a novel idea during the trip that I had to get out of bed to write down. I think it will make a great book and can't wait to get around to outlining the plot. Another cool aspect of this story is that I had the idea while I was in Maine. We were listening to The Green Mile in the car, too. My idea is a similar style to how Stephen King tells his story. Anyway, time will tell if I can pull off execution of that story.

My wife recently finished reading my hit man novel. She's the second beta reader to have finished it and now I'm excited to finally get back to revising any mistakes and plot holes. It's also a daunting task. Printed, the book is nearly 300 pages. Today, I managed to revise almost 50 pages. At this rate, it'll be a while before I'm ready to hand it to the next group of beta readers to get their input.

In other, non-writing, news, I'm on the Atkins diet. I started a week before our trip and lost nearly 11 pounds. During the trip, I cheated when we reached Newark, DE and ate at Catherine Rooney's, which is an Irish pub. I couldn't resist not having a Guinness there. Also, I wanted to have some delicious seafood in Maine. In all, I gained 2 pounds during the trip, so that's not too bad. Since returning home and resuming my diet, I've lost an additional 6 pounds. So far, so good.

That's all I've got to report for now. Hopefully, some idea will come to me for the current novel I'm writing. Until next time, I'll continue being good on my diet and editing the hit man novel.