It’s been a hard week’s day

Between my birthday and the kerfuffle I mentioned Wednesday, I didn’t get as much done as usual.
•I reworked Affairs of Honor, adding in details of period dress. Didn’t add a lot, but I think it adds to the piece. Next month, I finish it.
•I redrafted The End of the World on the Cutting Room Floor (the retitled Mise-en-Scene) after I realized the only woman in the piece was a strong, ambitious career woman, and quite evil. This gave it a sexist vibe I didn’t intend so I reshuffled. Instead of a crime boss hiring my hero, it’s the boss’s scheming blonde mistress (Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity is the role model), leaving the villain as a guy. Other than one bit I liked but had to change, it works much better this way. I’ll bring it to some beta readers next month.
•About two decades back I worked on a lost race novel involving the survivors of the Temple Mound Culture of the Southeast US, but never finished it. Last year, I realized that several things that had frustrated me about it would improve if I set it in the 1920s and made the villain some terrifying wizard my heroes encountered in the Great War. Then, when I read The Great Silence (review tomorrow), an account of post-WWI Britain, a whole lot of tentative ideas began to click for me. Those in turn, triggered others—instead of some manufactured wizard, the bad guy is Gilles de Rais, the original Bluebeard.
Anyway, I batted out the opening scene in which Leslie, a medium, finds de Rais Lives Again (so to speak) and has sent his magical forces after her. Instead of just fighting magic with magic, I have a ghost squad of WW I soldiers who owe Leslie big rise up to defend her. It’s much stronger than anything I’d thought of so far.
I don’t know that I’ll work on it further any time soon, but it’s always a good sign when ideas fire off like that.
And, of course, there’s Demand Media:
•Can a Homeowners Insurance Policy Refuse to Pay the Full Amount?
•Can I Contribute to an IRA and Convert to a Roth if I Am Over the Income Limit?
•Tax Consequences of a Nondeductible IRA Distribution
•Can I Convert My After-Tax Contributions to a Roth IRA?
•Can I Claim a Rent Deduction for an Elderly Parent in a Home I Own?
•Are Business Items Covered on a Residential Homeowners Insurance Policy?
•How Are Homeowners Insurance Reimbursements Counted for in Taxes?
•Does Military Retirement Pay Count as Income Toward a Roth IRA Contribution?
•Will the Homeowners Pay if a Limb Fell on My Porch and Caused Damages?
•Can I Make a Claim to My Homeowner’s Insurance if My Chimney Leaked and Caused Water Damage?
•Tax Disadvantages & Advantages of Rental Property
•Can I Carry Forward Losses on a Rental Property?
•Do You Have to Put Your Retirement Plans on Your Taxes?
•Tax Laws for Rental Vs. Personal Property
•Adjusted Gross Income Cut-offs for Deducting Moving Expenses
•Can I Deduct Losses on Rental Property Against a 1099-C?
•Are Administrative Fees for Retirement Plans Tax Deductible?
•Does Homeowners Insurance Pay for Broken Gutters?
•Can a Person on Social Security Have Rental Property?