Several people I know mentioned that they might be interested in participating in a non-November novel-writing 'competition'. We rather arbitrarily selected March as our non-November month.
March happens to start tomorrow.
If you'd like to join the insanity, I'm running a mailing list. You can sign up here for the list. Hope to see you there. :)
Oop. Crap. Turns out I had chapter 20 in the complete manuscript twice, so I've actually only got an 87K ms. Well, oh well. I'll see if edits today add any more to that, and then she goes into der mail.
A _mere_ thousand words of writing both today and yesterday: the synopses for the second two books. I twiddled a word or ten in the synopsis for the first book, but it's basically fine the way it is. So that's cool. The end's in sight. :)
ytd wordcount: 97,400
AAAAARRRRRGH. The GOD DAMNED DOG just ate half the batch of cookies I made while I was on my walk. I even pushed them back on the counter to where I thought she couldn't get them, but she's been good about not taking stuff off the counter and so I wasn't really worried about it. But she ate TWENTY FIVE COOKIES.
And then she peed on the carpet when I yelled. AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGH.
The Hands of Fire synopsis is finished. HAH! Now I have to edit, and possibly rewrite the original synopsis for HoS, and et voifuckingla, I'm DONE! It can all go in the mail! If I'm very, very efficient, it'll go in the mail tonight. If not, tomorrow morning. HAH!
Not dead!
Wrote the House of Cards synopsis yesterday in a smashing under-two-hours, thanks to my Amazing Plot Machine Husband, to whom I said, "This is how far I've gotten in the book," and sketched out to him to the midway point in the book, and then he took all my idea bits and shook them around and gave me back an overall story arc. Then he shook my idea bits around some more and gave me the story arc for the third book, which is tentatively titled Hands of Fire. I have the most amazing husband in the world. :) Clearly, he has a magic head! So today I'll write the HoF synopsis and do my edits and put it all in the mail. Yay!
In *non*-writing related news (can you imagine??), I went to see About Schmidt last night. This is possibly the first movie I've seen Jack Nicholson not playing Jack Nicholson in (I haven't seen any of his earlier work), and I enjoyed it very much for that reason alone. I also enjoyed it because I thought it was really a very nice story of self-discovery. It's not a movie in which a great deal *happens*, because it is in fact all about Schmidt, but it was a very good, internal story. I liked it. I don't know that I'd wholeheartedly recommend it to people, but if you like journeys of self-discovery movies and Jack Nicholson, go see it! :)
There's actual work to be done today. Going to try to get that all taken care of by noon so there's time to work on the synopsis and then start editing.
There was something else I was going to say, but it's escaped me. Oh well!
God Almighty. 25 days of writing, 34 days of elapsed time, 73.8K words, 358 pages of manuscript and a 90K wordcount by 250wpp, and the book is DONE!
Tomorrow: synopses. Thursday: edit and send.
ytd wordcount: 95,300 (heh heh heh)
Well, I was going along great guns, blew through 2500 words this evening after 2500 earlier today, and was about to blow through some more, and then Chantico, who probably had to go outside and whose signals I'd probably missed, chewed a hole in the slipcover Mom made for our couch, and then peed a little on the floor when I yelled at her. *sigh* So now I'm grumpy and don't feel like writing any more.
OTOH, every 1000 words tomorrow is 10% of the remaining total, so that's pretty cool.
ytd wordcount: 87,600
While walking, I decided I should learn how to write romance novels. This means, of course, reading romance novels. Jai and Sarah have both pointed me at some pretty good romance novelists in the past, and I suspect I ought to read more of them. In my copious free time.
Silkie wants me to write the second book in the Old Races trilogy now. I'm not sure I think that's quite fair. :)
Maybe in March. :)
I do the dance of getting $13 back from the IRS! Hey, it's a piddly amount, but the last two years I've had to pay thousands of dollars, so ANY refund looks really good to me!
I also do the rather less joyful dance of the personalized rejection letter from Thorndike Press for Trapper's Daughter. Thorndike's one of the houses I had hope for, so, well, drat, but at least it's a nice rejection letter. Actually addressed to us and actually signed by the editor, which is a big improvement over the other rejections so far. :) It says:
Thank you for sending your manuscript, Trapper's Daughter, to Five Star. However, it is not suitable for our publishing program. Your writing shows a lot of promise and I wish you luck in marketing your manuscript elsewhere.
