Saturday fun

We went to see The Hobbit, the desolation of Smaug. I have to say I really enjoyed it. There was a bunch of new material crammed in there, but they’re trying to force us to buy three tickets. The material they shoehorned in made sense, in a fashion. I thought the elf/ dwarf mini romance was handled pretty well. Legolas is showing his age though.

Smaug was outstanding. With him in the film, I never missed Golum, and he’s one of my all time favorites. I think they auto tuned Benedict Cumberbatch’s voice a bit too much. I thought he sounded exactly like the goblin king from the first movie. This is unfortunate, because he has an awesome voice all by himself.

Old Chicago was packed. We waited a long time for a seat, and a nice lady approached us and offered us her booth when she left. Maybe my wife and I are looking older and more pitiful. I thought it was wonderful, and really appreciated her. I finished my holiday beer tour, but they are out of tee shirts in every size. Something about getting a Christmassy tee shirt after Christmas doesn’t turn me on. The last two beers were pretty good though. They were more like an English Bitter which I really like. Some of the others were like India Pale Ales, and I don’t like those. You have every right to, I just don’t.

I really wanted to post a picture of my cool new shirt, but they’re sending it to me. A photo won’t have as much impact after the holidays.

We’re home now. I’m looking forward to writing another thousand words tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Morning writing

I have a habit of reading about the last dozen pages before I start. It helps with continuity. I don’t want to write about snow if it was sunny when someone walked inside last session.

I wanted to write a creepy tension filled segment.

The raven, Doubt, made a noise. tok tok blork

I pressed the pager. “Lisa, can you come in here. Tell me what this stupid thing wants. ”

“Sure boss, be right down.”

“I thought you were out front,” I said.

“I was just hooking up those holographic monitors you wrote for me. What’s up?”

“Listen to this stupid thing.”

tok tok blork

“What’s he saying?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t speak bird.”

“But you’re a robot. You speak Bluetooth, Gaelic, mandarin, fax tones and everything else.”

“But I don’t speak bird.” She held her hand up and paused. “Ravens are considered the largest songbird in the world. They’re related to–

“Look, I just want to know what he wants.”

“They are now considered one of the most intelligent animals on Earth. They make a wide range of sounds and can even mimic human speech.”

“Amazing, how did you get all that?”

“I’m a big computer at heart. It’s called Google. You should try it. Where did he interrupt you?”

“Just as I was reviewing the last stuff I wrote.”

“Maybe he wants you to doubt that section. That’s his name after all.”

“Maybe it needs to be moodier, creepier even. Why am I taking lessons from a bird?”

“Lorelei wouldn’t bring him here without a reason. I have a hunch that rewrites are going to be a hoot. I’ll pick up a bottle of Dickle for when you meet with the editor.”

“Good plan.”

I wound up adding some things to the last section, and still managed a thousand new words.

I’ve got to go for now. My wife and I have an appointment with Smaug the Terrible. I’m going to Old Chicago afterword to work on my beer tour.

I may blog later if I get the time.