You say it's your birthday?

Well, it's my birthday too, yeah.

Most of the old stuff that I had backed up is now stored on the new laptop. All the email accounts are up and running, and I'm caught up with OWW support again. Mostly. By tomorrow, I should have the paperwork problems for graduating this summer sorted out.

I don't remember if I blogged this yet already, but in some ways I'm thinking that losing the hard drive is a blessing. The first 275 pages of the new novel have been through about three drafts with no clear end in sight. Sure, I've outlined and plotted out several endings, and even have a synopsis. But it never felt right. I was talking with Toby about his new novel recently, and how, even though it was working, big parts of it didn't feel fresh to him, so he scrapped them, went back to the beginning and started over until he got it right.

I have a backup of the first hundred or so pages that I'm really happy with. But losing the rest (not counting the older drafts) feels like it's freed me up to go a different direction. Instead of rebuilding what's missing, I think I'm going to make one of the other characters a co-star. I need to talk it out with someone yet, and then do some new outlines before I start writing.

Oh. And happy birthday, Canada!