So, y'know, at least she recognizes talent even if we're not right for their line. :)
Wow. I popped my upper back a little bit ago, and I seem to have gotten rid of the last of my spasmy stiff neck. YAY! Pain-free turning of my head! YAY! Pain-free nodding of my head! YAY!
I think, however, that I won't swim tonight, just to give it a couple more days to heal up. Maybe Wednesday I'll be able to swim! *hopeful look*
Via Teresa Nielsen Hayden, photos of the worldwide protests against war in Iraq. The sheer number of bodies in some of these photographs is just staggering.
On a completely unrelated note, Lucy is sitting on top of my computer, hiccuping. *snicker*
Oh yeah. Deirdre called this evening to get a receipe (and to report that Breic was being *particularly* cute and charming) and asked how I was doing and I said well, I wasn't having much life, with all the writing, and she said, "Well, at least you're having an active fantasy life!"
Then she said, "Hrm."
*giggle*
Not so much with the wordcount today; I decided I needed a break. So instead I wrote 1160 words, then went to the store and then we went to Bosco's and Best Buy where I decided not to buy season 1 Stargate right now and then we wandered around the mall for as long as we could stand to have fun (not very) and then we came back home where it was determined that we were really sleepy, so we took a nap, which confused the hell out of Chantico (hey, what're you doing? stupid humans! it's daytime! why're you going to bed? hey, cats! the humans are going to bed! what's going on? stupid humans! *bouncebouncebounce*) and then I slaved over a hot stove and made chili dogs for dinner, and then I went for a walk, and then I watched another episode of Highlander, and then I made brownies, and now I'm writing this and contemplating going back to bed.
Did I mention that on Friday we went to have our taxes done, and the SOB's had lost our appointment? *sigh* So we've got a new appointment for Monday, but really, what a pain in the ass.
I really. Really. Want my shoulder to stop hurting. It's better than it was (I went to the chiro Friday) but it's not well yet and more to the point, I'm quite sure it's not well enough to swim, and I want to swim. *sigh* Yay, go me, I'm kicking ass on my writing goal, but man, weight loss? drawing? reading? Feh. So since I'm already eighteen thousand words ahead of schedule for writing, I'm going to scale down the writing insanity for March and _focus_ on exercise and, well, other stuff. Reading, drawing. I'm still going to aim for my 1100 words a day, but after what I've been writing, that ought to feel like a walk in the park. :)
ytd wordcount: 82,580
Sorry for the astoundingly dull updates the last few days. My life has become all about the wordcount.
Today's the last day of 50K in 30 days. I've written 60,330 words on a single project since January 23rd. The sort of weird thing is that's only an average of 2000 words a day, which doesn't seem like /that/ much. Then again, I've written 25,000 of those words in the last five days. Imagine if I did that every day!
Okay, to do that every day I'd have to not have a day job. :)
I've also reached the 20% mark of my yearly writing goal, which really blows me away. I was, by the end of February, supposed to have 65K written. I anticipate, at this juncture, that I'll have something closer to 95K. That's more than thirty percent ahead. Wow.
50K in 30 days: 60,332
ytd wordcount: 81,420
Tired me. 5100 words today, and if a fit of genius overcomes me later I'll write a little more, but for now I'm going to step away from the keyboard and get a drink of water and make some frosting for the brownies. :)
50K in 30 days: 52,143 (YAH!!!)
ytd wordcount: 75,410
Against all odds, I got writing done today after all, more than 2300 words. I also edited chapters 1-18 of HoS, for which I will give myself 1000 or so words of credit on my YTD count.
50K in 30 days: 47,030
ytd wordcount: 70,300
More with the ow. I'm sort of terrified to go to the chiro again tomorrow for fear he won't improve this at all, but man. At least I got some decent sleep last night. That's something. Of course, I feel like I could sleep another six hours, if it weren't for the 'every time I want to move I have to wake up entirely' factor.
Very little brain. Off to do with it what I can.
MOOSE! (first 3 pictures. Mama moose came to lie down next to our deck tonight!)
Out of words for the day. Clocking in at 6215, which is quite a few.
50K in 30 days: 44,701
ytd wordcount: 66,900
music: Young Dubliners, Absolutely
Completely suckful night. Didn't really get to sleep until well after 12:30, despite going to bed around 11:15, and slept very badly once I /did/ get to sleep. Not being able to roll over -- which I literally can't right now -- doesn't make for a lot of instant comfort. And even more suckfully, the chiropractor's not open again until Friday, so I get to have a headache and a hideously stiff neck for the next two days, barring some sort of unlikely release.
