Today is the warmest day we've had in a couple of months-- it's  42 degrees Farenheit!  This a couple of days after I hacked a couple hundred pounds of ice out of the driveway.  My back still hurts and I ruined one of our shovels.  But it's very nice to have a break from subzero temps.

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The thing I'm thinking as I'm reworking Appearances (my novel) is that everything is more or less fictional." I mean that to apply to EVERYTHING, indeed, not just what's going on in the novel.  But the most important part is the "more or less."

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At one point in Appearances I wrote something like:  "So much ontological melodrama, so little time."  Maybe that's the book in a nut shell.  I don't know.  I have read and reread the manuscript so many times I'm having difficulty seeing it.  My eyes hurt all of the time.

A friend has said he'll read the manuscript and give me his input.  I really need that outside perspective.

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My guitar hero Robert Cray will be playing in town later this week at the Kent Stage.  I've got tickets, and barring catastrophe, will get to see him play live for the third time.  He's the total package: a great guitar player with a clear, beautiful voice.  "Touch, tone and phrasing," he's got it all.

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Working on Appearances for so long  has kept me from exploring poetry writing to the degree that  I want to.  I'm anxious to resolve this crazy project and to get back to what I can do with the time that is left to me.

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Later, amigos y amigas.

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