The Muse Strikes!

"The Ninth District Penitentiary is nestled between a Burger King and a hair salon. When you walk into the place, you take a good long look at that Burger King. You know that you’ll be able to pick up a nice combo tonight. Something with two beef patties and a big carton of fries. Problem is, tonight’s years away."

I came up with an idea for the little beginning of a story I posted here a few days back and managed to get down roughly 1000 words. That's impressive for me, since I'm a habitually slow writer and, generally, 300 words in an hour is a decent output. The juices were flowing today, though, which is nice, since it's been awhile.

Started on my first "recreational" read of the summer, Neal Stephenson's monster of a book, Cryptonomicon. It clocks in at over 900 pages (though the mass market edition almost hits 1200), so I imagine I'll be reading it for a relatively long stretch. So far, I've been somewhat alienated by all the math and computer programming stuff but, fortunately, Stephenson's writing is miles above the ordinary and relentlessly funny to boot.