Black as midnight…

…in the middle of the day.

As I mentioned yesterday, we’re in for a rainy week. People don’t often associate rain with Texas, but the southeastern part of the state is subject to the occasional deluge. Over the past half hour or so it has gotten really dark and the big, fat raindrops can’t be far off. It’s funny how often the daily rainfall around here starts at the exact moment I plan to go out to lunch. Today I decided to beat the odds and went to my car early to get my umbrella. Though it’s only about 40 feet from the front door of the office, I’ve gotten drenched in the past dashing that short distance. Parts of south Houston have already received 2″ of rain this morning. Some locations in the region could get up to 8″ before the front passes.

I knew I should have waited before watering the lawn on Sunday.

This morning I continued my read/edit pass on the novel-in-progress, working my way through two more chapters. I had an idea for yet another subplot during the night. A new character, a new complication. My biggest fear with this book is that I’ll have too many threads to follow, but I want to do something bigger and more varied with this one than my previous two books. There is a central character, and the action all rotates around him in one way or another, but I want to tell it from the point of view of a half dozen characters who have their own agendas, mostly hidden.

I plan to show the first 60-70 pages to my agent when I meet with him next week.