Saturday, May 21st, 2011 Journal Excerpt

Mid-morning: Stayed up late again last night because I did not want to go to bed. I really just didn't want to go back to my room and be alone. I've ordered a Danish Ricotta Swirl and it turns out it is really tiny. So much for eating breakfast here in my room. I'll have to order more, I'm afraid.

… Wait. The ricotta-cheese filled danish is actually more filling than I thought. I can stay here. Ironic that I didn't want to be alone in my room late last night, but now, this morning, I am very happy to be alone.

I'd thought I'd do more writing than this. I'm sitting here just thinking as I chew on my danish and sip my coffee. I wish to collect my thoughts on my novel. See where I am with it. Reconnect to the original idea, etc. I've not been doing that. I've been focused on blogging, and not doing that very well, either.

Late morning: It's okay. I can collect my thoughts now. Back in Sir Samuel's, I sit and write. I like the atmosphere, but wish perhaps there was a table I could pull up to write on. All tables are either low coffee tables or high bar tables. That's okay. I can write on my knee. I wonder if they would mind me hanging out or if the Chart Room is better for that.

I have to do laundry today- at least that is the plan.

Refocus. So, thoughts on the novel: Feminism. The importance of Eleanor of Aquitaine in history. My main character Aihne's desire to explore Eleanor's every day attitudes and abilities from early on so as to discover how she became the great Queen she was—see Eleanor's interactions with her father and her grandmother. Aihne wishes to learn a secret, perhaps. But she is also an incurable romantic. The Eleanor Vase—the only artifact from Eleanor's personal life that remains—stands for an intangible, a mystery. Perhaps it is a key to a puzzle. Perhaps it explains the secret ingredient to Eleanor's heritage, the magic that made her intelligent, crafty, confident, beautiful and politically astute. What was she like as a person? Aihne wants to believe she was absolutely charming. Some chroniclers agree. Others compare her to a demon.

Mid-afternoon: Just now, while I was walking down the long corridor from the laundry to my room, the wind whistled through the doorways like a soprano warming up for an aria! You never know where the jewels are hidden.