I discovered last night that I hadn't eaten lunch yesterday. I got the email from Anna two or three bites into my casserole, and lost my appetite, so I put it in the fridge so I could eat it later. Instead, thinking I'd had lunch, when I got hungry again, I had dessert. Ted got all confused because there was a plate of casserole as well as the remaining stuff in the pan in the fridge last night when he got home after class, and I realized then that I hadn't eaten lunch at all. Silly me. :)
Today I'm learning how to eat left-handed. It's awkward as hell. :)
ow. shoulder/neck really hurting. ow ow ow.
Went to see Daredevil again tonight with Jai. There's a scene after some of the credits that I hadn't seen! And we admired Ben Affleck in red leather a lot. :) Lotsa fun! And amazingly, it stood up to 3 viewings in a week. 'course, the company was good, but that's still pretty cool!
And, of course, the X2 trailer still rocks my world.
Writing: cat exploded, kerblewy! 5532 words today. Yay! Tired and in pain now. Going to bed.
50K in 30 days: 38,688
ytd wordcount: 60,700
Holy shit. Anna G at Tor just asked for the complete manuscript for Heart of Stone, and for synopses for the following two books in the trilogy.
Holy *shit*!
Ow. This morning we return to the excrutiating pain in the back phase of our life. Well, pain in the neck, anyway. I woke up and moved my head this morning and the stiff neck I've had for a few days turned into I-can't-sit-up pain. It's looser now, but I'm making a chiro appointment and going to see if I can be fixed. *Ow*.
Very good swim tonight. I did 3K, and the guy in the lane with me was EXACTLY my speed, and we did a 500 together, neck and neck, both of us working our asses off to not let the other one get ahead; afterwards he said, "Boy, I hope you were working as hard in that as I was," and I assured him I was. *laugh* Sadly, I didn't /time/ that one, but I suspect it was closer to 8 than 9 minutes, because I was swimming a lot harder than I have been. :)
Then I was standing around talking with the guy and with Bethany who was 1. in the lane next to the guy, and 2. the woman who was so impressed with my 2500 yards a couple of weeks ago, and Bethany, who is very gregarious, interrupted the woman in the lane on the other side of me, because she knew the woman, whose name proved to be something like Melinda, was a coach for one of the Masters' teams, and she talked for a minute and then said, "What're you guys, done? Just standing around talking?" And we said, "Yeah," and she said, "Okay, 12 25s on 30, let's go!"
Only the guy in the lane with me didn't know what that meant, and since he'd never done 25s before, she said, "Let's do them on 40 instead, then," and we did. *laugh* So I ended up doing 3300 yards because, well, this lady told me to! And it was really a great deal of fun. Bethany swims at UAA on Monday night, and the guy (I didn't get his name) lives around the corner from UAA, and Melinda didn't say when exactly she swam, but they all seemed interested in possibly working out together, and I said I was trying to be there MWF, so hopefully I'll see at least one of them on Wednesday!
Wow! God! That was really great! Melinda said she likes finishing on 25s because it makes her feel like a hero. :) "Hey! I'm fast! Hey! I'm not winded! Hey! I'm cool!" Swimming _with_ a group is SO much better than swimming alone!
However, even swimming on my own (with the exception of that 500) I did what I consider an optimum swim: 3000 yards in 60 minutes, with about... 10 minutes of rest time in there. So yeah, it was a good swim. Chipper me!
I do have to give Dr. Woody a call tomorrow and see if he can do something about my shoulder, because swimming's aggrevating it, and that's, well, an aggrevation. Still, I'd rather swim and hurt than not. The win is much bigger than the loss.
Ok, I'll try to stop babbling about swimming now. :)
Heart of Stone S&3 are off to Tor. And, um. That's all I've got to say this morning. Wish it luck! :)
Fwsh. Ok, did some edits on HoS, but because most of it was in the first chapter, I'm only giving myself 1/3rd words credit tonight instead of 50%. Tomorrow, back in the saddle for real writing. Short of a miracle, I'm not going to make 50K in 30 days, but I'm not really stressed about that. Maybe I'll aim for 40K! Or 45K! :)
Otherwise... pretty pleased with my hair, will let it settle for a couple weeks, then will re-bleach it or possibly dye it blue for a few weeks in order to then bleach it to a much whiter blonde than is normally available from my hair color.
For the record, this was my hair two years ago this month. :)
ytd wordcount: 55,200
Return of the stripe! A much-modified, less drastic Rogue stripe on the Kit head. And now off I go to have dinner with my parents. :)
2600 yard swim this morning. That was nice. Except my shoulder hurts now. I need to go back to the chiro and get him to fix this damned knot.
