Right now, it's a white-out; snow has covered everything. And lightning is lighting the earth up in blinding white brilliance - I'm in awe. Thunder now, rattling windows and echoing into oblivion. Candles are lit and I'm reading a ghost story and I'm feeling euphoric now. Diet Pepsi and Op, what a feeling.

Okay, before I get started on the updates for Book Two, I'll just say that the Rivalry is dead. The Steelers punished the Ravens, on then went on to beat the Jets, and will probably enjoy their 3rd Lombardi trophy in six years this February. The Ravens are now second fiddle in their division. There is no comparison. They are no longer a threat. That breaks my heart. But I have hope for the O's more than I've had in over thirteen years. Bring on spring... Book Two is now close to 25K words, and the plot is unfolding all around each and every paragraph. I may not be able to tie it up in 100,000 words, so this book may also be a Part 1/Part 2. We'll see. But there is a rhythm I'm developing with this book. I don't exactly know what that means at the moment, though I'm hoping to understand it soon. I've been fairly quiet on the query letter front suddenly. I have yet to hear from Michelle Brower, so maybe I'll start sending out more letters in February (...

The Ravens play the Pittsburgh Steelers tonight, and I have to admit, I don't feel good about it at all. In fact, the Ravens even lost in my dreams last night. Palamalu even haunts my dreams... Unfortunately the hype leading up to this game has kept me from putting my focused mind toward writing book two. This game is just controlling every aspect of my life. Thankfully, one way or the other, it's over tonight. Tomorrow things should be back to normal, and I can spend a few hours with the manuscript. There is so much about the plot that I've yet to discover, so that's helping to keep me interested. And as of today, no word yet on my query from Michelle Brower... Go Ravens!

Update #1: I am really making strides with the second book. I'm at about 20K words in, or a fifth of the completed manuscript. The plot is coming together much better since I began using leftover characters from the first story. Revenge is driving the protagonist forward, and I'm just going along with the ride. I'm debating on keeping the title WITNESS or to go with something a bit more revenge-inspired. Update #2: I've decided to keep/revert the first book's title THE UNIQUE DESTRUCTION OF AN ORDINARY SOUL , and keep it under the series name of THE DISPLACED VAMPIRE . As the snow falls tonight, I'll be writing by the candlelight... Tonight I plan to mail out a query letter to Michelle Brower of Folio Literary Agency. So, wish me luck!

Well, the Ravens won quite handedly in KC today. So now it's off to Pittsburgh. How perfect is that? It seems it could only really be that way... The O's continued to improve this week, so heading into FanFest later this month is going to be very exciting. This is Birdland, baby - and I love it! April really cannot not come soon enough. So, I managed to get my stories off of my infected laptop, and have transplanted them onto another. I'm elbow deep in book two, and enjoying the hell out of the revenge-centric plot. Off tomorrow, so I'll be writing all day.

So apparently I've been naughty, because my computer has fallen ill. It's contracted some virus, and I haven't been able to write for over a week. It's frustrating, because I don't have the money to repair the laptop. And I have all of this inspiration for book two in my head! I have seven speculated books in their infancy plus the sequel and my latest two revisions for Displaced on the hard drive. I pray that they are not gone forever... But there is cause for optimism! The Ravens are once again in the playoffs. The O's are making a ton of good moves, and I really believe that 2011 will be a winning season for the team. I've received tickets to the Baltimore Grand Prix, I'll be attending Preakness, so it will be an all-Baltimore year for me.