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Earlier today I hung up a sign that said, “Today the Dragon Won.” I didn’t have a page to my name. Yeah, voting took some time, and we had a business meeting, but when I sat down at my desk there was nothing. I’d had a good eight pages yesterday, and today, I just wandered around the scene making no progress. I did not know what to do. I’d built the villains of this book to such a point from almost their first mention that they are these uber warriors. That these are the vampires that the vampires themselves fear. Now here I was at the final battle, and I didn’t know how to live up to the promise. I mean it’s Anita, Edward, Olaf, Remus, Claudia, I mean we have all the really good fighters in my world. We have Edward for God’s sake. What can be more uber than Edward? So instead of beating my head against the wall I first visited Jon in his office. We managed to spill a large cup of hot tea all over his desk. After we cleaned up the mess, I wandered back to my office. I’d been planning on calling Charles. We had several things we needed to discuss with him about comicon, some research trips, lots of stuff. Also when you’re stuck in the middle of a fight scene you can do worse than call up a friend who is ex-military and cop. We talked about this and that. He’s bringing over some potentially lethal toys tomorrow to see if I get inspired. You never know. He’s got stuff I don’t. I’m trying to outfit more than just Anita here. We are so over due for a gun buying trip. Got off the phone from Charles, wandered over to Darla’s office. She gave me the advice, “Just stop for today. Let your subconscious work on it.” That’s when I hung the dragon won sign up, and took a bath. A nice, hot, soaking bath is never a bad thing. I’m listening to a book on tape in the tub right now, Rex Stouts, A FAMILY AFFAIR. It’s a Nero Wolfe mystery. Some combination of hot water, being clean, finally letting myself relax, and hearing someone else’s words clicked. I had one of those ideas that you go, why didn’t I think of it before? It will loose me some pages to rewrite the scene, but I think, I think, I may have the direction we need to go. I think. I won’t truly know until I try writing it tomorrow. It will either work, or it won’t. I hope it works. I think it will. I can’t tell you the idea because it would be like a major spoiler, but I thought I’d share that sometimes when you’ve spent all day beating your head against a scene, sometimes walking away for a few hours isn’t a bad idea. I know, I usually say never give up, but sometimes walking away isn’t giving up. Sometimes you just need a little distance between you and the scene so you can see all your options. You get blinded by the plot you’ve planned and when it refuses to flow, you get stuck. Walk away, let your mind cool down, and sometimes the muse goes, wait a minute. What about this idea, remember this idea from earlier in the book? Why, yes, I do remember that. That’s a good idea. We’ll see just how good it is tomorrow morning. Wish me luck.