Throwing the glove

I've had an idea for the 3daynovel contest. Just one little quirky idea. I like it, though and will think on it some more. (This is the equivalent to throwing down the glove...)

Did I tell you I attended Friends' Meeting on Sunday with my daughter? We did. It was good. I enjoy the hour of silence and the space where that puts me. I'm also learning to enjoy the singing of the hymns. Hymns generally aren't big in the Friends' Meetings I've previously attended. In fact, they've been absent. So it was a shock to discover that I had to open my mouth and sing. I had to sing, because there weren't enough people to just mime the words. Sound had to be uttered and therefore heard. I did it - but not the high bits. I don't do the high bits even for god.

Books by my bed:

Sin and Syntax by Constance Hale - the best grammar book I have struck for writers. (And obviously I'm not the only one!)
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood - someone at the Melbourne Science Fiction and fantasy Writing conference a few years ago bagged Atwood's A Handmaiden's Tale - a mainstream literary writer trying science fiction he sneered. But I'm enjoying Oryx and Crake.
Mao's Last Dancer, Lin Cunxin - whcih I bought at the Melbourne Writer's Festival
and I'm taking all the Robin Hobbs' books we bought at the Dymock's 20% off sale away with me. Partly for the kids to read, and partly for me.