, who has been swimming with a local Masters club, expressed admiration of my 9 minute 500 the other day, and supposed that I’d be in the top group in her club, which requires an ability to swim 100 meters on 1:50, which means the swimming and the resting all have to be done in that time period. So, being competitive with myself if no one else, this morning I gave it a shot, to see if I could.

I did the first one on 1:33, which is probably not *quite* as absolutely fast as I can go in my current condition, but is getting fairly close, and the second on about 1:40, and then stood around gasping instead of trying for a third. I might’ve made a third, just. I wouldn’t have made a fourth. :) I said I might try again tomorrow, but I think I’ll be less ambitious, and try again next week. Especially since my shoulder’s acting up tonight.

miles to Minas Tirith: 450.4
ytd km swum: 51

Well, this has been a good mail day. I got an Amazon order *and*, utterly unexpectedly, a copy of DRAGON IN CHAINS, by Daniel Fox/ for review & potential quotage when it goes back to print. Having read some of Daniel’s work before, I’m pretty confident of liking this, and looking forward to reading it. Yay! (If I keep it up at this rate I’m not going to have to buy any books this year. I got Juliet McKenna’s splendid IRONS IN THE FIRE earlier this year (must send her editor a quote on that) and I’ve gotten an urban fantasy and now Daniel’s book! Excellent!)

This somewhat makes up for a perfectly wretched swim this morning. I only did 1000 meters, which is hardly worth getting wet for, in my opinion, but the pool was a hideously warm 30 degrees C, which is like swimming in bath water. Gah. I pled my case to the leisure centre people, but they said people whinge about the pool being 30 degrees, much less colder (my not-very-politic reaction to that was–although I didn’t say it out loud–was “Keep your damned kids out of the water until they can cope, then”). Usually it’s 29, which is about as warm as one can reasonably (and I use the word adviseably) swim laps at. I’d think the swim team would be grateful if they kept it below 30, too, though. I’m not the *only* distance-swimming freak in town.

ytd km swum: 13.8
miles to Dunharrow: 189.2
ytd wordcount: 39,500

currently: bitchy

The swim coach was at the pool today. We ended up…racing is not the right word, not really. Keeping up with each other is more accurate. For about 200 meters. Maybe 300, in which case I swam further than I think I did, but I think it was 200. Anyway, he doesn’t do flip-turns, or he’d have totally left me in the dust, but as it was, we stayed neck and neck for the whole stretch. And he reached the end of his set right before I crapped out, which relieved me greatly. Because I couldn’t have let myself crap out, even if I was heaving for air and getting numb of leg and arm. :) So I had a great swim this morning, and later he said thanks for the race. :)

Our trip to Dublin yesterday was remarkably successful. We dropped off bookmarks for Pádraig, saw Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, which was *way* the hell better than I expected it to be, plus had partly, half, or entirely naked Michael Sheen on screen for nearly the entire film, making it a win on many levels, and I got new shoes at the second store we tried. This is a miracle of Jericho proportions, in my experience, so I am very pleased. I do, however, really need to find or buy the higher-quality insoles to put in them, because my feet are aching despite having new shoes. (Hopefully it’s just the insoles, and not that I’ve bought shoes slightly too large.)

*laughs*! Ted just got back from the gym. I went earlier than he did, and apparently he got heckled for being late when he arrived. :) “Herself’s been and gone,” they told him. *laughs and LAUGHS* :)

Off to write. I really shouldn’t stop at the internet before going to work. Perhaps next week I won’t.

ytd wordcount: 22,600
miles to Dunharrow: 163.8
ytd km swum: 7.1

currently: chipper

So I’m working on critiques, which is by its nature slow-going. And I found myself thinking, “Man, I’m going to be here til I’m 35.”

Then I realized I *am* thirty-five. DOOM! Or, er, something. :)

I would like to point out some common swimming pool protocols to the people in my lane this morning:

1. If someone is obviously faster than you are, as I really very clearly am, do not start your next lap as I’m doing my flip turn. Wait five more seconds and follow me.

2. Also do not stop and stand or hang in front of the giant cross at the end of the lane. I will need this space to do my turn in. The only reason I am not doing a flip turn off your chest or kidneys is because I am being *extremely* polite to you; I have been known to do them off the chests of people on the swim team, when they are dumb enough to hang out in front of the cross.

3. If there are 3 or more people in the lane and we are swimming circles (up on one side, down on the other), actually swim up one side and down the other. This does not mean align your inside shoulder with the outer edge, or in fact the middle, of the black line on the pool floor. It means your entire body, shoulders included, should be off the line, which can guide you just as well if it’s ten inches to your left. This will prevent you from smashing your wrist into mine FIVE TIMES in TWENTY MINUTES, a feat which, in the hundreds of hours I have logged in a pool, has never been even close to emulated.

4. If you’re going to be in one of the cordoned lanes, for pity’s sake, *swim*. Do not do one lap and then spend ten minutes standing around talking to the guy in the lane next to you. It doesn’t count, and you’re in my way.

5. If you cannot follow even one of these simple rules, get the hell into the other lane. It doesn’t matter if there are twelve people in it, which there never are. We are all going to be happier if we are not smashing wrists, and I’m going to be unspeakably happier if I don’t have to swerve and duck around you to do my damned laps.