Went to Daredevil again. Ted saw Peter in the X2 trailer and Hulk didn't look quite as bad the second time around (I'll go see it anyway, because I enjoy watching Jennifer Connelly be luminous) and Shaun liked Daredevil pretty well and I thought it stood up to a second viewing in 3 days, so that's cool.
Then we went out to a Valentine's-Day-Observed dinner at Sorrento's, and it was very good and we had a very nice time, and then we went to rent Replacement Killers, 'cause I had the sudden urge to watch it, but it was checked out at Blockbuster so we er bought a copy instead. O.O
So then we watched Replacement Killers, and then I watched a couple of pretty good Highlander episodes, and thence to bed.
Today I will edit the first 3 chapters of HoS, and send it to Anna G at Tor. :)
Gnft. Unexpected writing blort hit me right after I went to bed. No 1800 word writing accident tonight, but almost 500 words and the beginning of a new book which I'll work on... sometime. Not necessarily sometime soon, but sometime.
Bed now. Jeez.
ytd wordcount: 52,660
Curses, again! Ted and I went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant tonight. We got there and they said the wait would be an hour and a half (this place doesn't take reservations).
So we left.
And, having already done the other thing we'd planned to do on Valentine's Day -- seeing Daredevil -- we sorta went, "Er well hm" and then we bought some fishsticks for dinner and X1.5 and went home and watched tv and movie clips and outtakes all night.
So, well, there. There ya go. :)
Oh! Writing fu that I forgot to mention! Last night I popped over to the post office and sent the S&3 of Urban Shaman off to Tor, hooray hooray! Wish it luck!
And this morning I was talking out some problems with Angles with Sarah, and she came up with a *great* solution to one of the problems. Now that I've got the issue of Kate's adventure dealt with, there's only one more problem to overcome and then I'll be ready to rewrite! *dancie dancie dance*!
Curses! My immortal heritage has been found out! Chrisber showed me that this morning. I thought it was pretty funny. Aside from the eyebrows, it's really a pretty darned good likeness. *giggle*
Oh my god. Daredevil kicked ass. Hulk is going to suck. But X2 is going to ROCK!!!! There was a new X2 trailer with the movie last night, and let me put it this way: what they're doing with Rogue made me go, "YES!" and pump my fist and kick my feet and squirm with excitement and glee. *YEAH*!
Commentary for Daredevil, avoiding spoilers:
Better than I expected; the movie, overall, was better than I expected. Emotionally, it was a far superior film than Spider-Man, which had at least three Big Hairy Overdone Emotional Moments that just made me *cringe*. Also, unlike Spider-Man (which, don't get me wrong, I loved), Daredevil wasn't too *long*. At no point did I think, "God this is a long movie," which happens all too often going to films these days.
Ben did a good job. He even either wore or permitted contacts/cgi to bleach color from his eyes, and they /did/ CGI them so they were offset a little, which I'd never seen an actor do. So kudos to him just for /that/. I also thought he simply did a very good job of playing a blind man. He didn't use his eyes much to react to anything, and that's cool. That's *hard*.
I'd never seen Jennifer Garner in anything, and I sort of think she's more interestingly-attractive than gorgeous, but she did a good job as Elektra. Just a shade of vulnerability there, which is perfect for the character. I'd go watch her in an Elektra film in a red-hot minute, sure.
The fight scenes: interestingly done. I thought the opening fight scene was too violent, and it's my thought that the director was trying to create the visual equivilant of what Daredevil hears. When he's fighting just one person, there's much less cacophany than when he's fighting several, and the editing style reflects that. Consquently some of the fights are a lot harder to follow than I'd like. On the other hand, they did some absolutely *beautiful* stuff with Daredevil's radar hearing/vision. Absolutely *beautiful*.
Ted (who knows the Daredevil comics far better than I do) says they did the origin story exactly right. Maybe some tiny variations on the theme, but no more (perhaps less) than Spider-Man, and as far as I'm concerned, they did Spidey's origin perfectly. Also, unlike Spider-Man, Daredevil's origin story only took up about 15 minutes of screen time. He also says the relationships between the characters are extremely true to the comics. I could tell that the Elektra relationship was -- that's the only one I know anything about -- and I'm darned pleased that the rest of them were, too, including the relationship with the Kingpin.
