Reading phase.

I needed to take another break from writing for a while. It does take a lot out of me at times, just focusing on the story and the details, and working everything out. I finally got around to reading JK Rowling's last book of the Harry Potter series, The Deathly Hallows. Quite a piece, if you ask me. A great story. Also very sad. Not just for the deaths of the heroes, but for an anti-hero, that I couldn't help but like, even if he was portrayed as unlikeable. JKR made him a very sympathetic character. She certainly has a great ability to develop her characters so well. Very realistic people. Multi-dimensional, capable of of cowardice, mistakes, and even doing wrong, but always being driven by something larger than themselves, and ultimately making the choice to do what is right, no matter what the cost to themselves.
She also has a great sense of humor. Plus she can make the characters and the situation really stir the reader's emotions.
I'm also finishing up HG Wells's collection of short stories. An archaic style, naturally, since it was written over a hundred years ago, but the unique way he told his tales, his interest in the discoveries of space and physics that were happening at the time and his incredibly complex imagination earned him his fame. My fave story of his so far is The First Men in the Moon. Good stuff.
A friend gave me, bless her, a gift card to Borders, and I used it to get some books I've had my eye on for a while, on writing and editing. I'm awaiting their arrival by mail, soon. So if I don't get back on my manuscript by then, I know that reading the books will get me going on it with renewed energy.

Short break... and then...

Started writing back stories that I may or may not use in the book at some point, or only infer to it. It's been hard to make inferences when I don't even have the subject quite straight in my head. So, in writing it all out, I not only get the kinks worked out, but also it solidifies things so that I don't forget what the facts are and have inconsistencies. So that I don't say, "Old so and so, who is from the south land..." when the reader looks up in puzzlement and says, "But I thought old so and so was from the north land."
Which often happens when one's short term memory take a small vacation. Or runs away completely... to which I have to call it back with much cajoling and many treats.
I finally got my hands on the latest Harry Potter book, Deathly Hallows, but my son spotted it and is now plowing neatly through it. He's quite the reader when he gets interested in something.
Anyway, back to backstories, I realize that in finally working out the back stories, I will have to rewrite the first chapter. But I think it will all be worth it.
Strangely enough, I've come to love the process of writing and story crafting, and not just be champing for the finish.