The office is a little dead today since everyone who lives outside of Manhattan decided to stay home.

Great.

Well, what the hell, I'll get some work done . . . or blog. Hopefully both.

Since the insomnia was still going strong Tuesday night, I stayed up and read 'Razzle' by Ellen Wittlinger. It's a 'young adult' novel that was on sale for a dollar at Creative Visions, so I took a chance.

More than anything else, it made me realize that I really want to try to write something in this genre. Not because it was bad, because it wasn't. But because I found the characters to be so engaging and real. There were some problems with the book. Whenever the lead character makes references to movies or TV shows, they are ones that are unlikely to have been watched by a teenager today (Rebel Without a Cause, for instance). The only current TV show that was mentioned was Buffy and it was mentioned repeatedly as sort of the cultural touchstone that all teens would relate to. I think there could have been better choices. I also thought many of the minor, but important, characters were underdeveloped. By nature, I suppose, minor characters tend to be underdeveloped, but when those characters are necessary for the final 'revelation' scene, well, they should be given their due and written more realistically.

In addition to my reading adventures, I've been continuing this weekend's old movie theme. Tuesday night I watched 'The Women' which I'd seen bits of, but never the whole thing. What a hoot.

Last night I watched 'Never Give a Sucker an Even Break'. W.C. Fields' last starring role. In a way, this was like a 'best of' type movie. Best of Fields' routines. Best of vaudeville. Best of early Hollywood comedies. A lot of fun.