Michael Clarke Duncan was, of course, perfect, rumbling his way through the Kingpin role. I cannot imagine who else they could have cast as the Kingpin, and I'm *so* pleased they cast Duncan. It's not a big part, because the Kingpin's the mover and the shaker, not the man who does the dirty work himself, but none-the-less, he was very enjoyable.
Colin Farrell, whom people keep making a fuss over, was an excellent Bullseye, too. An interesting combination of wildly over the top and frighteningly in control. I thought he'd be stupid, but it worked, although if there was an unnecessary scene in the movie, it was probably one of the early Bullseye scenes. I know why they did it, and it was funny, and it showed us something about the character, but it probably wasn't strictly necessary. Still, one scene out of the whole film isn't bad.
Overall: I'd see it twice at full price (although hell, I'd see the X2 trailer /once/ at full price).
More words than I expected today, which is very nice. 2040, 1730 of which were on HoS and 310 of which were on the Angles synopsis, which I'm stopping in the middle of a sentence on so I can go see a SNEAK PREVIEW OF DAREDEVIL *BWAHAHAHA* ahem. o.o
50K in 30 days: 33,156
ytd wordcount: 52,190
Does it count for more exercise if you're walking but you're walking with a puppy who's not really leash-trained and you're being hauled hither and thither? *pantpantpant*
This exercise thing seems to be screwing up my ability to sleep. I go to bed exhausted at a reasonable hour, say 10 or 10:30, then can't sleep or sleep very poorly until after midnight, and wake up entirely at least once in the small hours of the morning, then fall into the sleep of the just, right about the time my alarm goes off. I hope this straightens itself out soon. :P
I have the writing fu! 2357 (upgraded to 2658) words today, which would only be a niftier number if it was 1357, but then it wouldn't be nearly as swell a number, so we'll have to settle for that.
50K in 30 days: 31,426
ytd wordcount: 49,850
AUGH! 150 words from 50K!
*scurries to write the beginning of the Angles synopsis*
ytd wordcount: 50,150 *ha cha cha*! o.o :)
This afternoon, I was looking up Trinity Church in NYC on the net, trying to find some pictures of the inside of it. I didn't find any, so I went and dug through my own pictures of my trip to NYC when I was 13, to see if I had any, although I thought I didn't, because I have a vague recollection that we weren't allowed to take pictures inside.
What I did find, though, was a picture I took standing on the ground between the World Trade Center towers, looking straight up.
And I thought, "Wow."
*Who's* your daddy!
I just got back from the pool, where I swam not two, not three, but FOUR THOUSAND YARDS. I kick ass, man. I take names. I *rule*. I did 3 500s, the first two in 8:57 and the third in 9:12. Go *me*! I did lots of other good stuff too, but that's the part I can remember. i ROCK.
And I came home to an empty house, which I expected (Ted's at martial arts, Shaun's at school), but also to dinner cooked and refrigerated for me, because I have the BEST husband in the WORLD.
FOUR. THOUSAND. YARDS.
Now I will take all this zippy exercise energy and I will go write the additional 600 words I must write to make my quota for today so I will make my 50K in 30 days goal!
Who's your daddy!
Stupid meeting. Supposed to start 15 minutes ago. Called in. Nobody there. Am now waiting for somebody to page me to tell me it's starting. :P
No rejection letters in the mail today! :) There was, though, a note from the mail bag saying she'd be on vacation for the next week, so if our mail goes astray in the next week we'll know for sure the error isn't hers. I thought that was very nice of her. Goooood mail bag.
What else? I was going to mention something else. Can't remember what, though. I emailed Trinity Church in New York a few minutes ago to ask if there was anywhere in their church a gargoyle could live. That was fun. :)
Who Could You Take in a Fight?
I think I could take Sandra Bullock. I don't know why. I don't *want* to beat Sandra Bullock up. But I think I could!
1200 words today, which isn't as many as I'd intended, but which is better than a kick in the teeth with a frozen mukluk. No exercising, which is ... also better than a kick in the teeth with a frozen mukluk, now that you mention it.
Oh yes, and two rejection letters in the mail today on Trapper's Daughter.
50K in 30 days: 28,889
ytd wordcount: 47,500
Ha cha cha! (Yes, that's my phrase for the week, or something.) Just got email back from Dail, the woman who runs the Jim Byrnes Fan Club, which she's getting on its feet again. I said if she was interested I'd like to do a new design for the fan club site, and she responded positively! So maybe sometime soon here I'll get the chance to design a fan club site! I'd *really* enjoy that. A *lot*!
