Inconveniently, it seems that with the rest of the nation, my muse has gone on vacation. I think she got tired of the jumble of mundane rushing about, and took off for quieter climes. I don't blame her-it's getting rather cluttered in my head, what with school starting next week and all the assorted and sundry rushing about that it involves. I tried writing the first chapter of the sequel, and have brooded over it for a few days now, picking at a word here and there, writing then deleting a sentence, until it was so overwhelmingly depressing that I just saved the file and opened a new one. I won't delete it, but I realized that I hated it. No deleting because I never know when the idea might come in handy, but not right now. I'll start with another scene, and hopefully I'll fall in love with it. If not, I'll try again. I got some very good advise this morning about scene writing-if you don't love it, and are just trudging through it to finish it and move on to something much cooler, then your readers will sense it. Love it or delete it. Passion makes for better writing than a sensible collection of scene-movers. I cant seem to dredge up enough passion right now for a scene I love, so I may have to back-burner it and take care of the nitnoid details of life, at least for today. We're going to the mall! (collective groan)