The perils of grenades

All I seem to be doing these days is talking about grenades and explosions.

Today (well, almost - time blurs together when you're blowing things up) I had a long seminar with Larry about the fine points of shaped charges and large metal objects. Which ultimately led us to a change in a scene at the end of our next book.

Only when I was rewriting it did I realize that the changes meant we'd lose the thing I most enjoyed about that little bit - blowing up a hundred-year-old smokestack* that has haunted me since I was a kid.

Unfortunately, there's no way to do that now. It has more to do with the story than the shaped charge, but at this point I'd have to bend reality to get it in. And we can't quite get a way with it there.

Ah, well. Maybe next time.

*If you ever use the 59th St. Bridge in NYC, you've seen it. Yes, part of the next Red Dragon Rising will take place in NYC.