I'm heading out to California in a few days. This will be the furthest West I've ever been. The more I think about this fact the more the idea for what I am doing surrounding Jack seems to make sense. I live in America, I have a pretty good handle on some of the history, and a bit of the midwest region (where the book starts), but in all truth I know very little about America. Jack's story is just as much about discovering america as discovering himself. Neil Gaiman really nailed it in American Gods, about how truly huge this country is, and how not one country it is, but more of a convolution of all these different little countries. It's still a young country, and what is held as legend and myth here can still be traced back to roots without too much difficulty. The roots run shallow, but what keeps it so concrete?

I got my hands on this book about the oral Jack tradition in America, which I plan on reading on my flight out to california.

I've also done a few rewrites on the Jack at the Eternal's house in Chicago. I really like the idea and the fact that he meets Loki, who is a player in the cineverse idea. I just don't know if I want to use it. There is so much americana that I can work into it, I almost want to deny any of the nonamerican pantheons access.

It makes sense to have Lokk in the story, though, at the moment, because he is the son of a giantess, and he could save Jack's ass after Jack kills his 2nd Giant. Dunno. Got a research project to do today. More to come