The Lava Lamp Goes Dark

I have a lava lamp on my desk at work. I turn it on every morning when I arrive, and dutifully turn it off each night when I leave. For the most part I ignore it, but it’s a conversation starter, and there are times when I stare at it when I’m contemplating something. It’s very pacifying.

Today, the light bulb burned out. Not when I turned it on, which is the time most light bulbs fizzle. No, today the bulb had been on for about five hours when it suddenly decided to give up the ghost. It seemed odd to have the light go dark, like someone had crept into the room and clicked off the power. Ah, well, the bulb had a good long life and I will ceremoniously dispatch it into the rubbish bin and immediately and callously replace it with another.

I was an editing whirlwind this weekend, plowing through chapter after chapter, until I now have fewer than 30 pages until I reach the end of the third draft of Missing Persons. Four or five chapters left to go, so I should have no trouble getting through them this week, which sets me up to start the NaNoWriMo book next Tuesday. I’ve been doing a lot of setting research these past few days. If the book takes off, I’m pretty sure I’ll have to take a road trip for three or four days to get some local color, but that can wait until later. No use going too far overboard if the book fizzles on me, or if my agent hands it back to me with asbestos gloves (Dan Simmons said that to me once about one of his books and the line has stuck with me).

I’d feel better about the book if I had a title for it, but that will come with time, I guess. I like multi-layered titles, and those don’t always come easy. When they do, however, I instantly recognize them as perfect for the work. They’re usually simple titles, like Missing Persons. So far, though, I’m coming up completely blank on the new book. I can’t even make myself think about it, like I have title-block or something.