Research is work, right?

A week ago I really sat down and nutted out a feasible plot structure for my epic novel. It’s not that big a deal - I often do this, and then I get really excited for about three minutes, until someone asks me to have coffee or check out some boots or book a really expensive holiday that I can in no way afford on my current salary so I need to spend all my time churning out crap to pay for my extravagant lifestyle.

Wow. Long sentence and an equally long list of excuses – I’m breathless!

The work-novel- life balance is not one that’s easy to overcome, but I’m trying. Last night I even asked my friend what a Dugite is – getting very excited when I realised it’s a very venomous type of snake (extremely pertinent to my novel) and then falling flat to disappointment when I realised it’s a native of Western Australia (extremely irrelevant to my novel – which is set where I grew up. No where near Western Australia, but with plenty of Brown Snakes and Tiger Snakes to kill off my characters.)

Just a few drops of a Tiger snake’s venom is enough to kill over one hundred people. True story (well, according to the internet – and that never lies!)

And actress Amy Adams had a baby girl. See how easy it is for me to be distracted?!

Back back to task: how’s this for a snippet of my character’s morbid death:

Claire shakes him now, and his head kind of lolls to the side. Is his tongue hanging out? Yes, it is. Saliva oozes out onto the pillow, a sticky bungee rope of spit.

So – that’s four things I’ve done in twenty four hours: research, a blog, and more research. And a sentence!!!!

I can see that Pulitzer Prize already!

Now, time for another coffee I reckon!