I swam hard enough last night that my legs are sore this morning. Not *terribly* sore, but I can feel 'em. That's cool.
I also did a couple of 1:30 100 yard sprints, which doesn't entirely suck. It's not great, but it doesn't entirely suck. :) And my 500 in 9:10, which, again, doesn't entirely suck.
Thinks to do today:
1. clean the kitty litter
2. write 1700-3000 words
3. exercise in some fashion
4. make banana bread
HAH. I have FINISHED the FRELLING synopsis. I hate synopses. They're awful.
I also finished chapter 11, which is not nearly so hateful. :)
50K in 30 days: 27,670
ytd wordcount: 46,300
Oop. Rejection letter from Kensington re: the Josie book. That was fast. 100% form letter, photocopied on greying paper, not even a pass at a signature or a name. Drat!
1 down, 11 to go. :)
(On the positive side, it's not a rejection letter from Davis/Panzer!)
Ha cha cha. If I had some $2 stamps, I could just put this bay-bee in the mail right now, but I don't feel like putting 8 $.37 stamps on this, and I'm not *100%* certain that it'll be $2.75, although that seems likely.
Made an appointment with H&R Block for 2pm next Friday for to have the taxes done. Ha cha cha!
I have the very best husband. Thanks, Ted, for bringing in the good paper from the car for me this morning. *beam*
Thinks to do today:
1. write 1700 words
2. swim 2500 yards
3. print S&3 for Tor
4. clean the kitty litter
5. clean the dog pen
(do I know how to have fun, or what?)
6. write HoS synopsis
7. call H&R Block for taxes appt.
Quiet day. I re-read The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown. I still adore both of those books unconditionally. *Man*. I don't know how many times I've read them, but I could read them a hundred more times and still love them. It'd be good to write books like that. :)
For Marith, a list of ten, or something like it, favorite first lines of fiction:
1. "It was a dark and stormy night." -- A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeline L'Engle
2. "Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies' eardrops and traversed by a brook that had its source away back in the woods of the old Cuthbert place; it was reputed to be an intricate, headlong brook in its earlier course through those woods, with dark secrets of pool and cascade; but by the time it reached Lynde's Hollow it was a quiet, well-conducted little stream, for not even a brook could run past Mrs. Rachel Lynde's door without due regard for decency and decorum; it probably was conscious that Mrs. Rachel was sitting at her window, keeping a sharp eye on everything that passed, from brooks and children up, and that if she noticed anything odd or out of place she would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys and wherefores thereof." -- Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery
3. "When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen." -- The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
4. "I woke up in bed with a man and a cat." -- To Sail Beyond the Sunset, by Robert A. Heinlein
5. "Theo, by occupation, was a devil." -- Westmark, by Lloyd Alexander
6. "She wondered why she was afraid to go home." -- Black Sun Rising, by C.S. Friedman
7. "She could not remember a time when she had not known the story; she had grown up knowing it." -- The Hero and the Crown, by Robin McKinley
8. "She scowled at her glass of orange juice." -- The Blue Sword, by Robin McKinley
9. "You're Trent." -- The Long Run, by Daniel Keys Moran
10. "Nothing to do? Nowhere to go? Time hangs heavy? Bored? Depressed? Also badly scared? Casual factors beyond control?" -- Emergence, by David Palmer
and one favorite *final* line:
1. "I took her hand in mine, and we went out of the ruined place; and, as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first left the forge, so, the evening mists were rising now, and in all the broad expanse of tranquil light they showed to me, I saw no shadow of another parting from her." -- Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens
Going to a movie later this afternoon, so I'm going to assume I'm done with writing for the day. I could be wrong, but that's what I'll assume. 2030 words, which ain't bad.
50K in 30 days: 26,380
ytd wordcount: 45,090
Not a bad writing day, in the end. 2010 words, which is better than a kick in the teeth. Starting to approach the real meat of the story with HoS, so that's good. Only another sixty thousand or so words to go. o.O
50K in 30 days (day 15): 24,340
ytd wordcount: 43,060
Whew. :) Spent a big old chunk of the day redesigning cemurphy.net, which works on NS7 and IE6 (and presumably IE5 although I don't have it anymore), which doesn't work on Opera (the layers are screwed up) and which looks like an abstract cubist painting on NS4. I'll probably have to put up a bare bones version, but not today. I also have to finish the redesign, which is currently only on the top page, but I am, anyway, very pleased with it.
Have sent chapters to Jim. Should write for a bit, then swim. And perhaps I should take some aspirin, as I seem to have a headache.
