The Armature

I am way past my Hump Day in this 6 day stretch - only 2 more to go before I have my weekend!... and then it's on to another 6 day stretch.  Business in the flooring department is not exactly cracking.I suspect corporate is probably sitting in their offices holding their breaths since much of what we sell is made in China.  Oh, sure, we may carry a number of products that say "made in America," but that's a bit inaccurate.  People don't seem to understand that 'made' means 'assembled.'  So, yeah, the product is 'made in America' with parts made in China.

And it looks like, at least according to the news media, Boris Johnson will take over for Theresa May in that political death spiral called Brexit.  His was one of the loudest voices arguing for this divorce from the EU.  The people of the UK need to prepare themselves.  Once again his pumped up buffoonery is going to take the main stage.  He is going to get brutally stupid, a normal process in minor minds like his.

And, as publication day approaches, I thought I'd write a little about the creative process for the next book.  Initially, while I found the idea of using the Tour de France as a framework for a mystery novel intriguing, I realized the difficulty in juxtaposing the the building suspense of the race with the mystery of a murder.  There needed to be a balance between the two.  The first draft had way too much of the race.  I was told that "if you're an avid cycling fan it's great, however if you're an average person it's..."  well, the word used was 'boring.'  People became more important, more personal as the race became secondary, a constant prodding finger reminding you how quickly time was moving.

Anyway, I thought I'd post a clip from last year's Tour to give you a visual armature.

Allez!  Allez!