Speaking of trivia, we had about 65 people last night. The week before, pre-Xmas, we had about 20. It's hard to predict these spikes. Usually we get about 50.

I was thinking recently about how fortunate it is that I don't have a lot of pressure to hurry up and finish my third novel. I didn't quit my job when I got a book deal (a smart move, because, among other things, I like my job and it keeps me grounded), so I didn't have to keep telling myself to rush through more books to pay my rent. But the more important reason to not depend exclusively on my writing for income is that sometimes (and I know I've said this before), I have to think and be involved in other things in order to come up with a really good solution or plot twist or theme that makes the book a lot better. When I'm not writing the book, I'm thinking about it, and also dealing with and listening to other people, and that's important for ideas and angles. The reason so much of television is mediocre is that they're forced to write the stuff EVERY week, so they're not afforded much time to come up with jokes and scenarios that haven't been done before. (A show like The Simpsons is an exception because they have a staff of 20 writers, so they have a little more brain power there. So is a show like Sex in the City that has eight episodes at a time and then takes a long breather.) I hate doing what's been done before, although obviously sometimes it's unavoidable. It's true that 90 percent of plots have been done in some way in the Bible or Shakespeare, but it's what you do with them that matters.

The one thing that does put pressure on me in my writing is the idea that someone out there might do the same thing, so I can't pussyfoot around forever. Eventually, Book 3 will get done. The fact that I spent half of 2003 rewriting the same 15 pages doesn't matter. (I did, of course, work on other parts of it during that time, but beginnings are key.) I have about 350 pages of it, some of which will be lopped out, some of which will be colored in. I don't know if everyone will like it, but if it someday feels the way I wanted it to feel, I'll be happy. And I won't show it to people until I think it does.