Slow news day on a jet plane.
I'm sitting next to a large pillar, surrounded by tall machines, flashing, beeping their 1980's Atari music, and occasionally shouting "Wheel . . . Of . . . Fortune!!!"

Yes, I'm trapped in Las Vegas. Luckily, they have free WiFi access in the terminal. I'm about an hour ahead of my flight, so I'm probably going to put this away and resume listening to "The Dark Tower VII" after this.

No real news today. I was supposed to be on a five-hour flight which would take me from Oakland, CA to Austin, TX. Instead, I've been juggling flights all day. It started when they cancelled my first flight, because Phoenix was getting a "light drizzle" (based on weatherchannel.com). They had to shuttle me to San Fransisco just so I could get on a flight to Las Vegas. From there, I would wait until my next flight, which did not leave for another five hours. I should get in at about 3:00 A.M.

Earlier today, I was talking with a fifteen-year old in the seat next to me. There are still some kids who think it's the coolest thing in the world to be a game programmer, so I took solace in his adulation, while I told him some of how computers work. He showed me a story he was working on (strong Tolkein influence, but the plot showed promise). I pulled out my laptop, and started transcribing his story, adding active verbs, condensing long clauses, and using more vivid adjectives. Basically, I was doing the same type of editing that I do with my own stories. He said my version was about "five-thousand times better".

I'd forgot how much fun it was to write. To build a story, punch it up, clean it up, flesh it out. I found myself telling him about my cryo-murder mystery story, which he thought would be really cool. So, at least I've got the fifteen-year old male endorsement.

I hope I'll have time to work on it in the future. It felt really good to stretch my Authorals (muscles just above the ribs that control pompous writing).

- posted by BrandG @ 9:40 PM