The Swords of the Ancients

“Gods die. And when they truly die they are unmourned and unremembered. Ideas are more difficult to kill than people, but they can be killed in the end.” -Neil Gaiman, American Gods.

How the hell have I not read this book before? Seriously. This stuff is fantastic, even for Gaiman. Neverwhere is next on the list, probably quickly followed by Anansi Boys. I first discovered him a few years ago, when I read the first volume of his reboot of the Sandman comics. Ever since, I’ve been hooked on his writing style, but I’ve never had a chance to dig into one of his novels until this morning. Thank God for days off, huh?

As far as recent events, interviews! That’s right. For the first time in about 5 months, I’ve got job interviews again. I got a phone call on Friday asking me to interview for a position in a call center with a local bank. As I was getting dressed for said interview, I received another phone call asking me if I was still interested in a part-time position with the public library. I couldn’t believe it! Since I’ve been working at my current job, I’ve been hunting around off and on for a 2^nd job or something full time. Now within a span of three days I’ve gotten an offer for one of each. In addition, I’ve been asked to do some freelance editing work for a former coworker and possibly for one additional contact I made recently. It’s been an incredible weekend. Add to that the time I got to spend with my girlfriend over Valentine’s Day, and you can guess that my mood is better than it’s been in weeks. It’s been a damn good couple of days.

This weekend did have some sad notes to it. On Friday night, my friends and I said goodbye to the D&D characters we’ve been playing almost exclusively for the last two years. Mine, the half-orc barbarian, Ryuk (yes, named for that Ryuk), survived the great battle with Ruin, allowing the spirit of Preservation to live on. After the battle, he flew off into the sunset, as it were, leaving his friends behind, avoiding what would clearly have been a pretty emotional moment as they mourned the irreversible death of their long-time companion, Vatre Dahn. It was a truly epic ending to a great campaign. All good things, and whatnot. After D&D, we all made our way to Village Inn at 2 AM for some early morning food and reminiscing over the last two years. I’m looking forward to the next campaign. I get to play a warforged barbarian (What can I say? Barbarians are fun to play). He’s basically a robot with a giant hammer who hits things really hard. 😀

I’ve had a couple of really good days of writing. I’m making even more progress on the story right now. I have pretty much fleshed out the circumstances under which most of the other characters first meet Rime and Arsus. The question still remains as to how those two first encounter one another, but I’ve made a major decision regarding the narrator, as I said last time. This in and of itself allows me a lot of room to determine how characters meet, but lets me have an idea of the voice that will be telling the story, what he will know, and what he will be able to reveal at any given time. It’s a good step forward.