Another stormy day here. Lots of hard driving rain and wind. Far too stormy for a proper walk outside, at least so far. It takes a few weeks to acclimatize to the sudden season changes, though if this keeps up tomorrow I’m going to have to bundle up and take a few miles in the rain. More than two days straight without some hardcore exercise and I start to go a little spare–and I also tense up and run the risk of migraines, which cost me a lot of creative time if I’m not careful.

Today, though, I gave it a miss. Instead, I spent one of my three work shifts in the booth, recording audiobooks for a client. Made some good progress–laid down about twelve thousand words of audio, most of it pretty clean, so the editing will be nice and easy.

The second shift I spent researching. In this case, since I’m writing a revolution, I thought it would be a good idea to review the 1941 Harper’s article Who Goes Nazi?, which is a seminal and terrifying article from an escapee of the Nazi spread across Europe, documenting the different personality types that are susceptible to collaboration with totalitarian movements, and the ones that seem immune. Essential reading for anyone interested in history or politics–the author is a very perceptive woman whose observations have been bourne out time and again over the last seventy-five years.

In between, I took some time to watch a film adaptation of the book I read last night–another Greg Iles book. 24 Hours

This one was called 24 Hours, and is a really smart hard-ass thriller with the most ingenious kidnapping plot I’ve ever read. Not quite as lyrical and lovely as his other books, but still kept me up all night and engaged right to the end. This guy is good. And it’s good grist for the writer’s mill, especially for writing The Kabrakan Ascendancy. I’ve already started on the next one in his Mississippi series.

Then, for my final shift, I returned to Luna City, where I caught up with Brittany’s storyline. Hers is one of a few dangling threads that I’d yet to bring alive in the new book, and the more pieces that come back into play, the more the book comes alive. Your favorite dancer and mine has become an important figure in the revolution, and it’s taking things in interesting and unexpected directions.

I added around 2800 words, and cut about a thousand, for a net gain of 1862. Here’s where the book sits now:

64,627 / 175000 words