Have a vague idea of where it’s going but for now, I’m just enjoying listening to this girl spout off about herself.

I should be working on a picture book, and I feel kind of guilty not doing so, but hey, this story was calling.

It might have something to do with the fact that it’s almost Hajj time.

My agent had asked me to write a novel about a kid going for Hajj. I started off with a boy character but that one kind of fizzled.

This one’s exciting though. At least for now.

Wrote the first chapter this morning. Only two and a bit pages, but how I love the last line!

I gave the sequel of Wanting Mor to my sister in law to read.

She’s from Kabul and has a very different perspective from my son in law’s sisters, who were so instrumental in vetting Wanting Mor.

The funny thing is that when I was writing Wanting Mor I was wondering if the party scene was accurate.

My sister in law was the one who told me it was dead on!

I’ve never been in a party like that before.

In fact in writing that scene I relied on something a lady had told me a long time ago. She’d been to a debauched gathering and she told me that it was disgusting the way the people were stuffing food in their mouths and too drunk to even chew it properly without it falling out of their mouths.

I can’t imagine.

A while back I had dinner with a lady who drank a whole bottle of wine before my eyes. I witnessed her getting steadily inebriated, her eyes getting really glassy and her voice slurring, but even she wasn’t that bad.

My son thinks I’m weird because I’ll watch scenes of a movie, and whole movies over and over again.

I watched a movie called Rounders last Saturday night with my hubby and son.

It was about a poker whiz, played by Matt Damon and his pathetic friend, played by Edward Norton.

Matt Damon is a fine actor! His performance reminds me a bit of Good Will Hunting. He really carries the show!

I always think of Edward Norton in his role in Red Dragon. But I must say, he plays this fool very well!

John Malkovich played the Russian mobster. I always remember him from  Dangerous Liasions. He’s older and balder in this flick, and he has a very cheesy Russian accent, and yet after a while it wasn’t too grating.

Excellent movie, though not for the faint hearted! (It kind of reminded me of The Grifters, with John Cusack and Angelica Huston. Also not for the faint-hearted!)

Rounders has got a LOT of swearing in it, and yet it didn’t bother me too much because it was totally within character.

The climax is wonderful, and I kept playing and replaying the scenes leading up to it.

It was at lunch time and my son sounded very frustrated when he asked me why.

Sometimes when I’m watching a really good movie, it’s like I can see the dialogue as it would look on the page.

I really want to get back to my screenplay.

It would make a wonderful movie! I think.

Oh, so many projects so little time!

If I sound a bit scatter-brained it’s because I’m weighing my options.

A writer once told me that beginning a new project meant making a huge investment in time and wasn’t to be taken lightly.

I know what he means.

It’s like falling in love. There’s that first flush of infatuation, before the bills show up and the daily grind of getting the story down, sets in.

But what the heck, I’m floating right now!

Time enough to come down later.