I will, in fairness, say that the person with the extremely round stroke who kept smashing her wrist into mine at least *swam*. She was slow, but she didn’t stand around. She kept doing laps. But Jesus God, I wanted to stop her and explain how you improve your stroke by bringing your arm all the way back so your fingers brush your thigh, instead of lifting it out of the water when you’ve pulled back as far as the ribs. This not only improves your stroke, but it leaves you without bruised wrists.

ytd miles swum: 28.3

currently: bitchy

I went swimming this morning, and was in a lane with a slowpoke, but he wasn’t getting in my way, so that was okay. The lane next to me only had one person in it, but another slowpoke got into my lane with the slowpoke and me. I got into the other lane, very grumpily, but then it turned out the guy in that lane could swim. And that in fact I had to sort of put some energy into it in order to not be lapped. And after a while when we were both at the wall for a moment, he said, “Good marnin’, Alaska!” to me. It was the swim coach. :) So I had a much better swim than expected. Yay!

I did not know there was an Alps-sized mountain range beneath the Antarctic ice sheet. Apparently it makes no sense, as it’s in the middle of the continent, with no plate tectonics or observable hot spots beneath the land mass to explain its presence. They’re doing a 2.5 month study of it this year during the Antarctic summer, and I am completely fascinated. Someday I’ll get to go to Antarctica. If I’m lucky someday I’ll get to spend four or six months there. I would *love* to do that.

Yesterday was a day of Doing Nothing*, so today has to be productive.

- visualization class handout/outline
- dialog class handout/outline
- read through all of the critique submissions
- print out the one that came in late
- do a critique writeup on 2-3 of them
- start reading WD for revision purposes

*Actually, I did study Spanish with Dad. Our class is kind of…scattered…but it’s providing an impetus for us to get together and study, so that’s really good, and we’re having a lot of fun. I sense that in the future I’m going to be obliged to actually learn the future and past tenses of verbs, which I never really did do very well while studying in high school. But if I’m tutoring Dad, well, I need to know what’s right so I don’t mess him up!

miles to Isengard: 430.7
ytd miles swum: 27.1

currently: pleased

I swam this morning. Now I’m all perky. That’s so annoying. :) Yer man the kids’ team coach asked me what club I’d swum with, because anybody who did “tomble tarns” (ie, flipturns) was probably a club swimmer. I said I’d swum in Alaska, where I was from, and he said, “Alaska? But yer parents are Oirish. Ye’ve got an Oirish face.” :)

Okay, my plans today are mostly South Carolina Writers’ Workshop stuff. I need to:

- work up a handout for the “developing your writer’s voice” class
- ideally, although not as critically, also create handouts for
» visualization class
» dialog class
- print out the submissions for critique
- review at least one of them
- print out WALKING DEAD, while I’m at it

That, actually, should keep me pretty busy, although I also need to shop.

currently: chipper

I’m trying to figure out a schedule that doesn’t totally wipe me out at mid-day. I don’t seem to have enough stamina, right now, to get up and swim in the morning, then write. I fall asleep during the writing part, and then end up not getting my words done until 6 or 7pm, which feels Very Late Indeed. OTOH, yesterday I started writing early so I could go see The Incredible Hulk (which delivered, I thought. It wasn’t as good as Iron Man, but I thought it pretty much gave you what you wanted out of a Hulk movie) and got 2K in pretty easily. It’s harder to convince myself to go swim in the middle of the afternoon than in the morning, but I think I’ll have to do that for a while, at least until I’m used to swimming and it doesn’t *exhaust* me so much. I tell you what, even on days when I do very little other than write and walk a few miles, I’m sleeping nearly 9 hours at night. I have got *nothing* left in my reserves.

I’ve been doing my Project365 photography (if barely, some days), but it seems I’ve forgotten the camera cable, so I can’t upload any pictures. Nice girl. Not too bright, but a nice girl.

Happy birthday to LAURA and, just so I don’t forget, a slightly advance happy birthday to JOCELYN! *snorgles you both*

thinks to do today:
- call about
» phone
» fuel
» cable

thinks to do in general:

- discard bryant’s smart-asserycarefully-considered editorial suggestions and revise “frwl” my way :)
- get the “frwl” *contract* signed, it seems
- write THE IMPERATOR’S HEIR proposal
- figure out which other grant to apply for

ytd wordcount: 225,200
miles to (damn, it’s hard not to type ‘Minas Tirith!’) Isengard: 8.5

currently: contemplative

Zomg, I forgot how *easy* having hair this short was. I was in the shower and I was like *washwash* dude I’m done! Two minutes tops! I wanna go swimming! (All I need is money to pay for a pool worth swimming in…) Also, Ted, Hero of the Revolution, found my sassy glasses, which are FEROCIOUSLY cute with this haircut. And my Matrix sunglasses and this haircut = badass Kit.

I’m featured this week over at Harlequin’s paranormal romance blog, where I talk about HOUSE OF CARDS and … mostly about HOUSE OF CARDS. Go forth, if you feel so inspired, read, comment and make them think I’m a really big draw to the blog. :)

P-Con starts tomorrow! I am GoH! I think it will be fun! …I’ll be an utter *zombie* on Monday, mind you, but it’ll be fun. And Ted is on a panel about what it’s like being married to a full-time writer, which I’m quite looking forward to attending. :)

Iiiii…am closing in on 100K on this book. About…well, 2K more, technically, because I’ve got a 2000 word scene that fits in later that’s not part of the actual current build-up of words and pages. 4K in straight beginning-to-end terms. I think I’ll go write for a while longer today, and maybe I’ll get up early enough to do some work before catching the train to Dublin tomorrow. (*Maybe* I’ll actually do some work over the weekend, but mostly that thought inspired a “bahahahahah!” in me, so probably not. So it’d be nice to hit 100K by tomorrow afternoon, don’t you think?)