Sometimes the temptation to lie to you -- and to myself -- by, say, dividing up huge chunks of writing done on a single day into semi-huge chunks done on each of two days, becomes almost overpowering. I'm not sure what that would prove, except, perhaps, that I was getting into the land of habit. But what would be the point?

So I'll be honest: I wrote nothing on March 18, but on March 19 I wrote 2,385 words, more than nine times my daily allotment. I have no idea what that demonstrates except that I had a good day yesterday.

I'm currently reading Dragonfly Falling by Adrian Tchaikovsky, the second in his Shadows of the Apt series. I like it, but it sometimes starts to feel like a slog because it's mostly about war. I always feel like wars are slogs to read about. Others feel they're inherently dramatic, and I agree that in real life I'm pretty consumed by what's going on in the Middle East, almost against my will (the effect on my mood is not salutary; I can hardly bear to skim the article titles on the front page of the New York Times these days). But in books -- well, I had the same problem when I was reading William Manchester's biography of Winston Churchill, slowing to a crawl when Manchester was recounting Churchill's World War I days.

I received a pile of new books from the San Francisco Book Review this past week, including The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham, which I've been looking forward to with great glee. Indeed, all four of the books were books I'd specifically requested, so I don't think I'll have much trouble making my way through them in the time allotted. I also put in an order with Amazon for a bunch of stuff on Friday -- it was like a dam breaking, as I've been holding out for a good month, building up the cart, not ordering books for my reading group, generally trying to be good -- but sometimes the water just has to flow, you know? A day without a new book coming into the house is a sad day.

There will be many new words written today; it's all that's on the agenda. Visit here again tomorrow and see if I don't hold true to that prediction!