Thinks to do today:
1. send Jim the first 50 pages of US
2. write 1700 words
3. swim
thinks to do over the weekend:
4. start putting together query packages
5. write a synopsis for HoS
6. write a synopsis for Angles
7. get Clarion app together
8. get Viable Paradise app together
9. maybe see if Ted can dig out some comics so I can do a bit of work on HoC
10. gym
Boy, *this* is an exciting entry, isn't it? :)
On the positive side, Ted just won a TRIP TO MEXICO!!!!!!!
His company picks employees of the month and then at the beginning of the next year, puts all their names in a drawing for a trip to Mexico! 6 days 7 nights, or something like that, in Cabo san Lucas! And Ted won! WOW! COOL! WHEEEE! WHEEEEEE!
Aw, hell. Rejected. I'm not surprised at this point, but that's too damned bad.
The rejection letter reads:
Unfortunately we are not going to be able to accept Urban Shaman. I enjoyed the work, but we have very, very few slots for new novelists.
Fiddlesticks.
can't stand it anymore. flung note to the publisher who has Urban Shaman (they've had it since late December and claim a response in 4 weeks max). am now waiting antsily and trying not to check email every forty seconds.
Sort of blah today. Slept poorly and didn't get up early to write, so I'm feeling particularly useless at the moment, despite having gotten some bugs fixed for work. Blah.
thinks to do today:
1. write. _any_ amount. just write.
2. call the post office and complain
3. put a damned garbage bag in the office garbage can
4. gym tonight
5. post a chapter for Silkie
*yawn* *Still* v. tired. Going to bed shortly.
Swam 1.5 milesish. 2500 yards, anyway. Tall guy in lane kicked my *ass*, doing 150 yards for each of my 100 yards, but then complimented my stroke. V. nice. Chick in lane next to me watched him zoom along, said, "You should ask him out on a date and get him to expend some of that energy on *you*." Said in response, "Good idea, but I'm not sure my husband would approve!" Gales of laughter followed. V. entertaining. Don't know why I don't do that more often.
Lame-ass writing day, though. About 730 words. Got up at 6:20, wrote a bit, napped on couch, went back and wrote a bit more, but failed to write after work. Tsk, tsk. Will need to write 3K tomorrow to catch up.
Bed now.
50K in 30 days count: 22,330
ytd wordcount: 41,050
Music Man does do layaways. 20% down and they ask for payoff within 90 days. I could make a $50 down payment this weekend...
Sleepy, sleepy me. Oh, I should go see if the bread turned out...
It did. More or less. It's sort of short, but it doesn't look inedibly short.
Very, *very* sleepy me.
Via Lithera, some editorial cartoons about Columbia. Don't click through if you're at work, don't like crying in public and are prone to tears about the shuttle. There are many that are thematically similar. There are many that made me cry.
thinks to do today:
1. write 1700-3000 words
2. swim
3. clean the kitty litter
4. bake some bread
5. there is no #5
Oh yeah. And I cancelled my guitar lessons until further notice.
6. call the guitar people and see if they do layaways
Buffy was a lot better than I expected it to be. That's good. That's the first time since the episode that completely pissed me off that I've thought an episode was pretty good.
No swimming. But there was writing.
50K in 30 days count: 21,591
ytd wordcount: 40,320 (10% done! GO ME!)
Not dead! Just not real updatey. Nothing really to say. Except I'm sitting in my office singing 'Walk Through the Fire' at the top of my lungs, and enjoying working at home. :)
thinks to do today:
1. write 1700 words
2. swim
3. watch Buffy
music: Once More With Feeling, Buffy soundtrack
A good day, writing-wise. Almost 3100 words, and I might do some editing on MD later tonight. Might. While I'm watching Dead Zone. During the commercials, anyway. :)
50K in 30 days count: 19,347
ytd wordcount: 38,080 (ack! almost at 10%!)
Quiet day Sunday. I read two books, watched two Highlander episodes (one of which was *amazingly* bad), and went to the gym. Biked for 10 minutes (2 or 3 miles?) but couldn't take it anymore because the news channel in the cardio room kept coming back to the Columbia, and every time I looked up there was something about it on.
Even without sound, I just couldn't stand it. I don't want to see the mourning families, I don't want to see re-plays of the explosion, and I _really_ don't want to see talking heads bleating about what mighta coulda woulda happened. I want to know what /did/ happen. That's all I want to know. I don't want to hear the propaganda. I don't want to hear the speeches. I want, for Christ's sake, for an investigation to be conducted with dignity and as much haste as is feasible without destroying the investigation's integrity.
