They say that you should put writing aside and come back to it new as you can. Stephen King says to do that. I find his books of wrtiting advice to be both kind and useful. A lot of other people say the same about putting it in a drawer, not just him.

So when I stalled out with Kit and Tom I made a print notebook of what I had and put it away. I am now back to poking at them, feeling them living inside my mind, speaking up when I am at the grocery store, or in the car. It is a relief. They were silent for a good while. (And oh, I missed them.)

And I had dark doubts. I worried that their world was too alien to me. I am not a churchgoer. And I have never attended an execution. I can write what I like and not worry about being dragged away in my nighties. (That, btw, is what censorship is, ccensorship is not less than that.) I began to think that simple research will not get me where I need to go. Marlowe was a supposed athiest, yes. (But athiesm then was not what it is today, it was a word for a general purpose thought crime. And Marlowe's writing is so masterful it is hard to know what he himself actually thought.) This I do know: chrch attendance was mandatory. He would have had to go, from the first week of life, his attendance was checked against a list. He would have had the Bible in English-- his grandparents would have lived through the changeover.

An alien world to write. So much required, so much forbidden. Chruch required, employment required, hats required, fish days required, (not from religion anymore, but to support Englsish fishing-- clever of Elizabeth.

But I am back to feeling them, so I have to try.

Putting it aside showed me one thing in the first five minutes. I had a screaming inconsistancy where my two guys meet. I had written it two different ways, and it cannot be both. They were not just two points of view, they were totally different events.So I will have to pick.

I spent a while filling in Kit's earlier life. That was fun, but this is the other later stuff with Tom Kyd. I want to squish it into a cohesive whole, rather than a series of small clumps.

Anyway, that is the plan. Quiet here today. Mike is taking his final final exam, phyisics. I expect he will do well enough. He had done nothing but study every free moment for months. I think a lot of the teachers at BMCC feel embarrased to be teaching at a community college, so they are extra fierce. This is wrong in so many ways, and it makes it harder for adult students who are returning to school after ages away. But when hw is done with this he will have the first two years under his belt. He is going to a regular four year school next, for the second half. He has been honor roll for almost the whole time, mostly while working full time too! I am proud of him.

So now we begin summer break-- and more time. I plan on getting him to the beach some. Claire has a zillion plans with her friends. Her dearest closest friend is going to be joining the Army in the fall. I remember what it was like when my friends and I saw the summer ahead as an expanse of possibiliy, days to lounge in the sun. I want them to have that, they are 17, life is coming up fast.

We have started Hazel on daily asprin. It seems to help her feel more spry. She had begun to mind the stairs (four flights of stairs,) especially when it was damp or rainy. Took her no time to work out in her little doggy head that the asprin helps. She does not mind it in a lump of cheese, or butter, or something like meatloaf. Most pills she hides and spits out later. And asprin is bitter, but she takes it happily. One a day seems to make a visible change in her gait. She is 9 this summer, that is getting on for a large dog.