What will I do for the rest of the year without Harry...

I was looking forward to the November release of the next Harry Potter movie (HP and the Half Blood Prince) and felt pretty grumpy when I learned it was being held back til the middle of next year, apparently for commercial reasons. As much as I revere The Dark Knight, I'm afraid its partly responsible as it earned a million simollions on its mid year release this year and as the writers strike has left the film industry a little movie-lite for the middle of next year HP jumped into the mega-buck-opportunity providing breach. With no more books in the series, having the movie delayed seriously compromises the R n'R plans I'd made for what remains of 2008. I will just have to console myself with James Bond instead.

I have at least been cheered by the ongoing efforts of our Kiwi Olympians. Still trending up from all the fourth place showings at the last games, we now have a slew of bronzes. I like where this is going and look forward to London 2012 when we should be in the silver medal position for everything. Don't for one minute think I am dissing third place. Having watched a range of events I respect everyone who actually makes it to the games as a competitor in the first place. These are mostly people who have put just about every other aspect of their lives on hold to train right, eat right and mentally prepare themselves to battle it out on the day. When you think that many events are only of a few minutes duration, some even less then that, it blows my mind that people make so many sacrifices in the hope they will come first, second or third. Kind of puts into perspective all the difficulties of the writing business. Sure, I work for hours to maybe earn about ten cents an hour if my book is accepted, nothing for all that effort if its not, but I can write for years, I can still do other things, and I get to eat chocolate if i want to.

I've been a little worried the last few days. My current WIP is looking a bit setting-lite. In my last two novels (Jack the Viking and his sequel) the setting was kind of a character in itself. It was essential to maintain a sense of setting both in Jack's modern location and back in the time of the Vikings. Contrasting the two times was something I wanted to explore but I also needed a clear image of the Viking period to background Jack's emotional state and the changes he experienced. Now with the new story, place doesn't have a key role and as I progress, the characters dominate and I find, while I know where they are, the setting refuses to assert itself. I'm not sure whether this is a problem or not? But I have the feeling I should decide on this now. If i have to write more on setting after the first draft is finished i might be making a large and difficult job for myself. What do you think?