Dignity is painfully lacking in mass media.
Someone said it already, but I'll echo him: already, I miss Richard Feynman.
Very pleasant evening had at the Murphy/Lee household tonight. Mom & Dad came over for dinner and we watched the extended version of Fellowship of the Rings, which definitely had some good bits that shoulda been in the movie. Also, it had an intermission, which also shoulda been in the movie. :)
Moving backwards through the day, we went to The Music Man, which was the guitar shop I was told did rent-to-owns. Well, that's true, but they don't do it for the kind of guitar I was told to buy, and I couldn't get a loan for financing on the kind I was supposed to buy (or, really, it was the next grade up, I guess, but they didn't have any of the kind I was supposed to buy and the next-grade-up one was used (sort of like my lemon of a guitar has been used, which is to say, it hasn't, but someone owned it for a while) and so it cost the same as the one I was supposed to buy), so I have no guitar. :P I'll have to call Mark and tell him my lessons are on indefinite hold. Phooey. Well, I'll save some of my allowance every week and save up for one, darn it! Actually, I should call and see if they do layaways. It'd take about three months to pay one off if they do, but maybe I could get the slightly spiffier one for the same amount as the slightly less spiffy one if they do. of course, if they want 25% down I'll be sort of screwed anyway, what with not having that much right now, but it's worth a shot.
And moving further backwards through the day, I went to the post office and posted 5 query letters, 2 S&3s, and a bill. Go me!
(Actually, I only posted one S&3 because I had the zip code wrong. Doh. But I got stamps and I'll drop it into the mail tomorrow.)
Before that, I printed the queries and S&3s and you were here for everything else.
Columbia explosion. I'm having a hard time saying or writing those words, because my fingers, my mouth, my brain, all know the words. "Challenger explosion", and having to put a new word, a new shuttle, into that space makes me stutter and break.
Several years ago, my dad asked me if there was anything in my generation, a defining moment that we all remembered, like his generation remembered the Kennedy assassination. It took no thought at all to answer, "The Challenger." My friends, the people I know, the people I've spoken with, all have a place of shock and pain inside them that looks like a brilliant white plume with trails coming off it, against a vivid blue sky.
For today's children, I think the defining moment, the thing they will never be able to forget, will be 9/11, not the Columbia explosion this morning. I can hardly hold that against them, but as shocked as I was when the WTC came down, it didn't hurt me the way this does. I love the shuttles. I love the space program. I'd been to the WTC, but NY isn't a place in my heart. The shuttles are.
Rick Husband. Willie McCool. Dave Brown. Laurel Clark. Kalpana Chawla. Mike Anderson. Ilan Ramon. Dick Scobee. Michael Smith. Judith Resnik. Ellison Onizuka. Ronald McNair. Gregory Jarvis. Christa McAuliffe. Gus Grissom. Edward White. Roger Chaffee.
Our alleged leader says:
The cause in which they died will continue. Mankind is led into the darkness beyond our world by the inspiration of discovery and the longing to understand. Our journey into space will go on. (thanks to Bryant for the quote.)
I hope he means it. *God*, I hope he means it. The space program was strangled nearly to death with the Challenger explosion; I desperately do not want the Columbia--I still can't type that; my fingers spell out 'Cha--' before I can fix it--to be the end of it.
- John Gillespie Magee, Jr, 1922-1944
(Thank you, bigsimon, for the idea for the above.)
This is the only thing I meant to post this morning. I wish it was the only thing there was to post.
Goals: year to date
Words written
anticipated: 34,100
actual: 35,000
Miles biked
anticipated: 0
actual: 9.25
Miles swum
anticipated: 10
actual: 5.5
Drawings drawn
anticipated: 10
actual: 2
Books read
anticipated: 10
actual: 10
Pounds lost
anticipated: 2.5
actual: +1
oh, god. no. not again.
just a couple of days ago i was watching a 'remember the challenger' special blort on cnn. and remembering like i always do, the shock and disbelief i felt. And remembering the drawing that an ElfQuest fan did in rememberence, a picture of Skywise standing in front of a television with an expression of incredible sorrow on his face, head lowered and fingertips on the top of the tv, and below it written the date. To me, because I'm a great ElfQuest fan, that image summed up all the poignancy and pain I felt. Skywise, see, is the elves' stargazer.
How can this happen again? God, how can this happen again?